Ertblog

High speed ahead for HS2

The government has given the go ahead to a new high speed rail line from London to Birmingham: HS2.

It's a hugely symbolic act. It marks a new era for the country's railways. At last, Britain won't be the poor relation to its continental cousins, who have been building high speed lines for the past 30 years. We'll have our first new domestic intercity railway since 1899, the year Great Central trains started running from the north to London Marylebone.

But HS2 has been hugely controversial, especially in the Chilterns. As I blogged when Labour announced the original HS2 plan, our own village, Chalfont St Giles, is on the route. As you'd expect, few people here are in favour of a railway that won't benefit us (there won't be any local stations) but whose construction will blight the area for many years. The anti HS2 campaign has been witty and well organised - with posters on the road to Chequers asking prime minister David Cameron if he's on the right track. Local MP Cheryl Gillan has supposedly threatened to resign as Wales Secretary if the government gave the green light. We'll see if she's still in the Cabinet at the end of the week...

I share the many of the misgivings of the protesters. I find it hard to justify the massive price when public spending is a being slashed to cut the deficit. (It seems a strange priority to splash out on an expensive rail line when youth clubs for deprived inner city teenagers are being closed.) If we're going to invest in rail, wouldn't it be better to improve existing rail lines?

But that kind of make do and mend approach isn't good enough. Britain's intercity rail network was born just before Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837. It was the wonder of the world. Nearly two centuries later, the world wonders why Britain is so reluctant to build a new railway. HS2 opponents say we should just modernise the west coast mainline. That line was created from a series of 19th century railways. It has been 'modernised' twice in the last fifty years. It's still in essence a Victorian railway. Its London terminus, Euston, is a soulless place. I pity anyone who has any time to kill there. The same is true at Reading, Cardiff Central, Bristol Parkway and countless stations across the country.

So HS2 is the right thing to do. It will transform the experience of train travel in Britain. Our village will suffer during the long construction years, but I'll be able to show Owen the building of our first new domestic railway since his great grandmother was a child in the 1890s. (I never thought I'd have the chance to emulate SWA Newton, who photographed the birth of the Great Central in Buckinghamshire and beyond.)

PS: Other mainlines were build in Britain after the Great Central, notably the Great Western's 'cut-off' lines before the Great War, but none was a complete inter city line.

Thank you, Virgin Trains

People are quick enough to complain about Britain's railways. (And I've been known to grumble...) But I've enjoyed outstanding service from Virgin Trains today.

I inadvertently got on the wrong train at London Euston this lunchtime. I was booked on the 1300 to Manchester but boarded the 1307 to Liverpool at the next platform. Luckily I realised my mistake as the Manchester train was leaving and got off quickly.

My ticket was non transferrable, but the female ticket inspector at the gate was brilliant. She said the next Manchester train was just 20 minutes later, and marked my ticket so I could travel on it at no extra cost.

It's the kind of kindness and flexibility that makes all the difference to a company's reputation.

I quickly tweeted (from @robskinner) to say thank you to @virgintrains, and got an almost instant response, inviting me to email Virgin Trains so they could pass on my thanks to the member of staff. I was delighted to do this.

It's the second time in a week that I've praised a rail company. Chiltern Railways responded to a tweet offering me help after I got on the wrong train last week. It's good to see our rail companies using social media so well. It will be a talking point at tonight's Some Comms social media awards in Manchester.

And I'll be more careful about which train I board in future!

A King is (re)born: GWR King Edward II's coronation at Didcot

Great Western superpower: A King and Castle at Didcot

Today was a very special day. One of Britain's most magnificent steam locomotives was reborn almost 50 years after ending its working days in my hometown, Cardiff. The Great Western Railway's King Edward II was 'crowned' at Didcot Railway Centre, home of the Great Western Society. 

It was an emotional moment for me. As a teenager, I loved climbing over the engine at Barry scrapyard in South Wales. I made straight for 6023 on my many visits to Barry. Yet I could hardly imagine that anyone would be foolhardy enough to think that King Edward II could ever steam again. But the Great Western Society and Dennis Howells were determined to restore him to the rails. And 6023 was a lucky engine. Fate delivered it and 'father' engine King Edward I to Barry scrapyard rather than the smelters' yard. 

The Kings were the GWR's premier express engines. For most of their life they ran expresses between London and Plymouth. Several were moved to Cardiff Canton at the start of the 1960s to run expresses between the Welsh and English capitals. But the diesels were taking over, and Canton was graced by Great Western royalty for just a couple of years. King Edward II was destined to spend the next two decades in exile at Woodham's scrapyard at Barry Island - just 10 miles from Canton. 

