Haven’t we heard that one before ?

Well definitely !! - that’s right up there with her predecessor’s statement of giving it a “Red Hot Go” and didn’t that work out well ?

Don’t get me wrong I wish Kristina well she seems like a good lady , a smart lady. But to me it doesn’t matter who is Premier of this state the job ahead of her is virtually impossible. With infrastructure falling down all around her, the bloated “Yes Premier” bureaucracy constantly letting her down and her own party thanks to Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid are ready to strike at any time. You’d have to forgive her for being a little daunted. I know I would be.

So how can she turn this around for the state. I have a 6 point plan for her

1. Expel Obeid and Tripodi from the Labor Party

2. Call a Royal Commission into the allegations made by Nathan Rees and implement any recommendations.

3. Sack and Rehire the top two levels of each public service deparment and rehire from the private enterprise.
When rehiring pay private sector salaries for similar roles within the private sector. The contracts must be based around KPIs for tasks such as the building a new public transport system.

4. Borrow Money.
Who cares about our credit rating when the states transport, health system’s are falling apart. Just fix them. The longer we wait the more it will cost.

5. Get in Kevin Rudd’s Good Books

6. Do all the above QUICKLY

Best of Luck Kristina !!!

P.S. Barry O’Farrell you are going to have to do something similar when and if you are premier. It’s time you started telling us how you will fix this mess.

That’s the Way it is

We woke up to flat batteries and a dreaded feeling of oh no here we go again. Still it could have been down to an over hammering of the electrical equipment last night. Oh dear.

We decided to nip over to Shrewsbury; we got to the bus stop just as the bus was arriving, which was very fortunate. It took about an hour to get over there, this is the first time that we have been here since Shrewsbury played Watford, not a day we want to remember as if I recall correctly we (Watford) lost 3 – 1 it was dyer.

We walked around for a bit and then bought some Christmas pudding from M&S, we are spending Christmas on the boat and so we thought that we would treat our selves.

Bridge 62 near our mooring

City Walls

Back Street

River Severn

Interesting Courtyard

Statistics so far:-

1090.34 Miles, 732 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 10 Tunnels

I spend allot of my time on trains, to and from work. I was sitting on the 16:33 from Dorchester to Poole on Tuesday this week, smiling to myself, with a slight sense of delight that, although public transport is considered gay/poor/crap/slow/expensive and all the rest, I have the satisfaction of getting home quicker and less frustrated than a large proportion of my colleagues who drive, and I live 3x as far as they do. Is this the future? Is the car dead?

Last night I had the good fortune to be able to attend a colleague’s leaving do – a few drinks at a bar in Halifax.

Due to a number of circumstances beyond my control, the only practical option for getting there was by Public Transport.  This is something I have a hate/hate relationship with. 

For one thing – it’s too expensive and seems to get more expensive every time I use it.  No two fares are ever the same, even for the same journey. 

Second – it’s dirty, smelly and really pretty horrible to use to be honest.  Buses, trains – whatever the mode of transport there are always wet sticky seats and the inevitable odour of stale piss on the back seat upstairs (who the fuck does that, really???).

And third and really the most horrible thing about public transport is … well … the public.  And the fact that you have to share your ride with them.  I will recount my experiences from last night as it was pretty representative of most bus trips I have taken recently.

It started badly, having just missed the ‘best’ bus to take me into Halifax.  No real bother there, as the service runs every 15 minutes or so, so there should be another one along in a minute.  But then…. other people turn up at the bus stop.  Two obnoxious schoolgirls (probably about 14) who were taking it in turns to try to out-shout each other.  To try and picture them – one had a face liked a slapped arse, and the other was the female equivalent of Augustus Gloop in the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film (Gene Wilder one, not Johnny Depp).  For our purposes I will refer to her as Augustine – as she is critical to our story.

More folk turned up, but in general their presence was not as offensive as Augustine and Slapped Arse.  Finally, the bus turned up – not the flagship 503, but a single decker 538 – which I was reliably informed “went around the houses” before getting to Halifax.  This turned out NOT to be the case – as a simple enquiry to the driver established.  At least I think he grunted in the negative.

However, the act of asking the question meant that our two anti-heroines (Augustine and Slapped Arse) somehow worked their way to the front of the queue.  Slapped Arse made a relatively clean attempt at getting on the bus, flashing her metro card at the driver and moving on to find a seat on the empty (thank you !) bus.  Augustine however was a different prospect altogether.

Now at this point I will interject with an observation.  I think there is some kind of genetic mutation in women which makes them incapable of preparing to pay for anything.  I’ve seen this endless times at Supermarket checkouts and bus queues, and essentially ANYWHERE where you are queueing up to pay for something.  For some reason, women will not make any attempt to get their money out UNTIL they are told the price of something.  What do they think they are queueing for?  Will they not NEED to get their money out at the end of the line?  This is why they are queueing up for fucks sake.  Why, when you have had SO MUCH TIME to prepare and think about how much you are likely to have to pay, does it take you until that point to get your money out?  And old people are worse.  Much worse.  To them it’s not just a simple case of getting money out.  Oh no.  They have to put down their handbag.  Root around in it to find their glasses.  Once they have their glasses on they then root a second time to find their purse.  Once armed with the purse they then try to scrape enough coins together to cover the cost of whatever they have purchased.  This is because they either do not trust or understand modern debit card technology.  By which time, all the frozen stuff which I am waiting to pay for has pretty much thawed out on the conveyor belt.

