tornado cassandra!

I recently rather mischievously suggested that the Channel Tunnel trains that were broken down inside the tunnel should have been hauled out by diesel or steam locomotives.

In an amazing example of life imitating art this is what happened on Monday -


Passengers were rescued by a steam locomotive after modern rail services were brought to a halt by the snowy conditions in south-east England.

Trains between Ashford and Dover were suspended on Monday when cold weather disabled the electric rail.

Some commuters at London Victoria faced lengthy delays until Tornado - Britain's first mainline steam engine in 50 years - offered them a lift.

They were taken home "in style", said the Darlington-built engine's owners.

Train services in Kent were hit hard by the freezing conditions at the start of the week.
　
The weather-related disruption included three days of cancellations for Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel.

Tornado, a £3m Peppercorn class A1 Pacific based at the National Railway Museum in York, was in the South East for one day, offering "Christmas meal" trips from London to Dover.

Its "Cathedrals Express" service, the last mainline journey in its first year of operations, was about to depart when staff heard about the stranded passengers.

About 100 people were offered free seats, according to Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust - the charity which built Tornado.

He said: "It was a nice way to finish for Christmas, though I think some of the rescued passengers didn't realise they'd even been travelling on a steam train until they got off."

Mr Allatt, who was on the service at the time, said he only saw a handful of other trains between London and Dover throughout Monday.
He added: "If any of the train operators want to modernise their services by using steam trains, I would be happy to give them a quote."
A spokesman for Southeastern Trains congratulated Mr Allatt on his "moment of glory".

He said: "I'm sure those passengers were saved from a lengthy wait, all credit to him."

Source.

Thanks to David Bailey for the link!

happy christmas

It's time for our traditional Xmas sexist greeting so once again thanks again to everyone who has sweated blood in preserving and developing our line, whether as members of the New S&D, Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Trust at Midsomer Norton, North Dorset Railway Trust at Shillingstone, the Gartell Railway, Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust at Washford, The Sturminster Rail Group, Blandford Arches Project and Recreation Railways, not to mention all those individuals and wellwishers that belong to some, all or none of the above!

another resource

Midford Spring 1963 © Peter Leigh

David Bailey's just discovered this excellent resource which includes a Somerset and Dorset Photostream which can be accessed here.

If you have S&D photos why not add them, perhaps adding this blog address in the comments box?

50 not out

All pics © Adrian Vaughan

Just had our 50th member sign up! This is pretty incredible bearing in mind we've only been up and running since March this year and haven't even begun the process of publicising our organisation outside of this blog and our website.

I can already offer the next bottle of wine to our 100th member!!

more gartell

Photos © Mike Lucas 31.8.2009

Four excellent shots from Mike Lucas of various locomotives and trains on the Gartell this August bank holiday.

This is still, currently, the only operational section of the S&D. Expect a few more miles to be in regular operation within a few years!

the future of air travel

This is the Boeing Dreamliner 787. 'Dream' liner is very appropriate. It's being marketed as 'the future of air travel'. LOL! It's claim to this status is that due to the lighter metal being employed it will use 20% less fuel! And what magical 'fuel' is it going to use? Nuclear? Steam? Electricity? No ... good old fashioned (and in the medium term extinct!) kerosene.

So what's the real future of air travel? The picture below says it all!

thanks Adrian

Adrian Vaughan has very kindly allowed us access to his excellent collection of S&D photos. These will be utilised by this blog and of course the New S&D website and also selected ones will be available to purchase as quality prints over time, raising funds for the route.

It is very important that the history of the S&D, which many thought ended in 1966, is a living and developing thing! Whilst our prinicple aim of course is to restore the railway we are also very aware of the hugely important historical significance of our line, both to railway enthusiasts and people living along the route.

We are always happy to accept offers such as Adrian's, and it is a way of securing your valuable photos so that they can be enjoyed by generations not yet born, who as well as being able to travel on a reborn S&D will also be able to see how it was in the past, both before and after its temporary closure.

double-headed steam back on the S&D!

The first double headed steam train on the S&D since...when?

The camera of Mike Lucas captures the fine moment as GLR No6 Mr. G and GLR No9 Jean head down the S&D. This was especially run for the 2009 S&D reunion, when staff from the days of the 'old line' got together. Due to the length of the train, six coaches - double the normal length - special written instructions were issued to GLR staff and the train was put in the hands of the most experianced enginemen and senior guards.

(Thanks to John Penny for this gem!)

what could possibly stop this?

When I did a trip down the southern end of the line back in February with Mick Knox we met quite a lot of people who were intrigued at what we were doing. Back then, before the formation of the New S&D, we were just looking to see what was left. Everyone we spoke to wanted the railway back, most adding (quite rightly) 'but please NOT steam trains!'

Of course there will be steam on the New S&D, at least at first as heritage operations originating off the line, but as the energy crisis bites harder then wood-burning steam is almost certain to make an appearance, particularly if sections of the route are non-electric or if electricity supply is not 100% reliable. But we need to take small steps, it's not really possible to expound the science and economics behind Peak Oil in a few minutes on a windy hillside! The important thing is to get the railway back!

There's an echo of this from a little anecdote shared today by member Paul Beard, who was taking measurements down at Spetisbury. A local came up, asked what he was doing, and the next thing he said was, "Everyone in the village wants the railway to come back you know".

I suspect it will be like this up and down the line. This will be our big push in 2010, to bring in the locals, the people who will use the trains on a daily basis, into the organisation.

shillingstone

This is a video posted on Youtube and also on the SteamTube S&D Reborn group, which I'd recommend joining!

It's nice to see moving pictures from sites on the S&D and it's good to see so much progress at Shillingstone.

steam tube

Steam Tube has been very supportive of the New S&D so please reciprocate by looking at their site and joining!

then, now, and the future

I received this card from a friend today, which is particularly appropriate as our next meeting will be on the right of this scene. This is of course classic Pines Express at Blandford. The photo below shows the amazing 'progress' made at this site!


Mmmm. From heart of the community to a bland and characterless corner of a dying town.

If you ever doubt or misunderstand what we are about, it is to switch this scene back to how it was - but with modern fast passenger and freight trains serving a thriving community, interspersed with steam specials bringing even more trade to our busy line!

Looking back at that first picture you do wonder how people were so short sighted that they allowed the S&D to close. Blandford station was close to the centre of town, even with closure of the rest of the route this section survived for another 3 years for freight - how did locals and rail enthusiasts allow it to go?? Surely it didn't take a lot of thought to understand that this section would have provided an excellent service into Bournemouth and Poole for the large town of Blandford, particularly taking into account the poor state of the roads in the area. Still, this is the 21st century, not a couple of bland and characterless decades in the 20th, and we won't ever make the same mistakes again.