The Barry years

A few acres of ground beside the sea in Wales proved hallowed territory. Dai Woodham's decision not to cut up the hundreds of rusting steam engines in his scrapyard gave preservation societies the chance to save them for posterity. Two Kings were amongst their number: 6024 King Edward I and 6023 King Edward II. The photo above shows 6023 in Barry in 1979. You can see that the team restoring his 'father' engine (King Edward I) have used the tender as an advert for their own efforts. 

Above: March 30 1982. Here. you can see the ruined rear driving wheels, which made restoring this King such a challenging project. This was the result of a shunting accident in the 1960s at Barry. Didcot have put the old wheels on display (below, with Owen and Karen). We were told today that 6023's three pairs of driving wheels were made by three different owners: GWS; GWR and BR.  

A King reborn

Didcot put on a magnificent show today to mark 6023's rebirth. Karen bagged us a prime spot in front of the turntable, where the coronation took place. Steve Davies, head of the National Railway Museum, paid tribute to everyone who made this emotional event possible - especially Dennis Howells, the project leader. It has taken over 20 years since the GWS took on mission impossible, but today made it all worthwhile. The photos below show the ceremony. We love the fact that GWS chose the very unusual early British Railways blue for 6023's rebirth. It suits the King and makes a change from the more common GWR and BR liveries. Didcot will host an even more royal occasion on Easter Saturday, with 'father and son' kings Edward I and Edward II in steam - the first time two Great Western Kings have worked together since the year the Beatles had their first hit, 1962.

 

 

Finally, two year old Owen had a brilliant day. He loved seeing the King, Oliver (4866 0-4-2) and Duck (0-6-0PT). 

Above: Owen and me on the footplate of 4866, the locomotive that launched the Great Western Society 50 years ago. The GWS has done a magnificent job restoring and conserving the Great Western, Britain's longest lasting and best loved railway.

PS: Visit the new Ertblog on Wordpress at robskinner.net!

Twyford, Finmere and Calvert face high speed rail challenge - again

Above: the Great Central main line being built, 1890s. Photo: SWA Newton

BBC Radio 5 Live's Drive programme tonight featured protests against the proposed high speed rail line HS2 by villagers in Finmere, Calvert and Twyford in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.  

The people interviewed explained how the rail link would spoil their villages and the countryside around them without bringing them any benefits - other than the chance to watch a train tearing through at high speed. 

The comments echoed those of friends and neighbours in Chalfont St Giles, which is also on the route. (See my earlier post on HS2 and Chalfont St Giles.) But I was intrigued because Finmere, Calvert and Twyford lost an earlier battle against a new main line. In the 1890s, the Great Central Railway's London extension cut through this part of the world. It was the vision of Sir Edward Watkin, who dreamt of a mainline from the north of England to the continent via a channel tunnel. Its modest London terminus at Marylebone is one of the few remaining monuments to Watkin's dream - or folly. Most of this magnificent line was closed in 1966.

Now the peaceful countryside that once echoed to Great Central expresses faces another rail invasion. Unlike the Great Central, HS2 will have no local stations or trains. But Watkin would have approved this bold project, regarding protest as a mere inconvenience. It will be interesting to see if the 21st century protesters are more successful than their Victorian predecessors. 

PS: the Great Central's construction created far more destruction in Leicester and Nottingham than in the villages on its route. In the words of LTC Rolt, it 'cut ruthlessly through the heart of the old city' of Nottingham. Photographer SWA Newton recorded the birth of the line in a series of extraordinary photos, including this graphic image of Nottingham, below. 

 

 

Remembering South Glamorgan - the locomotive and the county

Owen and I love trains. He was thrilled when I dug out my 1970s and 1980s model engines from their hiding place in the loft last month. Every weekend, I put together a short length of track so he can enjoy seeing them run. I quite like it too...

Today, on a visit to London, I spent a happy quarter hour admiring more modern model locomotives in ModelZone in Holborn. I was just browsing, but suddenly I spotted a fine Hornby OO gauge version of 56 032 Sir De Morgannwg/County of South Glamorgan. This was a powerful class 56 engine built for heavy freight work. Minutes later, I was heading for my next meeting having bought the engine, despite having nowhere to run it other than our weekend track.

It was an impulse buy, but there was a reason for it. My father Bob Skinner was public relations manager for the county of South Glamorgan from the authority's birth in 1974 until 1982, when he retired. He must have been delighted to have seen the county's name immortalised on an impressive railway engine. I can't wait to show him the model when we stay with Mum and Dad in Penarth this weekend. (Owen will be thrilled too!)

