Behind the Scenes at Blackfriars

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This is what I’d look like if I was part of the team constructing the new Blackfriars station, opening 19th May. I’d like to thank Network Rail and First Capital Connect for allowing me the chance to do this. (And to Ham for taking the picture).

The new station has taken three and a half years to complete. The bridge has been made wider, and there are four platforms. There will be new carriages 50% longer than their predecessors. And there will be more services that are more direct.

Barges were used to transport 14,000 tonnes of materials during the build, saving 2000 lorry journeys.

The views from the station are spectacular with the Shard and Tate from one point and St. Paul’s the other…

(the weather can’t be helped).

The interior is light and airy, and there are solar panels covering the roof…

Network Rail’s Apprenticeships

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Network Rail have put up a series of videos aiming to inspire people to take an interest in how they maintain Britain’s railway network. They run an apprenticeship - which could give hope to some young people facing unemployment. The video is also interesting for people who just want to see how Network Rail roll. It’s quite fascinating.

If you are aged over 17 and interested in applying for a place on the scheme, hurry – the closing date is Monday, 30th April: www.facebook.com/ontrack

Paddington and Pigeons

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Even people who love trains are fallible when it comes to getting their timing spot on. Recently (right now, today) I managed to miss the last train which can be boarded with a super off-peak return ticket – bought with a railcard. After this deadline, the fare jumps from £34 to £118.15 (or a whopping £179 without a railcard).  Obviously paying an £84.15 supplement for the privilege of travelling on an empty train – but for those who are crazy/ have mothers who are on their deathbeds/ are just that rich they don’t care anymore – is out of the question. Hanging about in the station it is.

For those wanting to work through the wait, there are a few options. The EAT upstairs is quiet but full of pigeons. Plus, people look at you strangely if you take too many photos.

Henry the pigeon

The Fullers pub plays terrible music and is full of people eating massive burgers with eggs in them (not that the latter would put everyone off).

There are some other chain places downstairs and a Sloe cafe – but there is no escalator to Sloe.

Twitter is good for engaging people with your plight when stuck in these situations. Ian Shortman, creator of trains.im, a revolutionary new site that has used data available under the Government’s Open Data initiative to display highly accurate train timetables, tweeted this to me:

More helpful than First Great Western themselves.

The #changefares proposition I mentioned in an earlier post is still on the table, dear commuters (and people who like to get to places in time for dinner).

The New King’s Cross Station Concourse… And Toilets

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The brand new shiny concourse has opened at King’s Cross Station. King’s Cross might once have been aptly referred to as St. Pancras’ ugly sister. But look at it now…

It has a Benito’s Hat restaurant and everything.

Now, for many people, toilets are very important in places like this. I was hoping that some of the investment into the station would have gone towards fabulous toilets. Perhaps to rival even those at the Bullring in Birmingham. Sadly the new King’s Cross toilets are a more utilitarian affair and they cost 30 pence to use…

However, the powerful flush is admirable.

To make up for the boring station toilets, it is worth heading to the Parcel Shed pub. Feast your eyes on their toilets, they are free to use (in that there are no signs to say otherwise)…

And the view from said toilets…

Nice.

Not only do they serve Butcombe Bitter in the pub, but the whole place is decked out in train-themed design…

It is light (it even has a ‘light pool’), airy and a welcome retreat when waiting for a train. The seats are comfy, the music is good.

Access to the Underground at the station is obvious…

Lastly, it’s worth noting that Harry Potter‘s Platform 9 3/4 has moved in…

Network Rail’s guide to the changes.

The Trans Mongolian and Babushkas

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What is the greatest rail journey in the world? The Ghan, the Orient Express, the Caledonian Sleeper, Copper Canyon? Or the Trans Mongolian?

Kyle Taylor - Flickr Creative Commons

What can compare to heading East to West, crossing the Great Wall of China, the steppes of Mongolia, the snowy wastelands of Siberia before finally rolling into Moscow… The Trans Mongolian is a hell of an experience.

Mongolia: To do the Trans Mongolian and not take the time to look around is criminal. Mongolia is unlike anywhere else on Earth. Horses, steppes, yurts, nomads and endless grasslands. Eating mutton off thigh bones, drinking acrid fermented horse milk, breaking your teeth on cheese as hard as rock.

Night time stops: It’s the middle of the night, you’re fast asleep and the train rolls to a stop, doors open. Formal words in an unrecognised language fill the air, you must be crossing a border. The Chinese border is a trainspotter’s nirvana, with carriages efficiently hoisted onto different gauge wheel-sets. The Russian border is more intimidating.

Anthony Knuppel - Flickr Creative Commons

Families, vodka and tea: Five days on a train is a long time stuck with fellow passengers in a small carriage. Local families board the train stocked full of food and drink for the journey and, if you are lucky, they will take you under their wing for the journey. Expect to consume lots of tea and even more vodka.

The Dining Carriage: After months of smiling South East Asian & Chinese service, the dining carriage is a big Eurasian wake up call. Surly Russian Babushkas deliver customer service in the only way they know how. Pointless menus are thrown onto the table – pointless, because what follows is a bizarre ritual where you, the punter, read out the menu and they, the surly babushka, tell you they don’t have it. Eventually, plates full of anaemic but curiously filling food (must be Northern Europe then) are slapped down in front of you. It’s so bad it’s fun.

Kyle Taylor - Flickr Creative Commons

Cold, desolate, chilling Siberia: Siberia is seriously, seriously cold, the kind of cold that renders your otherwise productive grey matter into a screaming mass of frozen vodka jelly. It wouldn’t be fair to write it off entirely, but I have done.

