Category Archives: Uncategorized

Another mobile office…

03 Thursday May 2018

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After a hectic few days at Infrarail (with a press trip to see Siemens in Germany in the middle) I’m heading back North in another ‘mobile office’ c/o Grand Central trains. My laptop’s full of pictures to edit and get out to clients so I’m making the most of the journey to get as many as possible done. I’ve plenty to blog about too, but that’s going to have to wait until tomorrow. I can’t upload pictures from the train due to the wifi’s file-sharing restrictions, but expect a few later.

Ride India. This is why we did it.

15 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by in Ride India, The Railway Children, Uncategorized

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I’ve been busy editing the pictures from the ‘Ride India’ trip and wanted to post a few here to remind myself, all those who kindly donated money (and those who’ve pledged to donate) why we all did what we did. It was to raise money to help children like these. On our 2nd day in India we visited two Railway Children projects. One was a hostel that shelters up to 26 children and young people. Here the children are safe. They can be helped to return to their families if possible, or found other homes if not. The other was on Ghaziabad Jn station where many children are eking out an existence scavenging or begging during the day – and sleeping on the platforms at night. The charity has a 24/7 presence here, reaching out and offering help to the children that can be encouraged to take it. These are the kids The Railway Children is helping – and not just in India, but in Africa and the UK too…

 

DG291156. Visiting the Railway Children shelter in Karol Bagh. Delhi. India. 4.3.18

Members of our group took time to meet the residents and staff in the shelter in Karol Bagh and play games with the kids.

 

DG291161. Railway children. Ghaziabad Jn. Delhi. India. 4.3.2018

Meet Ishant. He’s a 10 Year old boy with special needs. He came to the open shelter on 23rd February. Before coming to the shelter he was staying with his brother Raj, 16 years. When Ishant was just 3 years old his mother died, his father also passed away recently. He’s one sister, who is now married and settled. Both these brothers were living in Night Shelter near Jama Masjid. Both of them use to go to the nearby Municipal school in 7th and 4th standards respectively. However Ishant has impaired hearing and he cannot speak, but he understands and tries to learn. For Ishant a special school is required for his development. Thus on the order of Mayur Vihar CWC, Ishant is referred to RCI open shelter for a short stay, until a special school with a residential facility is identified. Ishant needs special attention and support which can only be available at a special school. Ishant’s exam is coming up in March and the RC team will ensure that he sits for his exams. 

 

 

After visiting the shelter we went to nearby Ghaziabad Junction station where the Railway Children maintains a 24/7 presence, working with the Railway Protection Force (The Indian version of the British Transport Police) to encourage some of the dozens of children who live on or pass through the station to seek help. Here are some of the children we met or saw.

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If you haven’t yet donated but want to help children like these, there’s still time. Just visit my donations page here.

There and back again – by Eurostar to Amsterdam in a day

20 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by in Eurostar, Travel, Uncategorized

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Today I was fortunate enough to be part of the press corps sampling the first Eurostar service from London to Amsterdam and I have to say – it was a great trip.

We left St Pancras at 08:31 and our Siemens built e320 managed to set a new speed record between London and Brussels by completing the journey in 1 hour 46 mins – two minutes ahead of schedule.

I’ll write in more detail at a later date, but for now, here’s a few pictures from the day.

 

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Eurostar staff waiting to welcome us aboard train 9114 to Amsterdam.

 

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To celebrate the record run from London to Brussels Eurostar provided champagne and Belgian chocolates.

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Guests were treated to a selection of Dutch speciality food and drink, including cheeses, meats, stroopwafels and gin!

Here’s part of the new Eurostar lounge and customs post on platform 15a of Amsterdam Centraal

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4032 stands at platform 15 at Amsterdam Centraal. This is where the new Eurostar lounge is situated so it will become the normal platform for the service to use.

If you want to sample the service yourselves, the new service starts running on the 4th April and tickets start at £35 one-way. Tickets are on sale now.

 

2018 and the usual rail fares furore…

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by in Rail fares, Rail Investment, Railways, Uncategorized

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Normality has resumed after the New Year holiday. Train services are running as per the usual timetable (with the odd exception) and some of the major investment projects carried out over the holiday period have borne fruit. London Bridge station’s seen the last 5 rebuilt platforms open, The GWML has seen electric train services extended from Reading to Didcot and more works been completed on the EGIP project in Scotland. Oh, and we’ve had the annual fare increase kick-in, which has produced the usual gush of uninformed comment and politicking over railway nationalisation from the Labour party.

