The real answer, as the organisation We Own It have pointed is a fully publicly owned and controlled railway system, but this is an interesting development regarding the worst rail operator in the country…
The badly managed and strike prone Southern Railway contract is to be investigated by Parliament’s financial watchdog, the National Audit Office.
After months if not a years of misery for commuters caused by failing services and strike action over safety the NAO has quietly decided to investigate the Department of Transport’s handling of the contract alongside another investigation into the modernisation of Thameslink services. Both are major commuter services into the capital and both are owner by Govia, the country’s biggest privatised train operator.
The decision by the NAO has been quietly slipped out on its website as an update to the Thameslink investigation without an official announcement. Such a move is bound to cause some consternation for transport secretary, Chris Grayling, and his officials.
Publication of the report due this summer will trigger…
A couple of important petitions, a couple of interesting links and some photographs taken in and around King’s Lynn – enjoy!
INTRODUCTION
I have two important petitions to share with you, a couple of other links and some new photos to share.
RENATIONALISE THE RAILWAYS!
For my first offering I turn to the campaign group We Own It, and their petition calling for Britain’s railways to be publicly owned and controlled. Click on the screenshot below to visit and sign this petition.
AN ANTI-FRACKING PETITION
The latest area to be targeted by fracking companies is Derbyshire. Click on the image below to visit and sign the petition against this:
PHOTOGRAPHS 1:
A COUPLE OF LINKS
Autism Mom’s most recent post is entitled “Words My Son Can Use” and is a very interesting read.
Welfare Weekly have produced a list of the 10 worst excuses produced by employers caught failing to pay the minimum wage which you can read here.
PHOTOGRAPHS 2
We finish with a few more pictures, these ones taken this morning:
This post arises from several issues: changes to the bus services in my region, and the way in which the company in question has handled those changes; a campaign that has recently come to my attention to restore rail links to Wisbech, and finally the fact that I have recently been in Sweden and thus privileged to see at first hand how a properly run public transport system works.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT SHOULD MEAN PUBLICLY OWNED TRANSPORT
The more I see of public transport (and as a 41 year old non-driver I see plenty) the more convinced I become that private companies should play no role in running it. Whether you consider the blatant failures such as the current situation involving Southern Rail, the high and increasing prices of tickets across the board or the frequency with public transport in Britain is affected by delays or suspensions of services, it is plain for all to see that private companies cannot do the job.
I regularly see people in Fakenham, where I work, who have missed a connection due to a late running bus. A missed connection means a loss of at least one hour, possibly more due to the infrequency of services.
A NOTE ON INTEGRATION
Those of you who are familiar with my London Transport themed website will have noticed that I am strong believer in integration of services, which is manifested on that site mainly by my suggestions for improvements to existing lines. Ideally all routes would be interconnected.
TWO CASE STUDIES
My first case study concerns…
STAGECOACH BETWEEN KING’S LYNN AND NORWICH
There have been two major changes on this route recently. Firstly, the service between Fakenham and Norwich has been halved (it is now hourly rather than half hourly), albeit with a couple of gaps in the service between Fakenham and King’s Lynn closed to make that a proper hourly service. The effect of the axing of half of the services between Fakenham and Norwich has been that for the first time standing passengers are a regular feature of that route. A week ago today the X8 designation vanished, the whole route now being referred to as X29. While there is a certain logic to taking this step, especially if it means that all Norwich-Fakenham buses go through to Lynn, the way in which it was handled earns Stagecoach a major black mark. Apart from messages on the screens at King’s Lynn bus station (the way I learned about it), this change was given no advance publicity, with the result that those passengers who do not use King’s Lynn bus station were caught on the hop, and even on Friday evening the sight on X29 to King’s Lynn was still capable of causing confusion with certain passengers.
