All change please

That could be the theme for 2008, when we all hope for a better year than that we have just had. In my case though it refers to my extended festive break up in Scouse.

But first things first, the blog has had a rest for a few weeks, so I would now like to wish all my regular and itinerant visitors a very happy new year, and I wish you all you wish yourselves for 2008, be it a new job, new home, different lifestyle, or just more of the same....go for it.

Clearly i was hoping for 2007 to present me with a new home, but for now I will just have to put myself in the hands of the local estate agents again and hope for a change of fortune sometime soon. A new job would also be handy, with something at the Olympic Games being favourite at the moment.

Now as tenuous links go, we have one here. My extended break up North was facilitated by some rather basic cock-ups by Network Rail, as they tried to cram too may engineering upgrades into the holiday period. As I was carless over the holiday, I was therefore faced with either a nine hour trip back to London, via Sheffield or waiting for the West Coast line to reopen.

So sitting on my Virgin train on Friday I was very disappointed that the world renowned Scouse humour seemed to desert the train driver and he missed the opportunity to apologise to the passengers for the train being two days late departing...Oh well, I made it back OK and am now ready to resume normal life.

Oh yes, the tenuous link. well, two high-profile figures are in the frame over the shambles that has blighted the railway system.

One is John Armitt, 61, who was the chief executive of Network Rail until he retired last July. He set the strategy to implement the improvement programme that has inflicted so much misery on the travelling public.

He had been credited for the recovery of the rail industry after the Railtrack debacle.
Now the inability of Network Rail to deliver a project on time will raise alarm in Whitehall, given that his new task is to make sure that London is ready for the 2012 Olympics.

I understand in some quarters the project is now being referred to as London 2014!!!!!