Which takes us nicely back to Augustine.  She already HAD a ticket.  One she had apparently bought on the previous bus journey.  A ticket which covered her entire travel requirements within Calderdale for the rest of the day.  The problem though, was that she had put it somewhere.  And didn’t bother to look for it until she was staring into the cold white eyes of the Bus Driver.  She looked in one pocket.  Then another pocket.  Not in either.  “I have got one” she insisted to the driver.  She then looked in her purse.  She couldn’t find it in there either.  Which was hardly surprising really, as there were about 350 other bus tickets in there too.  During the search she was dropping bus tickets all over the place (did she bother to pick any up? – rhetorical question by the way) – so in the end she had to purchase another one.  Comeuppance I think for being dippy, and the ultimate price for not being prepared to pay.  Having paid for the ticket she went and joined Slapped Arse on the bus.  Although her part in the story is not yet quite over….

So it was my turn to pay.  I asked for a return to Halifax – assuming that it was still the case where you COULD purchase a single, or a return to the destination of your choice.  The driver looked at me blankly.  I repeated the request.  The driver’s blank stare continued, but this time was accompanied with a grunt “we don’t do returns”.  Hmmm.  Ok I thought.  “I’ll have to take a single then” I said.  “And then another one on the way back”.  To which the driver mumbled something else… and issued a ticket.  I gave him the fiver I had and received £1.80 back.  Three whole pounds and twenty pence ladies and gentlemen, for a 10 minute journey (15 if you count the inevitable delays at the end of the Elland bypass at Salterhebble).  I thanked the driver for the ticket and went and sat down (far enough away from the horrorbag twins so that I wouldn’t have to suffer them again), still bemused by the price of the ticket.  Upon checking the ticket itself I surmised that he had in fact issued a day rover ticket  – at least that is what I interpreted from the following (taken from the ticket itself) “£3.20 O/PDay Cald/Hud” – it wasn’t a fucking single to Halifax certainly (not at that price) so that was my assumption.

During the time I had been trying to interpret my ticket, the remaining passengers had got on – pretty much without incident as far as I could make out - and were finding their own seats on the bus.  Each one cast a derisory eye at Augustine as they passed to make sure they she knew that they thought she was a cunt for holding everyone up in the queue.  All aboard and the bus moved off.  Thank fuck.

Now, I’m the kind of person who cannot make any journey on public transport with a) someone to talk to (a friend I mean. I wouldn’t just strike up a conversation with a random passenger as that would make me wierd – right Mum?) or b) an ipod to lose myself in.  As I was pretty much alone, I hunted in my pocket for my headphones and launched the ipod on my iPhone.  I was presented with a screen that struck terror into my very soul.  “Rebuilding Library – please wait”.  I’d seen this before, and knew what the consequences would be, even before the library had rebuilt.  Seconds later my worst fears were confirmed. One song was available.  One single, solitary fucking song.  That would be my company on the journey to Halifax.  One song.  And not even a fucking good one at that.  “Barcelona” by Russell Watson and Shaun Ryder (of the Happy Mondays).  The kind of song that you only download so that you can play to your mates for a laugh – the kind of song where it’s kinda funny every once in a while to listen to a refined tenor crooning alongside the rantings of a smacked up Manc pisstank –  not the kind of song that you want to drown out the overly loud  conversations of inconsiderate travellers, the screaming of unruly kids and everything else that comes with a dreaded public transport journey.  So I snapped my headphones out in frustration and resigned myself to the fact that I would have to put up with 15 minutes of hell.

As the bus made it’s way towards town – Augustine and Slapped Arse played another master stroke.  Somehow, in the mass of tickets in Augustine’s purse, they had managed to find her original ticket.  So Slapped Arse, armed with the ticket stood up, approached the driver and asked if they could have a refund.  At this point, he was pretty much pre-occupied with another task – ie driving the bus.  What on earth was going through Slapped Arse’s mind when she thought that the driver would break off from what he was doing, to provide her stupid mate with a refund, whilst the bus was either still moving, or at worst blocking all the traffic.  I despair for the future of our country at times, I really do.  She was sent packing with a flea in her ear by the driver.  Quite right too – and kudos to the driver for putting her straight.

Not to be deterred,  Slapped Arse returned to her seat and proceed to move to phase two of her plan to destroy my sanity.  Mobile Phone, full volume, dance music.  OH FOR FUCKS SAKE, JUST TURN IT OFF.  At least that’s what everyone was thinking.  As usual, no-one dare say anything though.  4 repeats of Barcelona would be better than this, so I slipped the earphones back in and stared blankly out of the window.  Over the dulcet tones of Russell Watson’s singing I could vaguely hear the kick, kick, kick of the dance track, accompanied by the wailing of two really obnoxious toddlers at the front of the bus.  But I had Guinness to look forward to, so things weren’t that bad really.

The 15 minute journey seemed like a lifetime.  I guess everyone who uses Public Transport has to put up with the same kind of shit every time they use it.  It’s not something I could get used to I’m afraid.  As it transpired, the journey back was NOT in any way the same.  Pretty much because (again), I’d just missed the bus, and armed with the compulsory Kebab (see later post) I decided to get a taxi back home.  At least that way you only have to share with one other person – and he’s (normally) the driver.  OK so it cost me more, but a price well worth paying I think.

