I’m really worried about the on-off-on-off travel ban that’s the subject of ongoing legal action in America. To summarise: President Trump (urgh) enacted an Executive Order stopping anyone arriving from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days, and suspending the US’s refugee programme. Right now, the ban has been temporarily lifted by the courts, but I expect this to go back an forth for some time.
I’m not from any of those countries, nor am I related to anyone from that region or have been to any of those countries. But I have been to the middle-east region for work, including to Amman in Jordan, which is around an hour from the border with Syria. My passport, valid for several more years, carries visas for Oman and Jordan.
And I’ve heard stories where those arriving at US airports are being asked to show their social media profiles, or asked about their opinions about the new US president. My opinions are hardly favourable. I think Trump is a disaster for America and the world, and have shared a number of anti-Trump statuses on Facebook and Twitter.
I’ve never been to America but have always wanted to go. Christine has family out there, and her uncle recently gained American citizenship. Whilst he has met our one-year-old on a recent visit to Britain, the rest of Christine’s relatives haven’t yet had the chance.
Of course, the main factor stopping us from getting to America is money – getting across the Atlantic is going to be expensive, and we have a lot of other things that we also need to spend money on. But I don’t want to be in a situation where we’ve spent hundreds of pounds on flights, to then be turned away at the border, or lose several hours whilst being interrogated by immigration officials. Nor do I want to be forced to keep quiet on social media about issues I feel strongly about.
Earlier this summer, Yorkshire gained a new railway station on the outskirts of Leeds. Called Kirkstall Forge, it’s located on the Airedale and Wharfedale lines which offer commuter services from the Aire and Wharfe valleys into Leeds and Bradford. And on Wednesday, I went to have a look at it.
Kirkstall Forge gets its name from a large forge that used to exist on the site. It was demolished, leaving a huge area of brownfield land, ripe for development. And it happened to be right next to a railway line. So the site’s developers contributed a sizeable amount of money to ensure that a station could be built. After all, houses near railway stations tend to command higher prices.
The station has been a long time coming; plans were first drawn up 17 years ago in 1999, but it wasn’t until 2014 that all of the funding became available. Construction started later that year, although its location on the River Aire’s flood plain put its opening back to June.
As it was a nice day on Wednesday, I walked to the station from Leeds, along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. It’s about five miles and took me a bit over an hour to get there. Of course, I was about a third of the way there before I realised that Google Maps wasn’t showing a footpath from the canal towpath to the station. Thankfully, a quick Google search verified that there was indeed a path to link the station to the canal. Indeed, thanks to the footbridge at the station, access to the canal in this area is now greatly improved.
The station itself is nothing special. Two platforms, a footbridge with lifts, a couple of waiting shelters, some seats, a ticket machine and a passenger information system. The latter two of these were out of order, showing a scrolling message about checking the paper timetables. Welcome to 2016, everyone.
Considering that a train passes through the station every 10 minutes in each direction, surprisingly few actually stop there. The basic service seems to be hourly in each direction, to either Leeds or Shipley and Bradford Forster Square. A handful of services instead go to Ilkley or Skipton, but these seem to be limited to peak times.
It might seem a bit of a waste then, to spend millions on a station with such a basic service. But then, there isn’t yet much to serve here. Whilst I’m sure that the forge site will be covered with hundreds of new houses in a few years, right now there was only a little construction taking place. Still, I was not the only person to catch the train towards Bradford, at around 4pm.
Kirkstall Forge, for now, retains the crown of Yorkshire’s newest station, but not for too much longer. South of Bradford, Low Moor station is under construction, on the site of the ill-fated Transperience museum, and is due to open next year. Well, hopefully – it’s already behind schedule after an uncapped mine shaft was found right where one of the lifts was due to be installed. There’s still a big gap in the Bradford-bound platform, at time of writing.
Scott managed to visit Kirkstall Forge before me and wrote about it – and I largely agree. Maybe in a few years, the station will be able to better justify its existence.
Today is April 1st – and whilst that’s normally an excuse for news outlets to publish satirical articles to wind up their audiences, today it marks a new chapter for train services in the North of England. The two key rail franchises – Northern, and TransPennine Express – both change hands today, with promises of major improvements to trains, track and stations.
‘No growth’
The previous Northern Rail franchise started in 2004, and was awarded to a consortium of Serco (to whom all your base are belong to) and Abellio, a subsidiary of Dutch state railways. Controversially, this was a ‘no growth’ franchise, awarded on the basis that there would be no expected growth in passenger numbers over the original seven year period of the franchise. As such, the franchisee was not required to make any investments in new or additional trains, or run extra services.
