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 »

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.

Posted in Society, Transport | Print | No Comments »

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.”

Posted in Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

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 »

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.

Posted in Politics, Transport, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

28/09/2009 by admin.

Continuing my growing love affair with the Settle Carlisle line, I called into Settle on Friday on the way to the Lakes.

There I watched Northern Rail director Heidi Mottram unveil a plaque to the refurbished station.

The Settle Carlisle Development Company has been working since last November with money from Northern, North Yorkshire County Council, the Railway Heritage Trust, and others to fit bio-mass boilers, lag the loft, fit new windows, and renovate the waiting rooms. It looks like toytown but it is a working station and I actually met a commuter.

In fact, she was more than just a commuter. She was a parish councillor who dropped into the conversation that she and her fellow passengers did Tai Chi while waiting for the 07.35 to Leeds. She didn’t realise what a good story that was and refused to adopt a Tai Chi position on the platform for a picture so I had to get just “waiting for a train”.

Settle won Small Station of the Year at the National Rail Awards last week – such a surprise that Northern didn’t invite the station master to the ceremony.

I’ve offered the whole package to the Yorkshire Post for its Country Week Saturday magazine but I’m still waiting to hear….

Posted in Outdoors, Travels, Journalism, Transport | Print | No Comments »

23/09/2009 by admin.

Covered a transport conference in Manchester today…and a valuable exchange of information it was. Meanwhile, in the real world, the continuing cattle truck scandal continues.

I went in to Manchester and returned in the rush hour by train for the first time in many years. What a pathetic excuse for public transport it was. I really do wish I had driven.

The 7.45am from Littleborough was, unusually, full when it arrived from Leeds. It began leaving people behind at Rochdale.

I dashed across town from the Bridgewater Hall to catch the 5pm train home…and wish I hadn’t bothered. The class 144 is unfit for human habitation when there is plenty of room. This one – two cars instead of the usual three – was completely full. I managed to force my way on the middle door, followed a few minutes later by the driver who went into the toilet, telling someone who asked him to tell other passengers to move down the train to “see the guard” at the other end of the platform. At each stop, people had to fight their way off…and yet the train never felt any emptier. People were wondering if the overcrowding was a health and safety issue….and what is going to happen when the Oldham loop line closes for conversion to Metrolink next month. “They don’t care as long as they keep making a profit,” said one.

At the conference, Graham Stringer MP called for Crossrail to be scrapped and the money used to improve our lot up here. He will not be listened to, of course, but Londoners feel they are suffering even more.

That’s rubbish. I have travelled into London by train in the rush hour. Very pleasant it was on new stock. We have suffered enough up here.

Posted in Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

17/09/2009 by admin.

“Sadiq Khan has been appointed as the Minister of State for Transport on 8 June 2009.”

I have just come across this sentence on the DfT web site. Forgive me for being pedantic but it is not English. Either he was appointed on or he has been appointed. You can’t combine the two tenses.

Who cares, you might say. I do. If the government can’t even get its grammar right, what hope is there for the trains to run on time???

Posted in Journalism, Transport | Print | 1 Comment »

09/09/2009 by admin.

Blackley MP Graham Stringer’s interest in transport is legendary…and so is his allegiance to the Labour Party.

So eyebrows were raised when it emerged that he was not only to attend an important meeting at the TORY party conference in Manchester next month but was actually to be the chairman.

Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce alerted its members to the lunch-time fringe meeting in the town hall on Monday, October 5, on the subject: “Making the best of our rail network - what is the future for tram/train?”.

The former city council leader would need all his debating skills to keep shadow transport minister Stephen Hammond, Salford Conservative councillor Ian Macdonald, vice chairman of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority, Andrew Coombes of Network Rail and Richard Montagu from Alstom.

Politics apart, Mr Stringer, a senior member of the Commons Transport Select Committee, would be the perfect choice to lead the discussion. After all, Greater Manchester narrowly missed out on a government trial of running trams of train lines last year. Local transport leaders put forward the Marple to Piccadilly line but just lost out to Penistone to Sheffield.

And he takes an active interest in the Commons all-party light rail committee which is chaired by his fellow Greater Manchester MP Paul Rowen – a Liberal Democrat.

Mr Stringer was in no mood to celebrate his all-party credentials when contacted by me. As usual, he didn’t answer his mobile. I left a message and within minutes, I got a text: “It’s a mistake,” it said. “I’m not an never was.”

But he did see the funny side. “It would be interesting, if true,” a second text message added.

Investigations with Conservative Party Central Office have unravelled the mystery. The chairman of the meeting will be, in fact, Altrincham MP Graham Brady, one-time parliamentary private secretary to Tory leader David Cameron.

Posted in Politics, Transport, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »