Monthly Archives: October 2018

Rolling blog: the Talgo tango…

09 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by in I love my job, Railways, Rolling blogs, Scotland, Talgo, Travel, Wales

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It’s going to be a looong couple of days that will take in Wales, England and Scotland, but I’m here in Cardiff ready for the first press conference where Spanish train builder Talgo are ready to announce the shortlisted sites for the factory they intend to build here in the UK. I’ll be blogging throughout the day, so stay tuned.

Here’s the view from the room in the St David’s hotel where we’re holding the event.

The shortlisted site in Wales is at Mostyn, a port on the North Wales coast.

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From L-R, Jim o’ Toole, MD of Mostyn port. Jon Veitch, UK MD, Talgo and Carlos de Palacio, President of Talgo

You can read more about what we’re up to in this article on the RAIL website. Here’s Rail’s Richard Clinnick having an exclusive interview with Jon Veitch.

11:34

Phew! We’re all packed up and the 5 of us are off to the second event of the day. We’re travelling on a Cross-country service to Birmingham, where the English part of the shortlist will be announced. These are sites at Chesterfield, St Helens and Leeds

Whilst we’ve been travelling, the news has broken that two sites in Scotland have been shortlisted, these are Longannet and Hunterston.

13:50.

We’re ready to rock and roll in Birmingham now. The stage has been set..

Oh, and the views out of the windows are amazing!

Now we’re waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive. Here’s material produced by two of the potential English sites. St Helens and Chesterfield.

17:10.

The Birmingham event was very well received. Here’s a couple of pictures.

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Carlos de Palacio, President of Talgo, speaking in Birmingham

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L-R Sir Simon Hughes, Talgo Strategic UK Advisor, Jon Veitch, UK MD, Talgo and Carlos de Palacio, President of Talgo

19:23.

We’re now over the border and heading for Edinburgh aboard a Virgin Pendolino. It’s been a fascinating day but we’re all looking forward to getting to our hotel. Tomorrow the fun and games starts again with a series of radio interviews before the main event.

Because of this – and for the sake of continuity I’m going to roll this blog over into tomorrow. Right now I’m going to enjoy a glass of wine and catch up with the world..

Meanwhile, next to me, Carlos, Simon and Jon are doing the same and chatting about the day.

Day 2

10:00

We’re all set up and ready for the Scottish event which is being held in a hotel with a fabulous view. I took this from the balcony of my room this morning!

Here’s the event set up to go. As well as being the Talgo photographer I’ve been mucking in to do the stage setting. Here’s one I made earlier…

11:57

Phew! Event over!

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It’s been a very hectic few days but also hugely enjoyable. I’ve learned a lot about Talgo and I’m looking forward to visiting their Spanish factories in the future. Right now I’m looking forward to a few days at home in order to catch up with some writing and picture editing.

Rolling blog: at least my shirts are clean…

08 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in Rolling blogs, Travel

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After one night at home I’m on the move again, this time heading for Cardiff via Manchester with a suitcase full of clean shirts and chinos, ready for the next couple of days events and travels.

Due to the vagaries of the Passenger Information Screens i’m not sure if my first train is late or not. One minute it’s shown as 3 minutes late, the next it’s on time! Looking at the Real Time Trains website I can see it left Leeds 5m late.

Let’s see what happens…

12:11.

My train has entered the twilight zone. It’s dropped off the PIS screens so it no longer exists as far as the system’s concerned.

Instead a Pacer speeds past in its path without stopping. Finally, at 12:12, four minutes late, a pair of Pacers arrive.

We finally leave 5 mins late with no announcements, no apologies and no explanations. Still, at least I didn’t have to worry about getting a seat!

We’re now merrily bouncing our way through to Lancashire. Autumn’s in full swing now and the depth and variety of colours in the leaves is joyous – even if the temperature isn’t. I’m looking forward to having a bit of time free to get some lineside shots in the woods that surround my home.

12:49.

We’ve just left Rochdale, running 7 minutes late. I could still make my connection at Manchester Victoria to Piccadilly but – as that’s also running a couple of minutes late it doesn’t give me enough time to collect my tickets before catching the 13:31 to Cardiff. The option now is to get a tram or leg it to Piccadilly. As I’m dragging a suitcase it looks like the tram wins. This is why Network Rail & the TOCs need to seriously get a grip on late running now. It makes connecting journeys a real hassle as you always have to have a plan B.

13:11

By the time we arrived at Victoria we were 11 late. There hadn’t been a single announcement by the guard, never mind an apology or explanation. More time was lost as we arrived at platform 4 so I had to swim against the tide to ascend and descend the footbridge, which meant that I arrived at the tram stop just in time to see a Piccadilly bound tram leave! My next one is in 7 minutes. Hopes of making my train are looking very slim indeed – and the tram’s taking its time…

13:33.

I made the train with a minute to spare. Luckily, there were no queues at the ticket machines and my train was only a short sprint away. Now I’m sat on the first of Alstom’s Class 175s, number 001 which is a busy 2-car. It’s one of the unrefurbished sets, so it has no power sockets – but it does have Wi-Fi. I’ve been lucky enough to bag a table seat (reservations weren’t available on this train) which means I can catch up on some writing between now and Cardiff…

14:03

This journey gets more surreal. As I had so little time at Manchester I couldn’t pick up any cash or buy food for the trip. No worries I thought, there’s a trolley service and I can use my credit card. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything!

When the trolley came round the young lady explained that she couldn’t take cards, but the conductor could and he’d sell me a £5 voucher. I could then use it to buy food and get the difference back in cash. So, what would I like? “What sandwiches do you have”? I asked. “Ah” came the reply. “They’ve been on the trolley for 5 hours and at this temperature I’m only allowed to sell them for 4” Then (bizarrely) “but even if I could they’d have all gone by now anyway”

Righto – I now have a 3 hour journey sponsored by Weight watchers…

15:54.

We’ve just left Hereford, the train’s now full and standing and my laptop’s battery is exhausted after a couple of hours scribbling so I’m a window gazer now! I’m also rather hungry and extremely tempted to break my journey at Newport just so that I can get something to eat! I ventured through the sea of bodies around the vestibule to use the loo and wish I hadn’t bothered…

The more I think of it, the more changing at Newport seems like a good idea – and I never expected to write the word’s Newport and ‘good idea’ in the same sentence!

17:06.

Burp! Hunger pangs have been sated thanks to a WH Smiths chicken butty from the kiosk at Newport. Now I’m Cardiff bound again, this time on one of Arrive Trains Wales refurbished class 158s. They have power sockets, so the laptop’s been plugged in to recharge for a bit, leaving me free to admire the series 1 electrification masts which have sprouted all over the place like mushrooms (just not overnight)!

Pausing for breath – but only momentarily…

07 Sunday Oct 2018

Posted by in ACoRP, Railways, Scotland, Travel

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After a fantastic few days up in Scotland at the ACoRP awards and some of the wonderful events that Scotrail (and Abellio) arranged for us I’m back at home for a night. The awards was a brilliant showcase for community rail that attracted the biggest audience since its inception in 2005 with over 470 folk attending. I’ll blog about it in greater detail soon, but for now, here’s a few pictures from the night.

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The tables are set, ready for the 470 guests to arrive…

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Just some of the people who won awards that night…

I’m now back in the bosom of West Yorkshire – but not for long! Whilst I was in Scotland I was commissioned for a new project that will see me on the road again tomorrow. I’ve got to be in Cardiff tomorrow evening ready for an event on Tuesday morning. After that, we head up to Birmingham, then I’m back in Glasgow before finally getting home on Wednesday. I’ll flesh out more detail later. In the meantime, here’s a few other shots from Scotland after a trip out to Gourock and the ferry across to Kilcreggan.

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Rolling blog: the fun begins…

03 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by in ACoRP, Railways, Rolling blogs, Scotland, Travel

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I’m currently sat on a Pendolino heading for Glasgow in readiness for tomorrow’s annual ACoRP awards. We’ve got a hectic programme of events over the next few days which have been laid on by our friends at Scotrail and Transport Scotland. First up is a civic reception at Glasgow city chambers this evening. Tomorrow we’re on one of the fabulous Glasgow Central station tours (a real must if you’re ever in the city) before the main event – the awards ceremony itself.