As it happened, passenger numbers did grow, year on year, even during the 2008-2009 financial crash. In ten years, passenger numbers at Northern Rail stations (including my home station of Sowerby Bridge) have near doubled, and services have become increasingly overcrowded. To Northern Rail’s credit, whilst no brand new trains have been introduced, some additional trains have been brought in from elsewhere in the country where they had become surplus to requirement. Northern Rail has also held onto older trains, rather than scrapping them, to maintain capacity. Consequently, train services have more carriages, more seats, and in most cases run more frequently now than in 2004.
So whilst Northern Rail has managed to go above and beyond its minimum requirements, I think it’s fair to say that it has merely been ‘coping’ with increased demand, rather than making an effort to generate new demand. And it’s not done much for its reputation for running old, increasingly-tired looking trains – many of which, bar a change in seat covers, still sport their original, 30-year-old interiors.
In particular, Northern Rail has been well-known for having a large number of Pacer trains. These were introduced as a mostly temporary measure in the 1980s, by taking Leyland bus components and bolting them onto single-axled freight wagons. 30 years on, and they still make up around a third of Northern’s fleet, despite having shorter carriages and poor ride quality.
TransPennine Express
Earlier in 2004, another of the north’s rail franchises was awarded to a consortium of First Group (based in Scotland), and Keolis, a French transport company partly-owned by SNCF (French state railways). Keolis was a minority partner in the joint venture and so the franchise was known as ‘First TransPennine Express‘ (FTPE), even though First Group operated its other franchises on its own (First’s Hull Trains is a joint venture, but it’s an open access service, not a franchised operator). Unlike Northern Rail, this was a growth franchise, and saw the introduction of 51 brand new Class 185 diesel trains, built by Siemens in Germany. Some nearly-new Class 170 trains were also brought in, and so within a few years the entire FTPE fleet was made up of modern trains.
Whilst some growth was accounted for, actual growth turned out to be much higher. FTPE was controversially denied permission to add a fourth carriage to its new Class 185 trains, nor was it able to procure any additional trains, and so overcrowding became a problem. This was eased somewhat recently, when 10 new Class 350 electric trains were introduced for its services on the West Coast Main Line between Manchester and Scotland following electrification work west of Manchester.
Northern administration
Whilst both franchises were extended beyond their original periods, ultimately the time would come to hold new open franchise competitions to choose new operators. Most franchises in the UK are awarded by the government’s Department for Transport (DfT), with the exception of Scotrail and the Caledonian Sleeper (awarded by the Scottish Government), Merseyrail (awarded by Merseytravel) and London Overground (awarded by Transport for London). The various metropolitan, district, city and county councils of the north clubbed together to form a new organisation called Rail North, and successful lobbying has meant that the new replacement franchises have been awarded jointly by Rail North and a new DfT office in Leeds. This means that control of the new franchises happens in the north of England, by staff who actually use the services, and not by ministers and civil servants based in London. Crucially, both new franchises will anticipate growth in passenger numbers, and reflect changes in passengers’ expectations.
Arriva Rail North
The Northern franchise was won by Arriva – originally a British bus company that now operates several other rail franchises (CrossCountry, Arriva Trains Wales, Chiltern Railways, London Overground and the Grand Central open access service) and was taken over by Deutsche Bahn (German state railways) a few years ago. Arriva operated one of the predecessor franchises to Northern Rail – Arriva Trains Northern – but this new franchise will not resurrect the old brand. Whilst the franchise will still be called ‘Northern’, there’s a new logo and I expect that trains will get new liveries in due course.
As part of the new franchise, there’s a commitment to withdraw the old Pacer trains by the end of 2019. They can’t be disposed of straight-away, as it will take time for replacement trains to be brought into service, but December 2019 is a practical deadline as well as a tactical one. From the 1st January 2020, all revenue-earning passenger trains in the UK must meet accessibility regulations; the Pacers don’t, and the cost of modifying them is likely to be prohibitive. Whilst withdrawing them from the Northern network is a franchise commitment, if some vehicles can be modified, they could end up elsewhere in the country.
To compensate for the loss of Pacers, some additional trains will be transferred from the TransPennine Express, Great Western and Scotrail franchises, but there will also be over 90 brand-new trains introduced. A contract for these was given to Spanish manufacturer CAF, and will see new 2 or 3 carriage Class 195 diesel trains, and new 3 or4 carriage Class 331 electric trains being introduced from 2018 onwards. CAF built Northern’s existing Class 333 trains in a joint venture with Siemens, as well as the Class 332 trains used on the Heathrow Express services. The trains will be built in Spain, rather than Britain, but Britain’s two trainbuilders (Bombardier in Derby and Hitachi in County Durham) have nearly-full order books and so there’s little spare capacity for them to be built here, even if this might help Britain’s beleaguered steel industry.
Arriva Northern’s remaining trains will be deep-cleaned and refurbished, with free wifi available on all trains once the equipment has been installed. Currently, just a handful of Northern’s trains offer wifi, and these all operate on electric commuter services in the Leeds area. Some services will be branded ‘Northern Connect’ – these will be the ‘intercity’ services and will offer seat reservations and the newest trains – something I hoped for in a blog post back in 2014.
Same old brand new you
The TransPennine Express (TPE) franchise was won by First Group outright this time, rather than as a joint venture. I expected there to be very little change from day one, but there’s a new logo and livery being launched today. The first two trains have already had the new look applied to them overnight. Interestingly, despite the franchise being awarded to First outright, the ‘First’ branding has been dropped, although this is in line with Great Western Railway (another First franchise) and Hull Trains, where the overt First branding has also disappeared.
Whilst FTPE invested in new trains around a decade ago, this new franchise will also see new trains, in the form of 19 Hitachi AT300 bi-mode trains (which will probably be Class 802 when delivered). Sporting five carriages, these will be much longer than TPE’s existing trains, and have a faster top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h). As bi-mode trains, they will use electric overhead wires where available, but will be able to fall back to diesel engines on lines which have yet to be electrified. These should arrive by the end of 2019, and will be built at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe plant in County Durham.
Whilst TPE have only ordered 19 new trains for now, they will have the ability to order extra trains should the need arise, as long as there is a business case for them. This should avoid the issue with the previous franchise, where FTPE were not able to order extra carriages despite issues with overcrowding.
New stations and infrastructure
Infrastructure like stations, track and signalling aren’t in the remit of train operating companies like First and Arriva, but changes to these will have an effect on the new franchises. In West Yorkshire, two new stations are under construction – one at Kirkstall Forge near Leeds, due to open imminently, and another at Low Moor, south of Bradford and just off the M606 motorway which will open this summer. Further new stations are likely, including one at Elland, one of the largest towns in the region without its own railway station.
Over in Manchester, work has started on the Ordsall Chord, a new link that will allow trains heading west from Manchester Victoria and Salford Central stations to loop back towards Deansgate, Manchester Oxford Road and Manchester Piccadilly. This will allow services from the Calder Valley to continue to Manchester Airport for the first time, and link Manchester’s two major railway stations. The Calder Valley line will also receive capacity improvements, allowing trains to run more frequently, and the TransPennine route via Huddersfield and Stalybridge to Leeds is due to be upgraded and electrified over the next 8-10 years.
High Speed 2 and High Speed 3 are also due to come into play over the next few years, although plans are not as progressed as the other upgrades.
No Subsidy
Some explanation as to why the previous franchises had lower levels of investment (or none at all) are to do with taxpayer subsidies. Northern Rail was one of the most heavily subsidised franchises in Britain, and FTPE was also in receipt of a small level of subsidy. The subsidies were required as income from fares (i.e. passengers buying tickets) would not be sufficient to cover the costs of running the trains. Whilst there’s an argument for withdrawing services that are not commercially viable, there’s also an argument that some services are important even if they lose money, and in any case, withdrawing train services has been very controversial ever since the 1960s.
Government policy is to try to shift more of the burden of train running costs to passengers, rather than taxpayers, and the aim with the two new franchises is that, by the time they both end, neither franchise will need a subsidy. In TPE’s case, the opposite is expected to happen, and so First will have to pay a premium to the government, rather than receive a subsidy. With Arriva, it should roughly break even, or receive a drastically reduced subsidy.
This is where Rail North’s lobbying has been effective. Their aim is to break the subsidy cycle – train services have been subsidised because they can’t attract enough passengers to be commercially viable, but there hasn’t been enough investment to make them commercially viable. I hope they’re right, and that investment in services will unlock latent demand. That way, both passengers and taxpayers will benefit, especially if there are no major rises in train fares.
Driver-only operation
An appropriately-timed press release by trade unions suggests that there are plans for some of Arriva’s trains to lose their guard. Currently, guards are responsible for opening and closing train doors, ensuring that the train is safe to depart stations, and for checking and selling tickets. It’s possible that, to cut costs, some services will move to ‘Driver-only operation’, where the driver takes over the safety and door operations. This will require trains and stations to be modified, with door controls installed in drivers’ cabs and CCTV cameras on trains and stations so that the driver can see the doors. But it means that guards can be replaced by less-qualified (and therefore cheaper) revenue protection officers on trains, who are freed up to just sell and check tickets. Some trains may not even have anyone else on board other than the driver.
Driver-only operation is widespread on commuter services in the south-east, and, as well as being cheaper to run, it’s arguably better for train reliability. I’ve experienced trains being stuck at stations with the doors shut for some time (up to 30 seconds) because the guard has been busy selling a ticket when the train has arrived; if that happens at multiple stations, then it can add up. But, trade unions are right to lobby to protect their members jobs (and I speak as a trade union member myself), and there are benefits to having a member of staff available to help with passenger concerns. It’s an issue that I feel neutral about.
Day 1
So, today was day 1 of the new franchises. Whilst TPE are rolling out their new brand very quickly, I gather that Northern are taking a steadier approach. It’ll be a couple of years before the major changes in Northern’s train fleet take effect, so in the meantime it’s likely that the trains will retain their current liveries (but with the new operator logo). The old ‘Northern Rail’ logos have already been removed from trains and stations, but staff will still wear their existing uniforms for the time being.
Travelling to work this morning, there was very little to show for the change in franchise, apart from the guard having a name badge in the new brand, and drawing attention to the new Low Moor station as we passed it at speed. As old trains get refurbished, and new trains arrive, I expect that the rebranding exercise will ramp up.
After being neglected for so long, it’s good that Northern rail users will finally see some decent, large scale investment in their railways. My only worry is that these improvements may not be enough – whilst the new trains are welcome, by the end of this franchise, Arriva Northern will have only made a net gain of around 16 trains, unless more are sourced from elsewhere. We shall see what happens.
This is the third in a series of posts about what we did on our recent trip to London.
After lunch, we decided to head back towards central London. We could have caught the DLR from Cutty Sark and gone back the way we came, but instead, we caught a Thames Clipper waterbus from Greenwich Pier. The Thames Clippers are a fleet of catamarans that run up and down the River Thames in central London, and are currently sponsored by MBNA. Recently, they have started accepting Oyster cards as payment, and so we thought we’d give them a try, seeing as none of us had been on one before.
Although they operate on water, as they are catamarans rather than regular boats, they’re actually very quick. Certainly quicker than catching a bus, and probably competitive with the Tube – worth knowing the next time there’s a strike or signalling problems. You can sit outside at the back, but there’s a large amount of indoor seating too, and the seats are very comfortable – far better than most other forms of public transport. There’s even on board bar serving coffee, snacks and alcohol. And whilst I’m not usually one for getting sea sick, the Thames Clippers are pretty smooth and so even if you normally get queasy on a ferry, you shouldn’t have issues with these.
As well as being quick, you can get a very different view of London’s landmarks. We travelled from Greenwich to London Bridge Pier, which took us under Tower Bridge and offered a square on view. It was worth it to take photos.
The two main downsides of the Thames Clippers are waiting times and cost. Although they are regular, we just missed one at Greenwich and it was around 15 minutes until the next one. Whilst that’s more frequent than many bus and rail services outside the capital, it doesn’t compare so favourably with buses or the Tube.
It’s also rather on the pricey side. I think we paid £8 for our journey on our Oyster cards, which is significantly more expensive than other forms of public transport. Whilst people can and do commute to work on the Thames Clippers services, they’re really aimed at tourists who are happier to pay a higher price. Still, you get a comfy seat, a fast journey, and get to see parts of London from new angles, so it’s worth the extra cost.
Last weekend some very dear friends of ours got married in St Andrews in Scotland, and so Christine and I made our way up there.
This was our first time in Scotland since a trip to Edinburgh four years ago, and the first time either of us had been to St Andrews. It’s a small town on the Fife coast, north of Edinburgh and south of Dundee. The town is dominated by its university, which is one of the oldest in Britain and has many famous alumni, including Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. It’s also rather isolated, with only a couple of roads in and out, and three miles from the nearest railway station at Leuchers.
There’s a small harbour which still receives boats carrying fish and shellfish, although not on the scale of other small port towns like Whitby. The major landmark is its ruined cathedral which sits on the top of the cliffs, overlooking the North Sea.
