Glasgow Metro - Part 3

S P T - Splendid Proposed Travel!

The SPT report is a little more practical, but still with a fair bit of tecnobabble.

The opening blurb (above) warns that any "Metro" plans will have to also involve the Bus Strategy and an Active Travel Strategy, the latter usually being a pompous way of saying "bicycle and walking".

So almost all of the Mott MacDonald pontificating and much of SPTs response is about travel on rails with no integrated consideration of transport via Mr Macadam's splendid road surface invention.

SPT puts forward four options which are summarised in "headline" boxes each accompanying a map.

You cannot really understand their words without a detailed look at the map, but here they come.

"A" is a 'do least' option but one which aims to make the best of what is currently provided.

In "B" we have trams plus the current network.

Same as "A" but different. The differences are too "technical" for a short blog and slightly too "technical" for fbb's elderly brain.

Which bring us to "C".

This is the "biggie" and almost certainly will never happen unless a giant Strathclyde" golden goose ...

... lays a very large clutch of golden eggs.

Keen readers might like to understand the map extracts that follow in some detail, starting with the "Legend”

Reading in no specific order, we will find tram routes (called LRT because it sounds more trendy) in PURPLE ...

... existing rail in BLACK, the underground (Subway) is BLUE , then we have existing rail that becomes Metro (black line plus ORANGE) with Metro extensions also in orange.

Then there are the coloured blobs.

The red, orange and yellow colours go some way to telling us what the proposals are designed to achieve.

So here goes with a few selected extracts from Plan C.

We start at Renfrew/Yoker out west on the Clyde,

We have a tram from a blank white space (It is greater Clydebank in Dunbartonshire, where be dragons, not Glasgow) which crosses the river and runs via the Airport.  The other tram runs from Glasgow to terminate at Baljaffray, west of Milngavie.

There is an interesting Metro "extension" on the southern bank of the Clyde where there is no existing railway.

Continuing south we see another "extension" in orange which follows a former railway branch from Paisley to Renfrew.

The branch runs from the existing line at Paisley Canal which is extended into dragon-land where be Kilmacolm, former rail terminus.

The tram, which doesn't make it to the city centre, also ends outside of the Glasgow area, presumably at Newton Mearns.

We have another tram line to East Kilbride ...

... supporting the existing train service, even when electrified.

To the north east we see two new projects. There is a tram to large areas of housing terminating at Cambuslang.

The Metro "extension" is on the former rail line to Kirkintilloch ...

... reopening a long-closed branch.

These are just the headlines of SPT's Plan "C" but, because the geographical SPT area does not match the wider "local" railway area, the picture is not complete.

Fortunately, we have an independently designed map which clarifies a full range of proposals. Because this map is drawn with a wider view than SPT, it does a batter job of informing those of us who are trying to understand.

More mapping magic tomorrow.

The Thomas Teaser

The single car diesel is Daisy. She has no direct equivalent in body style on the railways of the somewhat bigger island next to Sodor.

All Mero Cammell units were at least two cars.

Daisy has appeared in several forms over the years.

The diesel locomotive was called BoCo on Sodor and is loosely based on a BR Class 28 'MetroVic".

This 'Thomas' loco has also appeared in various forms.

The similar loco, from across the water on the big island, was of a Co-Bo wheel arrangement with one six wheel bogie and one of just four. It us difficult to spot this on a real loco, but an OO model shows this 'oddity' well.

fbb cannot tell if BoCo is correctly drawn.

Here is BoCo as introduced to viewers of the Thomas TV series.

Bill and Ben are copies of the Port of Par "twins" also available as OO models!

Delightful; a much more restful subject than Clyde Metro - at least fbb can understand the Thomas stories!

The low height is because of a very low bridge on the former Port sidings ...

... with just enough height for an open n wagon!

A better picture of one of these very unusual tank engines appears in the March Railway Modelleir ...

