You are currently browsing the TransportMatters weblog archives for January, 2009.
- Business (10)
- Dogs (1)
- Environment (2)
- Journalism (20)
- Media (5)
- Motors (3)
- music (2)
- Outdoors (21)
- Politics (20)
- public relations (1)
- Society (19)
- Sport (3)
- technology (7)
- Transport (87)
- Travels (8)
- Uncategorized (83)
- 02/11/2009: The woes of a freelance journalist
- 27/10/2009: Roadworks
- 26/10/2009: In mortal danger
- 23/10/2009: Losing my memory, honesty and dishonesty
- 18/10/2009: Oldham loop
- 12/10/2009: Heathrow’s third runway
- 08/10/2009: The Times
- 08/10/2009: Written during David Cameron’s speech to the Conservative Conference
- 07/10/2009: Theresa Villiers
- 02/10/2009: O2 Winners
Archive for January 2009
AGMA
31/01/2009 by admin.
Must admit I was left feeling pretty silly after urging everybody to vote yes and watching a 10-0 no vote in the TIF referendum.
And I was even beginning to doubt the powers of Howard Bernstein who had so impressed me in the lead-up to the referendum.
But I have just been going through his “Plan B” life after TIF report which went to AGMA on Friday - and it is brilliant! Now, I don’t know whether it his his work, David Leather’s or some anonymous underling but I urge all students of transport, local government, and politics to get hold of a copy.
Posted in Transport | Print | No Comments »
Spending a penny…or 50!
30/01/2009 by admin.
Went to London to see the Lord -Adonis, of course -and made the mistake of getting off the train without having a wee first.
No worries, I thought, there’s always the first class lounge (having paid a fortune to travel first class, you have to make fullest use of the facilities.
But the lounge at Euston is closed for refurbishment. You can use either the Sloe bar or the Britannia Inn. They give you a little raffle ticket which you can exchange for a free cup of coffee but both looked full so I went in search of the gents.
30p, Network Rail charges at its major stations - the biggest scandal of the modern age - so I decided to wait. I caught the tube to St James Park and wandered out looking for Marsham Street. On the way, I happened across Westminster Abbey. There is a public covenience juts outsde the Abbey
Posted in Transport | Print | No Comments »
28/01/2009 by admin.
| Here is an early day motion by MPs Bob Spink | |
| and Lindsay Hoyle |
| * 2 |
| ” That this House notes the policy of train operating companies (TOCs) to make extortionate increases in car parking charges, including in NCP operated car parks; for instance, parking at Leigh-on-Sea station over the last three years was increased by 25 per cent. to £700 for an annual season ticket; believes TOCs are abusing their monopoly position on parking at rail stations and thereby both profiteering and discouraging commuters from travelling by train; calls on TOCs to explain the basis of the latest increases and to stop abusing their monopoly position, particularly at this time of economic difficulty; and calls on the Government to investigate the increases.”
Can we all sign it? |
Posted in Transport | Print | 1 Comment »
Car launches
25/01/2009 by admin.
Jeremy Clarkson: “Unlike most motoring journalists, I do not attend ritzy, champagne-drenched, club-class car launches in exotic hotels in faraway places.
Alan Salter: “I’ll have his place, then.”
Posted in Motors | Print | 1 Comment »
Working for a living
22/01/2009 by admin.
I commend the following Early Day Motion:
| TAX RELIEF ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT FOR EMPLOYEES | 15:1:09 |
| Michael Jabez Foster | |
| Peter Bottomley | |
| Bob Russell | |
| Lynne Jones | |
| Mr Martin Caton | |
| Mr David Drew |
| * 11 |
| Alan Simpson | Mr Nigel Evans | Mark Durkan |
| That this House calls on the Government to consider offering tax relief at the standard rate of tax on expenses incurred in the use of public transport by employees in travelling to and from their place of employment, so as to offer equality with those who are self-employed and to encourage the use of public transport; and further calls on the Government in cases where employers reimburse such public transport costs to treat such payments as non-taxable benefits. |
They will be too politically correct to say it, but isn’t it fair that those whose taxes pay for the workshy not to have to get up in a morning should get some help themselves?
