Weekend Variety ...

... Political Posturing

There may be trouble ahead!

Keir Likes Trams!

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is determined a tram network in West Yorkshire "does happen and happens quickly".

Tracy Wants Trams!

Well, one route would be a start!

The orange one!

Tracy's Buying Buses, Loadsa Buses

The Prime Minister backed up calls by the region's mayor Tracy Brabin ...

Does she wish we would all
forget Coronation Street?

... that a planned mass transit system should be in the form of a tram, rather than an improved bus network.

Keir Wants Votes

Speaking on a visit to York, he said: "The mayor of West Yorkshire is absolutely passionate about this. She wants a tram and I think that's right, so let's just get on with it now."

Brabin said: "It is always good to have the prime minister on your side by saying 'tram' rather than 'mass transit'."

Tracy Wants Cash!

"That is how you unlock growth, by improving transport. You know mass transit has been under way for a number of years but we are now committed, working with government to deliver that tram network," she said.

"This is part of my Weaver Network, that integrated transport system that is part of bus franchising but also a tram, and bicycles, electric bikes, and I know that government want to work with us to get it delivered at speed." 

Tracy Wants Cash, Loadsa Cash!

 Would You Vote For Andy?

Happy Andy?

fbb has a slight suspicion that, were he a voter in the Makerfield constituency, and were he a passionate supporter of the Labour Party (he is neither), he would NOT vote for Andy in the by- election.

That's because Andy has no deep desire to represent the people of Ashton in Makerfield in the House Of Commons. He just wants to be Prime Minister.

It is worth reminding ourselves that nobody votes for a Prime Minister at any parliamentary election. Anyone who prognosticated politically "that the nation elected Keir Starmer to be Prime Minister", is 100% wrong.

It is drivel! Like all the other MPs he was elected as the MP for Hollborn and St Pancras and nothing more.

First, Andy has to be chosen as the Labour Party candidate for election as MP for Makerfield.

He has wangled that, but no one quite knows how.

So, to become PM, Andy has to be elected as MP for Makerfield; he has to resign as Mayor of Manchester; he has to have the support of 50 MPs to stand in an election to be Leader of the Labour Party. He then has to garner enough votes from Labour Party Members, Union Members and Labour MPs to be elected as Leader.

Then the King has to invite him to form a Government. Then he has to gain enough support from MPs to create a viable working Government.

Only then might he get  to be Prime Minister.

There is no guarantee that he will leap over the next hurdle and be elected MP in Makerfield

There are 13 others who want the job, most of whom have absolutely no chance of winning!

Either way he will cease to have any involvement in yellow buses adorned by bees.

Until then (more like IF then) he is still boss of the bees.

Burnham urges mayors to move fast on buses.

There’s few policies that you can introduce that get more noticed than changing the colour of every bus,’ Greater Manchester mayor tells podcast.

Hmmmm?

Paint the buses (and trams) yellow and everything will instantly be wonderful?

Andy Burnham has urged UK mayors to take control of their bus networks as quickly as possible, arguing that the benefits outweigh the transition costs.

He said bringing Greater Manchester’s buses into the publicly controlled Bee Network has been highly visible and popular, helped by rebranding buses ...

... with yellow paint and a furry insect (?) ...

... and reducing fares. Burnham believes bus franchising can help address the cost-of-living crisis by making public transport more affordable and accessible.

Reducing fares? Increased local taxation? Increased government subsidy and of grants?

Hmmm?

Andy Is Spending Cash, Loadsa Cash

He expects other city regions, including Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, to follow Greater Manchester’s model, making public control of bus services a major UK transport trend this decade.

Andy (or his succesor) Wants Cash, Loadsa Cash!

Richard's Got Money Problems

Richard Parker, West Midlands Mayor

We hear somewhat less from Richard than from Andy, Steve and Tracy. Of course he wants to run buses in the West Midlands ...

... but maybe he us waiting to see how the Three Up-front Busketerrs get on before he gets in too deep. So the PTE is left to speak out.

Travel West Midlands Wants Cash, Loadsa Cash

TfWM warns half of bus network at risk

Escalating fuel costs and wider operating pressures have prompted TfWM to seek extended support to maintain services ahead of move to franchising

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) wants to extend its Bus Network Support Grant until November, warning that up to 49% of commercial bus services could be withdrawn without continued subsidy.