The class 56 engines played an important role in the South Wales economy, double-heading Britain's heaviest trains from Port Talbot docks to Llanwern steelworks in the 1980s. Dad's friend, Western Mail editor Duncan Gardiner, officially named one of 56 032's sister engines after Wales's national morning paper at Cardiff Central in 1981. Bizarrely, the first 30 engines in the class (but not 56 032) were built in Ceaușescu's Romania as Brush at Loughborough didn't have capacity to build them. That proved a disastrous mistake. 

Ironically, 56 032 outlived the county whose name it carried. In 1996, South Glamorgan was abolished and Cardiff became master of its own destiny again. But Owen and I will enjoy the engine - and when he's older I'll explain its link with his grandfather. Meanwhile, here a YouTube clip of the engine going through Cardiff Central in 1996. 

Real trains at Marylebone

Once upon a time, Britain had real trains. Shiny locomotives hauled elegant rakes of coaches. But then our railways discovered so-called multiple-units: powered coaches. Efficient but soulless. 

So I was delighted to find a real train at Marylebone tonight: a train of British Rail blue and grey coaches from the 1970s. Sadly, the sight reflected the demise of Chiltern's sister company, Wrexham & Shropshire, whose train this was. (See my wistful post about Wrexham & Shropshire's last day.) But it was good to see a reminder of the days when a train was a train. 

PS: the 'pushing engine' carried the livery of another departed rail company, English Welsh & Scottish Railway.

Farewell, Wrexham & Shropshire trains

Above: Wrexham & Shropshire staff pose for last-day photos at London Marylebone station

Today was a sad day. A rail company that was loved by its passengers closed, ending the short lived revival of train services from Wrexham to London. Wrexham & Shropshire achieved the best rail customer satisfaction ratings in Britain. But not enough people used the service to make it pay. 

We enjoyed seeing the Wrexham trains race through our local station in the days when Karen and I commuted to London. It was a nostalgic reminder of the days when expresses were hauled by locomotives (Wrexham & Shropshre used class 67 freight engines and sleek British Rail Mark 3 coaches, many still in 1970s blue & grey livery). I hoped to take Owen on the Wrexham train when he was a little older, but we won't get the chance now. 

We were always concerned that the coaches looked empty. Just a year after the service started, W&S ran a successful campaign against Virgin Trains, which threatened to launch a rival service, as I blogged in May 2009. W&S survived that threat, but the writing was on the wall. The Guardian's John Vidal reported that same month that the service was wonderful but slow. W&S was forbidden from calling at busy stations en route but had to crawl through them. But he waxed lyrically about the North Walian train crew and the lamb shank, veg and wine.

By chance, I was in London today and witnessed the sad scenes as W&S staff posed for photographers at Marylebone. I hope they find new jobs, as they will be a huge asset for any organisation that cares about its customers. As I write this, the very last train is on its way north to Wrexham. 

Here are some scenes from Wrexham & Shropshire's last day, including a mug they gave me at Marylebone!

 

 

 

In praise of our favourite train driver - and Chiltern Railways' use of social media

Have you got a favourite train driver? We have. And thanks to the wonder of Twitter, I now know his name, and discovered that he has dedicated countless hours to visiting schools to teach children about the dangers of playing on the railway.  

Dave Newell is a train driver on Chiltern Railways. He became our favourite train driver on a Friday night over five years ago. Karen and I both commuted to London at the time, and were travelling home together after a night out in town. A group of drunken youths were behaving badly, and we were very impressed and reassured by the firm and effective way Mr Newell challenged them. Yesterday, I was delighted to recognise his voice on the tannoy as I travelled home. He was giving friendly advice to take care on icy platforms. I chatted to him when I got off at Beaconsfield. He greeted me with his characteristic smile and asked if the heating was working inside the train (it was) as he had no heating in the cab.

 

I tweeted about my favourite train driver yesterday, and Chiltern Railways (@chilternrailway) responded. As a result of our Twitter conversation, we confirmed the identity of the driver. Even better, I learned that Dave won Rail Safety Person of the Year award at the prestigious Rail Staff Awards in October. The prize was presented by Pete Waterman and Pino De Rosa.  Tom O’Connor, Rail Media Group, which organises the awards, said: ‘This is a highly deserved award for a person who saves lives and whose influence has directly made the railways a safer place. We should all thank people like Dave Newell." We certainly should, especially when Dave and his colleagues are doing all they can to keep the trains running in arctic conditions.

Chiltern Railways deserves credit for the way it has embraced social media. It responded very quickly to my tweet, and was keen to highlight Dave Newell's recognition. It is active on Twitter and Facebook. It clearly appreciates the benefits of keeping its customers and the community informed about its work. 

