Airtrack and North Sheen Crossing

I picked up last week a flyer from the LibDems at North Sheen station, to read that at my great pleasure Susan Kramer has obtained that the footbridge to the South side of the track will be rebuilt.

This is not only a practical issue, as with the new train schedules the level crossing in Manor road is down a a lot (read in the RTT: Level crossing bottlenecks choking Richmond, apparently it could be 75% of the time in the future!) it is also a safety issue. Indeed, I'm glad to get someone chiming in on something I've raised over two years ago:

Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon discussed safety concerns to pedestrians brought about by the delays.She said: “People get so frustrated waiting for the barriers thatsome have been tempted to go round them and run across the tracks.“Children have been seen doing this and it’s just an accident waiting to happen.”

It's also unfair for local residents: we get all the congestion but only four trains per hour at peak time. At least, we should get four trains per hour off-peak as well.

(plus, let's fine stationary cars too: Stuck at a level crossing? Turn off the engine or pay £20 fine - The Times)

What's the link with this and Airtrack, the plan to improve Heathrow's access by rail? At first sight, it looks like a good idea, and I am always supportive for better public transport.

However, it's hard to read without being suspicious of BAA's intentions, here's my take:

1. BAA and BA build a new terminal in Heathrow (despite massive local opposition, read on BBC.com: Heathrow runway debate a 'sham'), claiming it's vital for the economy (without supporting this with any proof) and despite London being served by 4 other airports...
   
2. Oh, shoot, access to Heathrow by public transport isn't that good and, as opposed to what's going on the continent, there's no high-speed rail link.
3. And, bugger, if they extend the airport, they won't meet the new EU emission criteria, even with BAA's imaginary ‘green’ jumbo (The Times).
   
4. Easy: they just improve the public transport and create a car-free zone around the airport.
   
5. Expensive? Not really, they say let's just extend the existing train lines, charge more for parking and create a road tax on the model of Red Ken's London Congestion Charge.

The snag? The train network, for not having received significant investments in the last 30 years, is completely saturated in the South East of England. And those trains to Heathrow, they will have to run somewhere. Like through Richmond...

This is why I oppose Airtrack, unless they actually invest significantly to increase rail capacity: North Sheen should be buried underground, a car park created on top to encourage people to park and take the train and we should see 8 trains an hour.

You can make your views heard on Thursday

Read my other posts on the North Sheen footbridge and those on Heathrow Expansion.

And also: MPs attack Airtrack (RTT)

Tags: heathrow, heathrowexpansion, LHR, BAA, BA, DfT, UK, politics, Richmond, North, Sheen, North Sheen, footbridge, level, crossing, richmondtransits.blog

Borough market

I was surprised to see how many people did not know about Borough Market.

It's a great trip for Sundays: from Richmond, just change trains at Waterloo East and walk back along the Thames -stopping by the Tate Modern.

At the market itself, there's a great variety of foods to be bought: great fish, meat, game selection, fantastic cheese selection, many unpasteurised -French, Dutch, English: do try the Stichelton and pay a visit to Neal's Yard cheeses.

cheese, food, foodings.blog.uk, richmondtransits.blog

BAA wakes up to the sound of locomotives?

BAA changed their whining pitch and now says that Heathrow 'needs rail links as well as third runway' (Evening Standard).

That's of course after the Tories said they were in favour of a £20bn plan for a 180mph rail link instead of Heathrow third runway.

At a conference BAA urged the rail industry to work with the aviationsector to generate a "once-in-a- generation opportunity to create aworld-leading air and transport hub at Heathrow". BAA said its aim isfor a "third runway built within strict environmental limits and ahigh-speed rail network that will connect the UK's hub airport withevery major centre of population across the country".

Yeah right. Seems like they want to have their cake and eat it. Personally, I frankly doubt they really want high-speed rail: in France, the SNCF predicts that the introduction of high-speed trains running at 360 kph (224 mph) would mean that the airlines passenger share between Paris and Toulouse (585 km or 360 miles) would fall from 80% to 30%.

