Alstom Anxious : Hitachi Hopeful (1)

Firstly : Metro-Cammell Moribund

Railway modellers, train enthusiasts and maybe a few normal people will recognise the venerable Class 101 diesel train once seem in all quarters of the British mainland. They were made by ...

... Metro Cammell at Birmingham.  Historically, they built the Brighton Belle trains.

The company had premises at Saltley, but the main site was at Washwood Heath. Actually, if you are to believe Google Maps it wasn't at Washwood Heath!

But Google Maps and Google Earth do show a huge scorched earth site just to the west of the northern end of Washwood Heath.

This is to be the mega depot for HS2 which, if Rishi and Keir have their evil way, won't actually need all of it!

Here is a view of the actual MetCam depot ...

... and here is part of the aerial view spun round to match the works picture's orientation.

The circular "holes" where once stood the two gas holders will help our readers' geographical orientation - or even help them know where they are! Further help comes from Open Street Map.

Gas holder imprint is middle left! The road alongside the depot is Warren Road.

Leigh Primary School stands sentinel to one of the Metro Cammell entrance gates as was!

For a while he company was known as Metro Cammell Weyman and was also a manufacturer of buses ...

... notably the MCW Metrobus.

Washwood Heath was also a major supplier of trains for London Underground.

The company built the Blue Pullmans ...

... a whole heap of Networkers ...

... and the Adelantes

These are now with Grand Central.

But Metro also once made much humbler train vehicles as here ...

... with the Presflo cement and salt wagons.

The last trains completed before the site closed in 2005 were the Pendolinos (Pendolini?) for the West Coast main line.

Way back in 1989 the business had been sold to GEC Alsthom before it lost its "h" to become plain Alstom.

It is also worth noting that Metro Cammell exported trains to other far flung parts of the globe as here for the Hong Kong Metro.

As a somewhat smaller project the two original MAGLEV cars for Birmingham Airport were built by MetCam just along the road.

Clearly the closure of Metro Cammell was a huge blow to Birmingham's economy - nay, the nation's economy - but is the same thing happening all over again?

More tomorrow.

What's Going On?

Readers may wonder what is happening to fbb's blog schedule. The "promise" a few days back was or a "two-parter" which has become a "four-parter". Why?

On Sunday 8th the gruesome twosome of fbb and Mrs are setting off on a short Daish's coach holiday. Destination is Llandudno. Return is on Thursday 12th.

The blurb for the Somerset Hotel (odd name for a gaff in North Wales??) offers Wifi in communal rooms only.

This sounds both ominous and inconvenient.

fbb is thus restructuring his blogging muse to ensure that something is prepared in advance for blogs Monday 9th to Friday 13th incl. It also means that this weeks posts have been re-diddled to add extra pre-blogging preparation time.

Quite a challenge for the old bloke!

 Next Anxious and Hopeful blog : Friday 6th Sept 

Saturday Variety

  F  Is For Ferry!

Pictures of Sydney Harbour will often include the well known ferries painted green and cream. They offer an extensive network of 10 routes ...

... all under the auspices of the New Soith Wales Transport Authority and thus appropriately branded.

They all operate out of Circular Quay ...

... meaning that interchange between ferry routes is very straightforward.

Services extend westbound along the Pramatta river ...

... although F3 only gets to the very end once an hour!

As we have come to expect there are full PDF timetables for every route as here for that to Manley running every 15 min seven days a week!

There are train ...

... and Light Rail connections at Circular Quay ...

The Metro is not too far away on Martin Place ...

... and there are buses nearby.

fbb thinks it is called "integrated transport"!

Maybe we should try out the idea in the UK?

Coming on Monday ...

Mr Hand Is Banned

Way back, fbb got some stick for expressing concern about the operations of City Fox in Bristol.

Then came Fox Star in Newport South Wales ...

... with buses branded as "The One".

These operations failed in various catastrophic ways. Their young entrepreneur ...

... has most recently been MD of the Transpora Group with various operations in various locations.

Things have not gone well.

The result has been a disqualification of holding an operators licence.

The background to this ban is well recorded in the public domain and fbb will leave his readers to come to their own conclusions.

One thing is certain; these failed activities do not bring any credit to the bus industry.

Gorgeous Glider Goodies from Gilmoss?
Steve Rotheram, franchise King and Mega Mayor of Merseyside ...

... has revealed the future of bus travel in the area.

He has borrowed, hired, bought (unlikely the latter!) a shiny blue Glider from Belfast and painted it yellow. Without much involvement of bus professionals he has announced that this "may" be the shape of future bus travel in Merseyside.

The above report goes on ...

Originally lined up for new routes to the Wirral Waters development in Birkenhead, young Steve is commiting the authority to run them to Liverpool's two football stadia and to the John Lennon Airport. (Who was he?)

Not everyone is over the moon with the trendy looking vehicles in Belfast.

I would like to share my experience of using the Translink G1 Glider from Glengoland West Belfast to Wellington Place City Centre.

I arrived at the bus stop to get the glider at 8.20am (March 21). The glider that arrived a few minutes later was full, with the doors opening and people literally falling out the door. There was no room for me to enter. I decided to wait for the next Glider as I had already bought my ticket. I waited 30 minutes, but at 8.50 the next Glider was cancelled.

At this stage there was a large build-up of people waiting with me. Another 20 minutes later, at 9.10am, a Glider arrived and again the doors opened with the bus at full capacity. When the doors opened there was physically no room to step on to the bus.

With no choice as we all had to get to work, we physically pushed our way on to the bus as people shouted 'There’s no room!' When we got to the next stop it was the same

Whether the fault is of the buses, the timetable or management is unclear, but there has been a stream of problems with this much vaunted bus system. Does Steve know?

Gilmoss, by the way, is a Liverpool bus depot and is here used for alliterative and literary reasons. It is not yet decided which bus company will operate these buses IF they ever materialise.

Snippets

Old Street, New Phone, High Price

So that's why TfL renamed Old Street underground station and confused tens of thousands of passengers. They did very well out of the mobile phone company that was presenting its over priced and over-spec product.

If the advertiser can afford to spend nearly half a million quid on oromoting their expensive new phone, they are charging too much for it!

Fares Freeze Failed?

Apparently this offer, which we all though was to increase passenger numbers after Covid, was actually aimed at modal shift. It was supposed to get Scots commuters out of their cars and on to the trains.

Just a little thought for the Scottish Transport Minister. To achieve modal shift is often a slow slow process and needs much more that a small fares reduction. It needs cheap comfortable park and ride sites, free parking at stations and a good network of buses for onward travel from station to workplace.

£40 million is just a drop in a very big bucket and the "experiment" had hardly had any time to have a meaningful effect.

The cancellation couldn't be because the Scottish Government finances are in a big mess and there is is desperate to save money? Or could it?

Surely travellers have not been misled by politicians?; That would never happen!

Remember This?

A while back, fbb bought an old Hornby Travelling Post Office coach. It was an awful model, largely because it was arrayed in all red plastic.

The only relief from its unrealistic rubicund regalia was the transfers and the black plastic "net" of the working mailbag flinger and catcher.

fbb painted the roof grey, the ends black ....

... and reduced the blackness of the net by a replication the red panelling underneath.

Door furniture was picked out in black and a suggestion was added of the lights which would have been turned on to show that mail was to be dropped or uplifted. 

Total cost including the paint, £22.

fbb could buy a much better model from Bachmann.

In a slightly different older livery this has just been re-released at a whopping £73

Some retailers are discounting this price as above.

Is the difference worth it?

More bits and pieces tomorrow including "Brotherliness gone for a Burton".

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 25th Aug