THE TRAIN BETWEEN KING’S LYNN AND LONDON (WITH A SIDELIGHT ON PROPOSALS INVOLVING WISBECH)
The train service between London and King’s Lynn is hourly, and after a non-stop run to Cambridge it splits into two, with four coaches continuing north to King’s Lynn and four returning to King’s Cross. The necessity to be in the front four coaches if going beyond Cambridge can mean standing all the way to that station or even beyond (I have stood from London to Waterbeach at least once). I am aware that the restriction to four coaches beyond Cambridge is due to the shortness the platforms at some the intermediate stations, but there are least two possible solutions, and variations thereon:
In addition to the through services from London run regular (half hourly, or even quarter hourly) shuttle services between Cambridge and King’s Lynn). This (especially with the more frequent services) would mean that not everyone journeying between Cambridge and King’s Lynn or intermediate stations would need to board through trains at Cambridge – I for one would aim to make the return leg of a trip to Cambridge on one of the shuttles rather than a through service.
For points north of Cambridge have an interleaving of shuttle services as above with faster through services calling at only the stations with long platforms (Ely, Downham Market, King’s Lynn), so that services between London and King’s Lynn would consist of hourly through services, with changes at Cambridge, Ely or Downham Market as appropriate for intermediate stations) which would be augmented by shuttle services on the Cambridge-King’s Lynn section.
You will note that I have not even touched on the possibility of lengthening the platforms at Waterbeach, Littleport and Watlington so that eight carriage trains could call at those stations – I have merely mentioned the possibilities that do not require work on the existing infratsructure.
WISBECH RAIL LINKS
I found out about the campaign to bring the railways back to Wisbech via twitter. They have a website which gives considerable detail about their proposals. I conclude this post by aking use of one of more recent bargain basement acquisitions, this what Wisbech’s rail connections looked like in 1947…
The latest post in my series about my recent holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the next installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. I finished my previous post with an account of my accommodation in Gothenburg, and this post picks things up the following morning.
GETTING STARTED
Since breakfast was included in the price of the room I was always going to partake. Everything about that breakfast was good, and I set off for Gothenburg Station in very good time, having booked myself on to a slow service to Stockholm. I took some photos on the walk to the station…
Having arrived at Gothenburg Station much earlier than needed I took the opportunity to take some photos there before heading for the platform a sensible 20 minutes before the train was due to depart…
One way to present a map of a long thin country (pity about the lighting which spoiled the top part of the pic.
The train I was to travel on was a double decker (yes, on some Swedish routes they run double decker trains), although I my seat was on the lower deck.
I settled in to my window seat, camera at the ready…
Arriving in Stockholm I took a time out at Stockholm Central station before purchasing a 24-hour Access Card for Tunnelbana and heading to Huvudsta, where my cousin and his fiance have their flat, where I would be staying for the last two nights of my holiday. The combination off my inter-rail pass giving me eight days travel, my own desire to do some more exploring in Stockholm and the fact that I was catching an early flight from Arlanda to Gatwick on my final morning led to me making this arrangement.
THE REMAINDER OF THIS SERIES
My explorations in Stockholm will account for three posts (Gamla Stan, Kungstragarden and a post specifically about Tunnelbana), my departure one small post and a final ‘maps special’ post which will also serve as a kind of index – as with each map I shall include links to the posts to which that map relates. At the latest the final post in this series will go up on Saturday, since Sunday is Heritage Open Day and therefore the signal for the start of another series of blog posts, this time set closer to home.
The latest in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. At the heart of this post is a largely photographic account of a very scenic railway journey.
LEAVING MALMO
I booked a seat on a train to Gothenburg that allowed me plenty of time to pack, check out and get to the station. For the price paid the STF Hostel at Malmo was a great success. My review as requested by booking.com can be seen here.
I was indeed at Malmo Central Station long before I needed to (pictures of this station can be viewed here). The platform I needed to catch my train from was displayed well in advance (no London King’s Cross style nonsense of showing the platform that you need to get to the far end of since your train splits at Cambridge with only the front portion continuing onwards a bare five minutes before your train will be leaving). Malmo Central has an unusual feature for a main-line railway station in that some of the platforms are underground, reached via lifts or escalators. These platforms feature a film-type display based on views through a train window to relieve the monotony:
The route from Malmo to Gothenburg travels along the only West facing coastline in Sweden (just north of Gothenburg you reach the start of the long land border with Norway, which continues north and then east until you arrive at the much shorter land border with Finland, which ends at the top of the Gulf of Bothnia, after which it is coastline all the way round to Gothenburg), and is very scenic…
All of the pictures you see in this section of the post were taken through the window of a train.
