MIRLI BOOKS
  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
    • BBC
  • Publications
    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
    • The Separate System
  • Peter Maggs
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Family History
    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald

The Railways

4/4/2014

1 Comment

 
Yesterday morning I had a talk on Brunel to do to the Diss U3A. Diss is on the main line from London to Norwich and the inter-city trains are fast and comfortable. Since Brunel was a railway pioneer, it seemed appropriate to take the train. It was a few minutes late, but there was plenty of room, and it really was a pleasure to whistle through the countryside at 100 miles an hour in a comfortable seat without worrying about traffic jams.

Not so the 'other' direction. The 8.09 train to Liverpool Street was cancelled, and I watched from my platform as the other side filled up to an almost dangerous extent. I have heard it said that Chelmsford station is one of the busiest through stations in the country; I have also heard it said that 20% of its population travel to London every day.

Chelmsford station is almost in the middle of the city, and seems to be operating very close to saturation during the rush hour. When it works, it works, but any delay or cancellation during that busy period and the build-up of frustrated commuters can be quite terrifying. And it will get worse. Dwellings are being built around the city centre at an alarming rate, and these are clearly designed for commuters. The extra traffic that the station will have to deal with seems to me to be entirely unsustainable.

What is the solution? There are some improvement works at the station going on on, but since it is virtually surrounded by buildings, there is very little room for expansion. Car-parking is a nightmare with barely ten places available, although there is a multi-storey park close by. The only way out of the conundrum is to put more trains on during rush hour. Currently, the cost of a second class annual season ticket to London is £3,600. It is entirely unreasonable to ask commuters to pay that amount of money, and then subject them to the levels of stress I observed yesterday.

And here's another thought: since the 1820s, railway stations, with the exception of terminuses, have been entirely open to the elements, a practice that is carried on today. Yesterday I stood at Diss station for about 20 minutes waiting for my train. The weather was not too bad, but Diss, whose platforms are the length of an inter-city train, has around 20 feet of roof over the platform on each side, with more than 90% of the platform having absolutely no shelter whatsoever. In the winter, when the north-easterlies are blowing and it's raining, it must be a nightmare waiting for a train. Most stations are the same. We would never dream of asking passengers to wait on rain and wind-swept runways for a 'plane, why do we continue to do it to railway passengers?
1 Comment
CR
7/4/2014 09:41:34 am

:-(

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Welcome to the Mirli Books blog written by Peter Maggs

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Website and Contents © Peter Maggs 2023
  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
    • BBC
  • Publications
    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
    • The Separate System
  • Peter Maggs
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Family History
    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald