Sidelines

announcements

Most people roll their eyes at the mention of long-distance coach services with the likes of Megabus and tell you how much better the train is. Yes, the coach journey is probably longer. It's also the one that will give you prolonged periods of relative quiet where you might get some sleep.

Train journeys are increasingly blighted by announcements. At least 2 for each station, in the case of Scotrail: "the next station-stop is..." and "this station is ...". After big stations, an entire list of all stations on the entire journey can be read out. In the case of a train going from Aberdeen to Penzance, this can take a long time. Then there's buffet announcements, announcements about safety notices and probably others.

These aren't gentle voices through high-fidelity speakers, as one hears in the recorded announcements on German public transport. UK train announcements are loud, sound as if they come through pound-shop mp3-player speakers and are often preceded by a piercing ding-dong.
28.11.11 @ 09:06 PM CST [link]

preston tram

Stories about the spiralling costs and uncertainty around the Edinburgh tram line have broken through into the national media on a number of occasions over the last month. One might hope that the proposed tram network in Preston could provide some positive news, but the private company behind the proposals, Preston Trampower, is not replying to emails or answering the phone. There are some pertinent questions about the scheme, some in the light of Edinburgh, that are disappointingly not addressed in their web literature.

Apparently disused and underused railways in Preston could account for two thirds of the intended tramway network, but what fraction of the proposed first line would be on disused and underused lines? It seems crucial to get a first line up with the minimum fuss and disruption.

Did the demonstrator line, a small part of the first line, actually get built in early 2011 as proposed?

What length trams are proposed? Some of Edinburgh's problems seem to have come from its choice of an extremely long tram.

Hopefully Preston Trampower will make themselves contactable again soon so that these and other questions can be posed.


11.09.11 @ 09:39 PM CST [link]

by train to the airport

All Scotland's major mainland airports have a railway running alongside their boundaries, but only Prestwick has a station. It's a bad reflection on our planners' predecessors ability to allow for a more integrated future. At Dundee and Inverness, a station could be provided at walking distance from the terminals along established access routes (admittedly a half mile walk in the case of Inverness). Planners may feel passenger numbers don't yet justify such measures.

Airports are long and thin, and at Aberdeen and Edinburgh the railway is on the wrong side of the airport. Moving walkways in tunnels passing under the runways could provide access from airport stations. The technology to build tunnels cheaply has moved on greatly. At Glasgow, the 1.2 miles of new railway needed to join the airport to the rail network was judged too expensive in 2009. Airport traffic is heading up in the medium term: it would not be unreasonable to require the airport operators themselves to shoulder some of the cost of measures like these.
29.06.11 @ 09:12 PM CST [link]

on the spot fines

The headlines about the new the Strategic Framework for Road Safety say, "On the spot fines for careless drivers". Surely this in fact really means fewer fines, end of story. It further strengthens the hand of the people who want speed-cameras removed (they can now point at this measure), without actually providing any guarantee that police forces will be willing or able to divert the resources needed to monitor drivers to catch the "careless" ones. Transport secretary Philip Hammond took the opportunity to engage in more populist criticism of speed cameras, saying, "The big problem under the last government was using technology". Technology, at least, sees every driver as equal, something which cannot be said for human interpretations of what consitutes careless driving.
11.05.11 @ 05:45 PM CST [link]

the Brompton

With the demise of the Routemaster bus, London took another step towards its overground transport systems resembling those in any other major western city.

London has, however, distinguished itself from other cities in the way its citizens have taken to folding bikes, and in particular the Brompton. These small-wheeled bikes with their lack of tubing must initially look odd to foreigners, and someone in a suit riding one will surely be on a London postcard before long.
17.04.11 @ 09:47 PM CST [link]

Philip Hammond

Is Philip Hammond the right man to be leading transport policy at the moment?

His £7.5million fortune makes him one of the wealthiest of the Cabinet’s 18 millionaires, regardless of your opinion of Channel 4's discovery last year that he had exploited a loophole in the tax system to avoid paying duty. When his expenses were revealed on the internet it emerged that he had spent £1,270 of taxpayers' money per year on newspapers, and once spent £24 of public money on eight teaspoons.

He announced his arrival in the job with some populist and dishonest piffle about ending the war on the motorist.

He drives a Jaguar XJ Saloon, top speed around 140mph, which might suggest self-interest in his hints that speed limits on motorways may be eased to 80mph.
16.03.11 @ 08:40 PM CST [link]

too many schemes in the running

Last week the Department for Transport announced that 23 local government proposed transport schemes were being added to the 22 already in the "Development Pool", that is, a list of schemes that will be eligible to bid for a central sum of money. This brings the total funding request of the 45 schemes to £950 million: rather dramatically more than the £630 available. That means a lot of local government effort and expense between now and September 2011, when best and final bids are required, for schemes whose fate is to be not funded. Is there any advantage in delaying decisions in this way, as if clarity will somehow emerge between now and September?

The "best and final bids", one rather suspects, may achieve further cost-cutting in some cases through removal of mitigating development, let's say noise reduction measures or screening through landscaping in the case of a new road.

11.02.11 @ 05:50 PM CST [link]