TfWM estimates service cuts would affect more than 65 million passenger journeys this year, while existing support has protected nearly 400 million journeys since 2021 and helped maintain network stability ahead of bus franchising.

Rising operating costs, particularly diesel prices, are increasing financial pressure on operators, with TfWM concluding that subsidy remains necessary even if fares rise by 25%.

The proposed funding package would require operators to maintain services, share data and support regional transport plans, while TfWM argues that a temporary subsidy is the most practical way to preserve the network during the transition to franchising.

It's All Going Jolly Well For Franchising!

========================

For the next few days, in a snippet on each blog, fbb will outline the possible reasons, the experiences and the possible consequences of the last week or so. The squeamish or hospital phobic should not read this diary!

EIGHT DAYS INSIDE (Wednesday 20th May)

It's all about Melena? And that'not the name of a nurse.

If you get a bleed in the upper digestive tract, your body eats the blood - it is ingested. But there is a waste product called melena which is black, oily and horrible. Unfortunately the rest of your digestive system does not like melena. It rejects it violently.

Hence fbb's waste disposal explosion.

But he didn't know that at the time.

Wisely, as it turned out, the fbb's cancelled their holiday starting on 21st.

So they hoped the fbb interior nasty would go away.

It didn't but became much less but remained nasty.

Kite Flyung At Bank Top & Bodmin

Convalescence Considerations

Your elderly blogger is back home after a challenging eight days in hospital in Exeter. Recovery may be slow and energy levels are at best in the orange!

fbb intends to continue a daily posting, but qualtity and quality may vary according to his well-being index, whatever that might be. Long series of blogs requiring lots of research are unlikely for a week or so.

In the good old days he might have spent that recovery time in a Convalescent Home ...

... but the facilities at fbb mansions are surely more conducive to recovery. The grub is most definitely bigger and better!

Kite Flying ...

... At Bank Top.

Approx 45 years ago, the fbbs rented a holiday cottage at Bank Top near Rosedale Abbey in North Yorkshire. The booking was shared with Sheffield chums Peter and Janice and their children.

Here is Bank Top (bottom leftish) ...

... at the top of the partly 1 in 3 road known as Rosedale Chimney ...

... scary both up and down in the fbb's Mini Traveller Estate!

Bank Top was a long gone mining community ...

... once busy and bustling ...

... but now just a row of cottages at the top of a steep hill. The mining business was served by train ...

... with mysterious kilns and chimney still visible today.

The system closed in the 1920s. Wagons were steam hauled ...

... with a short incline rope-hauled en route.

Chum Peter brought a kite to "entertain the children" but more likely to entertain himself. 

The holiday cottage had no electric, open fires and limited plumbing; but one bonus was a hoard of approximately 500 wire coat hangers.

So one blustery evening (mostly they all are at Bank Top), out came the kite. It kited spectacularly in the moorland breeze. Then fbb had a jackpot idea. Why not hang a few wire coat hangers (hook on bar) on to the kite and see if it would still fly.

Wow did it fly!

Eventually the kite rose majestically into the evening sky with about 30 hangers as a tail!

Then the string broke and off into the setting sun sailed kite and attached hangers never to be seen again.

Overnight, somewhere on the moors, sheep may have been intrigued as 30 wire coat hangers fell from the planet Zog into heather clad moorland like aerials from a UFO

BUT ...

... incidents like this gives a powerful illustration of a colloquial meaning of "kite flying". It is a "spectacular project" proposed with boundless enthusiasm, but very likely to crash ignominiously to oblivion.

And Bodmin!

Many readers will be familiar with long-standing plans to fully reopen the former Exeter to Plymouth Southern Railway route from its current terminus at Okehampton ...

... to Plymouth. The work needed to reopen on an existing track bed and by pass built in sections is viable as this 'Railfuture' scheme illustrates.

Amongst other things, the reopening would provide a diversionary route for trains west when the sea defences at Dawlish fail, as most certainly they will.

So when fbb found this on line ...

... he confidently expected to read of yet another study for the above plans.

How wrong he was!

This is for a whole new-build line between Okehampton and Bodmin!

Yer what?

This shows, roughly, the route of the former main line from Okehampton to Plymouth via Tavistock. 