The rain made this one even more of a challenge.
LOCATING MY HOTEL
The main tourist information office in Gothenburg is located inside a large shopping centre which is accessible directly from the station. They were able to equip me with a map and directions to my hotel, and I set about finding my way there…
This is at Gothenburg stationCrossing a canalWater transport.
My room at the City Hotel Avenyn – small, but not sharedA painting that hangs on the second floor of the hotel, just along the corridor from my room.
Just before I reached the City Hotel Avenyn I noted the City Pub next door it. After paying for my room I still had nearly 1,o00 Kronor left, so I decided to treat myself to a meal at the pub.
I consumed an excellent meal of Swedish meatballs and mashed potato, washed down with a couple of glasses of a good local beer. While I was there, one of the TV screens was showing an Olympic handball match between Sweden and Russia. The Swedes won – it was close for most of the first half, but then Sweden pulled clear and were never seriously threatened thereafter. After that it was time to head back to my room. Unfortunately, there was a lot of noise during the night. Here, courtesy of a screen-grab from booking.com is what I had to say about Gothenburg itself and my accommodation:
The latest in my series of posts about my holiday in Sweden, introducing Uppsala.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. This post sets the scene for my two night stay in Uppsala.
ARRIVAL
Those following this series will be aware that I travelled to Uppsala on an overnight train from Lulea. Apart from one moment about half an hour before Uppsala when I managed to shut myself out of my compartment and had to knock on the door to regain admission (I was only just stirring, and simply forgot to pick my key card up) the journey was largely uneventful. By good fortune I had been assigned the bottom of three beds (the top bed hangs from the ceiling as a permanent fixture, the middle bed folds out from the wall when everybody is ready for bed and the bottom bed is created by rotating the row of seats over by means of an ingenious mechanism).
On arrival at Uppsala Central Station I noted that the was a line of hotels on one side of the tracks, so I went to investigate whether Vandrarhem Uppsala Centralstation was among them and found that it was not. Deciding that other than this little clump of hotels the other side of the tracks looked more promising I headed along the generously spaced walking and cycleway that passes under the station and after passing the bus station found myself on Kungsgatan, where I spied a Tourist Information Office. As it turned out the entrance to the building in which I was staying was just off the main road on the same side street that this office sat at the corner of.
The building in which I was staying had a hotel at the front, and the hostel type rooms in which I was staying at the back. Although it was too early to check in they did have a bag room, so I offloaded some luggage there and set off to commence my exploration of the city. I already had a few photos…
As well as being the birthplace of the great Carolus Linnaeus, Uppsala is home to a sculptor named Bror Hjorth, and two pieces of his work are on display very close to the station.
The station plan of Uppsala Central.
COMMENCING SERIOUS EXPLORATIONS
Consultation of the map with which I had been equipped at the Tourist Information Office revealed that everything of interest to me was to be found by starting in from my hotel in the opposite direction to Kungsgatan, which would serve as a very handy outer boundary marker. My initial target was the cathedral since I reckoned that a very large and prominent landmark that must be pretty much plumb in the centre of the interesting part of the city would serve as a further useful point of orientation, and I could then pick out other places. This part of Uppsala proved to be very attractive and as a bonus was pretty much pedestrianised. Almost directly underneath the cathedral I found the University Museum, and deeming the admission price acceptable decided to go in, with results that will form my next post…
The frontage of the cathedralImmediately above the main doorA close up of that very elaborate circular window.The outside of the University MuseumA close up of the curious onion shaped dome – as you will see in my next post what lies inside that dome is almost as curious.
The next installment in my series about Sweden, and the finale to the sub-series about the Inlandsbanan experience.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden, and the end of the sub-series of posts about my northward journey along Inlandsbanan.
THE JOURNEY
By this stage we were nearing the end of the journey from Ostersund to Gallivare, although there was still the second meal stop to come. In the brief period between restarting the trip from the edge of the arctic circle and arriving at Vaikijaur for the second meal stop we passed a place called Jokkmokk.
Vaikijaur was not especially memorable, although the food was excellent. Here are the pictures I took.