What’s lost in this mass of misinformation is the facts around the fare increases. They’re calculated on the basis of the Retail Price Index – which has shot up in the part year due to Brexit and the fall in the pound leading to inflation. Also, let’s not forget that this isn’t ‘profiteering’ by the Train operators, but a rise in fares regulated by the Government. It’s a political decision. In fact, I’m told the unregulated fares (those set by the train operators themselves) have risen by less than the 3.6% regulated fares have.

I’ve got to give a hat-tip to @DirectorSERG for supplying this handy little chart which details BR fare increases from 1972 until 1994.

BR fares increases

As you can see, the majority were all well above the rate of inflation and there were some eye-watering ones of 50.7% in 1975 and 42.1% in 1980. It’s a rather useful antidote to the rose-tinted views of some that BR = good, Privatisation = bad. Quite how nationalisation is meant to cut rail fares whilst guaranteeing the levels of investment we’re seeing in the railways is a question Labour don’t seem too keen on answering.

Meanwhile, it’s worth remembering that the TOC’s aren’t exactly ‘fat cats’. Their margins are around 3%, which compares very favourably with other state-owned railways like the Netherlands, which would expect a 7% return.

 

2017. A personal reflection on the year…

31 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by in Diary, Railways, Travel, Uncategorized

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I’m not really sorry to be seeing the back of 2017. To say it’s been a mixed year is an understatement. It started well enough as I spent the first couple of months travelling through South-East Asia. I’d been planning to revisit some old haunts in Indonesia for some time, so – after a holiday in Thailand with my fiancé Dawn and time with friends I headed off solo to catch up with an old friend in Bali before travelling across Java. First stop was Surabaya, where I met Bagus, a Facebook friend and fellow photographer and rail enthusiast. It was my first visit to the city and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it – along with some trips out to the countryside to photograph trains in the landscape. Afterwards, I moved on by rail to Jakarta which I hadn’t visited since 1992. I’ve voluminous notes from the trip which I keep meaning to write up – but I’ve never found the time (yet, but it’s one of my new year resolutions!) Moving on again I stopped off for a week in Singapore to explore the growing metro system and spend time with another Facebook friend – Nicholas Lim, before heading overland to Malaysia and the long train ride from Kota Baru to Kuala Lumpur (another one I’ve yet to write up!) where I explored the expanding metro systems and parlous state of the KTMB suburban network before heading onwards to one of my favourite old haunts – Georgetown on Penang Island, where I enjoyed a bit of R&R.

Moving on again I travelled on a much-changed KTMB network to the Thai Border and  Hat Yai before catching a sleeper train to Bangkok. That trip was aboard some of the new Chinese built sleeping coaches and I managed to blog about it here. You can see all my pictures from the trip in this gallery.

Back in Bangkok there was time for me to explore the expanding metro system before flying back to Brexit Britain, which I wasn’t really looking forward to. My travels through Asia made me all too aware of how backward looking the UK had become and also how out of touch with commercial realities the hard-line Brexit fans who insist we’d be ‘free’ to trade globally really were.

Things didn’t improve on my return. I’d been following the Brexitshambles with increasing incredulity and despair ever since. Politicians from all parties seem incapable of admitting to the public what a disaster Brexit is. The whole country’s been caught up in an internal Tory party squabble over Europe that’s got completely out of hand. The Brexit nutters slogan ‘take back control’ is going to go down as one of the most stupid ever as it’s becoming painfully obvious that we’ve done nothing of the sort. My only hope is that as this truth becomes more evident throughout 2018 we have an outbreak of common-sense and political pragmatism before our relationship with our EU partners and the economy are both wrecked.

Looking beyond Brexit to my commercial work I have to say I’ve really enjoyed the year. I’ve written a series of articles for RAIL magazine, thoroughly enjoyed doing it and I’m looking forward to penning many more. In 2018 I’ll be conducting my biennial rail-tour round the UK which should be fascinating as a lot’s changed since 2016. I’ve had some fascinating photographic commissions too and my role as a Judge for the annual ACoRP awards gave me the opportunity to meet some truly inspiring groups and individuals.