I get a feeling that this will be the first part of the old S&D to be restored for real trains. I'm itching to announce wonderful news about a location on this section of our route, but I have to keep it under my hat for a little while longer!

cover story

Once again I can't resist posting James Howard Kunstler's latest blast. I suspect that, like me, he is pretty clear that 'climate change' is a cover story for Peak Oil. The more hysterical our 'leaders' get about climate change, the worse the energy situation is becoming. I don't say there's nothing to climate change - there clearly is - but the MEASURES being suggested to combat this seem more and more to be the measures societies attempting to deal with massive energy shortages would introduce. I'm convinced that governments are even creating 'deniers' to cover up what they are really up to - and that is me speaking as a complete sceptic on conspiracy theories!

JHK hits it on the nail. What is at stake is comfortable, road-based, energy-intensive sedentary consumerism. It's not climate change threatening this, but looming energy problems.

I have a very different writing style to JHK, and a very different world view, but I can see where he's coming from!

Climate, Oil and Delusion by James Howard Kunstler

Against a greater welter and flow of incoherence jerking the nation this way and that way en route to collapse comes "ClimateGate," the latest excuse for screaming knuckleheads to defend what has already been lost. It is also yet another distraction from the emergency agenda that the United States faces — namely the urgent re-scaling, re-localizing, and de-globalizing of our daily activities.

What seems to be at stake for the knuckleheads is their identity, their idea of what it means to be an American, which boils down to being an organism so specially blessed and entitled that it is excused from paying attention to reality. There were no doubt plenty of counterparts among the Mayans when the weather changed and their crops failed, and certainly the Romans had their share of identity psychotics who doubted reality even when Alaric the Visigoth was hoisting off their household treasure.

Reality doesn’t care if we are on-board with its mandates or not. The human race has to get with whatever program reality is serving up at a particular time. Are we shocked to learn that scientists fight among themselves and cheat as much as congressmen? Does that really change the relationships we understand about parts-per-million of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere and the weather?

What the people of the world can do or will do about a change in climate is something else. My guess is that the undertow of entropy is now too great to provoke any meaningful unified change in behavior. The collapse of the US economy is too close to the horizon, and the so-called developing nations will have problems equally severe. In the meantime, it is unlikely that any of the major players will burn less coal and oil, or not cheat on each other even if they pledge to burn less. People who are not knuckleheads will make the practical arrangements that they can. These will, by definition, be localized, small-scale, and non-global communities, doing what they would have to do anyway.

A parallel identity mania afflicts those who have decided that the Bakken shale oil deposits and the Marcellus gas play will allow the USA to cancel any modifications to our living arrangements. This cohort of knuckleheads wants to believe the public relations of the oil and gas industry, and in particular the bankers who are arranging the financing for these ventures. The facts are irrelevant to their identity-claims (that the USA has limitless energy resources). In fact, the Bakken shale formation is unlikely to produce more than a few hundred thousand barrels of oil a day in a nation used to burning about twenty million. A few hundred thousand might mean a lot if were only used to light kerosene lamps, but it is unlikely to keep the faithful motoring off to WalMart and Walt Disney World — which is the exact expectation of the knuckleheads.

Shale gas is a similar story. It will be too expensive to get out of the tight rock at a flow that will allow business as usual to continue. It certainly won’t be produced at under $10 a unit, and the nation’s comprehensive bankruptcy accelerates every day, making it less likely that the public can pay premium prices within the framework of our current living arrangement.

The Green Shoots crowd — a sub-category of identity maniacs, who think the USA is immune to the laws of history and physics — has made common cause with the oil and climate knuckleheads to proclaim that we are returning to normal, back to the "consumer" orgy, the suburban sprawl nexus of McHousing and miracle mortgages, and new frontiers of corporate profit-raking. They are tragically wrong. Instead, we’re headed into the wildest king-hell debt workout that the world has ever seen, which will propel a lot of people used to working in air-conditioned cubicles into a world made by hand. We march day by day into the great holiday season with mortgages going unpaid and the credit cards getting cancelled and money disappearing and the fears and grievances mounting. Pretty soon, the folks doing "God’s work" at Goldman Sachs (and their tribal kin on Wall Street) will announce their annual bonuses (because they are publicly-held companies, which have to do so). Won’t that be a galvanizing moment for us all?

going up a division!

Well the end result of yesterday's extraordinary blog visitation was 359 hits, well over double our previous record! We definitely seem to be picking up a gear as we head towards 2010. New members join up most days now, the new leaflets have arrived and we should soon be appearing regularly up and down the line with our sales and information stands. We now seem to pushing on an open door as one of many genuine rail restoration schemes in the UK, most of which are reversing the ridiculous Beeching cuts of the 1960s.

Rail is the future, not just for inter city connections, commuters and freight movements, but eventually for all industries, ports, farms and villages through a huge expansion in our tramway and light railway network.

yes!

New leaflet now arrived!

If you need some for your rail group, local library, green/environmental/transport/Transition group etc etc please request some now, giving me amount needed, delivery address and location where they will be displayed. Please email me here

mousemats now available

Just in are the first batch of New S&D mousemats, which can be ordered from the shop here. They show a 2009 image from Charlton Marshall. Ready just in time for Christmas, cost just £4.95 + 50p post and packing.

a big welcome to all you new visitors!

Our blog stat figures have gone through the roof today - 231 at last look against an all time previous record of 150!

Many seem to have visited us from here so a big thank you to MREmag Independent News Service and in particular to Geoff Brown who gave us the plug! Keep coming back - new content is added nearly every day.

reaching out to our new demographic

It was always clear to me that the first steps in establishing an organisation with the clear aim of restoring the whole S&D as a fully functional modern railway would be to appeal to enthusiasts first. That first step has now clearly worked, and far more successfully than I'd dared hope. The next step is to involve the existing heritage groups more. They need to have people on our committee, and also soon as directors of the limited company. That also seems to now be happening.

I expect that by the end of 2010 we will have a very vibrant organsiation that will be a model for new generation rail revival groups all over the UK. By drawing on the energy and resources of 'traditional' rail enthusiasts we can then bring in our true target - the people living along the route of the S&D, people that have no interest in railways except as a means to get from A to B. They need to see that we are VERY serious about bringing the railway back, and that we have the organisation to make it happen using our multiple approach of trackbed purchase, selective restoration (and support for already established heritage lines en route) and lobbying.

The first step towards approaching this group of people will be the launch of our leaflet, which should arrive any day soon. I've already had many requests for these, so it shouldn't be too difficult to place these up and down the route to show local people what we are all about. Considering we've only been going 9 months this is excellent progress. This local launch will be backed up by a big press assault on both the national railway press and the local general press, ensuring that everyone that needs to know we exist does know!

As soon as the leaflet arrives I'll post it to the blog and also ensure those who have already requested get their copies for distribution ASAP.

corby ... railfuture

(Corby Station photo © Paul Beard)

Members Paul and Kate Beard recently attended the Railfuture Conference at Corby on behalf of the New S&D. We will become very familiar faces in the rail reopenings scene over the next few years. We have already had a few new members join thanks to our presence at this conference. This is his report.