But they kept some of their usual lies: "Mr Condie highlighted Paris and Frankfurt, which have both developed high-speed rail links and have more runways than Heathrow."
This of course is misleading as they compare Heathrow (2 runways) instead of London (5 runways, plus one un-used in Gatwick) to other capitals. What is true is that both France and Germany have linked high-speed trains (TGV and ICE) to airports.

Read also my other posts on Heathrow expansion.

HeathrowExpansion, air, airlines, SNCF, transportation, rail, railways, BAA, richmondtransits.blog

Kingston hospital parking

You'd better not be in a rush to go to Kingston Hospital.

Firstly, it's badly signposted as there are no signs from Kingston hill (A308) to turn into Galsworthy road. No map on their web site either, as they "We strongly recommend that patients and visitors use public transport to get to the hospital."

That's fine more most, maybe more difficult if you're sick or pregnant and about to deliver. Which are some of the reasons people may want to go to hospital.

Then to make it worse, they shrunk the car park when they extended the hospital (they probably did not think about locating a parking under the new building?) and you need to have change as they charge you £1.5/hour. It's not only an inconvenience to patients, but also to the staff it seems: Demo over hospital parking fees (BBC).

I think the Scots are smarter: NHS car parking charges abolished (BBC Scotland)

car, hospital, transportation, richmond, richmondtransits.blog

The new treetop walkway in Kew

The new walkway in Kew is nice, beautiful from an architectural standpoint and nice views too...

And now wash your hands...

Some scientists, maybe with too much... time ... on their hands, decided to swab 409 people and this led to the following headline:
BBC NEWS | Health | Faecal bacteria join the commute

In this article, we learn Newcatle bus commuters are dirtiest. All that could be laughable if the lack of basic hygene didn't lead to some potentially embarassing sicknesses.

health, transportation, richmondtransits.blog

This made my day: John Cleese on Sarah Palin

This cheered me up today:
John Cleese on Sarah Palin: "Monty Python Could Have Written This." - Boing Boing

(on Seesmic via Boing Boing)

humour, USA, richmondtransits.blog

Joanna's wonderful sourdough bread

I've been baking bread, from scratch and by hand for for now well over 2 years (see here for my inital receipe in French) and have had wonderful experiences, all very tasty.

I've never however been fully satisfied with the size of the bubbles, those air pockets forming in the bread, so when I read Joanna's post on French sourdough loaf (and lots of lovely holes!!!) I read it attentively!

She very kindly dropped off a jar of starter (levain) on Friday I set out to follow her instructions. Well, about as well as men can follow instructions I guess...

In the evening, I revived the starter using 50g Shipton wholemeal flour (I ran out of the Shipton Mills organic flour I buy from Oliver's) and about 60g water (to keep the same consistency). I did let the starter bubble all afternoon because I felt it did not work enough, and then it went back into a larger glass jar and into the fridge overnight.

On Saturday noon I augmented the dough with another 100g water +100 grammes of white flour this time -that's 100% hydratation. This time, I bought "Waitrose Extra Strong White Flour" made from "Canadian Red Spring Wheat -a mouthful of unwarranted capitalisation.

In the afternoon, I mixed the dough following Joanna's proportions with a mixer and dough hook for about 4 mn (I usually do it all by hand) and then folded it three times, with a few hours intervals: the dough was very wet with your proportion, I guess I usually work with less than 60% hydratation. By the end of the afternoon, the dough was still very soft but quite strong so I shaped it (on my brand new silicon mat from KooksUnlimited in Richmond). By the evening, I shaped the dough and although it still had not proven to what I would usually expect, I baked it -with a tray in the oven where I added some boiling water to create steam.

Dunring the baking, the bread experienced a much stronger "oven spring" than usual which added something like 20% in volume -amazing. I baked it for about 45 mn.

So, in the end, I got a soft white bread (I did not add rye flour because I ran out) and with A LOT OF BUBBLES!

Conclusion: I have a wonderful bread, and tried it with some Neufchatel cheese from my friend Michel and this morning with my home made honey -FAN-TAS-TIC!


But why?

• Was that the very slow fermentation? (I plan to try with very little -like 20g/kg flour- fresh yeast and double the proving times from my initial receipe)
• Was that the mixer kneading and folding technique?
• Was that the increased hydratation?
• Or is the dough stronger? (it's really annoying that flours in the UK aren't graded like they are in France, from T40 to T100)

bread, food, foodings.blog.uk, receipe

Stanstead and City granted expansion: what does it mean for Heathrow?