And big hats off to the lads who I met up with in the pub – especially Conker who was leaving yesterday.  Good luck in your new job fella.

Bus Users U.K. Surgery, Chester City Centre, November 2009

 I started writing this post last week  -aiming to look at climate change prevention – actions people could take on a day-to-day basis. I thought I wouldn’t make it to the  Climate Change Emergency Rally tomorrow. 

Now there’s a seat for me on the Chester coach to London (organised by Cafod ) – so I’ll be up at four a.m with camera batteries charged – setting off with the Chester crowd to cover the event. Stay tuned. Can’t say I’ll be blogging live (although I’d like to) – as logistics are tricky at this point – but I’ll do my best with reports and analysis tomorrow and over the course of next week.

When it’s all over we know we’re still going to need to speed up the shift to low carbon transport. There’s plenty to do at home to cut our carbon emissions. Like taking the bus instead of the car. I’d like to write more about what sort of things are standing in our way. 

Working hard in Chester recently were Bus Users U.K. with a Bus Users surgery.  In case you didn’t know – this organisation is charged with the important job of trying to make life for bus passengers easier and more enjoyable – some people think if you can make bus services more accessible, attractive and efficient you can go a long way towards tempting people out of their cars…

On their website Bus Users U.K. explain something of the politics of public transport: “Years ago bus services were run by local authorities and nationalised industry. Now bus companies run for profit. Very often the aims of making a profit and of giving you a good bus service are one and the same. Sometimes they’re not, and, except in London, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the law that brought in the changes didn’t do anything to help passengers get their views across. Bus Users U.K. stands in the gap to give you a means to have your say.”

So what was the surgery for exactly? Phil Tonks said: “We do this surgery to get a snapshot of one day’s services - to find out what bus passengers think – we’d like to understand what people are saying about their buses”. Phil mentioned “cheap effective ticketing systems” and “frequent, value for money buses” as good incentives for people to use them. “If people take their grandkids on the bus – that’s a positive step”, he said.

Four bus operators were represented at the surgery. Arriva, First, Helms and GHA. It’s a First Park and Ride Bus you can see in the picture. I slipped up in not getting any direct quotes from bus passengers but Phil Tonks said they had spoken to about 100 passengers that day and that all queries, comments and suggestions for improvement would be collated and responded to in writing. So that means Bus Users U.K. will have a jolly good stab at doing something useful about the issues at hand. Paul de Stantis (Commercial Director of  First ) told me amongst the complaints people had were ‘buses not running on time’.

As we know, congestion is a huge problem in Chester. I asked Paul de Stantis what he thought of Climate Change, how he could help citizens in Chester and the implications of Cheshire West and Chester Council’s  Free Parking after Three scheme. Standing together in the cold as we were the first issue seemed too big for us – but he homed in on the last two: “Monitoring” he said for one thing. On the subject of  Free parking after Three he took a deep breath and said “You’re going to quote me on this, aren’t you?”. “Yes, I said”.

“Unfair Competition to bus services” was the reply I got. Santis proceeded to describe the frequent and prolonged gridlocks on Northgate Street (particularly on Fridays and especially around the area of the bus station) endured by bus passengers and caused in the main by traffic congestion.  ”Cars don’t need to drive down Northgate Street” he said.

Standing at a local bus stop earlier that day, talking to fellow bus passengers this was my understanding of the word on the street too. Policies such as Free parking after three may apparently benefit the large hotel and retail chains which in the main draw money out of the city but they often make life more difficult for local bus passengers (and local council-tax paying people).  Don’t these policies also make it more difficult for us to reduce our carbon count per head of our city’s population?

 Just outside the city we have much-feted  Ashton Hayes which is striving to be the U.K’s first carbon neutral village. But progress in Chester itself seems very slow to me. It’s fine for communities outside Chester to go carbon neutral, but it defeats the object if our council has a policy of encouraging everyone to use their cars to come into the city centre itself, doesn’t it?

At the bus surgery I also talked to  Julie Richard who was representing Cheshire West and Chester Council Customer Services and valiantly promoting Cheshire West and Chester  Council’s Concessionary Concessionary Fare Scheme. The information and forms Julie gave me were very useful.

Here’s a link to the Cheshire West and Chester site you need to visit find out more about concessionary fares, the English National Bus Pass, Senior Railcards, Disabled Persons Railcards and Taxi Vouchers. Click here and tell your friends. Thanks to  Julie, Phil, Paul and the Bus Users U.K. team – the bus surgery seemed like a really useful event.

The two questions I had brought with me are huge ones, so I gave Julie a copy of them and asked her to forward them to Cheshire West and Chester’s Press Office so that I could continue to document their responses. Climate Change is an ongoing concern. The two questions are:

1. Improvements in local services – what do people want? Will these improvements be enough to reduce our city’s carbon emissions? and

2. How do these developments impact on Cheshire West and Chester’s Climate Change Prevention targets?

I’ve emailed a copy of this blog post to Cheshire West and Chester’s Press Office today too. Let’s see what they decide to say…

Yea Gods! Gads Zooks! Where does the day go to? We have searched and searched and we just can’t find it. We were up early i.e. Ralphy + 2 hours and we had breakfast and even ordered our train tickets for a return home just before Christmas. This was done courtesy of the router as we did it from the cosiness of the bed. And then all of a sudden it was 11:30 yes eleven thirty before we ventured out into a cold but clear day and after a bit of shopping and lunch we made our way back to the boat.