... together with a "lid off" view showing how they fit a motor and electronics in the boiler.

 Next Clyde Metro blog : Friday 13th Feb 

Glasgow Metro - Part 2

Mott MacDonald's Magnificent Message

It was one of the ploys of Jim Hacker's political career (Yes [Prime] Minister) ...

... that, if things got a bit sticky, politically, the plan was to commission a full and frank report. Sir Humphrey promised his PM three possible consequences.

By the tine the report was published

Most would have forgotten about it

Few would ever read it - and

Of those that did read it, none would           

        understand it.

So fbb has taken an askance glance at the Mott MacDonald report on the Clyde Metro idea.

The contents go up to section number 8 by which the (very expensive) consultants have managed to cone up with some proposals - of a sort, but read on.

fbb was excited to read about the alignment between problem statements and the objectives. If he could stand even more excitement, he could also immerse himself in some logic mapping.

He did neither; but he did look at the pictures and consider some of the summary panels.

So we are now ready for some place making and place mending.

Maybe fbb has not quite grasped the reports lingo?

Getting it, Mott! 

Some places have good public transport but many don't.

You really do need a "vision" and any vision is obviously more meaningful if you use the very best technobabble.

And there's more; lots more; and more lots more. This is what Mr Mott has got for the edification of whoever commissioned the report.

Or, being interpreted, Glasgow needs better buses and trains.

Another Yes Minister tenet applies. "Never commission a report until you know exactly what answer you want, then get someone to write it to give you your desired conclusion."

Also, have some very clear aims.

You need to pay good money for such perceptive and revolutionary ideas.

And there's more!

Mr Mott hits the spot by diverting services away from Glasgow Central to improve connectivity,

Maybe our loyal blog readers have switched off their "devices" by now and moved over to their much less challenging macrame work.

Mr Mott's alternative; knots!

But for those still reading and still awake, fbb will sample some of the maps the Mr Mott has got for our edification.

There is a series of diagrams showing the transport characteristics of each main area of Glasgow - important for those decision makers who lack local knowledge.

OK, they tell what is there already, notably where the trains go.

Then we have one of these. Mr Mott appends a plot of how frequent buses are along each road.

Here is the key.

Buses are frequent along some bits of road, but the diagram doesn't bother with where they go; the buses are just there.

And there's even more.

Ah, yes. Some folk don't have access to a train and the buses are slow!

Mr Mott sure hits the spot with that revelation.

He even tells us about these:-

Do you suffer from isochrones, missus? You need to rub in the liniment twice a day!

fbb looked it up! It is all greek him!

It is a map showing journey possibilities that take the same (iso) time (chronos). It is a factual measure that Mott has got to show how accessible the public transport is in key localities.

No, fbb doesn't  understand it either but it does make a very pretty map.

It looks as if Mr Mott's diagram has been shot by multicoloured paint balls.

And there's  more.

More removal from existing termini or it will cost horrendous amounts of money!

fbb is sure that Mr Mott has not lost the plot; this sort of stuff has to be created to convince the money bags at Government level to foot the eye watering bill for Clyde Metro. 

Some might say that Mr Mott does not spot the practical needs - his report needs more hard-nosed reality rather than a nauseous eruption of statical obscuration.

But Mr Mott is not a clot! Just doing his job on the dot.

But after a very cursory peruse, fbb is still not clear what exactly is proposed.

But have no fear dear reader. There us another report, this time from Strathclyde Parternship for Transport a k a Glasgow PTE.

It offers its readers four options, complete with maps, which fbb will explore tomorrow - IF he can understand them.

Literature Puzzle Pictures

After the above verbiage and diagrammatic diversions, fbb needs to return to sanity. So ...

We all know the main characters from Wilbert Awdry's 'Thomas the Tank Engine' stories. BUT ...

... can you identify these two?

Answers tomorrow. 

  Next Glasgow blog : Thurs 12 Feb