We had enough time for a stroll around the town, followed by lunch at the St Andrews Brewing Company – a very nice brewpub with an extensive gin and whisky selection. The town is very much geared up for tourists and students in equal measures.
St Andrews is somewhere I’d happily go back to but there isn’t a lot to do there. It really is quite a small town – just one that happens to be very well-known with a lot of history.
For the last blog post on my Middle East trip, I thought I’d spend a bit of time writing about Dubai, or specifically its airport. As I flew with Emirates, I passed through Dubai airport both on the way out and coming back.
The travel agents we use at work offered Emirates as one of three airlines to fly with. The others were Etihad, via Abu Dhabi, and British Airways via London Heathrow. Having asked for advice on Facebook and Twitter, British Airways was discounted pretty quickly. Eventually I chose Emirates for the more convenient flight times – the late finishes and early starts that I had on my trip would have been even worse if I’d flown with Etihad.
One of the world’s biggest
Dubai airport is big. It’s the world’s busiest airport when ranked by international passenger numbers, and third overall when you count all passengers (domestic and international). Last year, over 70 million passengers passed through Dubai airport – more than the entire population on the UK, and 35 times more than Dubai’s total population.
Despite being busier than London Heathrow (ranked second globally for international passenger traffic), Dubai has three terminals compared to Heathrow’s five. Terminal three is the biggest of these and is split into two halves, connected by an automated people mover. It’s basically an underground metro train, but it’s driverless and runs on pneumatic tyres, rather than steel wheels on rails, and only runs between the two halves of the terminal.
Coming back, my flight from Muscat arrived into terminal three, but my onward flight to Manchester departed from terminal one. The concourse of terminal one is connected to terminal three, but I still had to use the people mover and then had a long walk. At least it was all indoors, and all ‘airside’ so no need to go through immigration. Terminal two is completely separate though, and a shuttle bus can take 20 minutes.
Altogether, terminal 3 is the second largest building in the world by floor space. It’s big, and is almost exclusively for flights with Emirates, with just a few Qantas services calling there.
Shopping
Modern airports aren’t just designed to help you get on and off planes, and in parts Dubai airport feels more like a shopping mall than an airport. Most shops exist in multiple locations in each terminal, because of the size, and are generally run by the airport operator with just a few branded concessions like Starbucks and Boots. In all, Dubai Duty Free makes over £1billion a year from sales. Outbound, I didn’t buy much, apart from a couple of drinks (which were far cheaper than in the UK). But coming back, I picked up a couple of things, having forgotten to buy any souvenirs whilst in Jordan or Oman.
As with most airports free Wi-Fi was available, but only for one hour. Thankfully I had a phone and two iPads (one work, one personal) to stretch this out.
Dubai
I didn’t leave the confines of the airport but it’s worth talking about Dubai itself. Dubai is an ’emirate’ – essentially a city-state within the larger nation state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Abu Dhabi is another emirate, and there are several others that are less well-known. Originally a series of sheikhdoms under British control, independence was granted in 1971. The majority of sheikhdoms joined together to form the UAE, but two – Qatar and Bahrain – split off to become independent nations. Dubai residents are known as Emiratis, along with those from other emirates.
The UAE is an Islamic country and so there are restrictions on alcohol – in the airport, there were just a handful of Heineken-branded bars where drinking was permitted. There are also dress codes; these primarily relate to women and oblige them to dress modestly. Not doing so is a criminal offence.
Qatar has been in the news for the deaths of hundreds of migrant workers who have been building venues for the 2022 Fifa Football World Cup. Migrant workers in the UAE also suffer from a lack of rights and are forbidden from unionising, despite the huge amount of ongoing construction.
Flying back
My outbound flight from Manchester to Dubai was on a Boeing 777, but on the return I got to travel on one of Emirates’ Airbus A380s. These are the largest passenger planes in use today, with the cabin spanning two levels. Dubai airport has specially-adapted air-bridges that connect to both levels, with those travelling in Economy using the lower level and first class passengers going upstairs. In-flight Wi-Fi is available, and it starts at just $1 USD for up to a gigabyte of data, which is far cheaper than many hotels. The downside is that it’s so slow to be almost unusable, but better than nothing I suppose. And you have the opportunity to post a boastful tweet that you have internet access whilst in the air, which, for people like me who grew up with dial-up internet, is pretty amazing.
My return journey from Salalah back to my flat in Sowerby Bridge took the best part of 24 hours, in all. I woke up at about 10pm UK time on the Thursday, and was home at a similar time on the Friday. In all, it involved a minibus, three flights, a people mover, a train, a taxi, and a fair bit of walking.