On the personal front life’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. The highlight of the year was Dawn and I getting married on November 11th. It was an event that exceeded both our expectations. The pair of us wanted an informal, inclusive wedding that wasn’t stuffy. We had a fabulous day with family and friends that was a delight. The fact we were asked to cut the wedding cake asap so that the floor was clear for people to dance said it all. So many people have mentioned that they’ve never been to a wedding where the dance-floor was packed all night…

Sadly, the wedding was put into perspective by the sad death of my new sister-in-law, Jo Platt, who died of cancer just a month later. We knew she was terminally ill before the wedding but had no idea the cancer was so aggressive. Dawn and I spent time with her in the days before she passed away. Jo gave us some tasks to do for her which led to what’s the saddest assignment I’ve ever had – to fulfil a dying woman’s wish. Jo asked me to take a scenic shot of a local Surrey beauty spot (Frensham Great Pond) which was special to her and her husband, Darren. Jo wanted it to be given to Darren as a keepsake – but for a week the weather was awful and Jo’s time was running out. Finally, the Gods smiled and we had one glorious Thursday evening where I managed to get a selection of pictures and Jo had the opportunity to choose the one she wanted. We were just in time. Jo passed away peacefully at home the following Monday. I hope I never have another job like that again..

Because of events our honeymoon has been postponed and we’re beginning the New year back home in Yorkshire. Our plans are to make the absolute most of 2018. We’ve a lot of exciting things planned (of which there’ll be more news shortly). I’m determined to get back to blogging, so expect a flurry of blogs on railways, travel, Brexit and of course HS2!

In the meantime, I hope you all have a very Happy New Year and a fabulous 2018. Thanks for stopping by to read my blog and/or visit my photographic website.

In the back of Beyond? No, this is Surrey!

03 Sunday Dec 2017

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I don’t often have a moan, but today’s an exception. The Platt family and I have decamped to Tilford in Surrey for a few days (for reasons I’ll explain in a blog another time). Leafy Surrey, part of the stockbroker belt, within easy reach of London and part of the affluent South-East is somewhere you’d expect to have excellent wifi and mobile phone coverage, wouldn’t you? The opposite is true. It’s universally crap.

The house where we’re staying is in a mobile phone blackspot. I’m on O2 and can get a signal much of the time. My wife and her parents are on EE and their phones are useless. They can’t get anything. It’s the same story a few miles up the road at my wife’s brothers, only there I can’t get a phone signal either!

As for wifi, what a joke. I’m currently sat in the Barley Mow pub in Tilford, trying to upload pictures to my website, but I might as well be in the Outer Hebrides. The wifi can’t cope. I only came here because I couldn’t upload them at the family home (the signal kept dropping out). It’s not just Tilford either. I’d tried to upload pictures using the wifi in a pub in Farnham earlier. I managed one picture at a time before I lost the connection.

No wonder Britain is becoming a bit of an international joke for the quality of its infrastructure. If I can’t get a decent ‘phone & wifi connection in Surrey for Chrissake! The irony is that back in West Yorkshire I have an excellent communications network and my Virgin wifi is blinding. The upshot is that I couldn’t live here and do my job. Things are better than here in the Far North of Scotland. I’ve travelled by train from Inverness to Wick on a wifi fitted train. I can’t do that here in Surrey either!

Someone, somewhere needs to get a grip…

Another day, another dollar…

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in I love my job, Railways, Travel, Uncategorized

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Days at home are all too rare right now, although I shouldn’t really complain. Monday – Tuesday saw me commuting to London for various jobs, Wednesday had me working out of the ACoRP office in Huddersfield, Thursday was a chance to catch up on some paperwork and picture editing at home. Today I’m back on the rails again, heading to York for another job for RAIL magazine. This afternoon I return to London as Dawn and I are spending a couple of nights in the capital to celebrate my birthday, then have a day with friends to celebrate our forthcoming wedding. I’ve eschewed the traditional stag night. Instead I’ve opened the day up to both sexes and invited friends to meet the pair of us on Saturday as we visit one or two of London’s finest hostelries!
As much as I love travelling, I’m looking forward to having more time at home. The Pennines are beautiful this time of year. Autumn brings crisp mornings, gorgeous light and a fantastic array of colours as the trees shed their leaves. I’m looking forward to being able to enjoy these sights on some weekend walks – if we can fit them in before the wedding!