A side view of this quirky little buildingThe front viewThe people who had produced our food.
We had no further significant stops before Gallivare although we did pass through a town called Porjus. The train pulled into the platform at Gallivare exactly as scheduled at 21:39. Here are the photos of the last part of the journey…
SLEEPLESS IN GALLIVARE
I had booked two nights at the Hotel Dundret i Centrum, planning then to take a morning train to Lulea on the Gulf of Bothnia and then an overnight train from Lulea to Uppsala, birthplace of Carolus Linnaeus also known as Carl Von Linne. However, while I located the establishment in question, there was no one at reception, and it turned out that to gain access my room I needed to make a call on a mobile phone (had booking.com mentioned this detail I would have booked somewhere else) and I had accidentally left mine at the flat in Stockholm where my cousin and his fiance live. I waited a few minutes in the very unimpressive communal seating area just in case but it was soon obvious that no one would show up.
While I could have sat there until the morning doing so would then involve having an argument over payment because there was no way I would pay for a night in which I had not access to my room, so I decided to cut my losses and headed back to the station to wait the night out. Before continuing this story here is the one photo I took in Gallivare (I knew the camera battery was low, and that I would not be able to charge it that night).
This sculpture is on the roundabout just opposite the station in Gallivare.
I did make a couple of attempts to get some sleep but they were unsuccessful. I was thankful that I had had the foresight to pack a long sleeved top just in case the Swedish summer weather was not quite as good as it might be, since while it does not get dark in Gallivare in August it does get quite nippy at night (as a cricket fan I would have said that the light was never even at its least good unplayable in). Had the sky been clear I might have had a glimpse of the famous midnight sun, but as it was solidly cloudy I was denied even that small pleasure.
At 6 o’clock I was able to get inside and think about my next move. Having ascertained that train tickets could be bought at the Pressbyran next to the station, which was now open, I paid for a ticket on 7:08 train to Lulea (the full price since I did not wish to burn a whole day’s travel for a shortish journey – btw train tickets are one of the few things that are not more expensive in Sweden than in GB – the Swedes don’t have the likes of Branson coining it from failing to provide proper train services), having decided that I would get back on track with my original plans by staying overnight in Lulea and catching the sleeper as intended the following day.
THE INLANDSBANAN EXPERIENCE
I rate this as one of the finest railway experiences I have ever had. I encountered some wonderfully scenic journeys in Scotland and on my first visit to Nordic lands many years ago. More recently I experienced some very scenic journeys in Australia, including Melbourne – Adelaide.
Although I, with my Colbeckian enthusiasm for all things railwayana thoroughly enjoyed all three legs of the Inlandsbanan journey and would recommend the experience to anyone I could also see merit in missing the Kristinehamn-Mora section and doing Mora-Ostersund and Ostersund-Gallivare having found some other route to Mora. If not constrained by budget I would recommend the onward trip from Gallivare to Narvik and some exploration in Norway as well. I also mention that there are places along the route where one could stay overnight if wanted to spend many days over making the journey, but with an inter-rail pass giving me eight days of travel and a desire to see as much of Sweden as I could encompass such was not on the table for me personally.
If anyone involved in the publication of the Rough Guide to Sweden happens to see this may I suggest that you think about turning my last eight blog posts into a chapter about Inlandsbanan since it is absurd that this incredible experience is not covered in your pages.
The latest installment in my series about my recent holiday in Sweden. We are still travelling north on Inlandsbanan and this post takes us to the arctic circle.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the next installment in this series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. In this post we are back on the move, heading north along Inlandsbanan.
THE JOURNEY
Very soon after leaving Vilhelmina Norra behind us we made a brief stop at Storuman.
After Storuman there was again a period of taking pictures through the window of a moving train.
Shortly after I had taken the picture above we arrived at Sorsele, which is significant as…
THE STATION WHERE INLANDSBANAN TRAINS MEET
Yes, it is at an otherwise insignificant dot on the map called Sorsele that the northbound Ostersund-Galiivare service overlaps with the southbound Gallivare-Ostersund service. Sorsele is also home to the Inlandsbanan Museum, although I chose not to go inside. Thus I have many photographs of this location that is so important in the workings of Inlandsbanan…
My first shot of the two Inlandsbanan trains together at the platform
A wonderful signboard, one of many here.
