ITV news: bloggers tour

Great tour of the ITV studios in Camden with a few bloggers, thanks to the 1000heads.com team.

I am sure Miss Geeky will relate all the technical details -she had a bit of a nice camera to take pictures. The other bloggers there were The Brinkster, Ben Locker and AboutMayfair.

We watch the news with Alastair Stewart and Salma being made from the gallery (the room where they mix all the programmes, with the director, the engineers, the autocue girl....).

I'll post my own photo later...

Live blogging from ITV studios later today...

I've been invited by ITV to tour their studios and watch the London Tonight 6 PM news.

I'll be blogging live from the studios later today...

Some news on those level crossings...

I've blogged numerous times on the North Sheen station footbridge, because to my mind it's simply daft that we can't access the station from both sides of the level crossing.

It's also quite dangerous, especially with all those kids crossing itevery day. And not accessible.

And, since you can be stuck for over 12 minutes behind it, it's a traffic hog, especially when it breaks down.

Read all my previous posts on the infamous North Sheen footbridge and level crossing.

Apparently, it's not going to improve: in order to provide Heathrow with better train services (hello world, is this a planning mistake or is it deliberate to try curb car emissions so that planes can continue to pollute for free?) this level crossing (and Mortlake, Barnes...) could be down for up to 45 mn in one hour.

Read on the article: MPs attack Airtrack.

This is a joke, they might as well close it for good and let us gridlocked!

PS: if you did not click on all the links above, do check this one: HEATHROW – ARETIREMENTPLAN by Town and Country Planning.

Does the DoH really think it's going to solve the obesity epidemic by sanitising the language?

Sometimes political correctness drives me over the edge:
Nothing To Do With Arbroath: British government bans the word 'obese' to describe overweight children

Does using euphemism help solving the issue?

At a time when "Obesity 'threatens future of NHS'" (The cost to the NHS is £480m each year - 1.5 per cent of NHS expenditure) and in a country where "UK women are now officially the fattest in Europe", it seems to me that not telling fat people the only solution is eat less and exercice more (since most of obesity causes are self inflicted).

Sure that's quite harsh. But then society is harsher on speeding drivers and smokers, even though Obesity Deadlier Than Smoking (and car accidents).

It maybe extreme, but social pressure helps combatting obesity, just as smoking is no longuer socially accepted even though it was the norm 20 years ago.

Tags: junkfoodnation, obesity, UK, health, richmondtransits.blog

Commuting Humour

Read two amusing posts today:

• Mel on a commuter eating Porridge on The Train. Using china and cutelry. Apparently he boards at North Sheen -the hunt for incriminating pictures is open.
• And the London Underground blog on this sticker: Emergency Margaritas on the Tube

Economic case for Heathrow expansion 'flawed'

An article in the RTT needs little to be added to:
Economic case for Heathrow expansion 'flawed' (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

The Friends of the Earht have commissionned a report to the Stockholm Environment Institute was commissioned: see their press release here.

The report was written by Elizabeth A. Stanton and Frank Ackerman from the Stockholm Environment Institute - US Centre. A link to the full report is here:www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/consumer_surplus.pdf

From the RTT site:

The report found three major flaws in the assessment of these benefits and called for an independent review:

• The passenger demand projections are uncertain - for example they rely on fares falling because the cost of oil per barrel is predicted to fall from an assumed $65 in 2006 to $53 in 2030. Oil is currently around $130 a barrel and experts predict will not fall below this before the end of 2016.

• Foreign passengers changing planes in the UK are counted as a benefit to the UK economy - but this is against HM Treasury guidance on project appraisal. In 2005 nearly 30 per cent of Heathrow passengers were travellers simply changing planes.

• It assumes “doing nothing” is the only alternative to airport expansion ignoring alternatives with less environmental impact like switching short haul passengers to rail travel, investing in video conferencing or limiting transfer passengers.

This comes as little surprise, after the government commissioned a study on the future of transportation by no one else than the former BA boss: The Eddington Transport Study.

Strangely, although it's successful everywhere else in Europe, he did recommend against high speed link (see my previous post: Finally, high speed train gets national coverage).

Just to repeat myself: looking at Heathrow in isolation is at best misleading since there are 4 other international aiports in London (plus spare capacity in Portsmouth, Midlands, ect, all easily reachable by high-speed train if there was any) and it is dishonest because it doesn't look into alternative transport modes.

But then, the DfT, BA and BAA are forming a ménage a trois to protect the commercial interests of BA and BAA...

