25/02/2009 by admin.

At least Lord Ahmed had the decency to refuse to bleat about his 12 week prison sentence for texting while he was driving. He got caught because he crashed and killed someone. He had stopped texting before the crash and no-one would have been any the wiser if he had not come across a stationary car, parked by a drunk in a motorway fast lane.

But perhaps this is the only way to make people stop using their mobiles while they driving. Nothing else seems to work! 

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25/02/2009 by admin.

Rail Professional magazine is out today. Listen to the interview at

http://www.transportmatters.co.uk/6.html

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23/02/2009 by admin.

Department for Transport: “So here’s the deal, Manchester because you’ve spent £24m ansd ruined your reputation espousing congestion charging, we are puitting a little extra in your pay packet for your trouble.

“£14,711 more, in fact than we are giving West Midlands who would have nothing to do with congestion charging. Now, wasn’t that worth it?”

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20/02/2009 by admin.

Just back from the Rail Business Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane. 1200 of Britain’s finest and very impressive too.

Heidi Mottram, the much-honoured managing director of Northern Rail won business manager of the year, and very well deserved it was too, I thought…..until I got back to Manchester.

Now I know first class travel on Virgin can hardly be described as arduous, but I was a bit tired when I finally crossed the city to Victoria Station. The next train on the Calder Valley line was going to Selby, like they always used to but since Dedember, this one has not stopped at Littleborough - where I was bound.

Now, watching a train pulling out and knowing it ios going to pass the end of your garden but isn’t going to stop is frustrating enough but Heidi had finished insulting the good people of my home town.

The train I was finally able to catch was some ghastly red thing shipped over from Yorkshire. It had plenty of seats but only because they were fixed so close together that your knees are round your ears.

Londoners are always whingeing about their commuting conditions. They don’t know they’re born!

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18/02/2009 by admin.

The Derby Evening Telegraph has launched a “Change Track” campaign aimed at persuading ministers to reverse the decision to award the InterCity Express contract to the Japanese - and so safeguard hundreds of jobs on its patch.Deputy editor Neil White said: “We believe the Government has made a serious mistake in selecting a Japanese-led consortium ahead of Derby train-maker Bombardier as the preferred bidder for the £7.5bn contract to build new Intercity trains.

“One of the main planks of the successful bid was that it would create or safeguard 12,500 jobs in this country.

“So far, nobody, from Government or the consortium, has been able to tell us where those jobs are or will be.

“Thus, we owe it to the 12,000 workers who depend on Bombardier for their jobs to try to get the Department for Transport to change its mind.

The award of preferred bidder status to the Japanese consortium means it is almost certain to build the carriages, but there is a brief window of opportunity for the decision to be changed before contracts are signed.

More power tothe Telegraph elbow!

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16/02/2009 by admin.

Some years ago at the Manchester Evening News we did an online poll to find the greatest Mancunian  in history…and to my astonishment, Morrissey won it by a mile. Never having been a Smiths fan, this irked me as I had done all the historical research and come up with some great figures of the past.

Despite myself, I was beginning to warm to his new album…until I watched him on the One Show tonight. He announced proudly that, in his youth, he used to go to the job centre with no intention of finding a job. OK, so I guess there are a few more out there who think the same.

But then, whe asked about the plight of those who have lost their jobs during the recession, his pearl of wisdom was: “Well, they should paint or do something creative.”

Greatest Mancunian? Greatest tosser!

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13/02/2009 by admin.

Perhaps there’s hope yet for Theresa Villiers who said in the debate yesterday: “The Government’s excessive micro-management of our railways is now holding up the process of delivering the extra rolling stock that passengers desperately want. We could have had extra Pendolinos on the west coast main line months ago, but Department for Transport dithering has held them up. The inaptly named Thameslink 2000 is now running around 15 years later than planned. Not one, not two, but three Secretaries of State for Transport have promised us 1,300 extra carriages, some of which were reannounced today, yet only four have been delivered. The Government’s complacency is unacceptable and today’s announcement will do little to reassure commuters who suffer daily from today’s desperately overcrowded railways.”

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12/02/2009 by admin.

Those of us who have ever been inside the old BREL plant at Derby will wonder at its future today. Lord Bradstock called that future “perilous” and feared for the future of train manufacture in this country.

OK, so Bombardier are as British and Maple Syrup and Sauerkraut but they are providing British jobs for British workers.

I’m sure Hitachi make splendid trains. Japan, after all, is the home of the bullet trains.

But having given them the job, the least Geoff Hoon can do now is drive the hardest of bargains on which bits of it are made in Britain.

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09/02/2009 by admin.

What on earth the Tory/Lib Dem “joint administration” of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority is thinking of, I just don’t know.

They are obliged to administer free bus fares for over 60s but go further and give the pensioners tram and train travel as well. Fine in times of plenty.

But now there is a little budget balancing to be done so where do they look? The smug and often rich old folk who clog Manchester’s public transport all day?

No. They have decided to slap 10p on the concessionary fare, taking it to 80p and payable by every schoolchild who lives less than three miles from school.

Shame on you!

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04/02/2009 by admin.

Did you know that Cheryl Cole would be the best celebrity bus companion. Did you care?

Nicola Shaw, Managing Director First UK bus, says: “While clearly many people still find their partner at work or through friends, it is interesting to see that in some places more people have found lasting love on public transport than through online dating sites.  In these cash-strapped times, I think people can take heart from the results of this poll, confidently cutting their subscriptions to expensive online dating sites in favour of taking a trip on the bus; it could be the most exciting journey of their lives!”

Now I have a high regard for Nicola Shaw. She told me she was going to be taking a close interest in the company’s PR. But please, Nicola, forget these fatuous fake polls!!!

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