The end of the line

Have you ever stood in a station and wondered where the tracks go. If you just got on the train and kept going where would you end up? Probably Thurso if you were heading at all north as its Britain's most northerly railway station and only a street away from the coast so you couldn't really go any further if you wanted to. There is something about the seaside terminus, especially the rural Scottish one that really attracts me. Standing there and seeing those buffers which represent the railways limits is something that shouldn't be undertaken without a little thought about the journey you have just taken. When I arrived in Thurso most passengers hurried out of the Station as quickly as possible. It was a cold day and a long journey so who can blame them? But it left me on my own in this remote outpost of the British rail network with the sun coming through the rafters to keep me company on a quiet afternoon. Thurso is one of my favourite stations for the very reason that it is the end of the line. Its remote, quite and has the atmosphere of a long journey having been completed. I have come somewhere very different to my home. I have attached a couple of other pictures of the Station so you can see its architectural merits. In an age where train stations are more often bus shelters it is nice to arrive at a substantial stone building with ticket office and comfortable waiting room. A building that says the railway is important. It may not be the lifeline that it once was, but its here in town and I hope will remain so for a long time to come.
Talking of the waiting room I came accross this even more exotic item on the wall - a picture of a Union Pacific steam locomotive. UP is an American railroad so I'm not sure what it was doing up in Thurso. If anyone know's drop me a line, I'd love to find out. UP is the world's only mainline railway which has a steam locomotive that it has never retired. It now joins a co locomotive in providing the UP steam program, a rather clever marketing tool for the railway company.
My own visit to Thurso was for a careers event where I was representing my college. Perhaps an event which requires a couple of display stands, plenty of literature and some goodies to give away on top of my own luggage might not seem like the obvious occuasion to use the train, but with a bit of thought it worked out really well. If I did have too much to carry you can always courier the extra at less cost than taking a car anyway. The careers event went really well with over forty people coming up to ask about our courses. Before it started though, and after I had set up, I had the chance to have a look round Thurso. Most people on holiday are probably taking the train to Thurso in order to catch the ferry to Orkney. Having had a look around I was not blaming them, Thurso didn't seem to be the most interesting of towns. But when I left the exhibition hall I was greeted with the most amazing view of these huge cliffs behind the town. Obviously I had gone up hill more than I had realised. I went down to the beach to get a better view and came accross my second surprise of the visit - the sea was filled with surfers! It was good fun watching them for a bit so I can only imagine taking part must be even more fun. Thurso it seems is one of Britain's surf capitals. California it might not be but if you like riding the waves maybe you should be taking a trip up here too.

The next day I took the train back and enjoyed one of the most scenic journeys in Britain. It doesn't matter how many times I take this train, it always seems to get yet more interesting as the seasons and lighting add variety to every journey.

BTP at 30th Street Station

The British Transport Police are the railway's own police force keeping travellers safe on their journeys all over Britain. With one of my friends in the force it is one that I naturally have an interest in and a fondness for. 30th Street Station is the former Pennsylvania Railroads impressive Philadelphia Station built in 1933 and now used by Amtrak. I've been there twice on my travels and it instantly became one of my favorite railway stations. It is the 3D definition of style and the photos do not do justice to this masterpiece. So I was interested to hear that the BTP did an exchange with their American Amtrak colleagues and were to be seen patrolling 30th Street. It must have been an unusual sight for the passengers that day! You can see the story and some pictures of the event here.

Well I'm just back from Thurso, another of my favourite stations some 160 miles north of here. I was up north for a careers fair with my job. Perhaps tomorrow I'll upload the pictures and let you see what it was like. Unfortunatly the snow kind of messed up the train windows so I am lacking pictures of the most beautiful sections of the line, but there are some good ones and a surprise in Thurso beach... to be continued.

