Three stories from today

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Three trains and two trains today, one presentation given and numerous new contacts.  A few things I've spotted on my news feeds

the Daily Mail

Woman who fell asleep on long train journey and woke to find a man sitting opposite to 'make sure she was safe' divides opinion on Twitter - as some claim it was weird' while others insist he was being 'decent'

Northern Rail's press office

Families enjoy day out in South Yorkshire on Northern’s sling express

Mums and babies in South Yorkshire enjoyed a day out on Northern services as part of a scheme to encourage young families to feel comfortable on the railway.

Northern teamed up with High Peak and Hope Valley Community Rail Partnership and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) to run the Sling Express from Darnall station in Sheffield to Edale. 

A total of 11 mums and their children were fitted with slings borrowed from the Sheffield Sling Library and Surgery – which offers a collection of hundreds of slings and carriers to try out, allowing parents to borrow a carrier to take home. 

and the Guardian

All domestic plane journeys in Britain should be banned and passengers told to take a train. So says the Campaign for Better Transport in its contribution to the climate emergency debate. Planes emit six times more CO2 per passenger mile than trains. The trouble is that plane tickets tend to be half the price of train ones. So tax planes, and subsidise trains.

And all this lot leaves me asking "Do we have a sling library in Bristol, and if not, why not?"?

[Bob_Blakey]

Reference part of the quote from the Grauniad - '... The trouble is that plane tickets tend to be half the price of train ones...' - it is not all bad news; I will be travelling to Glasgow for Exeter's Champions Cup game against the Warriors on Saturday 18th December and Loganair would like to take a minimum of £215 from me for the privilege of using their direct services between Exeter & Glasgow. And there is no flight on Sunday 19th so that would be another night in a hotel, or go to Edinburgh and fly back to Exeter for £117 (more expensive than from Glasgow) or catch the train which is what I am going to do anyway.

After a bit of mucking about with split ticketing the maximum fare I will pay (XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) haven't released their advances for these dates yet) is £116.35 (£148.95 if you accept the current default online offering) for a return journey from DIG (10 minute walk from home) to GLC^▸ (Glasgow Central) (15 minute walk to hotel). So no taxi (minimum fare £20) or bus (1 change) from home to Exeter Airport and either direct bus or bus/train combination from Glasgow Airport to the city centre.

Obviously I have the advantages of a crinklies railcard & not being time constrained on such journeys, but saving c.£70-100 would probably work for many people when the cost is not being met by an employer.

BTW^▸ (by the way) whatever happened to the proposed Glasgow Airport<>Paisley Gilmour Street rail link? The much talked about Glasgow Metro seems no closer to becoming reality. If they had pulled their fingers out all the COP26 delegates could have used it after disembarking from their private planes!     

[Red Squirrel]

Simon Jenkins' article in the Guardian amused me. Jenkins, as anyone who reads his column will know, is a staunch opponent of HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)). The article grahame quotes from shows Jenkins desperately trying no to fall into the same heffalump trap as the Green Party did recently, where they praised European High Speed rail whilst campaigning against HS2. Instead, Jenkins concludes that the answer is not to travel at all:

Britons should rediscover the virtues of locality and neighbourhood. The way to protect life on Earth is not to fly to Glasgow for the Cop26 summit. It is to stay at home.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Simon Jenkins has jumped the shark.