Visit our other sites:   

Search the site

  

Grab my RSS feed | (What's this?)

About this Blog

Journal Blog Central is the home for the North-East's best bloggers, writing on everything from newsroom life to ethical living, cookery, TV reviews and birdwatching.

Recent comments

Recent Posts

Sponsored links

Blog Authors

Graeme WhitfieldThe Journal's Graeme Whitfield takes you behind the headlines in his newsroom blog »
Anna HeywoodEnvironment campaigner Anna Heywood writes on ethical living »
Malcolm ClarkeMalcolm Clarke on life as a professional pool player »
Brenda BoydBrenda Boyd - the life and times of a morris dancer »
David BrennanDavid Brennan from the website Enjoying Photography writes about how to take good photos »
Write Said FredWrite Said Fred - view from the pram with six-month-old Fred Telfer »
Rebecca YoungRebecca Young finds fashion on a budget »
John MackayLocal GP John Mackay writes about the NHS »
Mark RobertsonMark Robertson of the Northumber-
land Cheese Comapny on artisan food »
Tom DoddsTom Dodds on transport matters »

Archives

More Blog Links

Sponsored links

Tom Dodds


Tom Dodds

Splitting headaches?

Posted by Tom Dodds on October 31, 2008 2:52 PM

I'm not the first, and I'm sure I won't be the last observer of transport matters to be perplexed and bemused by the mysteries of UK railway ticketing.

Today, Jill and Julia are travelling home to Prudhoe from Jill's parents, just to the south of Sheffield. In the past, I've managed to get train tickets for around £30. When I went on-line to buy tickets a few weeks ago, the best price I could get was £64.50.

So instead I looked at splitting the journey into sections. Jill doesn't mind changing at Doncaster, so first I managed to get Doncaster to Newcastle tickets from National Express East Coast's own web site for just £33.35 - and their First Class ticket was just coppers more than Standard! Jill will buy on-train tickets for the Northern Rail services between Kiveton Bridge and Doncaster, and Newcastle and Prudhoe, bringing the total cost of the journey to £45.35, almost twenty quid cheaper - and with a fair chunk of First Class travel, too!

And while we're busy tightening our belts, here's a good way of saving money on refreshments for the journey. The Bite discount card gives a 20 per cent discount on purchases from selected food and drink retailers at many of the country's railway stations. You can easily save a couple of quid every time you buy a coffee and sandwich...


Tom Dodds

Water, water, everywhere?

Posted by Tom Dodds on September 17, 2008 11:25 AM

While parts of the North East are still drying out, I was wondering if anyone has given any thought to the export potential of this most prolific natural resource?

While we've been trying to get rid of our surplus rainwater by allowing it to run off into our rivers and the North Sea, other parts of Europe have been facing near-drought conditions. Barcelona, in particular, is having a tough time.

There's a water pipeline that connects Kielder to the Tees, via the Tyne and the Wear. The pipe was built to take the stuff to the steel and chemical industries on Teesside. It can't be that difficult to put the water into tanker ships and send it off to the parched Spanish mainland and islands.

Now you may think that desalination of seawater might be more efficient, but apparently not. There simply aren't enough hours of sunshine in Spain to power a plant of the size needed. Shipping is an affordable way to carry drinking water around, and to, the Med. So, as we've got more of the wet stuff than we can ever use, perhaps we could see it making a valuable contribution to the region's exports in the not too distant future.


Tom Dodds

It's so bracing!

Posted by Tom Dodds on September 12, 2008 12:17 PM

It's so bracing!

It must have seemed like such a good idea at the time. East Midland Trains, under pressure to provide extra seats between Nottingham and Skegness on summer Saturdays so that Midlands holidaymakers could reach the nearby Butlins holiday centre without using cars, took the innovative step of hiring in two locomotives and five carriages from West Coast Railways, better known for running enthusiasts specials.

Continue reading "It's so bracing!" »


Tom Dodds

Flying Jackets

Posted by Tom Dodds on August 29, 2008 12:45 PM

On holiday in Italy a couple of weeks ago, Jill I treated ourselves to new leather jackets. We took the retailer up on their offer of delivering them to our hotel, to save lugging them around Florence for the day.

The jackets didn't turn up.

I left contact details with the tour rep, explaining that we would be back home by 1530 BST on the Sunday. At exactly 1530, the retailer rang, full of apologies. The jackets turned up via DHL the following Tuesday. Now, presuming that they couldn't be dispatched from Florence on a Sunday, that means they were probably sent first thing Monday - so that's not bad going!

Mostly it's "when things go wrong" that the transport industry makes the headlines. But it's pleasing to note that, more often than not, as our goods and people wing their way around the globe at various speeds, things usually go according to plan.

On a separate note, just in case you're not aware, there is an email scam doing the rounds. Emails claiming to be from a courier unable to deliver a parcel should be deleted unopened - they contain a trojan in an attachment that's harvesting computer details....


Tom Dodds

A quiet revolution

Posted by Tom Dodds on August 18, 2008 10:48 AM

The transport industry tends to just quietly get on with things. Yet while it's getting on with the task of moving people and goods around the world, there could be a revolution going on.