The Railfuture Re-openings conference held in Corby, Northants on Saturday 14 November was a fascinating insight into what is basically the slow reversal of Dr Beeching's closures of the sixties.

My wife Kate and I arrived at 10 am after a four hour journey that was thankfully without incident and not too unpleasant a drive. We were greeted by the sight of many older men and just two other women all obviously railway enthusiasts. Whether it was the length of their journeys and early starts or maybe their increasing years but Kate had to stifle her amusement several times during the conference as a number of the audience fell asleep. Not that the speakers were boring as such - on the whole they were very good.

First up after the chairmans’ welcome was Mr Jim Wade from Railfuture East Midlands branch who was rightly proud of the achievements at Corby station; especially since they had had to fight through brambles to get to it and then there was the running of trains, then not and then coming back after much lobbying.

Next up was Councillor Mark Pengelly from Corby council who described the processes involved in bringing back the trains. There were some questions at the end about the cost of it all - £17m is rather a lot for a station. I reckon we could reinstate a whole section of S&D for that much!

Colin Eliff took to the floor next and he talked about the Woodhead project that he’s involved with. Some of his presentation was too in depth but the challenges they are facing and the ways of tackling them were interesting to note. His main argument was the fact that a road scheme in the same area would cost nearly 10 times more.

Best speaker of the day came next in the form of Bryan Barnsley from ACORPs - Association of Community Rail Partnerships. His uplifting speech and jovial manner really made what he was saying sink in. Basically ACORPs is a very small but highly knowledgeable organisation that helps smaller rail projects and also helps get communities involved. As we, the S&D, grow we will find them very useful.

After a welcome and very tasty buffet lunch, Tim Shoveller, managing director of East Midlands Trains explained their vision for the future, especially for the Midland Main Line to London. He was swiftly followed by Steve Abbott form Travelwatch East Midlands who delivered a talk on the campaign for improvements on the Liverpool to Norwich route.

Last up was Jim Bamford of Nottinghamshire County Council who gave a very informed and detailed overview of rail success in the East Midlands and their aspirations for better links with other regions.

Soon after this the raffle was drawn and then the closing speech on what had been an informative day that although not involving local regions to us, showed where the S&D could grow and how we could go about our bringing back our route.

the big next step

There have always been two main strands to what the New S&D is about. We have some members who are very interested in the original line plus the heritage groups currently restoring parts of the route. Other members have a keen interest in building a brand new route between Bath/Bristol and Bournemouth/Brockenhurst with barely a nod at its historic value. Some members have an equal interest in both aspects.

At the end of the day the New S&D is a supporters group that intends to both restore the railway and record it through history, past, present and, of course, future.

The New S&D will therefore develop to embrace both these aspects. In 2010 we'll be starting our limited company to purchase track and rebuild the route. The New S&D will always own at least 51% of this company.

The other direction in which we will develop is as a group determined to record all aspects of the S&D, preserving ephemera, historical records, photos, films and oral history as well as physically recreating sections of the route.

As a New S&D member you'll be able to throw your energy into both or either of these options. Personally I believe the synergy between these two aspects of what we're about will make us a unique and powerful force in Britain's second Railway Age. I can't wait!

hope for the future

I received this today, a map carefully drawn by one of our junior members. It's great to see kids that were not even born in the 80s getting involved with our railway. Matthew's 12 and it was his idea to introduce junior membership. We're still small enough for everybody to influence what we are doing, and hopefully that won't change even as we hit 100, 1000 and 10000 members!

He also raised £10 as a donation for the Midford appeal, by car washing. He should be an inspiration for us all!

the s&d turns up in the weirdest places

I treated myself to the above whilst away on holiday and it is a surprisngly good read. I even learnt a few things - including the fact that Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel has an almost intact rail network!

But even the S&D gets a mention. Nothing to do with the line itself but with the cut-down locos that used to work from Radstock, the sister of which is now emerging at Midsomer Norton - the Sentinel. There is a photo of the MN Sentinel on page 47.

If you see this on sale grab it!

back from torbay

Back from an almost rail-less weekend! We did manage to see the above - the 10¼" gauge Paignton Zoo Miniature Railway - but nothing was running.

Some very nice donations came into the New S&D whilst I was away for which I thank you very much!

Back to the grindstone tomorrow ...

boscastle link

A potential visitor to the New S&D in the future - please take time to look at this website for more info.

Thanks to Mark Warr for this link. It's good to see that some people are already putting some thought into the sort of visitors that we will be attracting in the not too distant future!

long weekend

© Steve Sainsbury Paignton 1.9.1972

I'll be away from tomorrow morning until Monday for a long weekend on the English Riviera - a wonderful prospect no doubt in November. With the Kingswear line closed there won't be a lot to do railway-wise! So don't expect any posts for a few days.

midsomer norton corners

A few more random shots from my recent visit to Midsomer Norton, which shows just how much progress has been made in getting the atmosphere and infrastructure right. It's almost as if the line never endured its period of temporary closure. With Shillingstone also coming back to life, in a few years' time I suspect there will be two or three more locations on the route where rails will return.

right lines

Following hot on the heels of the new brochure, today I've got our first newsletter/magazine ready. This will be posted out to all members over the next few days, together with membership cards.

This is only a four page effort but I hope to at least double the size for the March 2010 issue. The aim is to produce a glossy magazine within three years but this is only economically viable once membership reaches 500, so please join if you haven't aleady!

This first magaine features the new brochure, track stewards, secretary's report, this blog, miniature railways at Shepton and Midford and reports from our three sister groups at Midsomer Norton, Shillingstone and Gartell.

a big step (at last)

I've finally got round to ordering our promotional leaflet, which should be ready within two weeks. It's based on the already available home printed one, but will be a hundred times better! Obviously if you need some at your own railway please send for some.


Despite appearances this is actually a 2005 shot and a lighter version is used for the watermark background on the text side of the new leaflet. This was of course the Midsomer Norton Jinty impersonating the Bath-Binegar local ...

Also on order are mousemats with the main leaflet picture (Charlton Marshall). These should be available just in time for Christmas, and will be available through the e-commerce site.

james howard rides again

Sorry, couldn't resist a random post with random pics and a slightly off-topic polemic from Mr Kunstler, posted with the usual disclaimer re USA angle and apocalyptic merriment.

Best read after watching Idiocracy!


The Fate of the Yeast People by James Howard Kunstler

Every time I do a Q and A after a college lecture, somebody says (with a fanfare of indignation) — so as to reveal their own brilliance in contrast to my foolishness — "You haven’t said anything about overpopulation!"