The dual carriageway road is the A30 running east west across the top if the map.

Now read on!

A study into whether a multibillion-pound rail link through Cornwall would work has been hailed as a "huge step forward" by campaigners.

They said the proposed line would link Okehampton, in Devon, to Launceston, continuing onto a new station near Bodmin and joining the existing Cornish mainline.

Cornwall Council said it would now look at a more detailed study into the scheme - admitting it had the potential to improve rail resilience and open up the opportunity for more freight trains.

However, it warned the railway would be unlikely to be in use until the 2040s at the earliest.

Hmmm?

As the man says above, the new line will follow the A30 ...

... via Launceston to Bodmin Road station (now Bodmin Parkway) ... 

... where it would rejoin the GWR main line.

How much?

Time to get the kite out!

======================

For the next few days, in a snippet on each blog, fbb will outline the possible reasons, the experiences and the possible consequences of the last week or so. The squeamish or hospital phobic should not read this diary!

EIGHT DAYS INSIDE (Prologue)

It might have started with a toothache! 

In the days running up to the first May Bank Holiday, fbb had a very sore tooth - some readers may remember. Remarkably (God is good that way!), the pain vanished for the old folks' May fellowship meetings and disappeared until an extraction on May 19th.

The pain over that bank holiday weekend was mitigated by Ibuprofen and/or Paracetamol in modest doses well below guidance on the packet.

The tooth was extracted painlessly and all seemed dine and dusted.

BUT on Wednesday 20th ...

So "Woss Goin' On"?

2016 : Thameslink to Rainham

fbb discovered this item on a London rail watchers blog.

This document on their web site gives these outline proposals for Kent Thameslink services.

This is the opening paragraph.

Proposed new all-day Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday Thameslink service on the North Kent line via Greenwich, Dartford and Medway Towns.

They describe it in more detail later.

New cross-London journey opportunities providing multiple connectivity opportunities will be created between Luton – St Albans City – West Hampstead Thameslink – Central London (via London Bridge) – Greenwich – Abbey Wood – Dartford – Rochester – Rainham. This new route will provide multiple new connections with the new east to west Elizabeth Line (formally Crossrail) at Abbey Wood. The route can also be operated by 8 or 12 car trains.

The article goes on to suggest that Rainham was chosen as a terminus because it has a suitable bay platform for terminatng trains.

Other articles at the time suggested that the Rainham service was a Thameslink afterthought. The planners had two stopping trains an hour from Luton with nowhere to go, there being no stations in the Thameslink "core" with space or time to turn trains back,

Whatever the idea in the planners' minds this is the route, frim Luton into the "core" ( GREY line) ...

... and in via Greenwich and Woolwich to Rainham.

Rainham station?

It is a small town east of Rochester ...

... and here in detail.

But fbb seems to remember debate on the more 'serious' railway magazines about the value of two extra trains along this route. The service is very much all stops.

 Note that the evening service terminates at Hampstead.

So it is this service that is to be "slashed" according to The Telegraph' ; but " temporarily aligned" according to Thameslink.

 

Readers of this much respected paragon of the fourth estate (?) will find their lives greatly enhanced by the journos' explanation of the Thameslink service pattern on this route.

Well done, Telegraph, almost every word in the above paragraph is unmitigated drivel.

Error 1 : there are two Thameslink trains per hour not four

Error 2 : Technically, the North Kent line, electrified in the late 1950s, runs from London to Margate and Ramsgate but not via Greenwich. Greenwich is part if the 'Dartford Loop' group of services.

Error 3 : Southern services are also every 30 minutes ...

... which, for a London suburban line, is 'normal' rather than 'frequent'

2026 : Shocking Summer Service Slash

Shock horror!  "Hundreds of Trains This Summer"?

This is correct!

BUT ... as Thameslink runs, for example 4200 timetabled trains each day (Monday to Friday), slightly less on Saturday and about half that number on Sundays ....

That is, as they say, "a whole lotta trains".

fbb estimates, using his Basic Recalculating Algorithmic Information Notation software, enhanced by Assorted Idiotic database technology, that Thameslink will operate 220,000 trains over a typical six week period.

Misleading Message 1 : Hundreds of trauns is not much at all.

Misleading Message 2 : Repeat! It has absolutely nothing to do with Nationalisation

And There's More!