Tags: Heathrow, Dft, BA, BAA, LHR, HeathrowExpansion, airlines, transportation, rail, trains, UK, Politics, richmondtransits.blog

Restaurant review: TAS

It's not often I enjoy a good and fairly priced restaurant in London. But it's exactely what we came across last week-end when we went to have dinner at Tas, a Turkish eaterie on The Cut, close to Waterloo station -perfect to finish a day of rambling through the capital and visit some attractions such as Tate Modern.

We had several dishes, all quite pleasing: a lentil soup, grilled chicken, hummous, falafel, tabouleh salads, etc... All mediteranean dishes, simple and honest, washed with a good rosé (Don Jacobo Rijoa, £15.35).

Best news was the price: the menus are less than a tenner, making it possible to eat for under £20, a rare feat. Even the teenagers we had with us were pleased!!!

Highly recommended!

Tas
www.tasrestaurant.com
33 The Cut
Waterloo, London SE1 8LF
020 7928 1444

Tags: foodings.blog.uk, restaurant, review, richmondtransits.blog, london

Finally, high speed train gets national coverage

The 2M group, representing the 2 millions people living under the Heathrow airport flight path (LHR is the airport annoying the most people in Europe) has managed to get great coverage:

Evening Standard: £30bn rail link to put Sheffield within three hours of Paris
BBC: Proposals for speed rail link
and more...

Read also this well research page: High Speed Rail to the North on alwaystouchout.com andTHE IMPACT OF HIGH SPEED RAIL ON HEATHROW AIRPORT on Greengauge21.

From the 2M Group website:

High Speed North - Joining up Britain
The
2M Group has published a new study which looks at how a new high speed
rail network could link major cities throughout the UK and provide
direct routes to Europe.

The proposals would join Heathrow to this new rail network – removing the need for most domestic flights.

It would link UK cities to Europe with, in many cases, a travelling time of less than four hours.

The proposals have been published by 2M as part of its contribution to the growing debate on alternatives to aviation growth.

High Speed North – Joining up Britain (515 kb)

You can also download some of the more detailed workings of the report's author.

Principles of high speed rail (126 kb)

Read my previous posts on the subject under the tag Heathrow.

Finally, listen to this BBC report showing the collusion between the DfT, BA and BAA:

Heathrow plans 'not biased'

Today, I've solved the energy crisis (Friday post)!

See my commentary on

Rob Enderle's post: The Desk That Could Save Your Life.

Actually, I think I've solved several problems:

• reduce dependency on (foreign) oil and other fossile energy sources via a totally renewable (read "breeding) source
• reduce NHS deficit and combat obesity epidemic
• solve back problems of office workers
• provide new-age management metrics
• and many more!

Environmental perversity...

Because the Government has imposed a "use it or loose it" rule for those precious Heathrow take-off and landing slots, some airlines such as BMI plan to have planes ‘fly empty’ to keep slots at Heathrow.

This shows the difficulty of governing in a free market economy (if there's such a thing?): any regulation potentially affects market forces and can be perverse.

In this case, the perversity is that if prevents short term downwards capacity adjustment.

However, it brings the LHR third runway question again: at a time where the Government seems to already have made its mind (read Hutton signals go-ahead for Heathrow expansion before consultation), another proof of its collusion with BA and BAA, it seems that with oil prices at a record level and not going down any time soon the need for additional capacity may not be there anyway.

Tags: airlines, LHR, Heathrow, T5, T6, HeatrowExpansion, BA, BAA, transportation, environment, UK, Politics, DfT, richmondtransits.blog

Greenpocrisy

So politicians want us to be green... Seems laudable, especially since it is badly needed, the country being bad at recycling, etc...

But then, it seems it always only translate in one thing for citizens: more taxes. Car are an obvious and easy target, but even if one accepts taxing based on CO2 is a good idea (I don't), France for instance have figured out a way to achieve the same goals with a fiscally neutral system.

But in the UK, nope -it's always tax more.

For example, there are no incentives to install solar panels for (the payback is something like 15 years) the German or France again goverments provides grants in the shape of subsidised feed-in tariffs (home and business can sell solar-generated electricity back into the grid), which makes it affordable and reduces the return on investment to 3-5 years). As a result, over half a million homes are equiped in Germany, helping with mass production scale economies -and creating 400 000 jobs in the process.

But in the UK? Nope. Another bad example is public transportation, where the goverment wants rail users to contribute more: reduced subsidies mean that passengers revenue will climb from 50 to 75%!!!

