Tag: railway

January 31st – The grim weather continues. Having slipped out for a customer meeting in the afternoon, I came back from Birmingham in the early evening to find the train going to Shenstone full: rather than wait in New Street, I caught the Four Oaks one instead. This meant an extra couple of miles to ride home and a serious hill on the way, but I just wanted to be back there.

In steady rain, I alighted at the station, and stopped to take a picture from the over bridge.Even in the rain, it’s a beautifully photogenic station at night.

If the drizzle and greyness could finish up soon, that’d be great, thanks…

January 29th – for the first time in some years, I paid a visit to the railway museum at Chasewater, which was as pleasingly eccentric as ever. This free attraction, run by award-winning volunteers is a little gem, and contains much to enthralling and entertain even if you aren’t a railway buff.

Some of the most interesting stuff though, isn’t in the museum but outside it. That’s certainly nearly a case of the cart before the horse, and that odd little railcar.

That panda looks a bit delinquent to me.

January 26th – Over to Telford mid morning to pick something up, and I noted that the 80s footbridge that links Telford Station’s two platforms with the cycleway and town centre is breathing it’s last – but one simple change has made it much nicer already, and it’s quite a shock.

The bridge is due to be replaced for one more user friendly, that’s better for wheelchair users and less circuitous for passengers in a hurry, and will also offer lifts, and construction is just commencing. Trees around the bridge have been removed and the lack of dense cop[pice around the station end has opened it right up, and made the chore of using the thing a whole bunch nicer, with less dark corners.

I’ll be watching the project with interest.

January 23rd – Heading into Birmingham on a dull, misty and early morning, I hit a queue of traffic along Blake Street which was unusual, Rounding the bend, I saw an articulated lorry with the top of it’s trailer crudely torn off – the effect of driving it under the low bridge now behind it.

The vehicle but have been going at a fair speed as the entire of the trailer’s roof was destroyed, and the HGV near clear of the railway over bridge.

There really is no excuse for this, and it’s fortunate nobody was injured. Any driver has to know the height of their rig and where the acceptable routes are. Trying to think of anything to mitigate this guy’s position I came up blank.

Perhaps the bridge should have been wearing more hi-vis…

This king of the road’s idiocy mate for a touch and go, very uncomfortable commute for me and anyone else who was on the Cross City Line. What’s so maddening is this is a fairly regular occurrence here.

How hard is it to read a warning sign?

January 16th – A terrible, awful, wet commuting day. I got wet on may way to work, wet mid day when visiting a customer, and wet on my way back. The bike is so damp, when it catches the light it has it’s own rainbow.

I came back unusually to Blake Street, as the train I was on didn’t serve Shenstone, and it was just to horrid to come from Four Oaks up that hill. I stood at the top of the steps – the ramp is a long way up the platform, and the steps are quicker – and in that moment it struck me how odd they are. Open with no roof, they descend into a passageway under the railway. Painted cream and well lit, it’s like they once had a roof, and it was removed.

I wonder…?

January 9th – Waiting at New Street early in the day it seemed people were not yet about – I saw very few as I loafed idly, waiting for my train. Despite continual work here, little has changed in the last 12 months – the grim 80s exit bridge has had one end tarted up but it remains ugly and badly conceived; likewise the shiny tinfoil covering to the upper floors, covering only the bits that can be seen from outside the station. 

Despite the continual aesthetic tweaks – panelling here, lights there, the odd new bench or seating area – little really changes in this urban, brutalist bunker. It’s a fleeting place, transitory for most. But stand here for any length of time and you’ll realise how little;e has been done to actually improve it.

New Street Station is not new. It’s just now got a retail opportunity on top. The station itself remains as dysfunctional as ever.

December 13th – Returning late again from Birmingham, this time to Shenstone, back to my beloved rural station. The weather was damp, but warm again and the riding was easy, which is just as well as I was exhausted.

This is the busiest pre-Christmas I’ve had in a long, long time: normally about now I’m winding down and getting stuff ready for the new year. This year I’m doing none of that yet.

I’ll be so glad when I finish work.

December 12th – I can’t lie, it was an absolutely foul day for commuting; in the morning the temperature hovered around zero degrees and there was a surprising damp chill to the air. By my return in the evening, the temperature had risen and if felt warm again, but there was a constant foggy, misty drizzle. 

It was bad cycling weather. I’d had to nip into Brum as I often do at this time of year to drop a bottle off. The trains were bad on the way back, so I ended up getting a train to Four Oaks and riding back from there.

Only 7 more working days before a holiday. I think they’re going to be long ones. Hope the weather settles in time for Christmas.

December 5th – I had to go to Telford, and on the way I bought a ticket from the Arriva Trains Wales conductor, as I usually do.

It appears the staff have been issued new ticket machines. Instead of printing a return on two standard, credit-card sized stuff card tickets, I was awarded this scroll: a twenty inch by three inch piece of thermal paper bog roll. This is the new standard for tickets issued on trains.

So, just as Network Rail adopt automatic barriers at stations, train operators start issuing huge, impractical tickets that won’t operate them.

Well done to everyone concerned. I’m really impressed.

Not.

November 24th – I’ve been starting early and working late a lot lately, and the tiredness is showing, so apologies for limited subject matter. Things should improve next week.

I found myself returning from a meeting late with time to kill at New Street, and the air of quiet, almost reverent dislocation that sets in there at about 8pm continues to enthral and captivate me. This station swallows large numbers of people and hides them from each other, so even when quite busy, the station appears deserted in places.

This was really feeding my Late Night Feelings vibe: the forced perspective of platforms, the train waiting for the red light to turn green. The solitary lady, perfectly framed by the identifier for platform 8, her face lit in the gloom by the light of her phone.

And then, 45 weary minutes on, Walsall, desolate and beautiful in the same way.

What is it about me and stations at night?