09/11/2009 by admin.

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/091106maynard.shtml

This story reminds me of the time when the brother of a very wanted many came into the office one Saturday morning and we gave him £40 “expenses” for him to find his runaway sibling and get him to ring us.

Of course, we never heard from him again…but at least it was the managing editor’s money!

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02/11/2009 by admin.

Above are two versions of the same story. The first was written by me a month ago and sent to both newspapers. The second newspaper chose to ignore it until Rochdale MP Paul Rowen issued a press release after the story had appeared in the railway press.

Now, I absolutely respect the right of any newspaper not to pay me. ..

But a MONTH????

Posted in Media, Journalism, Business, Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

27/10/2009 by admin.

I have driven today along the M62 between Greater Manchester and the M1. It was horribly busy.

They are preparing for new roadworks -and building the gantries for average speed cameras along what seems to be a 10-mile stretch around Leeds.

Be very afraid

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26/10/2009 by admin.

A couple of weeks ago, a gym-owning friend of mine expressed some mild horror at the fact that I was able to go to the gym at Todmorden Sports Centre at 7am, an hour before the instructor started work. “What about Health and Safety?” he asked.

What indeed…

This morning, two of the three treadmills were not working properly. I was on the only one which was when a fellow fitness seeker of advancing years decided to switch off the mains plug to see if the two miscreants would reset themselves when switched back on.

But he managed to switch all three off – almost propelling me through the mirror on the wall in front of the machines.

Not wanting to upset him, I did not protest…and I swear he didn’t even realise what he had done!

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23/10/2009 by admin.

I returned to my car at the National Trust car park at Aira Force on the banks of Ullswater after a walk of about 8 miles. I felt in my pockets for my car keys and, to my horror, they weren’t there.

The options were:

1. call the AA
2. take a cab back to Staveley, 20 or so miles away for the spare key
3. Retrace my steps over the hills, eyes fixed on the ground.

We argued about my failing faculties until, quite by chance, I tried the car door. It was open. I looked at the ignition…they keys were in it.

It is hard to describe the cocktail of reactions:

• horror at what could have happened
• relief that I didn’t have to do any of the above
• respect for the honesty of my fellow parkers
• horror again at the stupidity I am capable of.

And that brings me to the events of the previous week when I took a Virgin train to London and enjoyed it so much, I tweeted about it from on board.

As soon as I got to my hotel, a minute from Euston, I realised that I had left my raincoat – a fairly new £200 Rohan – in the luggage rack.

I dashed back, persuaded the security guard to let me back on the platform but, sadly, the train had gone. Lost property at Euston is at Left Luggage (and they will charge you a fiver to give you back your property) but to no avail…though after pressing the case, I was invited to fill in a form.

I was directed to station reception where I was treated in such an off-handed way that I almost asked to see somebody’s boss.

I didn’t…but later that night in the House of Commons, I did bump into their boss, Virgin’s chief executive Tony Collins with his Director of Communications Arthur Leathley. I mentioned my missing mac, but not my doubts about the reaction I had got.

Arthur passed the case to customer service who rang me a few days later. There was one moment of light relief when the man asked about my missing computer (as in Apple Mac) but he rang again after a couple of hours to say he had had no luck.

Now, I know that I have no-one to blame but myself but the dishonesty of somebody walking around in my raincoat is quite upsetting.

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18/10/2009 by admin.

The rescue plan for the stranded passengers of the Oldham Loop fiasco will swing into action tomorrow but there are fears that it will not be enough to avoid leaving commuters behind on platforms for yet another week of misery.

For local transport bosses, who stepped in last week with a reluctant offer to pay for extra carriages are providing them for just one morning rush hour train and two in the evening.

A meeting of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority voted on Friday to finance extra carriages after the Department for Transport demanded cash to use any of the five Pacer trains by the two year closure of the Oldham Loop line for conversion to Metrolink.

Extra carriages to strengthen overcrowded services on the Calder Valley line through Rochdale and Mills Hill will be funded for by council tax payers until the end of next June while officials and councillors try to persuade the government to fund them from the £8m a year it is saving in grants from the Oldham loop closure.