So we get to the nub of the problem. The only information about the cuts is anecdotal as Thameslink has not published revised timetables. It is, as they say, all on line. The National Rail journey planner has been updated.

The only way that fbb could document the cuts on the Rainham line would be to spend the rest of his alloted days of existence checking train details one by one.

One snippet suggested 12 trains are "slashed" Monday to Friday off peak; with a reduction to an hourly headway in Saturdays.  Is this in one direction, so 24 in all or six outbound and six inbound.

We should be told!

But gaze upon a map.

On the above route diagram, the Thameslink service is coloured BLACK. As you can see, there is no station on the Thameslink route that  doesn't have an alternative service alongside Thameslink.

Dodgy Decision 1 : Hardest Hit? Whilst a small number of passengers will be hit, there will always be alterative journeys available, possibly with a change and usually with a penalty of just 10 to 15 min.

Dodgy Decision 2 : Bedford? Apart from a possible occasional train returning to depot at beddy-byes time, Rainham line services do not run to Bedford.

To Save Money?

fbb is confused! From May 17th there have been extra trains running on some routes operated under GoAhead  brands, notably Gatwick Express. 

So how much will this timetable "slash" actually save.

  

There will, of course, be savings in staff BUT increases in staff costs where additional services have been added elsewhere.

There will be less track access fees to pay.

There will be extra costs in updating the humungous amount of technology for signalling, passenger information, accountancy, PR etc. etc.

Bearing in mind the astronomical costa of running a railway and the astronomical costs of maintaining it even if no trains are running, the savings will be trivial.

Conclusion

Yet another example of poor reporting (misleading reporting) creating misplaced antagonism directed against Thameslink.

Medical Report

Back at fbb mansions 1545 yesterday with much improved waste disposal system. Due to the loss of a dribble (rather than a gush) of blood internally over several days, fbb has to convalesce for a week or so to allow stocks of the ruby gojuice to regenerate.

Immensely grateful to all concerned at Royal Devon And Exeter Hospital for eight days of superb care all delivered with a cheery mien above and beyond any job description!

 Next Variety Blog : Saturday 6th June 

It's All Over The Internet?

 Crisis on the Rails??

You would think that something's very "up" at Thameslink.

Reddit says so. And there is gossip at Barnehurst!

And Greenwich.

Moivit is moved to comment ...

... and Greenwich is doubly concerned

Even Google AI is on the job.

And there's more

Perhaps the ever reliable Daily Telegraph will fill out this shocking story if rail cut backs?

Slashed? Really?

It is certainly not good news for nationalisation according to all "colours" of the press?

What does Thameslink tell us?

It's Newspeak once again!

Thameslink will be temporarily re-aligning some services

But note that additional services will be run on some routes ...

... and this is similar to last year.

Can fbb make sense of this journalistic hype?

He will try!

Fact One : Thameslink has been Nationalised. Heidi says so.

Fact Two : The minor changes in the selection of reports above have absolutely nothing to do with nationalisation 

It takes years to make any changes to the rail network and DaFT (DepArtment oF Transport) has neither the desire nor the ability to make changes ... because ...

Fact Three : With nationalisation of Thameslink, NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

The trains are the same The drivers are the same. Those cheery and sympathetic revenue protection officers are the same. Maisie who cleans the waiting room will still clean it after nationalisation.

And GoAhead will still be taking home a huge bag of pennies for running the service!

Good, innit, this nationalisation malarkey..

So, Daily Telegraph, ...

... your piece is incorrect.

The reductions have been a commercial decision by GoAhead, admittedly made in consultation with the Rail Regulator. The detail may be different this summer but Heidi and her chums have not authored the change.

It does look as if a change of timetable for Greenwich is the big beef.

But certainly not JUST Greenwich?

fbb would like to check exactly what has changed at Greenwich but the charger port on the tablet has finally died. No amount if wiggling or wedging will work.

Searching Thameslink timetables maybe be beyond your author's skills.

But he will try! and, if successful, all will be revealed tomorrow.

Medical Report

All numbers are "moving in n the right direction" and if the waste disposal machine does what it was designed to do, a release may happen soon.

Yesterday's snack with coffee (actually tea) was a "grab bag" of yummy Cheddars.

It was quickly grabbed?