Fares comparison with Europe and music to enjoy :)

Last week Passenger Focus (the rail passengers representative body) published a report that hit the headlines with the claim that UK rail fares are 50% higher than in Europe. The rail operators then came back with the statement that 'Advance' fares are the lowest in Europe. Going beyond these headlines it is true that we have some amazingly low advance purchase fares in Britain. If you have some time to spend on the computer searching for fares, don't mind when you travel and know well in advance what trains you'll be taking you can get some great deals. It works a bit like a plane fare only when it comes to pay the price doesn't triple with 'extras'. These are great fares and since last year anyone with a railcard can get an extra 1/3 off these already low fares. Some of the prices I've seen tickets bought for are almost at the stage of getting the journey for nothing. However, in Britain, as most European countries, we have always enjoyed the luxury of being able to turn up at the station and go. Then we can come back any time, on any train up to a month later. These are the best fares and unsurprisingly they are expensive and often much more expensive than in Europe. What rail companies have to remember is that you don't have to book your car journey in advance and that is the competition. Of course so long as they are filling trains they won't care. That's where the government, the representatives of the people should be stepping in. It is up to the government as infrastructure owners to put in place as much capacity as is needed for the private train operators to run as many trains as is possible to make profit - not make profit by squeezing more out of the existing passengers. After all the government is always going on about its green credientials, how about showing it in practice?

The report by the way is an excellent read and sets out some really good recommendations for moving our fares structure towards a truly user friendly, fare and value for money system. You can read it all here. Having read it, think about dropping a note to your MP to ask when they will be taking up its findings.

Music
On a lighter note if you can find one of those value for money tickets you might be looking for some good music for the journey. Well in addition to enjoying my travels I also like music and here are two of my personal favourites for you to try out and maybe download (legaly please!) for your next journey.

First up is Addison Road and Hope Now. This song was a real encouragement to me this weekend. Life isn't all fun or enjoyment and it just reminded me of the hope we can all have if we look for it. This is a thoughtful song and it left me in an upbeat mood, isn't music great like that!?



Now this is a bit different. I'm not the first person to rush out for this kind of music but I have just discovered the music of Tobymac and I'm sold on it. Listen to the words and enjoy the great sound these guys have produced. Enjoy:



and if you enjoyed that see this video about the making of the above video, its pretty good.



all of the music may be purchased from Itunes or Amazon. Buy it before you travel because I didn't hear anything this good on Virgin Trains radio last time!

Well, its been a long Monday so I'm going to leave it there for tonight. Check back soon people for more random thoughts.

New Intercity Train

The Department for Transport has announced the preferred bidder for the new Super Express Trains, part of the Intercity Express Project. These trains will replace diesel HST trains and the electric class 225 trains on the East Coast and Great Western lines. The new trains look smart and will have more seats together with using less energy. They will be either electric, diesel or able to run on electric or their own power source. After the replacement of HST trainsets with Voyager trains on Virgin it is good to see that a high quality train is being developed to replace the HST. Of course to see how comfortable they are to travel on and what the seats are like, we will just need to wait until they are introduced. The HST introduced almost thirty years ago set new standards of passenger comfort. With a very smooth ride, no noisy under floor engines, large picture windows and comfortable seats (now replaced by rather uncomfortable seats) these trains set the standard for years to come and in my oppinion are still the most comfortable trains on the network. Lets hope the new ones can at least match the old, something that new trains seem to struggle with. It will also be interesting to see how much luggage space these new trains have. I like the idea of more seats, but not at the expense of toilets and lugguage space. The HST manages to fit in two luggage vans, two toilets per coach, a restaurant and a buffet together with lots of seats, I'm sure the new train should be able to do just as well. If you would like to see more of these trains and download a rather cool demonstration video of what they might look like, head here.

This week at work I received these photos from Australia. The poor Koala bear was suffering from the extreme heat and headed down to the road to meet some cyclists and ask for a drink which was gladly supplied. It really made me think about how nice it is for animals and humans to get along well together. Its the way it was meant to be and there is something inside us all that makes us really happy to see something like this happen. I also wanted to share it because Koala's are probably the cutest animal around. Enjoy!

Eternal Perspectives (Randy Alcorn's blog): Who we WERE, who we ARE now in Christ

This is an amazing video posted to Randy Alcorn's blog. It is pretty powerful. Look out for the woman who said I was diagnosed with MS and then what her response was...