I haven’t been asked to do any more overseas events for work as yet, and with a baby on the way I’m not sure if I would agree to any if offered. But it was a good experience in all, and one that I’d consider doing again in a few years time perhaps. With less overnight travel, hopefully.
The third of the three cities I visited on my trip was Salalah, Oman’s second city. Located in the south of the country, I reached it via an internal flight from Muscat, as otherwise it would be a 10 hour journey by road. Not that it’s very, very far from Muscat, but the roads in Oman are of variable quality, especially outside built-up areas. I heard that a new motorway was being built, and that will bring the journey time down to closer to seven hours. And eventually the Gulf Railway will reach Salalah – this will be Oman’s first railway and will head north all of the way to Kuwait when completed.
Salalah is much smaller than Muscat. It’s a port, but is also beginning to establish itself as a tourist resort. I stayed at the Hilton Resort there (this was where the event that I was part of took place) and it seemed quite popular with German tourists. Indeed, German seemed to be the unofficial third language in Oman after English.
Salalah used to be the capital of Oman, and there’s still a large palace there which the Sultan visits every few years. Sultan Qaboos was born in Salalah, but when he came to power in the 1970s he moved the capital to Muscat. Its climate is a little wetter than Muscat which means that plants grow naturally without the need for massive amounts of irrigation. Fruits like bananas and coconuts grow there and are available from various market stalls. There’s also a souk, which we spent around an hour in. Many of the stalls specialised in frankincense, but there were also plenty of clothes stalls and shops which sell the traditional hats that Omani men wear.
I didn’t buy anything, because by this point I realised that I’d lost all of my local currency, and, more worryingly, my passport. Fortunately the tour operators were able to make some phone calls and re-unite me with both later in the day, but I was dreading having to make the ten hour road journey back to Muscat to get to the British consulate.
As part of our visit we went to the local university, Dhofar University. Ranked second in the country after Sultan Qaboos University (albeit from a list of 5), it was only completed in 2010. If you have 15 minutes spare, watch its corporate video which is rather different from the videos that British universities produce.
Our visit to Salalah wasn’t as heavily-loaded as previous days and so we had a bit of free time. Consequently I have more photos of Salalah than I do of the other cities that I visited, and I was able to actually use my Canon SLR camera. Most other photos were taken on my iPhone as that’s all I had to hand.
Whereas most people I encountered in Muscat spoke English quite well, this was less the case in Salalah. With it being a more isolated city away from international travel, I suppose there’s less need for the locals to speak English. A slight issue for me as I didn’t (and still don’t) speak any Arabic.
The Omani government have plans to develop the area south of Salalah as a container port. The photo above shows the view from my hotel room and you may just be able to see the existing port on the right hand side of the horizon. This would tie into the Gulf Railway, and an expanded airport – like in Muscat, a new terminal was under construction. Salalah Airport, as it stands, is just one very small terminal with only three or four gates, but there are international flights from there across the region and out as far as India.
Salalah has its eyes on the tourism market, but right now only really caters for those wanting to stay at a premium all-inclusive resort, or those after something a bit off the beaten track. I imagine that, as the port develops, it will welcome a wider variety of visitor.
Manchester Victoria station has had a rather large makeover. It’s not the dark, dreary place that it once was, and now sports a new roof that lets in far more light. And not before time, too.
One of the worst
Back in 2009, Victoria was named as one of the worst railway stations in Britain. The roof over platforms 1 and 2 and the Metrolink platforms was in a poor state of repair, following damage sustained in the 1996 IRA bomb attack that was never fixed. It leaked, and was partially covered in tarpaulins which made the station seem dark. To prevent fare evasion, ticket inspectors had erected temporary barriers around the platforms with confusing one way systems. Platforms 3-6 were now underneath the Manchester Arena, and were poorly-lit with a confusing layout for the footbridge.
It wasn’t a very inviting station to spend any time in, especially at night.
Management
To understand why the situation at Victoria got so bad, it may be worth looking at the management of the station over the years.
When the railways were privatised in the 1990s, the running of most smaller and medium sized stations was taken over by the largest train operating company (TOC) that called there. Control of major stations was passed to Railtrack, and then Network Rail when Railtrack went bust in 2002. Many of these major stations underwent major regeneration work, which usually involved massive expansion of retail space to bring in more rental income.
Manchester Piccadilly is the biggest station in Manchester and so Railtrack managed it, but management of Victoria has always been with a train operating company: since 2004, this has been Northern Rail. Northern Rail’s franchise was let on a ‘no growth’ basis and so very little investment has been made in either trains or infrastructure, despite Victoria being a major hub for Northern Rail.