The external view of the Inlandsbanan museum.
A disused platform.The guard about to indicate the departure of the southbound service.Where personal meets professional – as someone who images auction items and has an interest in railwayana I particularly wanted to get a close-up of the Inlandsbanan cap badge.Outside cooking – probably a rare pleasure in this part of the world!
After a brief move we including the lake below we arrived at Slagnas
After leaving Slagnas there was a reasonably long period of forward travel…
We then had a stop for long enough to stretch our legs at…
ARVIDSJAUR
I was able to take a few pictures here before we moved on.
Moving forward again, I was still taking pictures through the train window…
I reckon this must be the lower terminal of a cable car route.
What looks like a black raindrop in the picture above is actually a mark on the window that got into more than one of my photos! It was very soon after this picture was taken that we arrived at…
THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
This was not the first occasion I had been into the arctic – on my only previous visit to Nordic lands in 1994 I had gone by train from Helsinki to Narvik in Norway, with a brief bus ride from Haparanda to Boden in the middle,, and after a night in Narvik had caught a bus to Tromso before then travelling by boat to the most northerly town in mainland Europe, Hammerfest. However in those days I had no camera, and also the point at which we reached the arctic circle was not announced. Here are the shots i took from inside the train before I knew that there would actually be a stop:
I end this post with pictures taken out in the open at the arctic circle:
The train at the arctic circle.
A fellow passenger was kind enough to take the picture from which I extracted this image of myself standing in front of the arctic circle sign.
The latest in my series of posts about my holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the next installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. In this post my account of the Inlandsbanan experience continues.
MUCH MORE THAN JUST A JOURNEY – A RAILWAY EXPERIENCE
In my previous posts about my journey along InlandsbananI have been concentrating on the route followed by the trains as they move north. However, Inlandsbanan is much more than a railway journey (though it is certainly among the most scenic of those). It is a railway experience, and the scheduled meal stops, one on the Mora-Ostersund leg at the Asarna Ski Centre and two on the long northward haul from Ostersund to Gallivare, the one which I am using as the base for this post at Vilhelmina Norra and a later one at Vaikijaur. Keen followers of this series will remember that Asarna I opted for Moose burger with jacket wedges. Here is a picture showing the two menus from which this day’s food choices were made…
For this meal I went for the Meat sandwich, while my choice for the Vaikijaur stop was the Reindeer burger.
Why have I opted to cover this aspect of the trip at this point? Well, these little critters who I was able to watch while consuming my meal had something to do with that decision…
With the meal stops being of generous duration I had plenty of opportunities to augment my collection of photos…
The latest in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden, still covering the northward journey along Inlandsbanan.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. Just before moving on to the details of this post, Anna and her fellow residents of Trosa are locked in battle with greedy/ corrupt local politicians over plans to build a new road that the area does not need or want. I urge you to visit this post, which was put up yesterday and offer your support. As a veteran of the King’s Lynn incinerator affair this touches a particular chord with me. For the rest of this post we are continuing the journey north along Inlandsbanan.
THE JOURNEY
As we left Ulriksfors behind us, I was temporaril back to photographing from a moving train.
Not long after passing the house pictured above I was able to get this picture of an old locomotive:
Here are the remaining photos I got before arriving into Vilhelmina…
The stop at Vilhelmina was not a long one, as the stop at the next station along, Vilhelmina Norra, was the first of two designated meal stops, but I did get these pictures…
Beyond Vilhelmina but before Vilhelmina Norra, which I have decided to give a whole post to itself, I managed to get a few more photographs from the moving train.
There will be a further three posts about my journey along Inlandsbanan, one covering Vilhelmina Norra, one covering the stretch from Vilhelmina Norra to the arctic circle, and the final post covering the journey from the edge of the arctic circle to Gallivare, summing up the whole experience and setting the scene for subsequent posts by explaining events that transpired in Gallivare that had a considerable effect on my plans.
A Southern Railway train: often overcrowded even if it runs. Pic Credit:BBC 
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