Eternal Perspectives (Randy Alcorn's blog): Who we WERE, who we ARE now in Christ

It made my afternoon to see these comments from people who's lives have been transformed. I hope it encourages you today too. It also made me think of these words from the Bible (book of Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 7 if you want to look it up): " Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." You may well hear God say something to you through that video. If you do feel something in your heart, don't ignore it, act on it today. It will be the best thing you do today. Feel free to email me - kevinjsinclair@hotmail.com if the video has spoken to you. Or better still, speak to Jesus about it. He's listening.

Planning a holiday? How about France or Italy by Motorail

The is the time of year when many people are planning their holidays so I was interested to receive an email in my inbox about this excellent Motorail service to France and Italy. It certainly saves a long journey south. I have put some more details on the main website. The advert says 'Pullman' style rail journeys to the south of France. Its a shame UK rail operators are not reading that!

I'm just back from a day of meetings at my day job and there wasn't even a train journey so that I could do a trip report for the Blog! Ah well, I suppose not every day can be action packed. The first one was with members of our local authority and as is often the case had very little to do with me or the organisation I represent. So why do they keep on inviting us?!? The lunch was not even that good.

As some readers might know I like to listen to the radio while working on the computer and tonight I heard this quote on the radio:

10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. (Malachi, chapter 3 and verse 10 from the Bible).

It made me think, there is the invitation for us to take up and see what happens - test the Lord in this and see what happens. Without going into details, I did start doing that some 12 years ago and I can confirm that every word is correct...

Back from Glasgow

I had to travel down to Glasgow for a meeting last week and took the opportunity of being in that direction to take a detour to St Andrews to visit my brother. In all I was on six trains. All of them were Scotrail Turbostars (comfortable and spacious), clean and run to time. Plus I got to travel over the Highland Mainline in daylight in both directions. This far north it has only a few weeks ago been getting dark at half past three so now that it is bright till nearly 5 you can make something of your journeys! I never tire of that line. I think it is perhaps that it is one of the few railways where you can go for mile after mile and not see any sign of human habitation. Even most of the towns along the way are small and don't seem to impose too much on the surrounding scenery. I also love the hills. Some would call them mountains and they do rise up on either side of the train but I would regard mountains as the things you find in Canada and Switzerland. These are hills, but impressive hills anyway. On Friday with the landscape covered in a blanket of pure white snow, the train almost silently and effortlessly gliding through this winter wonderland with me cosy in the warm carriage I was a contented worker. Yes, I was getting paid to sit there. I suppose the only people luckier than I were the driver and the conductor, they get paid to be there every day!

Of course every trip has its downside. For me it was when I arrived at the hotel, dropped off my bags and then proceeded to make my way out to the station to catch my train to Dundee. The only problem was I couldn't the hotel door key! I searched the ensuite bathroom, all the drawers, every pocket twice, looked under the bed and everywhere else I could think of. But the clock kept ticking. With only ten minutes to go before the train departed I offered up a prayer and hoped it would be answered soon. It was, my hotel key was under my hat which I put down on the bed with the key. I was thankful for that, and that I was staying in the Station Hotel directly next door to the Station for it was now seven minutes till departure time.

At times like this you just have to run for it. Or walk very fast. I am always wary of running in towns were people might wonder why. Has he just committed a crime and is running away? Why is he running if he is not dressed for running? Maybe it is just me but I always feel self conscious about running in a town when in a hurry. Thankfully there is always the fast walking option which probably looks just as crazy but at least I got my train. Now to be able to walk fast you have to, walk fast, and often. No use being a couch potato and then hoping your body will spring into action when you need it most. While I enjoy outdoor exercise, for something a bit more intensive and all round beneficial gyms have their place. Unfortunately when travelling they are hard to come by. However when in Perth I have found the perfect gym for the train traveller, The Body Academy. It is located in South William Street, about three minutes walk from the station. It is really well equiped, the staff (and even the other users!) are very friendly and it is open to non members. I am actually tempted to say if you want to visit a great gym and get yourself all motivated to fitness, make a special journey to go there! I had a great workout in there last week and can't wait to go back next time I'm changing trains in Perth.