Answers Part One - And Other Stuff

Transport Personalities (Batch The First)

Number 1 : Giles Fearnley and long term chum of fbb. He used to live at the hamlet of Blazefield, near Pateley Bridge - hence that choice of name for his group of companies, later sold on to Transdev. Now officially retired, neither his lovely wife nor fbb believe that he will be inactive in the transport industry for long. fbb has suggested that he might but Axe Valley Travel, but the idea was not received with enthusiasm!

Number 2 : A pre--bearded Brian Souter. Behind is his horse bus which launched one of fbb's local routes (9 Exeter to Honiton, 9A Exeter to Seaton, later extended to Lyme Regis). In his early maverick days in the industry he was famed for turning up to meetings with the be-suited dullerati of the bus world in trainers and carrying his paperwork in a Tesco bag,

Number 3 : Chris Green, the best general manager British Railways never had. His dynamic development of Network SouthEast threw a large dose of refreshment at London's suburban railways. The PR "coup" of painting the lamp posts red at every station in his vast patch brought some derision from the traditionalist mockers, but ensured that the new project got space in all the local papers in the area. Brilliant!

Number 4 : Gerard Francis Gisborne Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes a k a Gerry Fiennes. As General Manager of the Western Region he "sorted out" the poor performance of the newly introduced Western diesel hydraulics, then moved to the Eastern Region. Soon after taking charge his book was published and he was sacked by the British Railways Board for saying horrid but very true things about them.

Number 5 : Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London and proud of the fact that his father was a bus driver. He wants to sell off the lop-sided jelly office block and move to somewhere cheaper "out east". 

He is embroiled in a collision course (a collision which he cannot win) with the Department for Transport because he is spending lots of money he hasn't got on cheap fares for London. He will almost certainly still be mayor after today's elections.

Number 6 : Richard Beeching, former boss of ICI and brought in by the Conservative government to "make the railways pay". Some of his methodology was suspect, but overall and from a business point of view, he was right. Despite "the axe" label, he never closed a metre of railway line but left that to the Government. With hindsight, some of his suggestions were draconian and many never happened; but, ironically, today's Government is talking about restoring some "Beeching cuts", i.e. some cuts that the Government made, none of which "made the railways pay" anyway.

Number 7 : Andrew Adonis, Minister for Transport in the Tony Blair Government. He was one of those rarest of animals, a Minister who seemed to understand and support public transport. 

In Greek mythology, Adonis was the god of beauty and desire. Originally, he was a god worshipped in the area of Phoenicia (modern – day Lebanon), but was later adopted by the Greeks. According to the most popular belief, he was the son of Theias, king of Syria, and Myrrha (also known as Smyrna), Theias' daughter.

Number 8 : Ernest Marples, Minster of Transport and a director of a road-building company. Some have painted him as the organ grinder and Beeching as the monkey dancing to Marples' anti-rail policy tune. He is pictured above opening the first section of the M1 from London (outskirts thereof) to Crick in Northamptonshire. Although dubbed M1, it was the UK's second motorway, the first being the Preston by-pass to become part of the M6.

Number 9 : Adrian Shooter, one time MD of Chiltern Railways which made the best of a bad job of franchising, largely because it was a longer term deal which encouraged expansion and innovation. After retirement he came up with the jackpot idea of up-cycling old Underground "surface stock" as a cheap and cheerful way of running lesser branch lines. They run, or will run, in hybrid mode between Bedford and Bletchley and on the Wrexham to Bidston line in North Wales.

No one seems to know why Island Line has electric versions "on order" rather than hybrid. But there are "software problems" and the shiny new trains will not arrive until the summer. Why you need "software" for an electric motor and a brake is beyond fbb!

Number 10 : Grant Shapps, MP for Welwyn and Hatfield. Like most Ministers of Transport, his achievements are illustrated below.

Also in the puzzle picture is the Welwyn two-track Bottleneck, famed for reducing capacity on the East Coast main line whilst to the south and to the north Notwork Rail is busy increasing capacity. Suggestions have included building a second viaduct, cantilevering tracks out from the existing but strengthened edifice and (seems more likely) running less local trains over the present two tracks.

The second half will be revealed tomorrow.

Talking Of Mr Khan

The Silvertown Tunnel will follow roughly the line of the Emirates Air Line - the less than successful cable car across the Thames.

As Mayor of London, Boris Johnson formally cancelled the Thames Gateway bridge which would have crosses the river further east, downstream a tad from Woolwich.

But the new tunnel is now under attack.

There is no doubt that new road schemes usually help with congestion by moving it elsewhere! It never goes away and often gets worse.

But, equally, Mr Khan is in trouble for cheap bus fares. Who would be a politician, eh?

Bletchley P S.

Two pictures of the new flyover - almost a mini tunnel -  with its lid on.

Trains on the new East/West line ...

... will cross diagonally. Impressive!

70 Years Ago

Tim Dunn twitters a picture of the Festival of Britain site - which opened near Waterloo Station 70 years ago this week.

We have the extended and upgraded Festival Hall to remind us. Google Earth provides a picture of the site today.

Co-incidentally, another twitterer posts a picture of the Jubilee Gardens in 1973 ...

... and today.

The ever observant Ray Stenning, taking a break from creating desire, points out that, in the picture of the Festival grounds ...

... is a FIVE car Electric Multiple Unit about to cross Hungerford Bridge. The Southern (still very much the Southern Railway in 1951, despite nationalisation) had twos, fours and multiples thereof, but not fives. Well spotted Raymondo, you are not just a pretty face ...

... but shy and self-effacing, as ever.

Lights On!

But, as hinted earlier, there be bodges and a problem to solve. Can you spot the problem?

 More Answers : More Other Stuff : Friday 7th May