 

Norton Fitzwarren: lightning can strike twice

Some places evoke memories of tragedy. We remember Hungerford for the 1987 massacre, and Aberfan for the 1966 disaster. 

On Britain's railways, the small village of Norton Fitzwarren near Taunton has similar associations. The Great Western Railway's mainline to the west runs through the village. The GWR had the proudest safety record in Britain, and went 50 years from 1890 to 1940 without a serious accident - an extraordinary achievement, reflecting the GWR's tireless efforts to prevent accidents. Yet the two disasters bracketing that period both happened at Norton Fitzwarren. 

The 1940 Norton Fitzwarren disaster struck 70 years ago today, during the darkest days of the war. It's hard to imagine a set of circumstances more likely to cause a disaster than those of 3 November 1940. The night was wet and windy. Train driver Percy Stacey had recently been bombed out of his home in London as the capital endured continual night bombing. Driver Stacey and fireman Seabridge took over express locomotive King George VI at 8.25pm on that wet and windy wartime night, to work the 9.50pm express from Paddington to Penzance. They were due to work it as far as Plymouth.

The train was already running over an hour late when it arrived at Taunton at 3.30am, as a result of an air raid on Bristol, which held the train in the city for more than an hour. We can barely imagine the impact this would have had on driver Stacey, who had lost his home in an air raid in London just days earlier. But he pressed on.

The stage was set for tragedy. Stacey would have expected his train to have a clear run on the main line. But because of the delays, the signalman at Taunton decided to let a newspaper train run non stop on the main line, leaving Stacey's train to continue on the relief line, which ended at Norton Fitzwarren. Stacey mistook the green lights of the main line signals for those applying to his train. As Stacey's train approached the end of the relief line, the newspaper train overtook it on the main line. Disaster was inevitable. 

At 3.48am on that dark November morning, the 89 ton King Edward VI jumped over a ditch and fell on its side. The overtaking newspaper train was showered with ballast thrown up by the crashing train. Tragically, fireman Seabridge and 26 passengers were killed. 

Driver Stacey escaped from the wreckage and struggled through the icy waters of the neighbouring flooded field to raise the alarm. Can you imagine how he must have felt? He would have been desperately tired, cold and wet. He'd have wondered whether his family was safe after another night's bombing. But more immediately, he'd have been shocked to the core by the fact his train had been wrecked, leaving him wondering what he had done. 

The irony of the disaster was that the GRW's pioneering safety measures should have prevented it. Over 30 years earlier, the company had invented 'automatic train control' (ATC), which automatically applied the brakes if a driver missed a 'distant' warning signal. The driver retained the ability to dismiss the ATC warning and the resulting brake application. At Norton Fitzwarren, driver Stacey did just that, which meant the ATC could not prevent tragedy. 

Norton Fitzwarren 1940 was a rare blot on the GWR's safety copybook in extraordinary circumstances. For 50 years, countless reports on railway disasters urged companies to follow the GWR's example and adopt ATC. It took the 1952 Harrow and Wealdstone catastrophe in which 112 people died before British Railways adopted a national ATC system, called AWS. But the GWR system survived until the early 1980s on parts of the old railway's network. The Great Western wasn't perfect, but its commitment to safety remains one of its greatest, proudest legacies. 

You can read the official Ministry of Transport inquiry report into the 1940 disaster by Lieutenant Colonel Mount here. I also recommend AR Kingdom's excellent account in The Railway Accident at Norton Fitzwarren, 1940, by ARK Publications (ISBN 1 873029 10 1).

 

Buckinghamshire Advertiser: a failure of local journalism

Britain's regional newspapers are in crisis. Sales and advertising are falling, and titles closing. 

Perhaps inevitably, standards of journalism are falling. Nick Davies described some of the reasons for this in his book Flat Earth News. Journalists have little time to find, check and write stories. So I shouldn't be surprised by two serious errors in successive weeks on the front page of our local Buckinghamshire Advertiser. 

The most serious was a story in last week's paper suggesting that Beaconsfield was set to be the centre of a cake war between Gordon Ramsey's former pastry chef and and Raymond Blanc. Today's paper revealed that almost every detail in the story was wrong.

This week's howler appeared in the front page lead story about the proposed high speed rail line from London to Birmingham through the Chilterns. The story warned that ... "many homes would have to be bulldozed to complete the track by 2017..."

The swiftest glance at the proposals would have shown that 2017 was the earliest work could start on the line, not the completion date. In reality, it could be even later - or never, if Labour loses the election. 

There's little point in having local papers if they're as incompetent as the Buckinghamshire Advertiser.