This is my point: the Government is taxing polluting cars on one hand, but not taxing aviation fuel and increasing the cost of alternative, less polluting, transportation modes. Can't think of being more hypocritical on green issues!


Tags: UK, Politics, green, greenwash, environment, transportation, airlines, railways, rail, train, richmondtransits.blog.uk

Heathrow expansion is vital...

...for Mr. Walsh's bonus!

His arguments in this Richmond and Twickenham Times article dubious for the least:

1. The jobs impact has never been quantified by an independent survey

2. Comparing LHR alone to other airports is dishonest for the least because London has FIVE (international) airports.

3. Finally, BA and BAA just can't be trusted: T5 was given planning permission on the condition there will not be further expansion...


Tags: Heathrow, LHR, T5, BA, BAA, airport, airlines, UK, transportation, environment, richmondtransits.blog

Where to buy some cheese in Richmond?

Here's one of Richmond's best secrets: every Saturdays and Sundays, on the Homebase/Curry's car park, there's a French-style market van, complete with the Frenchman selling cheese inside!

See the picture as proof.

He sells alls sorts of cheeses, including some real unpasteurised ones such as Camembert de Normandie AOC, Roquefort, Comté, etc... All very reasonably priced, which is even better!


Tags: cheese, Richmond, richmondtransits.blog, foodings.blog.uk, foodings, food

Should cyclists follow the same rules than cars?

Read today:
BBC NEWS | England | Cyclists 'don't obey road laws'

IMHO, why should cylists follows a road legislation designed a long time ago and mainly for cars?

For instance, for cyclists to start ahead of a green light is much safer and allows to avoid being mowed down by lorries and busses.

The insurance law need to change to give automatic rights to cyclists vs. cars, it's how it works in Netherlands.

Resistance, un-informed comments and inadequate cyling infrastructures (like paths stopping where one needs them most) usually comes from automobilists who have never cycled.

Kew treetop walk

Tony has visited the new treetop walk at Kew Gardens and took this picture:

Makes for a really nice day out!

Tags: kew, richmondtransits.blog

Smile... and don't film back

Most of us are incredibly uncomfortable with the increased surveillance we're coming under:
This surveillance onslaught is draconian and creepy

The cameras, they are multiplying - and now they even have ears. But the state hasn't stopped to run the plan past us, by Marina Hyde in The Guardian, on Saturday June 28, 2008. And now, they're even using military technology to track us.

Especially when the wombles tell you not to film in public places:
Pretend cops bully videographer, videographer wins - Boing Boing

So, next time you're signing up for an Oyster Card, think again.

I did not say it!

I don't have much to add to this article: British cities shun London’s wasteful car tax - Times Online

"[...] overheads are now so high that they burn up the equivalent of almost £4 of a standard £8 charge. Money
raised to improve public transport has been cut by 10% in the past year."

I've always thought the congestion charge was quite a daft idea, a return to the middle ages or later turnpikes and toll-gates. I am all for better public transport, more bus lanes and cycle paths, trams, etc... But I don't see the point of reserving the centre of London to an elite nor to make it more difficult for cars to get around via light phasing, cul de sacs, narrow lanes, etc... It just creates unncessary pollution.

Tags: transportation, london, cars, congestioncharge, richmondtransits.blog

How to keep customers (happy)

In my previous post about The great holiday ripp-off... I spoke about Expedia and Hertz, on baby car seat rental charges and thought I'd let you know the rest.

I've complained to both companies about the doubful practice of allowing you to rent a device to make your children safe while refusing to let you know how much it will call you. Hertz came back to me (only after I threated to blog about it) and said they will refund me EUR33 -half of the charge.

And as good news never comes alone, Expedia also called me back because I complained my rental accomodation was far from being clean (we had to bleach-wash the fridge before storing anything). They will refund me £200 on my holiday bill, which is much welcome.

Note to self: I should have known better, since a great feature of the Expedia web-site is that it allows clients to rate their hotels/cottages. This is good use of the Web 2.0, I really like it.

So while it's best to make sure you don't make your customers unhappy in the first place, Hertz and Expedia deserve brownie points for addressing my complaints.

My advice: ALWAYS write to the customer department. It's not only that you might be compensated but it's also a service to the company (poor service will kill a service company) and other customers.

Tags: holidays, money, richmondtransits.blog, expedia, hertz

The great holiday ripp-off...

A cautionary tale today because it's bad enough that the Euro makes holidaying on the Continent much more expensive.