Posted in Transport | Print | No Comments »
The end of the world as we know it…
22/01/2009 by admin.
This from Labour MP, Ashok Kumar, in his Westminster Hall adjournment debate on the future of the local press: “The internet was—admittedly, some years ago—seen as a new and free open house for local news and comment, but most local blogs and comment sites have become a means for those who merely shout the loudest to express their views. So we have a paradox: people want local news, but increasingly the only in-depth and reliable coverage comes from our existing local titles, which are currently under threat.”
And….
Mr. David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op): I thank my hon. Friend for being so generous about giving way. Will he accept that there is a paradox, inasmuch as many of the main groups that own our well loved titles are extremely profitable? They may be less profitable as a result of the credit crunch, but they have been extremely profitable. However, the people who report the news—the reporters—are paid abysmally. If one asks those who work in the newspaper industry or even in the spoken media, one finds that what they earn is appalling. In addition, people on work experience are increasingly used as a substitute for fully employed people, and there is virtually no apprenticeship scheme left. If there was investment in good journalism, would that not be the answer to many of the prayers about keeping the industry going?
Is anybody listening out there?
Posted in Journalism | Print | 1 Comment »
A fox in the snow
19/01/2009 by admin.
The road from my house to the main road crosses a river by a bridge. The river emerges from some woods, runs along the back of several houses and enters more woods on the other side of the estate.
Looking out of the front window at the snow tonight, I watched a fox climb up from the river, cross the road and disappear again on the other side. When I took the dogs out a short time later, its little footprints were still there in the snow, remarkably similar to those of Ted and Boris, my Jack Russells.
Littleborough is only semi-rural, like many of the small towns in the Pennine foothills on both sides of the Lancashire/Yorkshire border. But we are blessed with a lot of wildlife. Tonight’s sighting puts me in mind of another last year. It was very early one summer morning and I was walking along the canal towpath when I spotted a dear walking along in front.
I assumed she would carry on to the bridge ahead to cross to the woods on the other side but to my amazement, she suddenly jumped into the canal, swam across, and climbed out on the other bank!
Posted in Outdoors | Print | 1 Comment »
dog walking
16/01/2009 by admin.
They are a strange lot in Littleborough. Just come across a bull mastiff being taken for a walk….by a chap driving a Landrover!
Being on foot and enjoying my own dog walk, I was pretty apalled at first…but then again…
It was the fittest looking mastiff I have ever seen!
Posted in Outdoors | Print | No Comments »
Government’s Transport Announcement
15/01/2009 by admin.
With an election only 18 month’s away, Geoff Hoon’s announcement of the third runway for Heathrow can be no guarantee that it will happen - given that the Toriues promise to scrap it if the get in.
But now both parties seem to be supporting a high speed rail line between Heathrow and Manchester. What that will mean to Manchester Airport, I am still working out. But ask yourself this: If you can get from London to Manchester by train in 50 minutes, will there be any need for any northern offices of national companies?????
Posted in Transport | Print | No Comments »
Evan Davies
14/01/2009 by admin.
About ten years ago, I was interviewed by Evan Davies, then for BBC2’s Newsnight, about Metrolink finances taking too long to get together. Naturally, I tuned in exitedly that night and was mortified when the package went ahead without me.
The man himself range me the next day to apologise and explain that there had been nothing wrong with what I had said but that another item had squeezed his slot and I had fallen victim to that.
Coming from an industry which routinely asks people to put themselves out for nothing ever to appear, I was surprised and delighted at the call.
So it was with some pleasure that I watched Davies’ hour-long explanationj of the banking crisis tonight. I had an epiphany, similar to one I had last year when I visted the Einstein museum in Geneva.
I just hope the understanding of the banking crisis stays in my mind longer than the theory of relativity did!
Posted in Media | Print | 1 Comment »