The afternoon then disappeared with a walk along the canal and some recorder playing as we prepared ourselves for a trip out to the Talbot Arms and some alcoholic refreshment.

Back on the boat for the leftover stew from last night. We picked up the Towpath free paper which has an article about Long Itchington and the Two Boats Inn which we spent two or three happy evenings in. Did you know that Long Itchington has 6 pubs of which 3 are in the Camra good beer guide and only has a population of 2000?

Statistics so far:-

1090.34 Miles, 732 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 10 Tunnels

READER WARNING

Only read this if you’re:-

a) a train spotter

b) a plane spotter

c) any kind of timetable nerd

d) hate Ryan Air

e) hate the Stansted Express

f) hate Stansted airport

g) hate the whole public transport system in London

h) are just bored

h) and i) you live within a 1 mile radius of Acton Central station

I have been unable to write this in any kind of interesting way. I apologise. This piece is full of facts. I wanted to get them down on paper. It’s important to me. Cathartic. You’ll have to go with it. 

It could certainly have gone a whole lot better. Most of it wasn’t my fault, in the sense that if the public transport system had been working in any way whatsoever then I’d have got to the airport on time and wouldn’t be sitting at Stansted,  4 hours later, writing this and waiting for an evening flight that would get me in to Venice/ Treviso @ 10pm (still 2 hours from home), instead of the leisurely lunchtime jet set into Trieste, in time to pick the kids up from school, I had been anticipating.

Now I’m £17 poorer for the last-ditch attempt to get here in time by taking the Stansted Express (that, excuse me, is really taking the piss); £100 poorer for the flight transfer charge; £108 poorer for the kids’ clothes I bought at Monsoon to while away the time; £20 spent on books; £20 roughly on coffees, breakfast and lunch; £1.60 for the two bottles of water I have to buy since they cost 10p more than buying one; and £2.50 and counting for the 50ps I’ve fed into the weighing machine to check that all my extra purchases haven’t put me over the Ryan Air weight limit (but with a 1.9k Chrismas pud in there and 2 tubs of Marmite it’s been a challenge). 

Here’s how the journey went. I leave my lovely friends’ house in Goldsmith Avenue, Acton (London) at 7.30 this morning. Plenty of time to get to Stansted for my flight which leaves at 11.20 (gates close 10.50). Approx journey time 2 hours. One hour margin of error.

I have worked out that this time the best route will be:

Acton Central to Finchley Road and Frognal (London Overground).

Alight at Finchley Rd, spring over lightly to bus stop, catch National Express direct to Stansted. No problemo.

Flawless plan, and much better than my usual schlep Acton Main Line, Bakerloo to Baker St, schlep to Bus stop, coach to Stansted route, and preferable I think to the option of catching the bus from Acton High Street all the way to Golders Green (an hour on a double decker – no thank you!) – or to schlepping the hour over to Liverpool Street on the central line and getting the Stansted Express (totally resent paying £17 for a train that travels approx 30 miles (?) and can not in any sense of the world/word be called an express).

P.S. I am not Jewish (nor was meant to be) but I love the word schlep.

So, I dutifully set alarm for 6.30. Leave house at 7.30 as planned. Feeling pleased as punch with my punctuality even though never-ending rain puts a dampener on things.

(From now on I will highlight what I will call Public Transport Errors – or PTEs – as opposed to MPEs – My Personal Errors; that way we can all work out who is to blame for my missing the plane, and then I can plan my revenge…) 

I walk the 3 minutes to Acton Central Station. First Public Transport Failure (PTE No. 1). The train is delayed. There is no train until 8 – and then only to Willesden Junction. I could take the next train at 8.15 which goes direct to Finchley Road (but there’s no guarantee it will arrive even then).

What would you do at this point?

Reconsider one of the many options cited above?

Walk 15 mins to the High Street and catch the 260 double decker direct to Golders Green?

Walk 20 mins to East Acton and get the central line to Liverpool St?

Oh, there are so many options I could have/ should have taken. But even though I am clearly versed in all the alternative ways of getting to Stansted none of them present themselves to me. My mind is a blank. I cannot contemplate not keeping to this route now that I’ve planned it. And anyway, I have an hour’s margin. And there’s a train coming in 15 mins. I decide to wait for it.  (MPE No. 1)

I try to get advice from the very quietly spoken station attendant. I cannot understand – or indeed hear – a word he says. (PTE No. 2) I decide he is a lost cause. Several people do the same. A tall yet stocky man with an East European nose walks boldly up to said put-upon attendant and demands some answers.

“Are you sure the 8.15 will come?” he says, and then when the attendant whispers something indecipherable, persists,  

“Do you in fact know anything? Why are you standing here doing nothing when it is your job to know the answers?!”

East European looking man (who does indeed speak with a slight accent though his grammar is perfect and his vocabulary advanced) – wanders off to get some answers through his mobile phone. I decide that whatever he does, I will follow. Here is  a man who means business! (MPE No. 2) 

He (and thus I) opts for the 8.00 to Willesden. Reassuringly, masses of people are doing the same. 3 minutes later we arrive at Willesden, though none of us are sure where to go next. Here the station attendant calls confidently into his megaphone, “Everybody down to Platform 2” . That is all he says. (PTE No. 3)

“Why you all looking at me like that, why you not moving? I said down to Platform 2”, he bellows.  We bregrudgingly shuffle along, hoping we are all moving in the right direction. Then my East European guru pipes up in clear sardonic tones,

 “We are not cattle. We need to know where we are going.”

