Sydney Carton

Yesterday I travelled into Canary Wharf  courtesy of the Docklands Light Railway. It is now a tried and tested part of the London transport infrastructure and it links the East End to South London using a series of disused and rebuilt railway tracks as well as some complex interchanges which have been built especially for the job.

It is a very effective way of getting around, the trains are driverless and the system is cashless as it utilises the Oyster card payment system. It links with the Croydon tram system which runs from Wimbledon to New Addington as well as the underground system at Bank, and the overground at Shadwell among other interchanges.

Compare that then with the efforts of Edinburgh to build and operate a tram line through their great city. SWMBO and I went up there this weekend to see the giant panda as well as have a couple of days break. Given it is two years since we were last there, we expected to see the trams buzzing up and down Princes Street crushed with people hanging on the sides like they do in San Francisco.

Lo, not a tram did we see. The engineering work started in 2008 so you would have thought that the route would be finished by now. The project, however, has been blighted by bad management, bad planning and constructor disputes which have several times put the whole project at risk.

For those not familiar with the topology of Edinburgh, the plan was to initially  run from Gogar in the West to Leith in the East. A single line would run through Haymarket, Princes Street and St Andrews Square  before joining Leith Street on its journey to the Forth and the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Why it did not start at the airport which is only a short hop from Gogar, I have no idea. It had no fans amongst the taxi drivers of the city, and as time went on, amongst the population either.

To save money, the line was modified to go from Gogar to St Andrews Square, where it could link with the mainline station and the bus depot, but now it has been reined back to stop at Haymarket, a projected eleven stops before St Andrews Square, and frankly, in the middle of nowhere.

The lines remain in place along the route, and this weekend the trams were tested at the Gogar marshaling yards. When they will start taking fee paying passengers remains to be seen. The project has over spent by an enormous amount. I just wonder if Scotland are to be trusted with their independence if this is the sort of project they would have control over.

Going, going, gone......

I started this blog in May 2007 to chart the path I would follow as i put my house on the market. little did I know it would be two and a half years later that I would be reporting the conclusion of the journey.

Yes, I have finally exchanged on the sale and vacate the property on 6th November. I will be leaving London to live away for the first time in nearly 40 years, and will need to locate the nearest source of London Pride or Youngs Ordinary to avoid my liver going into shutdown.

Thanks goodness for the internet which will allow me to follow the local issues and sporting prowess of the team which i have followed for much of that time.

A lot of things have happened in the time the house has been on the market. Maxine and I have become grandparents, our oldest son, Tim has married, and our oldest daughter is engaged. A few friends have passed away, and we have mourned their loss.

We have travelled a fair bit it has to be said. Peru, Brazil, Egypt, Portugal, Chicago, Edinburgh, Rome. Paris and Cyprus have been on our schedule, as well as a cruise around the islands of the Mediterranean. At that should stand us in good stead now that my Company has cast me adrift by making draconian changes to its final salary pension scheme.

I met the CEO yesterday and asked him outright why I should stay in his Company. His reply was hopeless, and as a colleague of mine once said, 'when the lunatics start running the asylum, its time to leave' . I think they are, and I am. ETD is scheduled for 5th February at the moment which will make the England v Wales game at Twickenham the next day a bit of a blinder.

So the blog has fulfilled one role, and now it takes on a new one as it tracks my progress through early retirement, life in Scouserland and potentially a few entrepreneurial projects. Watch this space one may come to a road near you........

Everybody, love somebody

I have embraced the Edinburgh Festival this last week and its been a fun time. A few of us from the team went to see 'The Blues Brothers Banned', a rip roaring 60 minutes of classic songs from the film plus a few more added in for good measure. They added humour, as they searched for the cowbell, and showed a range of musical and athletic skills which were top class.

The two of us who try to go to the gym most nights decided we should join their ranks as they were running up the aisles playing guitar, leaping speaker stacks and jumping around keyboards.

As well as Jake and Elwood there were two doo wap girls, each of whom belted out their own solo, a trumpet and sax, two guitars, two keyboards and a drummer, eleven people in all. The lead guitar probably had a better voice than the two front men.

We then hit the town and went for a curry in a well regarded local restaurant. The food was a disappointment, very bland and small portions, so we won't try that again.Luckily the bar over the road stayed open so we staggered back to the hotel in the wee small hours.

The festival continues this week with more fringe acts, and then the Mela and book festival take over until the end of the month, after which hotel room should come back to their normal prices!!

Still its a sound place to be, I just wish it would stop raining, its been bucketing down for weeks. i feel sorry for the tourists as the City is very easy to walk round, but there are still a few bars we have yet to visit which we can take shelter in...hic!

I'll get you Butler

Edinburgh is a tremendously impressive City. Its road are flecked with granite chips which make the surfaces resolute and durable, its road system in the centre is laid out in a grid , with the Royal Mile linking the castle to Holyroyd House. Alleyways and paths wind between shops and bars, and the natives scurry about like ants on a rose bush.

It is rather sad, therefore, to witness the devastation which is surrounding the construction of the new tram system.

Many cities have embraced the idea of introducing trams as a fast and convenient mode of transport. Croydon was a building site for years as they struggled to join the high society of Wimbledon Village with the rather less appealing New Addington council estate, via the city centre, Purley and Merton. In their case, however, there was no heritage to protect. Manchester managed to integrate their system with little or no change to the architecture and tradition of the City, and it has been a huge success.

Edinburgh, however, is suffering. The aforementioned roads are being dug up because all the main services run down the centre of the road, and this is where the tram lines are to go. Consequently the services are being moved to the kerb side, roads are being blocked off or made one-way, and worst of all ,a number of old traditional buildings, pubs, houses and so on, are being demolished.

They are only building one line at present. It will run from Leith in the North to the airport, via Princes Street and Haymarket where it will follow the railway lines. There are already worries though that the funding will run out and the tram line will terminal at Gogarburn, about a mile short......

Still when its built they will be able to illuminate the trams at Christmas like they do in Blackpool, and I can't wait until the rugger chaps at Murrayfield see how many people they can have hanging off the side.

Sweatie socks

Its been a while since my last post, a situation which has been created by the need to do some real work at last. On Monday, just past, I was in London, got a phone call in the morning, and promptly ended up in Edinburgh where I am likely to be for the remainder of the year........that said the client has yet to sign the contract, so it might all change again shortly.

The travel up here has been a bit stressful though, missed my flight last week due to roadworks overruns on the M4, then today I was stuck on the tarmac for 2 hours as Edinburgh was fog bound and we were restricted from taking off.

Still I am here now, and this week its the warm up to the Edinburgh Festival. Its the jazz and blues week until Sunday when the main festival and the comedy fringe kicks in. Hotels are upping their prices, but we are well catered for so hopefully it will be a bit of a giggle.

The only trouble with proper work is that four day weekends become a thing of the past, oh well, just have to get used to it I guess.....