Car Seat Hire with Car Rentals Companies

We've rented a car through Expedia and Hertz came up at a quite competitive rate (about £85 for a week -you can only figure out this by removing or adding the car to the trip as Expedia doesn't provide a breakdown). I've asked for a car seat and was told by Expedia they could not get the price before and would need to see on the spot.

So we turn up at the aiport and they tell me a car seat it... 66 Euros! I complained on the spot and raised the matter with Hertz customer service which answered they "[were] sorry to learn that you were not satisfied with the price of the child seat you received. Unfortunately this is the locations privilege to quote a price for the additional equipments.
[We are] sorry [we] cannot be more of a help for you now." I've came back threating to make sure I would tell as many people as possible and blogged it. And to their honour, they came back and said they'll refund half.

Which is nice, but a shame putting things right needed a an argument.

My advice: either check-in a your own car seat (make sure you have a good travel insurance, I got one damaged between Pisa and Gatwick on Monarch once) or if you arrive not too late, buy a cheap one from a local supermarket. Oh, and by the way, do check the car thoroughly before you go: the first one Hertz wanted to give me had a flat tyre and the other one was dented all over. Do make sure you take pictures before you leave the rental company parking, it may prove useful if you misplace the rental contract.... And make sure they charge what they're supposed to: Avis two years ago tried to apply me a different tariff than I had booked!

Bank charges
I have a Coventry Building Society current account because it pays 5.60 AER without cap, however their charges for cash withdrawals abroad are steep: up to £3.50 for EUR200 (2%). I was with Citibank before and they don't charge for getting money out of the wall overseas. But then their interest rate on current accounts is misery. So,do check the charges carefully and try to pay using a credit card without fixed charge such as the Nationwide Cash Reward.

Air travel

Did you book a cheap air ticket with a low cost carrier? Just check how much luggage you bring, make sure you bring your own sandwiches and turn up way in advance: Ryanair once closed it checkin desk although it was over 40mn before the flight and we were in the right queue. The guy just left the counter! At first they were not even rebooking us and it took a 10 mn heated conversation to fly us to Limoges or Bergerac instead of Bordeaux. Quite inconvenient as you can imagine...

On the luggage front, most low cost charge you for checking in stuff: remember you always bring too many shoes, that you can wash clothes and buy shower gel anywhere in the world!

Read also in The Guardian: BA and Virgin face compensation deluge
Apparently "British Airways and Virgin Atlantic face a compensation deluge after agreeing that any passenger who flew long-haul on those airlines between August 2004 and March 2006 can claim a £20 refund per journey following a $200m (£102m) legal settlement."

PS: read also on the Fool.co.uk how to Avoid These Airport Rip-Offs!

Tags: holidays, money, richmondtransits.blog

Politics and GreenWash

I've always been interested by ecology, tryign to do my bit -like leaving a camping/picinic site cleaner than when I arrived. But my green attitude is based on common sense, not on any form of green religion inspired by city-luddites, the kind of people who were trotskyst before, green priests now and impose on others their attitude of green moral superiority.

For instance, at a time where we had agricultural surpluses subsidised by the EU, it only made sense to me that we should do biofuels. The current debate now about sustanability of biofuels comes from a herd movement towards biofuels when the infrastructure is not there.

Then the polititians came in and suddenly started to talk green. The only issue is that for politicians, it seems that Green = More Taxes. And we only see tax, tax, tax -but still no rail infrastructures
or maybe the're taxing the wrong stuff: Focussing on CO2: good for bears, bad for humans? Methane for instance stays in the atmosphere longuer than CO2: should we fit a meter at the back of each cow, or become vegeterians? (seems vegan is not a good idea...)

In my mind, it's not only taxes but there are many other ways of being greenner: microgeneration is one. The Guardian had a great full page article on how power from the people could cut CO2 emissions - with government help (shame the online version doesn't have the graphs).

But it seems the government is busy making broken promises and trying to substanciate the fact that Heathrow, thanks to its "Low Emission Zone" will be clean. In passing, we have to thank the EU for imposing stricter anti-pollution norms... (and NB: no, curbing LHR's growth won't harm the capital because it's only one of the FIVE London airports).

This is why I've become highly suspicious of Green Politicians: to me they will provoke a backlash and what they decide isn't even good for the environment.

PS: but kudos to Westminster to allow cyclists use one way streets riding counterflow. This is commen sense, doesn't cost anything and works (just go to The Hague if you don't belive me).