I feel he is my spokesman, I watch him closely and consider that whatever decision he makes next will be a wise one, and I will follow him (MPE No. 3).

Down to platform 2 we go.  Down the stairs, over the bridge, down more stairs. I am the only one struggling with 2 suitcases (space for all those stocking fillers I intended to buy at the Pound Shop in Acton and to assuage guilty feelings for leaving kids for a week). But at platform two we are still in the dark. It is raining miserably. I am very cold and miserable. There is no place more miserable on this earth at this moment than this miserable platform at Willesden Junction (deliberately built by sadistic train operators in a wind tunnel).

I wait here a long time, not knowing what is coming next. I find myself, like everybody else, staring down the track in seach of the train as though that will make it come. If I stop looking, it will stop coming. Nobody says anything, we just all stare down the track in the miserable rain. There are hundreds of us.

Finally an announcement. “The train to Sratford is waiting at Platform 4.” (PTE No. 4).

Platform 4?!  I’ve just come from Platform bloody 4. Up the stairs we schlep, over the bridge, up more stairs, stumbling onto the train just in time. The clock is ticking furiously. The train is packed with people coughing up phlegm and swine flu all over each other. A lady sticks her backpack into my stomach. She doesn’t feel a thing. 

(In retrospect, this was a serious MPE – since I could have simply walked over to platform 1, got the train to Euston, from there the tube to Tottenham Hale, from there the Stansted Express – except that this was not an alternative route I had ever planned…so it does not count as an MPE).

I get to Finchley Road, I find the bus stop. But I’m not convinced the National Express will actually stop here since there is no sign (PTE No. 5). Instead I see a double decker heading for Golders Green. I get on it. (MPE No. 3). As we are chugging along, stopping here, there and everywhere, but at least we’re on our way, we’ll still make it in time, the National Express (the A6 to Stansted) sails past. Damn! 

I arrive at Golders Green at 9 o’clock. Just in time to see my coach leaving. I do not chase after it waving madly (MPE No. 4 ) Instead, I check the timetable and see that another one will be along in 20 minutes (PTE No. 6). Still time to get to Stansted (est journey time 1 hour and 15 mins). I decide to wait. (MPE No. 5) 

I wait 20 minutes, 30 mins, no sign of a coach. More and more people are arriving at the bus stop. It is very cold and raining. The minging shelter is not wide enough for all of us (PTE No. 7). Even though I was here first I have no place in the shelter since I cannot stand still (MPE No. 6), and need to pace up and down looking up the road in case I can see the coach coming. If I stop looking for it, it will not come. I am wet and cold. (Did I say that already?) I hate London. I hate England. There is no place on earth more horrible than Golders Green bus stop. 

I schlep over to the National Express office (risking missing the coach while I’m in there). I am reassured by the lone man. ‘The coach should be along in a few minutes’ (PTE No. . I decide to keep waiting (MPE No. 7).

After 40 minutes and no coach, a would-be passenger announces to us all that there are floods on the A41 and there will be no more coaches today! (PTE No. 9 and 10) You can’t get there from here. Taxis are not an option.

Why does nobody ever tell you anything? Why are we all left to work out our options all by ourselves? I estimate 90% of the people at the bus stop are from abroad, trying to get home. They haven’t got a clue what is going on in this Godforsaken hole that is London. They want to be home in their nice  starfish-shaped hotel in Dubai (I know you’re thinking if they could afford to live in a starfish hotel in Dubai they wouldn’t be taking a coach to the airport but you can’t be sure…the wise rich man knows that if you look after the pennies..) , or they want to be wandering past their Colliseum in Rome, or picking up pebbles on their beach in Croatia. Why did they ever come to London in the first place??? That’s what they’re all thinking. That’s what I’m thinking.

And actually, I soon know for sure what they’re thinking because when I head off to find an alternative route I am followed by foreigners – and we pick up more on the way. By the end of the journey I feel like the golden goose!  

The revised last-ditch-attempt-but-already-no-hope route is as follows (I have phoned my lovely Acton friend, who gives me instructions as she googles, no point in asking any transport worker for directions..): Golders Green tube , northern line to Euston, Victoria line to Tottenham Hale, from there the Stansted Express…Now I am really cross. If I had known, I could have got on that train to Euston an hour go!!!

Clearly, my plane is a lost cause. But Antonella is going to Rome  and Sanya is going to Dusseldorf and they might just make it, if they can follow me! All right, all right. I am very stressed and bad-tempered but what the hell. We spend tense moments on the Victoria line being stared at for 10 minutes by a train engineer who doesn’t say anything. And the train doesn’t move either.  (PTE 11 & 12) Then we are told the train is unexpectedly terminating at Seven Sisters. (PTE 13) Oh bloody hell! Luckily, it’s just a spritely hop over to the next platform to Tottenham Hale.

