Just a reminder to anyone planning to tour Britain, this bank holiday weekend, by rail. Well, the bad news is, you can’t. The good news is that the cricket’s on.
That useless subsidy-addicted creature of government, Network Rail, has decided to shut down large parts of the rail network in order to create road chaos, sorry, in order to carry out essential engineering work. For instance, if you’re a small bear from Peru, with a fondness for marmalade, hoping to stowaway on a Great Western locomotive from Bristol to London, this weekend, don’t do it. Otherwise a whole series of books about you in the future will have to be named ‘The Adventures of Reading Bear’. Paddington station is closed.
If you’re old enough and stupid enough to remember voting for Mr Tony Blair, in 1997, on the back of the glittering promise that he would sort out Britain’s transport system, you’ll by now have realised that we only get what we wish for. For he’s well and truly sorted it, by turning it into a snake-pit! Why doesn’t the fool just hand it over to the Transport Blog, who’ll make a much better fist of it?
I myself shall be attempting to navigate a path, to Victoria, to take a train to Worthing to visit my mother-in-law (Reginald Perrin fans, please note, I am not making this up.) Let’s hope it’s not as warm and humid down in the Tube, this afternoon, as it was this morning on the Bakerloo line, where I literally thought I was going to liquefy. Yes, literally become a puddle of once human flesh.
I shall be imbibing a ridiculously over-sized bucket of iced gin and slim-line tonic, the moment I descend the steps at Worthing station, if I should get there before midnight. My advice to everyone else who can, is stay at home.
For those poor blighters, like me, having to travel: Good luck, everyone!
I can’t really speak to the forces at work; free market, governmental or otherwise, but just in case there’s any comfort in knowing someone’s worse off…
Here in Cincinnati, USA, a city of around 350k people, plus a great deal more in the immediate metro area, approx the 20th largest metro in the US, we have train service as well.
When it’s working properly we have 3 trains each and every week, departing conveniently at just before 3 and 6 am every other morning. You have your choice of final destinations between Chicago and Washington DC. There is one (extremely beautiful admittedly) train station.
Just a little cross-pond perspective for the sake of amusement…
I live some 15miles along the coast from Worthing. and to get out of town in most directions involves crossing the south coast line at a level crossing. Everytime I drive or cycle over the tracks I am well aware that my life is in the hands of network rail and it doesn’t fill me with tremendous confidence I can tell you!
Could someone educate this Yank about bank holidays? I’ve heard of them, and was wondering how they originated and how are they used now?
Are all the stores closed? Do people generally go away? Does the holiday fall on the same day every year or is it dependent on something happening first?
Just curious..
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_holiday
Julian:
Thanks for link. Very informative.
Paddington isn’t entirely closed. You can get as far as Slough, I believe. And that’s a premier destination for a bank holiday weekend, surely…
If you’re old enough and stupid enough to remember voting for Mr Tony Blair, in 1997…
If you were stupid enough to have voted for him, then surely you’d also be self-deceiving enough to remember having voted for someone else?
(Unless, that is, you are convinced that he’s a vicious right-wing protector of capitalism, but better than the Tories, who feed the children of the poor to their slavering foxhounds.)
I like your style