In the news yesterday:
Stansted and City airports get the expansion go ahead | Greenpeace UK

So, where does that leave us?

It looks like the government (and the councils) are not serious about the green agenda but are rather happy to listen to the aviation lobbies.

Heathrow expansion (the current plan is a third runway between the A4 and M4, requiring to bulldoze 700 homes, effectively razing Sipson) is probably the most controversial: because it's the busiest airport but also the worst location (Westerly winds prevalence means its flight paths send planes droning over no less than 2 MILLIONS of residents.
The most enraging is that both the Government (the Dft) and BAA have been consistently lying and breaking promises over the years.

I think the solution is to do what worked elsewhere: instead of talking about Heathrow not being competitive compared to
other European capitals, conveniently forgeting that only London has
FIVE international airports, the DfT should plan (do they know the meaning of the word though?) ahead and do what many other capitals done by relocating their airport.
Of course, they should also invest in rail: read Lyon-Paris vs. Manchester-London (from Euroblog by Jon Worth)


Read also:

• Stating the obvious: Heathrow expansion will pollute more
• Some Heathrow news...
• Listen to the Heathrow expansion lobbies...

heathrow, heathrowexpansion, LHR, air, airlines, transportation, UK, richmondtransits.blog, environment, pollution

Big brother is coming to a road near you

The latest news in private life intrusion:
Drivers will have no escape from new speed cameras (Times, via BoingBoing)

Specs3 Cameras will be installed (at a cost of £300k per zone) and read your licence plate, calculate your average speed and fine you accordingly.

Of course, it's for our benefit as trials have shown that "[O]n the M1 the number of casualties halved after average-speed cameras were introduced".

But not only moving at a uniform pace is soporific and watching your tachimeter more than the car in front potentially dangerous, what are the authorities going to do with the data?

Where are the safeguards to prevent misuse? Already, the London congestion charge road tax camera images can be seen by the police in virtue of terrorism prevention...

As a reader commented:

Panopticon (n) A prison so contructed that the inspector can see each of the prisoners at all times, without being seen.....
a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.

roads, privacy, bigbrother, transportation, UK, richmondtransits.blog

Stating the obvious: Heathrow expansion will pollute more

Sometimes, stating the obvious helps:
BBC NEWS | England | London | Third runway will 'damage health' (06/10/08)

"If the third runway goes ahead, if we get that extra both air and
ground traffic that will arise out of that, then it is absolutely
certain that nitrogen dioxide levels will go way beyond what they ought
to be for the sake of human health."


Why is that important?

Because, as a spokesman for the Department of Health (DfT) said: "The government
has always been clear that expansion at Heathrow could not go ahead
unless strict local environmental conditions could be met."


Read also: Listen to the Heathrow expansion lobbies...

In a nutshell:

• lobbies speaking about the economicimpact of Heathrow expansion are not basing their statements on any reliable economic impact study
• the DfT, BAA and BA are in collusion to preserve their own interests and not that of Londoners or the country
• when they talk about Heathrow not being competitive compared to other European capitals, they conveniently forget that only London has FIVE international airports and that many other capitals have successfully relocated their airport
  

Tags: Heathrow, heathrowexpansion, airport, air, airlines, rail, railways, transportation, pollution, health, UK, London, environment, richmondtransits.blog

Raw milk and cheese

Interesting post on raw milk and cheese:
Caseophile: The Slow Food Summer University and raw milk

The key takeaways are:
- jury based assesment can be manipulated (just in case you did not suspect this already)
- dairies working with raw milk have some challenges, but not necessarily where you thought
- skimming and homogeneising milk has some negative impacts (conforms to common sense)

Friday -another great Richmond photoblog

Another really nice photoblog I've added to my blogroll today: Richmond upon Thames Daily Photo

richmond, photo, richmondtransits.blog

Lyon-Paris vs. Manchester-London (from Euroblog by Jon Worth)

I could not have articulated this better than Jon Worth in his Lyon-Paris vs. Manchester-London post.

This compares the two segments and how they are served by air and rail: guess who wins?

