Monthly Archives: February 2007

In praise of Virgin Trains

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On Friday night, a Virgin Pendolino train from London to Glasgow was derailed at high speed in Cumbria, killing one passenger. All our thoughts are with the families of those involved.

This morning, I stepped onto a Pendolino at Watford Junction to travel to Chester. I did so without any hesitation. Amazingly, my trains were on time in both directions – impressive given that the west coast main line is closed north of Lancaster. Richard Branson and Network Rail boss John Armitt showed great dignity in responding to the tragedy.

Today’s Guardian leader rightly says we should emphasise how safe our railways are, even after Friday’s accident. Ten people have died on British trains in the last five years, compared with 15,000 deaths on the roads.

Bank boss gives it all up to sell Arsenal programmes (perhaps)…

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Alliance & Leicester boss Richard Pym surprised the City yesterday by announcing he was stepping down as the bank’s chief executive.

He added he had no plans yet "except perhaps fulfil a childhood dream to sell programmes at the Arsenal".

This seems a commendable thing – but I do wonder that if he really wanted to do this as a boy, why didn’t he?

Wales_programme_1985 I speak as a former programme seller myself. Just the once, mind. One night in 1985 my friend Anthony Beer and I sold programmes at the dramatic Wales v Scotland World Cup qualifier game at Ninian Park, Cardiff. My diary notes that we were the only sellers inside the ground; we went down the players’ tunnel as the Welsh national anthem was played. We had to exchange programmes for cash through the netting that kept fans from the pitch – not so easy when many fans wanted five or more! We soon ran out of our initial 500 – the Welsh FA had printed just 20,000 programmes for a crowd of 40,000.

We saw Mark Hughes give Wales an early lead before Scotland snatched a draw through a very dubious penalty, ending Wales’ hopes of playing in the 1986 Mexico finals. Afterwards, we passed Scotland’s Willie Miller being interviewed live on ITV as we took our takings in to the offices under the grandstand next to the dressing room. It was there that we heard that the Scotland manager, Jock Stein, had collapsed. Later, we heard the tragic news that he had died. We collected our £10 seller’s fees and walked out of the ground as an ambulance driver manoeuvred to avoid a Securicor van. Scottish and British football had lost a legend – the first manager to lead a club from these islands to victory in the European Cup.

So, Mr Pym, selling programmes can be just as dramatic as running a bank!

“May I marry your daughter?”

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Interesting article in The Guardian today posing the question whether men planning to propose to their partners should ask their prospective father-in-law for permission before popping the question.

The writer, Elle Levenson, is outraged by this apparent symbol of female dependence on men. But to her amazement, her female friends find it touching.

I’m with Elle on this one. I didn’t check with my father-in-law before asking Karen to marry me. I couldn’t see any reason – any more than I’d expect Karen to phone my father (or should that be my Mum?) before accepting. Yet many of my female friends, including independent-minded women in their late twenties and early thirties, are in favour of this traditional practice. What do you think?

Cycling around Tetbury and Fosse Way

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I enjoy The Guardian’s Country Diary, which happily sits amongst comment and letters about nuclear power, the state of the economy and ‘stern Kenyan abuses’.

Today’s column brought back happy memories. It describes a winter’s cycle ride to Tetbury in Gloucestershire, near the ancient Fosse Way.

I made a similar bike ride 11 years ago, when I was living in Ashton Keynes in Wiltshire. I had just got a new, lighter bike and was keen to try it out. The weather was February-raw, but it was fascinating to spot the abandoned sections of the Roman road in the weak sunlight.

Two years later, I saw Fosse Way from the air, thanks to a friend who owned a microlight based at Kemble airfield. Not far away, the Ridgeway offers another ancient route through the countryside in rather wilder countryside – at least by the standards of Southern England.

The plane that fell to earth

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Can you imagine an airline that killed one passenger in every 385 that it carried?

That was the shocking record of an airline that once flew between Britain and South America. A British airline, a forerunner of British Airways, called British South American Airways.

BSAA was run by Don Bennett, the leader of the wartime Pathfinder Force, which led bomber raids during the Second World War. Bennett tried to reassure civil aviation bosses that BSAA had a far better safety record than his Pathfinders – as if losing fewer passengers than bomber crews was a suitable benchmark for an airline.   

I’ve just read Jay Rayner’s fascinating book, Star Dust Falling, about the airline and its most famous crash, that of the Lancastrian airliner Star Dust in the Andes in 1947. The wreckage was finally discovered over 50 years later. Rayner tells the moving story of the passengers who lost their lives when the aircraft hit a mountain side. Amazingly, it took further tragedy before Bennett was fired.