Greater Anglia’s Aventra mock-up

11 Monday Sep 2017

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As promised earlier, here’s a look at the mock up of the interior of Greater Anglia’s Aventra trains. Be aware that this isn’t exactly how they’ll appear In service (it is a mock-up after all). The model has been built to test various layouts, so it’s an amalgam of styles. Still it give you a feel for what they’ll look like in service.

GA have ordered 665 Aventra vehicles. They’ll form 22 x 10 car trains and 89 x 5 car trains. All will be standard class. 5 car trains will have 540 seats and 10 cars 1100.

Features to note include underfloor heating, air conditioning, plug sockets (with USB) and high capacity broadband. The units will be used across the GA network, including Hertford East, Kings Lynn and Ipswich to London. Also GE services including Norwich, Ipswich, Braintree, Clacton and Southend.

The first trains will enter service in 2019.

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The seats are cantilevered from the body sides, creating more luggage apace and making them easier to keep clean. Note that each bay has more USB sockets than seats. 

The DG280522

 

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On the road again (pt 432)

14 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in ACoRP, Railways, The Railway Children, Travel, Uncategorized

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I’ve added a lot more old Sri Lanka pix to my Zenfolio website. This will be the last one for a while as I’m not going to have any opportunity for time-consuming slide scanning over the next few months.

Later today I head to Birmingham for tomorrow’s National Rail Conference, after which I hot-foot it to Crewe to join the teams from the rail industry competing in the 3-peaks charity event for the Railway Children. I was approached to help so offered my services as the official photographer for the event. We’re travelling by special train between the three peaks in what promises to be an eventful (if mostly sleep free) event. The train will be everyone’s home for the length of the event. I’ll try and add a few comments and maybe some pictures as we go. After travelling back from Fort William on Saturday I end up at Preston before heading home to a comfortable bed!

After that it’s time to take up my role as a judge for the ACoRP awards. This means I’ll be travelling the length & breadth of the UK over the next couple of months. So, who knows where you might bump into me…

 

Election thoughts…

07 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by in 2017 General election, Brexit, Uncategorized

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I’ve resisted the temptation to blog about the general election on a regular basis, mainly because it’s such a depressing event. The ‘choice’ is between two parties, neither of whom I’d trust to run the UK. Despite my past loyalties I can’t work up any enthusiasm for a Labour party led by Corbyn and his team and I really don’t see why he’s held in such adulation by his followers. As for toxic Teresa May and her mob…

The old political adage that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them could have been written especially for this particular election. Despite being 21 points ahead in the polls when she called it, May’s had an awful election campaign as it’s exposed her weaknesses. As Alistair Campbell (Tony Blair’s former Press Secretary) has said, why would you try and build a cult of personality around someone who doesn’t possess one? She’s trotted out a string of meaningless soundbites and platitudes throughout the campaign. ‘Strong and stable’ my arse! Looking at her Cabinet and their performances is equally depressing. Boris Johnson, the blonde buffoon, representing the UK on the world stage? Have we really sunk that low?

What I find incomprehensible is the way many voters in the country are indulging in an almost masochistic delight in ruining the country, politically, economically and internationally. To hear people call for as ‘hard’ a Brexit as possible is complete madness. What on earth are they thinking? It’s the same now with May’s calls to scrap human rights laws. People are actively supporting a political party that will make their lives harder. For what? What on earth do they think they’ll gain from this?

Let’s be under no illusions, Brexit is the elephant in the room here and neither Labour nor the Tories are being honest about it with voters. It’s all very well Labour saying all their policies are costed. So what’s the cost of Brexit (especially a hard Brexit) then? No-one will say.  No-one is admitting what the damage Brexit will do to the UKs economy and how that will impact on anyone’s spending plans.

I’ve said before that I fear for my country. Those fears remain. I see this country slipping away into authoritarianism, prejudice and ignorance – with the full (or tacit) support of many voters. The parallels with 1930s Germany are too real to ignore, yet many people are doing exactly that.

Whichever political party wins on Friday, the clear loser is going to be the United Kingdom, and its people.