Just another statistic: on the London-Paris segment, the Eurostar has a 70% share on passengers (and they're carbon neutral). How many airplanes does it displace?

I guess this further proves the point that the Heathrow expansion case is flawed.


Read also my other related posts: richmondtransits.blog/railways

Thought of the day...

Why does it seem all the world's problems (GM food, Irak+Terrorism, financial unregulation, etc...) come from USA but no solution does?

For too long, lobbies have done their best to obliterate indirect costs, either related to health (e.g. GMO, tobacco), ecology (e.g. CO2, endengered species) and what we see is just the need to take those costs into account, via oil prices or litigation.

We would not be there if the US Government had regulated earlier with sustainability as a principle.

Some Heathrow news...

A collection of interesting news items over the last couple of weeks...

Firstly, it seems politicians are starting to get their head about the anger caused by the unabated Heathrow expansion pushed by BAA and the DfT:

Government body calls for Heathrow review (RTT, 19/09/08)
Wandsworth Council leader Edward Lister said: “First the environment
agency now the SDC, how many more of the Government’s own advisers have
to tell Gordon Brown that he has got it wrong on Heathrow expansion?
“The economic case for expanding Heathrow seems to hinge on a
future of cheaper flights and ever-growing demand. But none of these
assumptions seem to take account of rising oil costs, the economic
downturn or the government’s own CO2 targets.
“No serious attempt has been made to compare the benefits of a
third runway with other transport solutions such as high speed rail for
which there is great demand on Scotland and the North.
“It’s five years since the airports white paper was published and
it is looking increasingly irrelevant to the nation’s transport needs.
“Brown should order an independent study that looks at the full
impact of expanding Heathrow on all sectors of the economy – and
compares it to the alternatives. There must be more to UK transport
policy than what is good for BAA.”


Did he read my previous posts on the subject???  The Sustainable Development Commission report is here.

Tories promise to shelve plans for third runway (RTT, 29/09/08)




"shadow transport secretary Theresa Villers said a Tory Government would
spend £20billion on a high-speed rail line between London’s St Pancras,
where the Eurostar is based, and Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds."

I couldn't agree more!

Boris Johnson has smelt the opportunity and resurrected the plans for a new airport in the estuary:
Boris Johnson airs plan for Heathrow-on-Sea (Times Online 10/02/08).  Makes total sense to me, as it's not that much more expensive than a third runway and a much better location. Unfortunately, short-sighted politicians have stalled it so far:

"Since the 1960s, 13 major cities including Paris, Milan and New York have
moved their airports further out. In Hong Kong, the government spent six
years and $20 billion building an airport on an artificial island and
linking it by bullet train to the city.In Britain, however, similar proposals have repeatedly been blocked. In the
1970s a scheme to build an airport on Maplin Sands near Southend-on-Sea in
Essex was abandoned because of a shortage of public funds."

(Image from "Scrap Heathrow and build a £30bn airport on an island, says Boris Johnson", Daily Mail 22/09/08)


PS: just to confirm that the company running Heathrow isn't up to the job:
Bacteria leaks and lost passengers among Heathrow breaches (RTT, 28/09/08)
CAA supports forced sell off of BAA airports

heathrow, heathrowexpansion, BAA, DfT, UK, railways, transportation, politics, richmondtransits.blog

What do you think of low cost carriers?

Saw this post today and commented on my own experience:
bmi baby: cheap but not cheerful AccMan

I've never been found of low cost carriers: yes, they're cheap. Except that you find out after that you need to pay for food, luggage, make your way to remote airports, etc...

And the service is poor. That's actually not true: there's no service.

Furthermore, they're quite bad for the economy and the environment: I don't believe we should have stag parties in Estonia or elsewhere just because it's cheap.

Without low cost carriers, would BAA scream to expand Heathrow? Do we actually need another runway or would it be better to improve the rail links to allow people to spend time in the UK???

airlines, transportation, heathrow, heathrowexpansion, richmondtransits.blog

Waterloo plans mean no end of misery for commuters

Read today on ThisIsLondon.co.uk: Rail bosses reveal radical revamp plan for Waterloo. I guess this means the former Eurostar terminal won't be useable by commuters trains before long: what a disgrace! (read Londonist: What Next For Waterloo? for more).