Moscow, glorious Moscow: There’s nothing quite like arriving after such a long journey. Moscow is a vibrant buzzing city with some massive attractions – the Hermitage, Red Square, Lenin’s mausoleum, St Peter’s Castle… but best are the beer stands. Where other countries have ice cream vans and hot dog vendors, Moscow boasts a beer stand on every corner. What more could you ask for?

Mongolia – amazing, Moscow – superb, the bit in the middle – troublesome but oh, what an adventure.

Ben is the visionary behind adventure travel site Tourdust.com and travels widely researching new treks and tours. He has taken long trips to Ethiopia and Kenya, countries in which his phobia of mardy Russian Babushkas lay safely dormant.

For everything you could ever want to know about the journey and how to book consult the oracle, Man in Seat 61 on the subject.

Fixing Rail Prices With Social Media.

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British trains are too expensive. The government says they want to sort this out with £3.5bn worth of cuts. Great! Sadly this doesn’t mean said government has agreed to foot the bill, but that there will be job cuts, fewer staff on platforms and more fast ticket machines. It would also likely mean peak fares going up, and commuters paying even more than they do now. There has to be a better way. Short of asking all the retired railway-enthusiasts in the country if they want to run the entire network for the fun of it – perhaps it’s time for some interactive social media debate. If one guy can suddenly persuade millions of people they want Joseph Kony arrested (or dead) using celebrities, Mark Zuckerberg, scores of young people and a viral video – until policy makers listen (however intimidating the implications of this are) – perhaps some of these thousands of angry, intelligent commuters, can think of a solution and make their own video…

guys?

The Shiny New Network Rail Picture Archive

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Network Rail have a shiny new website with archived railway images on it. The images are really quite beautiful, from Brunel’s Bristol Temple Meads…

To the roof of Paddington Station…

The archivist, Vicky Stretch, has said there are almost five million records, of which only a small amount are currently online – but that it will grow. And there is an ‘ask the archivist’ section of the site which allows visitors to find out more information about images. The oldest records date back to the 1680s.

Brighton by Train

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Tell someone you’re off to Brighton for a Winter break and they might think you’re mad. It isn’t warm this time of year, so swimming’s out. But one of the lovely things about Brighton, is that the sea always looks magnificent behind the turquoise bollards along the seafront.

And the pubs and restaurants and arcades are still open in the winter. And the locals are still here. Trains from London to Brighton are relatively cheap at £15.50 return, off peak – and £10.25 if you have a rail card. Commuters might hate Southern – But they’re good for everyone else most of the time.

The Food For Friends vegetarian restaurant is excellent – with such delights as a Spiced Cashew, Smoked Tofu, Pear and Grape salad – really quite delicious.

The Mesmeriser pub has live swing band playing and people dancing. The dancers dance there regularly and are very good.

Jo Tomlin, the lovely owner of the Big Bead Boutique on 12 Dyke Road has a lovely shop.

For anyone who can’t read what the necklace says – it says ‘I LIKE TRAINS.’ Pretty cool huh.

Sadly, the Volks Railway, Britain’s oldest public electric railway which opened in 1883 only runs in the warmer months. But will be worth coming back for in the summer.

 

The trip was sponsored by Visit Brighton and new budget seafront hotel Umi. The hotel was ideally located, although there is some noise from a club next door at night and the rooms are large so can get chilly this time of year. The beds were very comfortable indeed. The opera-themed restaurant with live performances was certainly different and we enjoyed dinner by candlelight – even though the food in the restaurant is not excellent quality.

A post by @aladyinlondon on the same trip.

 

 

Valentine’s Day and Trains

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Love has a history on trains – the mention of love in relation to trains may get you thinking in black and white, imagining glamorous 20s era strangers coyly catching each other’s eyes as they travel, or, failing that, Audrey Tautou in a Chanel ad – but today Chiltern Railways are encouraging people to chat each other up on the far more ordinary standard commuter train. Apparently, according to the Warwick Courier article about this, people from the Midlands are the least likely to speak with strangers on a train.

I’d be delighted to hear from anyone who manages to successfully get a date after meeting a stranger on a train today, particularly if you’re from the Midlands – you can tweet me at @sophontrack

 

Charles Dickens, His 200th Birthday, Trains and Death

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Today it is 200 years since the birth of Charles Dickens. While it might be a little morbid, then, to mention events leading up to his death. This story is quite a vivid one:

Five years before his death (to the day) Charles Dickens was on a train home when it approached a place work was being carried out. The workers did not prepare for the train’s arrival properly. It crashed. Ten people died.

There were seven carriages to the train from Folkstone to London, six of which fell from the bridge the train was travelling on at Staplehurst, some into the water below. Dickens was in the seventh carriage – the only one which remained upright.

He helped some of the passengers by bringing them brandy, but discovered on returning to them, that two had died.

‘I stumbled over a lady lying on her back against a little pollard tree, with the blood streaming over her face (which was lead colour) in a number of distinct little streams from the head. I asked her if she could swallow a little brandy, and she just nodded, and I gave her some and left her for somebody else. The next time I passed her, she was dead.’

Dickens had left his manuscript of Our Mutual Friend in his carriage. He went back among the chaos to retrieve it:

‘I instantly remembered that I had the MS of a Novel with me, and clambered back into the carriage for it. But in writing these scanty words of recollection, I feel the shake and am obliged to stop.’ 

In the five years following the incident, before he himself died, he describes suffering from a ‘railway shaking’ and it has been suggested that he may have been suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in those final years.

 

Quotes taken from: www.mytimemachine.co.uk/dickens