Capacity
Victoria was once a much bigger station than Piccadilly, with 17 platforms at its peak. But in the early 1990s, the decision was made to re-route most trans-pennine services away from Victoria to Piccadilly, which is on the West Coast Main Line. Previously, passengers travelling from, say, Leeds to Stoke would have to take a short shuttle service between Stalybridge and Stockport – now they could simply make one change at Manchester Piccadilly. This shuttle still runs, albeit only once a week.
Victoria was subsequently downsized to 6 rail platforms, and 2 platforms for the then new Manchester Metrolink tram system. The now disused platforms on the north side of the station were demolished and the land sold off to build the Manchester Arena which sits above part of the station.
At the time, re-routing services to Piccadilly made sense, as the railways were in a period of managed decline. But following privatisation, passenger numbers have rocketed to record levels, and now capacity at Piccadilly is becoming an issue. Those trans-pennine services have to cross the paths of mainline trains from London on flat junctions, which limits the number of trains that can depart and arrive from Piccadilly station. And of Piccadilly’s 14 platforms, 12 of them are bay, or terminating platforms. Any train that needs to pass through Manchester has to use the two through platforms, numbered 13 and 14, which are now full to capacity. Work is planned to add an additional two through platforms, but in the meantime there can’t be any additional services that cross Manchester city centre via Piccadilly.
The Northern Hub
The Northern Hub project is a Network Rail initiative to improve rail capacity in the north of England, and it’s focussed on Manchester. Part of this will involve a new section of track, called the Ordsall Chord, which will allow trains to leave Victoria going west, and then loop around to Piccadilly. At the moment, most trains that call at Victoria terminate there, even though 4 of its 6 rail platforms are through platforms, which is a poor use of capacity. Upgrades at stations such as Rochdale and Stalybridge will allow trains that currently terminate at Victoria to continue, in turn allowing more trains to stop there. Last year, a new direct Liverpool to Newcastle service started calling at Victoria, and this is likely to be the first of several new long-distance services that will call at Victoria, rather than Piccadilly.
Making Victoria Posh
Eventually, money was found to refurbish Victoria and bring it up to the same sort of standard of other major stations. The old roof is gone, and has been replaced with a new ETFE roof. New flooring has been lain on the concourse, automatic ticket barriers have been installed, and a new footbridge has been erected to improve access to the Manchester Arena. New shop units have been opened and the existing ones refurbished – the old first class refreshment room is now a Starbucks, but retains its original tiled interior.
Meanwhile the Metrolink platforms have also been rebuilt, and expanded from two to four, albeit with only three tracks. Some trams will call at both platforms B and C – they’re lettered to avoid confusion with the rail platforms.
Together, these projects have been branded as ‘Making Victoria Posh’ a pun presumably inspired by Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham.
A separate project has seen the lines coming into Victoria from the west electrified for the first time. This means that electric trains can run from Victoria to Liverpool Lime Street – these services started earlier this year. Eventually electrification will extended eastwards towards Stalybridge.
The works still aren’t quite complete – there’s a little bit left to do, and only a couple of the retail units are occupied (both of which are coffee shops). But the station already looks so much better than before. No longer will it be an embarrassment to the city.
I arrived into Muscat at a ridiculously early time on a Monday morning from my flight in from Bahrain. Thankfully, Muscat airport isn’t too far out of the city centre and so it wasn’t long before I was in my hotel bed – for all of about an hour before a 6am start.
Muscat is the capital city of Oman, a coastal kingdom in the Arab Gulf which has seen massive change since the 1970s. Oman’s ruler is Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, who rose to power by ousting his father in a coup, and then set about redistributing the country’s wealth to its citizens. Consequently a lot of the country’s infrastructure is very new, and the Sultan is generally revered by the Omanis for the investments that he has made. This was made very apparent during my visit, as on the Monday evening the Sultan returned to Oman after a 9 month absence in Germany for cancer treatment. There were many street celebrations that evening and the Tuesday was declared a public holiday.
Oman History and Culture
The aim of my trip was to recruit students for the university that I work for, and so the history of education in Oman was of particular interest to me. In 1970, Oman had just three schools and no universities. That’s now changed, with a large number of schools, including a number of international schools that teach the British and American systems or the IB, and several universities. We visited Sultan Qaboos University, which was the first to open in 1986 and is still the only public university in the country. By British standards, it would rank as an upper-medium sized university with just under 18,000 students.