But the only morning strengthened train from today is the 07.44 from Todmorden which reaches Rochdale at 08.00 and Mills Hill eight minutes later, arriving at Victoria at 08.22. Homeward-bound commuters will get extra carriages on Leeds trains which leave Victoria at 17.00 and 17.18.

In addition, there will be extra carriages on the 06.57 from Mosley to Victoria and on the 17.27 from Victoria to Huddersfield.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis was among MPs and officials at a reception House of Commons last week which heard GMITA chairman Councillor Keith Whitmore announce the decision to help out.

The authority is to collect more data to support its case for more carriages permanently. Northern Rail says it cannot buy extra trains itself because its franchise is to end in 2013.

Veteran rail campaigner Richard Greenwood said: “Despite the announcements over the past few days, the actual improvements to the Rochdale line at the moment look rather thin.”

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12/10/2009 by admin.

Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers has revealed the Tory vision of high speed rail and better regional airports to replace the third runway at Heathrow.

She was speaking to TransportMatters after telling her party conference in Manchester: “There will be no third runway at Heathrow”. She dismissed Lord Adonis’ claims that long haul travellers would switch to Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt if they couldn’t land at Heathrow.

“We are adamant that we need to make Heathrow a much better airport,” she said. “It is hugely important because it is our major link to long haul routes around the world. But we think there’s a better way to do that than a new runway, concreting over an entire village, and 46 per cent more flights.

“We will do it by providing a realistic high speed rail alternative and by starting to use the significant spare capacity at regional airports around the rest of the country.

“If we can find a way to help regional airports some of the traffic from their local population, that is fewer people getting in their cars, trundling down to London and contributing to the overcrowding crisis.”

And she added there would be no problem axing the third runway.

“It is very easy to kill the third runway. People just have to come out and vote Conservative. They are not even anywhere near putting in a planning application. If we win, and I am Secretary of State, I will just go the House of Commons and say it is not going to happen. ‘Take your bulldozers home.’”

For the full story, see TransportMatters magazine, out this week

Posted in Politics, Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

08/10/2009 by admin.

“Dear Alan,

Further to your application for the post of Education Editor/Transport Correspondent, I am writing to inform you that unfortunatly (sic) your application was unsuccessful and this position has now been filled.

Thank you for your interest.

Yours sincerely,”

At least, they had the decency to reply but I think we should have one rejection for the Education Correspondent and one for the Transport Correspondent. I only applied for one!

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

08/10/2009 by admin.

Whatever his message, I really do think Bono has ideas above his station…and I still think video presentations just make you think the speaker hasn’t turned up.

At least we haven’t had his missus….and I think he’s speaking without an autocue.

A long climb ahead “but the view from the summit will be worth it” – they said he would say that kind of thing. But Afghanistan is a lot further up his agenda than it was Gordon Brown’s. And so is the first standing ovation.

“We could have come to Manchester and played it safe…” Well they have played it pretty safe, apart from the pensions bombshell.

Interesting reverse on the Sarah Brown thing, he’s paying tribute to his wife – but he’ll take some flak for mentioning the death of his son, however briefly.

“Not everything Labour did was wrong”…but it’s a backhanded compliment ending with a swipe at the Attorney General.

Not sure he should have offered options 1 and 2 on dealing with the national debt. There are some who will think them more attractive than paying it off.

“Don’t you dare lecture us about poverty. You have failed and it falls to us, the modern Conservative Party, to fight for the poorest who you have let down”. Pretty audacious stuff.

Better than Brown? Hard to call.

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07/10/2009 by admin.

The highlight of my Tory conference – a 1 to 1 with shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers – turned into a bit of a damp squib.

I was promised half an hour and got 20 minutes as she arrived late and then remembered she was in a hurry when I started to ask about buses.

Still, beggars can’t be choosers…and I’ll just have to analyse her responses even more carefully to get enough out my considerable efforts.

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