31/10/2008 by admin.

New Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon has told Greater Manchester’s leaders that they will get NO money for transport improvements if the December referendum votes no to congestion charging.

At a meeting of AGMA today, the leaders approved the changes to the package (see below) as well as the ballot question recommended by Sir Neil McIntosh.

For more details, see TransportMatters magazine, out next week.

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29/10/2008 by admin.

I have been a fan of John Prescott ever since he accepted two of my “I’d rather be riding Metrolink” car stickers (one for each jag) during a visit to Manchester.

He’s fallen out of favour recently but he was still the best Transport Secretary I have ever known.

Anyone who saw his BBC2 programme on class on Monday will have seen that he’s just as impressive as he ever was - and what a star Pauline is!!!

That is why you should sign my petition on the Downing Street site to persuade him to go to the Lords. 

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27/10/2008 by admin.

I too was in the Lakew District as a month’s rain fell in 24 hours at the weekend. But unlike the mountain men whose annual marathon has got so much publicity, I only went to Asda at Kendal.

We had returned a faulty TV, got  a replacement, filled up with diesel at the shambles which is the store’s petrol station…and then decided it was too wet even to go for a walk in the woods at Sizergh with the dogs!

But top prize to the BBC  reporter who found the trio who were afronted at all the attention. “Of course the weather was terrible,” said one. “That’s why we come!” 

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26/10/2008 by admin.

WORKERS on the minimum wage will get a 20 per cent discount on rush-hour bus, train, and tram fares if Greater Manchester votes yes to congestion charging in December.

And in a huge concession to the transport industry, lorries will be charged nothing for the first year while the effects of the scheme are studied by town hall officials together with the Road Haulage Association.

Read the full story in TransportMatters magazine. How? Go to www.transportmatters.co.uk, go to magazine archive, register your details, and wait for a FREE copy every month!!

Posted in Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

24/10/2008 by admin.

Went to the annual National Railway Museum dinner in York. You actually sit among the locomotives. I felt a bit overawed by a gathering of industry luminaries but I knew enough of them to feel important.

Star of the show was undoubtedly the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s 60163 Tornado, the £3m newly-built steam train which had just arrived from the Great Central Railway, Loughborough, to take pride of place in the NRM’s Great Hall on before beginning her main line trials.

Yes, I really was in the presence of greatness.

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23/10/2008 by admin.

I had to give a Powerpoint presentation to some important people at EWS in Doncaster. I sent it off in advance by email and they set it up for me before I made an entrance.

Imagine my horror when I walked in, glanced at the screen and saw:

“Opportunities and difficulties of rail freight companies in they liberalised European frieght markets in the European Union.” 

Spot the deliberate mistake…

Posted in technology, Journalism, Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

20/10/2008 by admin.

So now we have the question and no, it is not the masterpiece of sophistry which some predicted.

2.5m people will be asked: “Do you agree with the Transport Innovation Fund proposals?”

Straight down the line. You can’t say fairer than that!

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18/10/2008 by admin.

David Ottewell, my former colleague at the Manchester Evening News, boasts on his blog that Sir Neil McIntosh, the returning officer for Greater Manchester’s congestion charge told him in an interview that his reputation preceeded him.

Strange, he told me something similar TWO hours earlier in the first interview he has given!

Read all about it in the October edition of TransportMatters magazine, out soon.

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15/10/2008 by admin.

I have just found this in my drafts file ands can’t remember whether I ever published it. Well now it is time to name and shame. The university involved is Salford - and they simply did not reply!!!! 

Interested to swee the new ageism laws in force while filling in a form for a university post.

The application studiously refreained from asking date of birth, simply asking you to declare that you are not within six months of 65.

But on the next page, it demands secondary school details…and DATES!!!

OK, its a fair cop. I’m 56!

Posted in Society | Print | 1 Comment »

15/10/2008 by admin.

Perhaps I was hasty in my disappointment over the appointment of Geoff Hoon as the new Transport Secretary. He turned up to GMPTA’s lobbying event in the Commons and actually spoke.

It turns out he’s from a railway family and actually got on a tram (the right one, unlike Tom Harris) at the Labour Party Conference.

I don’t apologise, however, for complaining about the sacking of Tom Harris.

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