Oman isn’t the only gulf country to see massive development in recent years. Indeed, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, amongst others, have changed massively. But what sets Oman apart is that it is trying to retain a link with its heritage through its architecture. There are no high-rise buildings in Muscat, and all new buildings maintain an Arabian influence in their design. Similarly a majority of Omani men choose to wear traditional, rather than western clothing. This included the border staff at the airport who could only really be identified as such by their lanyards. By maintaining its links with tradition, Oman sets itself apart from its other developed neighbours.
Compared to Jordan, telephony isn’t as good. There are just two communications companies, one of which is state owned, although 4G internet access is slowly becoming available in major cities, like Muscat. That being said, Oman was one country where my mobile phone operator, 3, did not have a data roaming agreement, so I had no choice but to use Wi-Fi where it was available.
Muscat
Oman is mostly a desert country. Despite this, Muscat is very green with most major roads lined with trees, lawns and decorative plants – and a lot of irrigation. They were well-tended-to, with plenty of gardeners working on them all through the day.
Muscat airport, as it stands, is quite small, but a completely new terminal is in the final stages of construction, closer to the main runway. Indeed it currently takes ages for planes to taxi between the current terminal and runway, and even then there are no air-bridges. It’s home to the national flag carrier, Oman Air, which operates more than half of the flights, including a number of internal flights.
Compared with Jordan and Bahrain, Oman is a much more peaceful country. There were some protests in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring, but these were quickly quelled and some positive change has happened since. There is a democratically-elected government, but Oman is an absolute monarchy and so the Sultan can overrule his government. Women’s rights are better than in some countries, but women have only been able to vote since 1997. There are a number of allegations about human rights violations.
Arabic is the main language used in Oman but most signage is also in English. Most Omanis that I encountered in Muscat had at least a basic grasp of English, although as I was recruiting students wanting to study in England, and stayed in a Western hotel chain, this is hardly surprising.
As with my visit to Amman, I didn’t get to see a lot of Muscat whilst there – my itinerary was jam-packed. It’s certainly an attractive city, thanks to the commitment to traditional architecture and I’d maybe consider visiting again in future.
As my Middle East trip had a rather complicated itinerary, involving multiple events each day and various hotel and flight bookings, I decided to sign up to TripIt.
TripIt is an online itinerary builder. You put all of your bookings into it, and it provides a complete overview of your trip that you can print out, or import into your calendar app. There are also mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Its most useful feature is that it can automatically parse booking confirmation emails. So, all you need to do is forward these messages to TripIt, and it will build out an itinerary for you, complete with seat numbers and contact details. If it recognises an address, then you’ll get a map as well. Of course, manual editing is possible as well, but the automatic parsing saves a lot of time. TripIt can even be configured to automatically scan your Gmail or Outlook.com email account for booking emails, upon which it will magically create itineraries for you.
The parsing technology isn’t perfect. I forwarded a confirmation email for a recent train booking from Halifax, and it thought that was Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada and not Halifax, West Yorkshire. But errors like these are easily corrected. TripIt also automatically detects the correct time zone.
TripIt also has a social aspect. You can add friends how also use the service and see where they’re travelling to (trips can be made private if you don’t want to share them all). If a contact is nearby, you can then make arrangements to meet up.
TripIt Pro
Like many sites these days, TripIt operates on a ‘freemium’ model. All of the above features are available for free, but for $49 per year you can upgrade to TripIt Pro. This will let you add your airline frequent flyer accounts, and hotel loyalty accounts, and offer advice about how to make the most of them. You’ll also get instant updates about flight delays by email, SMS or a push notification in the mobile app, assuming you have internet access where you are. As an extension of this, TripIt Pro will try to help you re-book flights in case of cancellation, and also let you know if you are due a refund. TripIt Pro is available free for the first month, and if you use this link you can get it for $39 in the first year, a saving of $10.
I now send any hotel and travel bookings to TripIt as a matter of course. Partly because it saves me having to wade through emails to find important information. But TripIt also lets the two other people I know who use it, know where I’m going, in case our paths cross at any point. TripIt synchronises with my Sunrise calendar as well, so my trips show up alongside any other plans.
TripIt was great in the Middle East, as it made a really complex itinerary much more manageable, but I’d also recommend it even for much simpler trips. Having all of your important travel information in one place is great, and I’m happy to endorse the free service to even the most occasional travellers. The premium service is probably only of interest to regular flyers, but at less than £3 per month it’s not expensive.