Surely at least from here the notoriously exhorbitant ticket price will be cheaper. We’re already half way to Stansted. But no – it’s still £17. (PTE 14) How is that possible? I have to buy the tickets for all of us because their foreign cards don’t work in the machine (PTE 15). They give me cash – and coins. Great! Just when I had managed to get rid of all my change, I grumble like Scrooge.

We get to Stansted. Antonella and Sanya run off to catch their plans. “Ciao!” “Grazie!” “Nice to meet you!” They wave and cheer gaily.

I can hardly bring myself to look at the departure board. My plane to Trieste has long gone – and the one to nearby Venice has just left. There are no planes going anywhere near where I want to go for hours.

I sit down to have a nervous breakdown and a coffee. 

Tune in to the next blog to find out what happens next…this has taken way too long to tell – and I need a break!

TRANSIT took note of a recent article in the Star newspaper that discusses the effect of investments that investment in public transport infrastructure will have on public transport use.

Building confidence in public transport (the Star)
28 November 2009
By SHARIDAN M.ALI

FOR most of Klang Valley residents, the choice between driving in traffic jams and commuting in sardine-packed light rail transit (LRT) or buses during peak hours makes little difference.

The Government has set what seems to be an ambitious target of increasing public transport usage to 25% by 2012 from the current 16%. To do that, there ought to be a concerted support from related Government agencies, private bus operators, taxi companies as well as the LRT and the largest public bus [and LRT & monorail] operator, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd.

With emphasis on that and as one of the lead drivers to achieve the target, Prasarana hopes to instil confidence of using public transport by providing more comfortable, reliable and efficient services. [TRANSIT: They have a long, long way to go and sometimes it appears that they are going backwards!]

Currently, Prasarana has the biggest ridership; it transports a daily average of 400,000 people on its buses, 300,000 people on its two LRT services and 100,000 people on the monorail.

Datuk Idrose Mohamed says the company wants the public to associate RAPID services with efficiency, comfort and reliability. Image courtesy of The Star

Clearly, a lot more needs to be done to boost the country’s public transportation usage, which is still lagging behind other Asian countries like Singapore and South Korea where the usage is more than 50% and 70% respectively.

Prasarana, a Government-own company under the Ministry of Finance Inc, is acquiring new and longer trains as well as carrying out route extensions for the LRT service, ordering new buses and upgrading the present LRT stations.

The extensions of its two LRT services namely the Ampang Line and Kelana Jaya Line with an estimated cost of RM7bil is expected to commence construction in the first quarter of next year. The construction will take three years to complete; the delivery of 35 four-car trains valued at RM1bil will be staggered over two years starting early next year while the delivery of 400 new buses, also staggered, will start early next year. [TRANSIT: We wonder if the Auditor General will once again be talking about overpayment and overspending by Prasarana in regards to these projects & purchases.]

“Besides these, we are also improving our services via public input. For example, we are upgrading our bus services in terms of interval time and routes in all the six areas we cover in the Klang Valley starting with Cheras,” says Prasarana group managing director Datuk Idrose Mohamed,

“In terms of buses’ interval time, we try to improve the situation by looking at depot, drivers or road congestion problems.

“We also have to modify some routes that previously used two buses to reach the city centre to only one bus without increasing the fare,” he told StarBizweek during the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) Asia-Pacific Seminar last week.

Prasarana director of stakeholders management division V.Ravindran says different modes of transportation namely the LRT, monorail, express rail link, bus and KTM commuter, taxi, car, motorcycle, bicycle and pedestrian should integrate at conducive transit stations to promote the usage of public transportation. Prasarana is doing this for its Kelana Jaya and Ampang lines extension projects. [TRANSIT: They will do this in theory, but in practice?]

“Also, another important convenient feature that will be included in our LRT extensions is ride and park facilities. Our Kelana Jaya Line and Ampang Line extension will include 5,100 and 6,000 parking lots respectively,” he adds.

Among other comfort and convenience features are six covered walkways and pedestrian links to transit stations.

Minding that one of the main causes of traffic congestion stems from convergence of express buses in the city centre, the Government has also proposed integrated transport terminals (ITT) for express buses away from the city centre. [TRANSIT: But at the same time, RapidKL has increased the number of buses going into the city centre and cut back on most of the City Shuttle routes]

“Currently, there are three ITTs in the proposal that shall serve express buses going to and from the north, east and south of Peninsular Malaysia,” he says.

In terms ticketing system, while there is a common payment system across multi-modal public transport using Touch ‘n GO card, there is no integrated ticket system as yet. [TRANSIT: 6 years and counting and still no integrated ticketing system! We wonder why the Auditor General hasn't mentioned this yet.]

“Prasarana has initiated integrated ticketing system for its LRTs, buses and monorail but while awaiting the completion, integrated monthly passes (RapidPass) are made available,” he says.

To strengthen the company’s brandname in public transportation, Idrose says Prasarana with its two LRTs, Klang Valley buses under Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd (RAPID KL) and bus operation in Penang under Rapid Penang Sdn Bhd (Rapid Penang) will re-brand their integrated services under one single brand, RAPID. “We want the public to associate RAPID services with efficiency, comfort and reliability,” he says. [TRANSIT: And we want the brand RAPID to represent the Local Public Transport Councils of KL and Penang.]

On the findings of the recent National Audit Report that the company has incurred losses from 2005 to 2007 with accumulated losses as at Dec 31, 2007 were RM839.81mil, Idrose says, Prasarana is service-oriented rather than demand-based or profit-oriented organisation.