The signs are that we could be seeing a considerable amount of what's known as Modal Shift.

Flying back from our holiday, other than the three of us in our seats, each adjacent row had only two seats taken. It looks as if the credit crunch has really impacted on tourism this year, with more people opting to holiday at home and forgoing the annual flight to the sun.

Continue reading "A quiet revolution" »


Tom Dodds

Restores your faith in human nature...

Posted by Tom Dodds on August 13, 2008 10:20 AM

I was having a really good morning. Up in good time, so out of the house at a leisurely pace. Onto the bike, posted a letter for Jill, then started descending the hill from Prudhoe. No traffic, whizzed round the roundabout, down to the station. Level crossing barriers up, nothing coming towards me on the single-file bridge over the river. Looked down - I was doing 24mph as I rattled over the bridge (speed limit - 10mph!). Up the short incline, left, and following the river west.

Got to my 'half way tree' (six miles) and only 26 minutes gone. Climbed past Styford onto the old A69, and flew down the hill into Corbridge. No oncoming traffic at The Angel, straight across the junction, and stopped at The Corbridge Sandwich Shop in the square - only to find that I hadn't fastened shut my pannier, it was open, and my wallet wasn't inside.

Had a missed call on my mobile from a number I didn't recognise, so rang it. It was a railwayman. My wallet had been found by the signalbox in Prudhoe, and had been handed in.

Managed to set up a line of credit with the sarnie shop (!).

Got to the office and have had another call, this time from the signaller at Prudhoe, to let me know she has my wallet.

So, my thanks to the person who spotted my wallet, to the railway staff for it's safe keeping, and to the Corbridge Sandwich Shop for letting me pay for today's lunch tomorrow.


Tom Dodds

Spend, Spend, Spend

Posted by Tom Dodds on July 29, 2008 10:48 AM

Politicians love making announcements. And who can blame them? After all, if people don't know what you're up to, how can they know what a good job you're doing?

And there's nothing better than transport infrastructure schemes to bring out our MPs to make announcements. After all, these usually involve big dollops of money, and what better way to measure a politician's success than by looking at how much he or she has managed to secure for his or her department?

Take, for example, last week's announcement (or was it a non-announcement?) that the Tyne and Wear Metro will get about £300 million for improvement work quite soon, and a similar amount by 2018 for replacement trains. Didn't that cheer us all up!

But did the government have any choice?

Continue reading "Spend, Spend, Spend" »


Tom Dodds

Taxi!

Posted by Tom Dodds on July 24, 2008 10:45 AM

I know that taxi rides in the South East and Thames Valley are expensive, so no surprise there.

We were down in Reading for a silver wedding anniversary celebration. Having driven (three of us from Prudhoe, and collecting the in-laws from Sheffield, and a niece later, so there were up to six of us in the Zafira), we had decided to use a taxi from the hotel to the party. The cab (a Transit-type minibus) that turned up to collect five of us was on time, but as we turned onto the M4 I realised that its clutch was slipping. However, the driver managed to coax it along, and all was well. Our return journey, for six people, wasn't.

Continue reading "Taxi!" »


Tom Dodds

Generation next?

Posted by Tom Dodds on July 18, 2008 12:41 PM

The transport industry, already reeling from increasing fuel prices, faces a further crisis - there's a tremendous shortage of qualified staff looming on the horizon.

Let's start with shipping. Despite the credit crunch, there's still a boom in shipbuilding, with analysts reckoning there'll be something like 10,000 new ships launched in the next few years - and they'll need somewhere in the region of 400,000 new crew members to operate them.

Continue reading "Generation next?" »


Tom Dodds

Two wheels good...

Posted by Tom Dodds on July 15, 2008 10:30 AM

There was a poll running on a website recently. It asked if, in response to the soaring cost of fuel, people were being forced to leave the car at home and walk or use public transport instead.

I didn't vote, because the poll overlooked another mode of transport - cycling.

Continue reading "Two wheels good..." »


Tom Dodds

Fare's fair

Posted by Tom Dodds on July 11, 2008 11:40 AM

I usually use www.thetrainline.com to buy my train tickets, despite the fact that they charge a pound for postage and 50p for paying by plastic - it's still more convenient than popping into a station and, for main line travel, you get a reserved seat. But beware - these systems don't always give you the cheapest options.

Continue reading "Fare's fair" »


Tom Dodds

Still waiting...

Posted by Tom Dodds on July 10, 2008 11:10 AM

I had really, really wanted my first blog entry to start on a positive note.

However, the local media this morning is rather preoccupied with the news that roads minister Tom Harris has told the Commons that the A1 through Northumberland does not meet the government's criteria for upgrading.

And on a similar theme, over lunch with friends last Saturday I was reminded that Northumberland is the only county in England not to have a single mile of motorway somewhere. And the only three-lane motorway in our area is the two-mile stretch from Chester le Street past Washington services.

Continue reading "Still waiting..." »

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Journal Blog Central by Tom Dodds. They are listed from newest to oldest.