It's about time someone sorts out Waterloo: one of the businest station, the passenger flows are chaotic and platforms are too short for longer trains.

Also, the partition erected some 30 years ago (?) removes the perspective (see photo) and makes the station really ugly.

An underground concourse and the removal of the partition would be good news indeed, let's just hope we'll get it sooner than later. I would not bet on this though....


Tags: london, waterloo, trains, railways, UK, transportation, richmondtransits.blog

Monday... a picture!

Shop near Spitalfields market.

Tags: richmondtransits.blog, photo

Richmond on the crime map

The Beeb reports that a new crime map has been launched.

From the Met web site, it looks really good (see picture).

However, upmystreet.com reports more burglaries than the national average -so all is not rosy:

	London Borough of Richmond upon Thames	English average
Crime statistics are per 1,000 of the population within the local authority area. Learn more
Population	186,000.0	--
Households	80,000.0	--
Violence against the person	11.4	16.7
Robbery offences	2.2	1.2
Theft of a motor vehicle offences	2.3	2.9
Sexual offences	0.7	0.9
Burglary dwelling offences	5.7	4.3
Theft from a vehicle offences	8.5	7.6

Airplanes noise common sense?

Why can't simple measures like they're implementing in Paris help with noise:

• Increase the altitude by 300 m and come down quicker: this would reduce the noise by 50% within 10-25 km!
• Tax aircraft movements between 1800 and 2200 (there's a strict curfew for Paris airport) between 2200 and 0600) and allocate this tax income to neighbouring residents for sound-proofing their homes.

Answer? Because the Department of Transport has aligned itsefl very closely with BAA and BA and has absolutely no interest for local residents' welfare.

Tags: HeathrowExpansion, heathrow, pollution, airlines, transportation, UK, environment, richmondtransits.blog

Free range children?

Are we too protective of our kids?
Are we living in an overly clean environment?

I've been wondering awhile about those questions, so when I read those, they certainly added fuel to my thoughts:

Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone
This post on the blog Free Range Kids discusses about how much independence to give children: it's something I often discuss and sometimes argue about with my wife.

• Should my 4 year old go to the post box on the corner of our street, just one house away, on her own -with us watching from the window? We think so.
  
• Should my 7 year old be allowed to open the oven unsupervised to prick a cake with a sharp cooking knife and check if the clafoutis is ready? I think so, my wife disagrees.
• From what age can they walk about a mile to school -unsupervised? 8? 10? 15???

Apparently unrelated are allergies. They seemed no provisions for allergic kids when I was at school and now everyone's going nuts about it. Nuts and a growing list of things are banned from kids parties.
As I've written here, we're exposed to more pollutants like diesel and many chemicals and many suspect there are links to cancers, asthma, allergies, etc...

As I've written here, I think we shold eat more un-pasteurised foods. This article from the Beeb seems to confirm this: Farm pregnancy 'cuts asthma risk'


My conclusions? Should we be less protective of our children, while reducing the chemicals ingestion and exposure and eating more natural stuff? I think so.

Tags: health, freerangekids, pollution, children, richmondtransits.blog

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).

Tax, tax, tax -but still no rail infrastructures

The government keeps on taxing automobilists but fails to invest in public transportation:

Read in
BBC NEWS | England | London | New station's opening postponed: "The station will be the first new suburban station built in south London since the Second World War, according to Merton Council."

What a disgrace! Rail fares up, taxes on petrol up, local council tax up and interest rates up. The Richmond commuters feel the pinch on the wallet more than ever recently.

In the meantime, kerosene is still not taxed and now Boris bailed off the massive demonstration against Heathrow -this doesn't detract the Beeb to pedal the BAA spin comparing Heathrow to other cites, conveniently forgetting that London has no less than FIVE international airports.

All that could have been avoided if instead of perpetuating a 1950ies planning error the government had planned to build a new airport in the estuary as it has often been suggested -and close other airports such as Gatwick, City or Heathrow like it has been done in Berlin and other European cities.

It seems that the government is very short sighted indeed when it comes to transportation.... It maybe why we still don't have a footbridge in North Sheen?