On Friday we’re off for a trip on the Borders railway, so you’ll be seeing plenty of pictures in the next few days. Here’s the first one, taken when we changed trains at Preston – I wasn’t expecting this!

‘Black 5’ 44871 was one of the locomotives used to haul the last steam service on British Railways, the Fifteen Guinea Special on 11th August 1968. It was withdrawn from service the following day.

14:48.

Well, we’ve arrived in Glasgow and picked up our Scotrail passes, goody bags and guides.

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16:20

Plans have changed slightly due to a technical issue, so I’ve had some free time and chance to wander down to Glasgow Queen St station. Like many in the UK. it’s undergoing extensive modernisation. Now it’s also the place to find the latest Scotrail EMU’s, Hitachi’s Class 385s. Here’s a couple of shots.

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This evening we went on to a civic reception hosted by the Deputy Lord Provost of Glasgow, Bailie Philip Braat, who welcomed us to the city. This was held at the magnificent Glasgow City chambers. Here’s a few photos from the event.

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From L-R James Ledgerwood, Head of Economic & Community Development at Scotrail, Deputy Lord Provost of Glasgow, Bailie Philip Braat and Brian Barnsley, Deputy Chief Exec of ACoRP at the reception.

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Rolling blog: a tale of two cities.

01 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in Birmingham, Hs2, London, St Pancras station, StopHs2, Travel

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I’m on the move again right now, heading for both London and Birmingham, firstly to drop in to St Pancras station and say ‘happy 150th birthday’, then go in search of the massive Stophs2 protest outside the Tory party conference. OK, that last bit was a lie. I’ll probably have difficulty finding them as it looks like it’ll be very much a one man and his elephant sort of protest.

Watch this space…

09:06.

My first train of the day, a ‘nodding donkey working the 0906 to Southport.

The weather here in West Yorkshire stunning. It’s a beautifully crisp and sunny autumn morning with the temperature in single figures. The railways are readying for the leaf-fall season now as I’ve just passed one of Network Rail’s RHTT (Railhead Treatment Trains) that blast leaves off the rails using high-powered water jets. It’s remindex me that must get some lineside shots later in the month, when the leaves gain their full colour before falling.

10:27

I’m now on train number 2 – the 10:2€ Cross-country service from Manchester Piccadilly to Bournemouth via Birmingham. It’s a relatively quiet service (for now) which is just as well as it’s only a four-car. I’ve no doubt it’ll fill up en-route.

Whilst a half-hourly service between Manchester and Birmingham’s an improvement on BR days it’s a pretty poor offering in 2018, mainly because of the time it takes and the type of train. This service will take 1hr 31m.

13:04

So, here I am in Birmingham at the Tory conference, Stophs2 elephant hunting. As expected, they were a bit hard to find, mainly because they’re outgunned and outnumbered by ever other demonstration here! Once I made my way past the ‘God squad’ (who had at least half a dozen people  here) I was held up by a very colourful (and noisy) anti-fracking group of men and women – many of whom had dressed up before I found Joe Rukin, who’d dressed down! Apparently, he was accompanied by Archie Taylor from Warks, but he was nowhere to be seen

Here’s Joe on his own, trying (and failing) to give out leaflets whilst the anti-fracking people behind him heavily outnumber him, in the very back, you can see ‘Ellie’ the inflatable elephant all on her own in a corner!

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Here’s poor Ellie, looking very abandoned…

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So, this is the ‘relaunched’ Stophs2 campaign. Sad, isn’t it? meanwhile, inside the hall, the Government has re-iterated its support for HS2 and there’s several events going on with rail industry leaders throughout the day. Over at New St station, Siemens and the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders have a virtual reality tour of Hs2 and a model of the Velaro Novo…

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23:11

My tour of two cities turned into one. I got caught up in the completely surreal atmosphere of the Tory party conference and meeting up with colleagues. I also ended up spending an hour or two dealing with picture requests. I have to say, I can’t help thinking this country is screwed, the rhetoric that was coming out of the conference (plus some of the delegates I met) are utterly bonkers. I can’t help thinking that the EU will be breathing a collective sigh of relief to see the back of us…