Right. I usually don’t bother. Their complaint, of course, implies that we would do something about overpopulation if only we would recognize it. Which is absurd. What might we do about overpopulation here in the USA? Legislate a one-child policy? Set up an onerous set of bureaucratic protocols forcing citizens to apply for permission to reproduce? Direct the police to shoot all female babies? Use stimulus money to build crematoria outside of Nashville?

It’s certainly true that the planet is suffering from human population overshoot. We’re way beyond "carrying capacity." Only the remaining supplies of fossil fuels allow us to continue this process, and not for long, anyway. In the meantime, human reproduction rates are also greatly increasing the supply of idiots relative to resources, and that is especially problematic in the USA, where idiots rule the culture and polity.

The cocoon of normality prevents us from appreciating how peculiar and special recent times have been in this country. We suppose, tautologically, that because things have always seemed the way they are, that they always have been the way they seem. The collective human imagination is a treacherous place.

I’m fascinated by the dominion of moron culture in the USA, in everything from the way we inhabit the landscape — the fiasco of suburbia — to the way we feed ourselves — an endless megatonnage of microwaved Velveeta and corn byproducts — along with the popular entertainment offerings of Reality TV, the NASCAR ovals, and the gigantic evangelical church shows beloved in the Heartland. To evangelize a bit myself, if such a concept as "an offense in the sight of God" has any meaning, then the way we conduct ourselves in this land is surely the epitome of it — though this is hardly an advertisement for competing religions, who are well-supplied with morons, too.

Moron culture in the USA really got full traction after the Second World War. Our victory over the other industrial powers in that struggle was so total and stupendous that the laboring orders here were raised up to economic levels unknown by any peasantry in human history. People who had been virtual serfs trailing cotton sacks in the sunstroke belt a generation back were suddenly living better than Renaissance dukes, laved in air-conditioning, banqueting on "TV dinners," motoring on a whim to places that would have taken a three-day mule trek in their granddaddy’s day. Soon, they were buying Buick dealerships and fried chicken franchises and opening banks and building leisure kingdoms of thrill rides and football. It’s hard to overstate the fantastic wealth that a not-very-bright cohort of human beings was able to accumulate in post-war America.

And they were able to express themselves — as the great chronicler of these things, Tom Wolfe, has described so often and well — in exuberant "taste cultures" of material life, of which Las Vegas is probably the final summing-up, and every highway strip, of twenty-thousand strips from Maine to Oregon, is the democratic example. These days, I travel the road up the west shore of Lake George, in Warren County, New York, and see the sad, decomposing relics of that culture and that time in all the "playful" motels and leisure-time attractions, with their cracked plastic signs advertising the very things that they exterminated in the quest for adequate parking — the woodand vistas, the paddling Mohicans, the wolf, the moose, the catamount — and I take a certain serene comfort in the knowledge that it is all over now for this stuff and the class of morons that produced it.A very close friend of mine calls them "the yeast people." They were the democratic masses who thrived in the great fermentation vat of the post World War Two economy. They are now meeting the fate that any yeast population faces when the fermentation process is complete. For the moment, they are only ceasing to thrive. They are suffering and worrying horribly from the threat that there might be no further fermentation. The brewers running the vat try to assure them that there’s more sugar left in the mix, and more beer can be made from it, and more yeasts can be brought into this world to enjoy the life of the sweet, moist mash. In fact, one of the brewers did happen to dump about a trillion-and-a-half teaspoons of sugar into the vat during 2009, and that has produced an illusion of further fermentation. But we know all too well that this artificial stimulus has limits.

What will happen to the yeast people of the USA? You can be sure that the outcome will not yield to "policies" and "protocols." The economy that produced all that amazing wealth is contracting, and pretty rapidly, too, and the numbers among the yeast will naturally follow the downward arc of the story. Entropy is a harsh mistress. In the immediate offing: a contest for the table scraps of the 20th century. We’ve barely seen the beginning of this, just a little peevishness embodied by yeast shaman figures. As hardships mount and hardened emotions rise, we’ll see "the usual suspects" come into play: starvation, disease, violence. We may still be driving around in Ford F-150s, but the Pale Rider is just over the horizon beating a path to our parking-lot-of-the-soul.

It’s a sad and tragic process and, all lame metaphors aside, there are real human feelings at stake in our prospects for loss of every kind, but especially in the fate of people we love. The human race has known catastrophe before and come through it. There’s some credible opinion that "this time it’s different" but who really knows? We have our 2012 apocalypse movies. The people of the 14th century, savaged by the Black Death, had their woodcuts of dancing skeletons. Feudalism was wiped out in that earlier calamity but, whaddaya know, less than a century after that the Renaissance emerged in a wholly new culture of cities. Maybe we will emerge from our culture of free parking to a new society of living, by necessity, much more lightly on the planet and for a long time, perhaps long enough to allow the terrain to recover from all the free parking.

more midford

© Ron Strutt 15.5.2005



© Dr Duncan Pepper 21.9.2008



© Derek Harper 25.8.2008



© John Thorn 1962

Some more shots recently found on Geograph. All show Midford over the years, the later shots giving a real sense of the permanence of S&D structures. It's going to be quite something when the trains start running across the viaduct again!

Binegar 1967

Another interesting shot from the Geograph site. This is Binegar station in September 1967 after closure and before track ifting.

Image Copyright Tudor Williams. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

how not to run a railway

This is amazing. You would think the country was awash in money rather than being in a deep recession. Each of these signs seems -to me - perfectly adequate for many years of use. Yet the company erecting them has been quite happy to waste further paint on putting 'temorary sign' on each and will no doubt be wasting further resources on producing what will be essentially duplicates when the signs are replaced. To me this is an argument for more privatization because surely a private company would never have wasted money like this?

Rest assured the New S&D will not engage in this madness!

play your cards right

Just arrived today are our membership cards, thanks to Paul Beard. They look very smart!

I will be sending these out, together with Right Lines number 1, over the coming week or so.

This is not all of them by the way! New S&D membership now stands at 42, so we're approaching our first landmark (50). If you've been putting off joining then please don't hesitate any further. Our 50th member will receive a free very good bottle of complimentary wine (from my own cellar, not New S&D funds!).

Oddly enough I got a bottle of wine when I joined Midsomer Norton as I was the 250th member to join!

We will be doing a big membership push in 2010. So far 90% of members have joined via this blog!

new resource

(Photo © Tudor Williams 16.9.1967)

I've just been pointed in the direction of a fabulous resource which aims to cover every part of the UK in photos. Whilst this is primarily a contemporary archive my hope would be that it also becomes a historical resource, and not just due to the passage of time!

I found the above gem within minutes (after searching Hartcliffe, Littlehampton and Leadhills!). It shows Midsomer Norton 18 months after closure and before tracklifting. This may be the first time this shot has reached such a large audience.

The site is Geograph and can be found here. Expect more gems over the next few weeks as I travel up and down the route ...

a credit

A credit to Midsomer Norton is the superb Midland Mark One coach now on site. I'm proud to say that I'm a part owner of this, but only got to see if for the first time this month.

The interior looks great and I can't wait to see this being used for passenger trains at MN, hopefully in 2010.

You can contribute to the upkeep of this coach via the New Somerset and Dorset website.

new midsomer norton pics

(All above Steve Sainsbury 6.11.2009)

Check out these bang up to date photos of Midsomer Norton recently loaded by Nick Howes, spiritual founder of the S&D revival.

kunstler again

We haven't heard from James Howard Kunstler for a while. I know he's not to everybody's taste, but he does put things more succinctly than I do, and it's easy for me to just cut and paste for a change! Obviously this is from the USA's angle, but it's also totally apposite here, if not more so, as we're further down the international pecking order ...

Too Big NOT To Fail

In The Long Emergency (2005, Atlantic Monthly Press), I said that we ought to expect the federal government to become increasingly impotent and ineffectual — that this would be a hallmark of the times. In fact, I said that any enterprise organized at the colossal scale would function poorly in years ahead, whether it was a government, a state university, a national chain retail company, or a giant midwestern farm. It is characteristic of the compressive contraction our society faces that giant hyper-complex systems will wobble and fail. We should expect this.There are going to be a lot of disappointed people out there who will be suffering terrible losses and real pain in daily life. Societies don’t do well when the public falls into the broad despair that is the opposite of hope. That’s when the long knives and the tribal animosities come out and things get smashed.

Within the context of conventional party politics — the kind that has been baseline “normal” in the USA for a long time — we see this playing out in two factions that are increasingly out-of-touch with reality. The Obama government has made itself hostage to a toxic form of pretense and lying. In order to sustain the wish for “hope” — if not hope itself — the President and his White House advisors along with his cabinet appointments, are pretending that the historical forces of compressive contraction are not underway. They’re flat-out lying about the employment figures issued in the government’s name. They’re willfully ignoring the comprehensive bankruptcy gripping government at all levels. They refuse to bring the law to bear against “the malefactors of great wealth.” They appear to not understand the epochal energy scarcity problem the whole world faces, or its implications for industrial economies. Most of all, they persist in promoting the lie that this economy can return to the prior state of reckless debt accumulation (a.k.a “consumerism”) that has made us so ridiculous and unhealthy.

The trouble with self-delusion, either in a person or a society, is that reality doesn’t care what anybody believes, or what story they put out. Reality doesn’t “spin.” Reality does not have a self-image problem. Reality does not yield its workings to self-esteem management. These days, Americans don’t like reality very much because it won’t let them push it around. Reality is an implacable force and the only question for human beings in the face of it is: what will you do? In other words, it’s not really possible to manage reality, but you can certainly choose to manage your affairs within reality. We won’t do that because it’s too difficult. This harsh situation leaves the public increasingly with little more than bad feelings of discouragement and persecution.

Reality unfolds emergently, and this ought to interest us. For instance, I have maintained for many years that we are approaching the twilight of the automobile age — and the implications of this for daily life in the USA are pretty large. For a long time, I had assumed that this change of circumstances would proceed from our problems with the oil supply. But reality is sly. It has thrown two new plot twists into the story lately. America’s romance with cars may not founder just on the fuel supply question. It now appears that our problems with capital are so severe that far fewer people will be able to borrow money from banks to buy cars at the rate, and in the way, that the system has been organized to depend on. Our problems with capital are also depriving us of the ability to pay to fix the hypercomplex system of county roads, interstate highways, and even city streets that make motoring possible. What will we do?

For now, a cashless government gives out cash-for-clunkers, which is basically a self-esteem building program designed to make the government feel better about itself because it is ostensibly taking 11-miles-per-gallon cars off the road and replacing them with 27-miles-per-gallon cars, thus forestalling scary problems with climate change. It’s dumb of course, but the failure of leadership is comprehensive. Even the elite environmentalists at the Aspen Institute are preoccupied with finding new “green” ways to keep all the cars running. They put zero effort into the idea of walkable communities, or restoring the railroad system, which will be the reality-based remedies for the car-dependency problem.The extreme right is, if anything, even more childishly delusional. For them it comes down to “drill, baby, drill.” They know nothing about the geology of oil — they don’t even believe that the earth is more than six-thousand years old, meaning they don’t believe in geology, period — but they are inflamed with the faith of eight-year-old children that we must have a lot more oil in the ground because this is America and God loves us more than people in other parts of the planet so it must be there. As their disappointment mounts, their childish ideas will turn cruel and sadistic. They’ll seek to punish anybody who believes that the earth is more than six thousand years old. The catch is, if they get into power in the election cycles ahead, they’ll be impotent and ineffectual even at persecuting their enemies.

In the meantime, American life will just wind down, no matter what we believe. It won’t wind down to a complete stop. Its near-term destination is to lower levels of complexity and scale than what we’ve been used to for a long time. People will be able to drive fewer cars fewer miles. The roads will get worse. They’ll be worse in some places than others. There will be fewer jobs to go to and fewer things sold. People who live in communities scaled to the energy and capital realities of the years ahead are liable to be more comfortable. We’re surely going to have trouble with money. Households will drown in debt and lose all their savings. Money could be scarce or worthless. Credit will be scarcer.

Both factions of American political life indulge in the fiction of control. History is reality’s big brother. It is taking us someplace that we don’t want to go, so it will probably have to drag us there kicking and screaming. For starters, both reality and history will probably take us out to some woodshed of the national soul and beat the crap out of us. That could be a salutary thing, since the crap consists of all the lies we tell ourselves. Once we’re rid of all that, we may rediscover a few things left inside our collective identity that are worth regarding with real self-respect.

authenticity

D1120 at Midsomer Norton 6.11.2009

This is a sight for sore eyes! This was the first time I'd seen the resident diesel at Midsomer norton in its new livery. What an incredible improvement on the odd Prussian blue livery it used to sport!

I never got the way certain rail enthusiasts spent years getting the infrastructure looking right only to have the whole illusion destroyed by inappropriate liveries. Midsomer Norton is supposed to represent the station as it was in 1955 or thereabouts. Yet up till last year this diesel appeared in what to all intents and purposes looked like an industrial locomotive livery.

Another feather in Midsomer Norton's cap. And a historic picture. How much longer before diesel locomotives vanish entirely as their fuel sources dry up?

nothing's impossible

For those pessimists who are convinced that nothing good ever happens, remember that today we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

We can achieve anything if we have the will and the skills and the belief to make it happen.

I was laughed at in the mid 80s for predicting the fall of the Wall, but I never wavered in my belief it would happen. In fact things happened so quickly that I nearly missed it, eventually visiting Berlin in December 1989 where I took the pictures above. A few months later it was all gone ...

hitting home

A gem from Mick Knox -

The picture of Midford is pure nostalgia. I even like the unclutted road, neat verges and the concrete & wire fencing. No pikey palisade fencing anywhere to be seen, unlike today’s Britain (Chilcompton Tunnel road access as an example). We have so much to admire in the transport infrastructure the Victorian’s bequeathed us, and yet we didn’t, and judging by Leicester City council demolition of the Braunstone Gate GC Bridge (ongoing), still don’t. I would love to see the S&D reborn, and deep down I know I will, because whatever happens with oil, you can’t just rely on one transport solution, i.e. roads. That was the mistake of the past, because somebody (like Mr Marples?) saw to it that everything had to go by road. And this is the view of a petrolhead, who still can enjoy driving, has motorcycles, has driven HGV’s, and started his working life as a vehicle mechanic in the army. The train is the superior form of transport and is once again on the rise in Europe and especially China. If the Beeching era had never happened here we would all have been better off, even those who never used a train, as the roads would have been less congested. So rail will once again rise here, especially when outside of the control of politicians, so let’s make the Somerset & Dorset the example and support the New S&D, and all groups aiming to preserve the route. United we triumph. Anyone noticed how oil is creeping up in price again? During a recession!

I'm planning a piece on oil very soon so Mick's comment is very timely. It also hits on something that's, to me at least, a little difficult to define. But do as Mick has and look at this site's header picture of Midford. Our built environment does not have to be forbidding and characterless. It can be modern but human scale. The S&D did this brilliantly, fitting in and enhancing the environment wherever it ran. The New S&D will do the same.

imminent launch

All New S&D members will soon be receiving their first ever newsletter/magazine. The first issue will be a computer generated mag, probably 4 to 6 pages, but we do have big plans for our magazine, inspired by the superb S&D Telegraph that is produced by Midsomer Norton.

I would LOVE to have correspondents from each of the active sections of the S&D - ie Midsomer Norton, Shillingstone, Sturminster Newton, Blandford and Gartell as well as from Washford. This will be a magazine for the WHOLE line. The New S&D exists in part to unify the disparate sections and groups currently operating along the route and at Washford. Almost all of our membership are members of these other groups and we get messages of support from individual members of these groups almost every day.

In addition to this we are developing our website as the primary historical resource for the S&D, searchable by everybody. This will be a particularly useful resource for writers and researchers, teachers and others along the route.

So what I'm asking for is correspondents who can send news and/or photos from Midsomer Norton, Gartell, Shillingstone, Washford, Blandford Arches and Sturminster Rail Group. Also photos of the line and stations from any point in its history including the temporary closure period, as well as stories from the line (again post closure is fine), oral histories, small artefacts etc etc.

This is all in addition to our primary role of purchasing sections of the route, lobbying government at all levels and supporting active groups along the route, financially and with manpower.

To get involved please email leysiner@aol.com or write to New S&D, 10 Bellamy Avenue, Hartcliffe, BRISTOL, BS13 0HW.

greenhouse progress

It's great to see the Midsomer Norton greenhouse reappearing. I had once hoped to be overseeing this project myself, and even took a bricklaying course, but events overtook me!

It looks like all the brickwork is now in place, the rest of the greenhouse being wood and glass. Hopefully the greenhouse will soon be providing fresh vegetables and fruit for the catering coach.

This was such an iconic feature at Midsomer Norton and another reminder that that which was once destroyed can easily be replaced providing the willpower, manpower and cash are available. This should be an inspiration to us all.

It also says a great deal that in the past workers on the railway were given the time and freedom to pursue these activities. Far from being a drain on the company's resources it would have given workers at the station one more reason to be loyal to the railway and to be happy within their working lives. The New S&D will be pursuing this modern attitude to worker relations as we restore the whole route. The greenhouse is a symbol of this.

motorway madness

Austin at Cheddar!


Classic car style.


Midford.


Midsomer Norton yesterday.

It was quite sad watching the news this week as they attempted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the M1. They failed miserably.

Driving is not fun. The average drive is ruined by poor drivers, lorries, buses, tractors, cyclists etc. You are stressed 90% of the time. there's no pleasure in it. It's not cool. It's just a chore.

If anything this event proves that we don't expect road travel to last much longer. They were trying to stir a mix of 'glamour' and nostalgia into something as vile as a motorway. Why apply nostalgia to something that we're supposed to believe will last forever?

I was once accused of being anti-car. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have travelled all over Europe by car and van. I was a professional driver for four years. I probably have almost as many photos of cars as I do of trains! I think the cars of the 50s and 60s had superb design and were great fun. But since then everything's gone downhill. Try as we might we'll never invest cars and roads with a thousandth of the romance of railways. Even the imminent death of cars and roads will not bring about any great regrets. Many of us, remembering hours stuck in jams, displays of amateur driving and having to fork out for repairs etc, will be glad to see the back of them.

Look at the shot of Midford above, then think about the average road. There's no comparison.

So what's my point?

We don't have to live in a world of squalor, poor design, vandalism, environmental damage. These are all choices, made through ignorance or a false sense of economy. If we want it we can live in a world where architecture and modern transport systems combine to give us a real sense of achievement and well-being, where we all work at jobs we enjoy and where we work with nature rather than against it. The New S&D is all about this. There'll be no nostalgia in what we do, no cutting corners and no working against nature. We'll create a sustainable transport infrastructure that people will enjoy using and which enhances the environment through which it runs, much as the old S&D did.

And it will make a profit!

return to midsomer norton

I made a surprise trip to Midsomer Norton today (Pics above) and was very impressed. The above shots are tasters - will do more thorough posts over the next few days!

Apologies for no posts over the last few days but I've been extremely busy with (paying!) work!

more midford

Thanks to Westfield Wanderers for pulling me up on this!

He asked -

No mention in your piece about the cycle route which can be seen passing through the site. What are your plans in the short to medium term with this? How is your relationship with Sustrans?

My reply -

Sorry I didn't cover this in the original post - Sustrans is of course the other presence at Midford we'll need to work closely with.

The cycle route won't be affected by our plans, at least in the short to medium term. It may be that at some stage, if we decide to lay track (for cosmetic reasons) that the cycleway will be diverted alongside and along the platform. Eventually of course we'll need to work closely with Sustrans to divert the cycle route slightly away from the railway, but this is enshrined in the terms of the lease that Sustrans currently holds, which require them to vacate the railway trackbed when a REAL railway (that is a line that is primarily a transport as opposed to heritage line) is reinstated. In other words until the line is restored as a fully working public railway the cycleway will stay in place.

We expect our relations with Sustrans to be superb as we are both sustainable transport organisations. We would love to see a cycle route running from Bath to Bournemouth, alongside the S&D wherever possible, with preferential fares for cyclists at all points.

I think it's very important to remember that the New S&D will be a major employer, the primary transport link and the only way to move large numbers of people and freight in the future along this important transport corridor, so nothing will deflect us from our very important task!

midford today

We are likely to be taking over ownership of Midford early in 2010. With this in mind I paid a visit today.

The site as always is breathtaking, especially the approach from Hinton Charterhouse with the line hugging the hillside. The station site and the trackbed to the southern arch of the Long Arch Bridge (the section we will be buying) is very well kept, the platform at Midford is particularly well preserved.

One issue that will have to be addressed early on is our relationship with the Hope and Anchor. They own the station car park and, understandably, don't want visitors' cars filling up their car park at busy times. Workers at the site will no doubt be able to park vehicles either on the old trackbed or on the platform itself, but obviously we'll need to sort out visitor parking at an early date. This will probably involve some cost to us, either through buying permits or buying or renting part of the car park, or at the very least restricting parking at busy times for the pub. But obviously this new visitor attraction will bring MANY new customers to the pub, and the station will be even more important to the pub when the oil starts getting too expensive for people to drive.

This sort of situation will no doubt occur at every location we purchase, but it will always be our intention to work with local established businesses. That's really what we're about - keeping the local economy going through difficult times.

In the event of a visitor parking solution not being found then Midford will simply be preserved within our Land Bank until it is. Expect more news soon!

majorca's future

I'm away for a couple of days from this evening to enjoy the Halloween delights of Pontins, Brean Sands.

Still on the holiday theme just a few reflections on our previous trip to Majorca.

Majorca is investing heavily in its transport future with a rebuilt railway network, new metro and planned tramways. Everything is switching from road to rail, as it should.

Majorca is, of course, primarily a tourist destination and much of its economy depends on visitors, an excellent reason for providing cheap, modern and efficient public transport. But it's also an island, and this may cause real problems in the future. Almost all visitors currently arrive by air, but air travel is doomed, no matter how much we don't want it to be.

Whilst resorts on the mainland will be served by high speed rail in the future there's no such future for Majorca - the island simply lies too far off shore to be connected by tunnel. So visitors in the future will need to arrive by boat. Will people bother? If anything Majorca will have to make itself even more attractive so investment in public transport is likely to increase.

We had a comment the other day from a group in Majorca that are opposed to the extension of the Manacor line to Arta. They are quite seriously suggesting buses can do the job! To be fair to them they are not anti public transport, and think the money that will be spent on the Arta line will be better spent elsewhere. But they obviously haven't had their Peak Oil Moment yet. How exactly will buses carry freight? How will buses tempt travellers from their cars? They haven't anywhere else in the world, so what will be different in Majorca? Trams tempt people from cars, as do trains. Trains and trams can carry freight. They are also not subject to congestion.

The line to Arta will be built, as will the proposed branch to Porto Christo. The anti rail group are 100% wrong.

But then there are still people who think the Earth is flat!

website developments

One of our big projects is to create a superb S&D website. Up to now it's mainly been about the future, but I believe there is a continuum right through from the original opening of the line in 1854 through the temporary closure period, to its current stirrings and through to its 21st century role as a vital sustainable transport link.

I feel that the website should also serve as an important resource for S&D fans, past, present and future. To this end we've already half completed the 'stations' section, and have just made the first steps towards building a 'locomotives that have worked on the S&D' section, which will be an enormous job!

The ideal is to have a site that first and foremost keeps our diaspora of fans and members in touch with what's happening on the ground, at Midford, Midsomer Norton, Shillingstone, Masbury, Gartell, Washford and Sturminster Newton but which also contains within its depths every single piece of information you will ever need to write books, articles, build models etc etc. I'd like eventually a huge photo resource of the line at all points in time, video library and even an oral history section (with transcripts).

To this end all photos, stories etc etc, as well as offers of help with content, from ANY angle (not just the historical!) are most welcome!

final confirmation of peak oil ...

Peak Oilers generally are employed in the oil exploration or economics fields, but we're beginning to see Peak Oil break out of this rarified ghetto. Many investment advisers are now making the clear link between oil prices and the general economy and, surprisingly perhaps, the oil price is now being seen by some as the main determinant of an economy's performance.

This is a marker as to how things are developing, as are the huge price swings in oil since Hurricane Katrina. All of this was forecast by Peak Oil pioneers over a decade ago.

I know that Peak Oil is a far more technical subject than is (media-friendly) Climate Change. It doesn't have the same frisson or sense of excitement as does wild weather, we've not seen many films about it (the documentary Crude Impact is one, but no fiction as yet), no 'Day After Tomorrow' or the rubbish shown on Sci-Fi channel every week. There are only four novels using Peak Oil as a theme, though there are hundreds of factual works. But in many ways it is a far bigger threat to our way of life than is climate change, and certainly in the transport field it is of paramount importance. It still amazes me that most rail professionals and amateurs still don't allude to it. Whether that's through ignorance or fear is hard to say!

This is really an introduction to yet another pilfered article that these days arrive almost daily in my in box, coming almost exclusively from investment professionals. I know some of you don't like the Peak Oil stuff, others don't like my trips away from the S&D, but it is all grist to the mill. You can always skip these bits, but remember, this will affect you in the future and there are things you can do today to ease the transition for you and your family to a post peak oil world. I don't go for the apocalyptic approach, the situation is not only survivable but we should come out the other end living in a far better world, with different priorities and a different pace of life.


The biggest threat to the recovery – the soaring oil price

Oil cartel Opec is starting to get a bit twitchy about the soaring oil price.

The Angolan oil minister, Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos, reckons that $75-$80 a barrel is the optimum level for both consumers and producers. We’ll come back to that view in a moment. But he’s also worried. If the price keeps rising towards $100 a barrel, Opec members might be open to pumping a bit "more oil into the market," he says.

But why should Opec be worried by rising prices? And can they do anything about them?

Oil's threatening to escape its 'optimal' price

The world is gradually succumbing to the notion that we’re back in Goldilocks territory. Economic policy is "not too hot and not too cold" – it’s "just right". The one big blot on the horizon is the rocketing oil price.

Although it slipped back yesterday, oil has recently clawed its way above the $80 a barrel mark. That’s threatening to escape from its ‘optimum’ range of $75 to $80 a barrel, says Opec president, Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos. "I think a balanced price is always better."

Now I can’t claim to have any idea where Opec gets this optimal ‘balanced price’ of $75-$80 a barrel from. I suspect that it simply comes down to what they think they can get away with. Bear in mind that at any point in history other than the past two years, an oil price at that sort of level would have been deemed an utter catastrophe for the global economy. After Hurricane Katrina, for example, the highest the oil price rose was to just over $70 a barrel.

So it’s quite impressive that oil producers have managed to ‘sell’ the idea of $70 plus for a barrel of oil as an aspirational target price, rather than a horrendously expensive level for the world’s key raw material.

Why Opec is concerned about the soaring oil price

But now even Opec is concerned. For one thing, once you get to this price, countries and independent producers have much greater incentive to seek both alternative energy sources, and alternative oil sources. Investment in these areas has been hit by the recession, but it’ll soon pick up again if it looks like $80 oil is here to stay. So by a ‘balanced’ oil price, Opec means one which generates lots of profit for them, but is still not sufficiently attractive to encourage serious investment in alternatives.

And of course, there’s the little matter of the global economy. One of my key personal economic barometers is the price at the petrol pump. When the price per litre dipped briefly below 90p earlier this year, I felt that little bit richer. Now that it’s pushing £1.10 again, I’m wondering where to cut back.

As Neil Atkinson at KBC Services tells The Times, "if the oil price continues to rise in the next week or two, there is a danger that the economic recovery will be strangled at birth." A fresh collapse in the global economy would of course hammer the oil price again.

So Opec wants to avoid killing the golden goose. High oil prices sow the seeds of their own destruction, and the oil cartel would ideally like to find the ‘Goldilocks’ level at which they can make handsome profits while allowing the global economy to stay afloat.

But can Opec increase production faster than the world’s central banks can increase the money supply? If oil prices are being driven higher by the same thing pushing up every other asset class – cheap and free-flowing money – then Opec’s efforts to fiddle with supply and demand will have little impact on the price.

This is a serious threat to the current ‘recovery’. Andy Xie argues in the South China Morning Post that high oil prices in 2006 were the "final straw that tipped the US property market" – US consumers squeezed by rising petrol (gas) prices finally succumbed to the weight of their unaffordable debts. He also argues that the resurgence of oil in 2008 "pulled the rug out from under the derivatives bubble."

An oil bubble, he says, is different from others. It hurts consumption, and it also drives inflation higher, which eventually results in tighter monetary conditions. "Oil speculation is the party crasher, even though it destroys itself by destroying others."

How to protect your portfolio from the oil price rise

He reckons that there’s a good chance that we’ll see $100 oil again sooner rather than later. But that will almost certainly mean a "double-dip" recession in 2010, as once fiscal stimulus is pulled out of the economy, consumers are unlikely to pick up the slack, due to high levels of unemployment. John Mauldin of Investors Insight agrees – he also "firmly believes" that we’re heading for a double-dip recession in the next 18 months. And during a recession, he points out, share prices fall by an average of 40% – so "adjust your portfolios accordingly," he advises.

Source http://www.moneyweek.com/

quick return to palma

Traffic filled streets - this one seen from a passing train!


Typical off peak loading on Palma buses.


Electric traction is already in Palma - this is the very recently opened metro railway in the Placa D'Espanya.


Yet another packed bus!

Apologies for returning to Majorca whilst in the midst of a New S&D roll, but if I don't do it now I never will!

The buzz in Palma is that tram construction will start soon. Spain has been opening new tramways at a quickening pace so Majorca's missing out a bit. The Government of the Islas Balaeres decided years ago that they were going to switch from a road-based to a rail-based economy, solid evidence of this shift are the reopened railways to Manacor and Sa Pobla (see earlier post) and the brand new Metro to the University, as well as the amazing rail/Metro/bus/future tram station underneath the Placa D'España.

The first tramways will be from Palma to the airport and to Arenal. We stay in Arenal - probably the only Brits to do so as it is otherwise 95% German and 5% Dutch - so this line will be very useful to us. There are regular buses to Palma, via the backstreets(15) and motorway (25), running every ten minutes or so, but they are hopelessly crowded. As most of the users are holidaymakers they don't have access to cars so the bus is essential (and very cheap). And the Dutch and Germans love their trams!

Once buses reach this level of capacity - that's full to standing every five minutes (taking into account both routes) - then trams become the obvious solution. Of course they are also more 'environmentally friendly' as there's no pollution from the vehicles themselves, giving a cleaner atmosphere. They are also seen as modern and classy as opposed to the old, smelly and 'common' buses. Majorca should have little difficulty generating most of its energy needs from solar power as otherwise it's quite vulnerable to energy problems as a small island. This was probably also behind the government's transport strategy, even if not overtly stated!

Majorca does of course already have a tramway, at Soller, so it's hardly an alien concept. Palma itself had a decent tramway network until 1959 when it was abandoned in the rather strange atmosphere of the times.

I suspect that when the tramway is built, and construction is due to start very soon, other areas around Palma, and I'm thinking particularly of Magaluf, will clamour for theirs. I've already decided not to return to Majorca until there are new railways and tramways in place to tempt me back!

One last post on Majorca to follow very soon, then I promise S&D stuff - at least until I go away to Barcelona in February where, surprise surprise, there are new tramways ...

reorientation

We are all in for a big reorientation over the next 20 to 30 years.

With respect to the rebuilt S&D we are not only looking at restoring the 'classic' routes, Bournemouth to Bath and Evercreech to Burnham, but adding extra capacity and flexibility by including new links to Brockenhurst via Wimborne and Ringwood and to Bristol via Pensford, and also looking at the whole provision of rail to Glastonbury and Wells by not dismissing the possibility of building a wholly new route from these two important tourist towns over the Mendips to a junction near Masbury rather than simply restoring the original route from Evercreech Junction. We also expect that the entire main line will need to be double tracked including the long Blandford to Templecombe section, though with the obvious proviso of physical limitations north of Midford into Bath!

In the wider transport field all communities will need to look at how they are actually arranged. Suburbs, where they are still viable, will need trams or ULR to continue to allow them to thrive. Businesses needing incoming and outgoing transport will need to be located next to a rail or tram route with larger concerns having private sidings. Many industries will need to reconnect using their own private industrial lines. Whole swathes of manufacturing and service industries will vanish with the withering of pure consumerism. Seaside resorts benefitting from an improving (warming) climate and the end of cheap air travel will need to ensure they are connected to the network and outlying parts of their resort connected to the nearest network station by tram. Everything will need to be sustainable both in embedded energy and energy used to operate. Farms will need to be connected to the network by light rail to allow produce to reach markets which will also, of course, need to be rail served.

And individually, and as families, we will all need to reorientate the way we live. Within 20 to 30 years the idea that we once all - or nearly all - had access to private motorised transport will seem incredible. The electric car, now the only serious option in a post-oil society, will wither on the vine as the roads themselves fail without affordable materials for repair and under the new political regimes that will do everything they can to reduce private transport, using the oil price first, then rationing then actually outlawing private vehicles. This will not of course be a concatenation of political decisions but economic imperatives, so will be applicable to anyone who is voted in. None of this is rocket science.

We'll need to change the way we work, many of us will have to relocate, as close as we can to rail transport, grow our own food and live more locally-based lives. Personally I hope we retain our love of travel even if many are counting on us giving it all up. I don't think this will be the end of history or of, indeed, progress. But I do think we are all going to have to sit back and relax for a few generations until everything is totally reorientated towards a truly sustainable society. Once that's in place technology can start to develop again. I'm sorry if I'm an incurable optimist, but it's a position I've arrived at after many decades of pushing the boundaries!

(Apologies for using continental European images for this article - but they are so far ahead of us!!)