A winter’s tale: the BBC’s southern bias

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Last week’s snowy weather in parts of Britain proved once again that nothing is news to the BBC unless it affects London and south east England.

News 24 went into overdrive: Britain was at a standstill. Arctic conditions had overtaken the island and we were valiantly struggling on. Think of it as a wintry Dunkirk. Wyre Davies tried to look the intrepid reporter in the snow-swept Brecon Beacons. But the grass peeping through the snow confirmed this wasn’t 1963 or 1947. (And the A470 behind him looked easy-going for a Morris Minor, never mind a 4×4.) 

But much of Britain was unaffected by the snow, as the BBC news website sheepishly acknowledged. Many regions will have already experienced winter weather, but you’d never have known that from the BBC.

Talking of weather, why are the forecasts on the BBC weather website so often completely wrong? This weekend, they would have tempted you to cancel any plans to venture outside. Yet the heavy rain completely failed to materialise. Sunday was supposed to be the worst day, yet we enjoyed periods of lovely sunshine in Bucks and not a spot of rain.

A glimpse of 1970s Cardiff

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Cardiff_queen_street_1I found this wonderful old photo of Cardiff today. It shows Queen Street, the Welsh capital’s main shopping road, before it became traffic-free in 1975. Judging by the gleaming K-reg Rover on the left I’d say it was taken in 1972 or 1973.

The details are fascinating. Every car is British. The Dutch clothing store C&A was still a household name (it left Britain in 2000). British Home Stores had yet to become BhS, and was pioneering frozen food at the time the photo was taken. Top Rank Suite enjoyed the glam rock era.

The crane in the background was building Brunel House, which was meant to house British Rail’s Western Region headquarters. (Another botched reorganisation at the taxpayers’ expense…) The Venetian-looking building on the right once overlooked the Glamorgan canal, which entered a tunnel here. (It was filled in over 50 years ago.)

The sign for the hair removal clinic (above Stead & Simpson on the right) suggests we were already obsessed about appearances!

I wonder if any of the cars are still on the road?

Roald Dahl: a brilliant museum for a great storyteller

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Dsc00295 If you think of a museum as a dull place, think again. The nearly new Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, is an inspiration for young and old alike.

It’s truly hands-on: visitors can create their own film, invent crazy words and learn how Roald Dahl wrote his wonderful stories. It even has a mouse in a gobstopper jar.

Dsc00293_5We went with our friend Vanessa and her son Matthew. Matthew had a great time, and enjoyed sitting at a replica of Dahl’s writing desk.

Storytelling is timeless. Video games and the internet haven’t killed books, any more than radio and television did. Roald Dahl still captures the imagination, over 16 years after he died.

Our visit got me thinking about the books I read when I was growing up. One of my favourite authors was Malcolm Saville, whose Witchend books I loved. Most of Saville’s books were set around the dramatic Long Mynd in Shropshire. I liked the stories but the sense of place – especially as my aunt came from Shrewsbury – was a huge appeal. Another author I liked was Leon Garfield, although I found his books harder work. Finally, Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons were great fun. 

Scotland v Wales: trench warfare not rugby

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There have been better games at Murrayfield. Come to that, there have been better games on Roath Park rec in Cardiff.

Today’s Scotland v Wales Six Nations rugby international was 80 minutes of pergatory, as two poor sides indulged in trench warfare rather than flowing, thrilling rugby. It was a great advert for football: association football. The Scots won’t care, but I feel aggrieved that Wales, which won the grand slam with such style and hwyl two years ago, was so lacking in guile and skill. Another 80 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back…

I predict a blizzard

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(UPDATED)

Britain’s railways are closing down. Snow is forecast overnight and the rail network is getting its retaliation in early.

Today, Virgin Trains announced a slimmed down timetable for tomorrow (Thursday) – before a flake of snow has fallen. Other rail operators told us to check later.

It could be brilliant planning, enabling the railways to operate effectively as winter finally arrives. Or just an admission of defeat. We’ll know in the morning.

At least things are unlikely to be as bad as 1947, when Britain suffered the worst winter for decades. The Great Western Railway borrowed an early jet engine from the RAF to try to free a train that had been trapped for two days between Merthyr and Brecon. The GWR’s successor, British Railways, wasn’t going to risk a repeat. It closed the line in 1962 – just before the ferocious winter of 1963…

UPDATE, Thursday evening

Virgin Trains did me proud today. There were no through trains from Chester to London, but my train from Crewe to London arrived early. Maybe getting their retaliation in early was a masterstroke after all!