#365daysofbiking A completed job

Saturday December 12th 2020 – One thing that had been a bit sad about the Christmas tree going up on the miner island in Brownhills was that there seemed to be an electrical fault with the existing, permanently installed lights on the trees around Morris. When the tree was connected, these stayed resolutely off and we assumed there was some terminal flaw.

Thankfully, council electrical wonks attended, and have got the lights working again, for which we are all grateful: Morris now has that Vegas sparkle returned and he is surrounded by festive sparkle.

A job well done, and seen through to completion: Thanks to all involved!

You can find out more about, and donate to the Brownhills Christmas Tree Appeal by clicking here.

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#365daysofbiking A careless display

November 26th – Just lately, local rail travel in the West Midlands operated by West Midlands Railway has been a shambles. Not enough staff, cancelled services, late running. The service this autumn has been atrocious, and little does more to sum up the careless attitude to customer service than the sage of the passenger information board at Blake Street on the Birmingham bound platform.

It’s been out of action now for about 18 months. Possibly longer, and displays an error message with completely the wrong time.

When asked why it has not been fixed, customer service waffle about overhead lines needing to be off to undertake the repairs and other stuff, blaming Network Rail. It doesn’t wash.

It would be relatively trivial to fit a working, temporary display in the safe zone nearby. That the company cannot do this, or make a proper arrangement with Network Rail within 18 months tells us much about the attitude of the operator to its customers, that pretty much they don’t care.

As long as they can blame someone else, who cares that your punters aren’t getting service information?

It might be amusing, but we’re paying for this crap.

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#365daysofbiking An unexpected flash of orange



August 21st – Returning from Birmingham, the train unexpectedly terminated at Tame Bridge due to a line fault or something, maybe the elastic band snapped.

I couldn’t be bothered with the ride home up through Walsall so hopped on the Tame Valley Canal and then home via Rushall Junction, Park Hall and Aldridge.

Passing through a nondescript bit of towpath near the Birmingham Road, a flash of bright, vivid orange caught my eye.

A gorgeous par of feral marigolds, just trying to make me happy.

They succeeded in their aim.

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July 7th – New Street, New… wet feet. 8am on a Monday morning, and water trickles through the ceiling and onto the floor of the new concourse. For a supposedly refurbished building, there aren’t half a lot of faults with the new New Street Station. The seems to be a permanent array of leaks, this one at the top of the escalator to Platform 7. Several others were in evidence.

What’s most worrying is that it hasn’t rained for a couple of days…

I wouldn’t pay ‘em in tap washers.