“We serve non-profitable routes and do not charge expensive fare but we make sure that our income at least covers our operational cost,” he says. [TRANSIT: Just because you are "service-oriented company" that does not give you carte blanch to spend money.]

TRANSIT Says:

Well there you have it. The future of public transport in Malaysia is in the hands of a government owned company that will compete with private operators and probably push them out of the market. All in the name of stability.

The saddest thing is that the public and wakil rakyat hardly question the work that Prasarana is doing. And people complain about Prasarana’s office in Bangsar but they say nothing about the cost of the proposed LRT lines.

Does RM7 billion sound like a large amount of money? How about RM411 million per kilometer? How about when we compare the projected cost of RM411 million /km compared to the price of constructing the LRT which was 150 million / km back in 1997.

We at TRANSIT have to ask an honest question – can we afford to spend RM15 billion (or RM411 million per km) to extend LRT lines to low-density suburbs?

Or would it be better to spend some of that RM 15 billion on another form of technology, that would give us rapid transit at a fraction of the cost?

We at TRANSIT do not see the value in spending RM411 million per km just to extend the LRT to meet with each other. Nor do we see the value in extending the LRT lines into suburban areas which are very low density.

Why build a train system capable of moving 30,000 passengers per direction, per hour, to a suburban area where there are few public transport users?

TRANSIT is happy to report that the newest KTM trainset has finally arrived in Malaysia.

TRANSIT received the photos above, showing the train’s departure from Korea. We have now learned that the train has arrived at WestPort (Port Klang) and will soon be handed over to KTMB.

The train, made by the ROTEM Consortium, is 6-carriages in length and will be joined by 5 more trainsets by February of 2010.

KTMB hopes to operate the 1h 55m Express Train Service (ETS) between Ipoh and Seremban beginning in April 2010.

It is thought that there will be 2 services:

• “Express”, Seremban-KL-Ipoh, RM60
• “Transit”, Seremban, Kajang, KL, Sg. Buloh, Batu Gajah, Tg. Malim, Ipoh, RM40

In addition there is the current Seremban-KL-Ipoh train service which costs RM30 (or so)

TRANSIT Says:

We are of course happy to learn about the arrival of the new trains, but there are some details behind the trains that we are not exactly too happy about.

Firstly, the trains should have been ordered in 2005 so that they would be here and operating back in May 2007 when the KL-Ipoh Electrification and Double-Tracking project was completed.

Secondly, there should be more trains. 5 trains on the ETS service is simply not enough.

Thirdly, we are afraid that the RM60 fare for express service will result in low demand for the service.

Fourthly, KTMB needs to improve its Komuter division which is facing serious problems. Frankly, if these 5 trains were moved to operate on from Sg. Buloh to Kajang, it would have a major impact on congestion in KTM service.

Finally, KTMB is doing what it can to improve intercity train service but there is no coordination to improve public transport. Imagine what it will be like taking a fast train from KL-Ipoh or KL-Seremban (or the other way around) and then dealing with the aging buses and taxi mafia at the end of your trip!

Image via Wikipedia

From my green living blog:

We can help American families cope with high gas prices by investing in public transportation and communities with transportation alternatives through climate change legislation.waynechecker.net, waynechecker.net, Dec 2009

You should read the whole article.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Report: 10 Percent Transit Growth Would Help Meet House Climate Target (streetsblog.org)

Fifth and last post about going from Camden to Brick Lane
All pictures will gradually be uploaded on my flickr account
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12445197@N05/sets/72157614139538921/

Brick Lane
The end of the section running in a concrete box that starts from Shoreditch High Street

Bridge across the eastbound tracks coming from Liverpool Street Station

You can see the National Express (for as long as it lasts) tracks, the southern end of the London Overground Bridge and the beginning of the descend into the existing tunnel near the old Shoreditch station.

Brick Lane
Whose tag is that on the sign ?

The End
Harjinder Singh
Man in Blue

These guys were such a popular scapegoat back in the day. By that, I mean all shit rolled downhill at the speed of light and Connex was waiting at the bottom. Being French, I guess they had it coming.

With them gone, and their parent company thoroughly routed and now absent from Melbournes public transport system, attention now turns to Metro, a company subordinate to a Hong Kong based corporation that runs their marvelous little party.

I’m actually enjoying the whole Metro swap so far. I haven’t had a service cancelled yet and its been great. Nice people, new operator, new ticket system (hopefully soon) and a shiney new paint job.

But of course then some idiot needs to go and complain about them being worse than Connex, and screwing up within days and how they’re just as bad as Connex if not worse and ohdearhoweverwillwesurviveanotherroundofshittrains.

Here’s a hint;

Metro just took over the train system. Days ago. Give them a break.

Some people can be such fools.

If anything the culprit in the whole circus that is the train system is the Victorian Government and their obsession with freeways. They’ve neglected the public transport infrastructure which they still own and have just kept blaming whatever particular company they contracted that particular job out to for the heck of it.

Connex was not in breach of contract when the services were delayed thanks to trains being broken, or tracks being in a state of disrepair, the Victorian Government was.

It was a breach of contract because it failed to maintain Victorias public transport system, and a breach of contract because they chose to outsource the running of the trains in the first place. Refer to my post on privatisation for my veiws on that. But its pretty clear right here that I despise the activity of outsourcing any government services to a private company.

But enough of that. My main point is that people have been far too fast in crying foul over the services provided by Metro Melbourne. Seriously, its been what, 3 days?

I’d say I give people 6 months if the service is worse than Connex to start complaining, or 12 months if its exactly the same to start complaining at least before I stop slapping people upside the head for being alarmist lunatics.

Alternatively, direct all hate here.

http://www.lynnekosky.com/

Why? because she’s a do-nothing that ignores complaints and has shown nothing but indifference towards her duties as minister for public transport.

So people. Show Metro some love.

OK, so it wasn’t actually a crash, it was more of a small bump.

I had missed a connecting train, so stayed on the tram into the city. When I changed onto a tram going up Collins Street, I figured I’d make it to work in a reasonable amount of time. However, at Swanston Street, we were waiting for the tram in front to move and our driver started ‘dinging’ insistently. This was much to the confusion of the passengers, until there a was a sudden bump – the tram in front of us had rolled backward.

No one was hurt, but of course there were no announcements from the driver nor the staff on the tram platform. The people at the front of the tram realised what had happened, but no one was sure whether it would be a quick fix or not. After just a few minutes, most people got off the tram and started to walk. By the time I had reached Spring Street, there tram from in front of us had passed me (now ‘Not in Service’), but the other tram was still stopped at Swanston Street.

It was interesting, if not surprising, that the new tram operators (although the same drivers I note) were the same in not providing us with details or estimations – despite there being several members of staff on the platform supervising the disembarking passengers.

Well we are back on the boat, and boy is it cold on here. I have lit the fire but I guess it is going to take a while to warm up, the temperature at the moment is 7 degrees, brrr.

We caught the train from Wolverhampton to Watford, cheap advance tickets, they do crowd the carriage. I picked up the new antenna I had ordered and brought back an extending pole we had which unfortunately has a minimum length of 6 feet. This was a bit awkward on the train and I ended up putting it on the floor below the food compartment in the refreshment area. I did ask permission, which was granted provided that I didn’t forget it.

It is good to get back on board although we did have a great weekend with the family, we did our duty getting up early with Ralphy to give his parents a lie in. Unfortunately Ralph decided to get up at 5:30 the first morning and it was downhill from thereon in, still we will miss having the little chap to entertain us at some ungodly hour.

Statistics so far:-

1065.10 Miles, 726 Locks, 74 Swing Bridges, 48 Lift Bridges, 7 Tunnel

Dear Santa,

Please could you send me the speeding Stagecoach driver who gratuitously drenched me and my two daughters this morning as we walked to pre-school in what felt like the coldest morning of the year? It would cheer me up no end to strip him naked, dump a gallon of ice-water over him and parade him round the village to the hoots and whistles of fellow pedestrians. I am sure it must have been a man, I can’t believe a woman would have subjected a 7 month old baby to the full force of ice-cold water in the face when there was every opportunity to drive around the standing water at the side of the road.

I hope you are able to satisfy my modest request.

Thank you

Hopeful of Bramley

Chennai, November 29. Workers at the Kaiga atomic power plant in Karnataka are a shaken lot after the drinking water of a laboratory cooler was found contaminated with radioactive Tritium, suspected to be an act of sabotage.

Fifty-five employees drank the contaminated water on November 24 and were hospitalised. Many of them were discharged later.

The incident that took place at the Unit 1 reactor building of the Kaiga generating station has left the employees completely shaken and has introduced an element of suspicion among them, said an official on condition of anonymity.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), which owns the nuclear power plants including Kaiga, has launched a probe into the radiation leak. Tritium can cause cancer if ingested.

“Everybody has implicit faith in their colleagues at the work place and more so in the case of critical operations. This has got shaken now at Kaiga,” maintained a NPCIL official.

JP Gupta, station director at Kaiga, told IANS over phone: “We have a list of the people who had entered the reactor building that day. The investigating agencies are analysing the data.”

Denying any problem at the plant, Gupta said: “It is true that employees will be more vigilant now about their colleagues till the culprit is nabbed.”According to a statement issued by SK Jain, CMD of NPCIL, preliminary enquiries have not revealed any violation of operating procedures or radioactivity releases or security breach.

“It is possibly an act of mischief. The related agencies are investigating,” Jain’s statement said.

According to Gupta, the heavy water (Tritium) could have been taken from the reactor building (Unit 1), or from samples of the heavy water kept for analysis, or from outside where it is stored in sealed drums. — IANS

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091130/nation.htm#21

I spent my formative years travelling around London. You’d think I’d be used to agressive men metaphorically (or indeed literally) dick-flailing in public. But.

1. I haven’t had to deal with this sort of nonsense on a regular basis since I left our wonderful capital over a year ago.
2. It’s fucking scary.

The train last night was basically Dick-Flailing Central. There was one drugged-up bloke screaming “we hate Rotherham” and yelling about football results and the miners’ strike (which, since it happened in ‘84, he probably wasn’t even born for) and another six guys (boys, really) being drunk and loud. And there was yelling, and homophobia, and racism, and sexism, and all of the usual things that makes me stabitty. And the guy sitting next to me was laughing. Not shit-I’m-a-bit-scared laughing, but outright isn’t-this-hillarious laughing. I nearly punched him. Except, you know, that I might have ended up a little bit dead.

Anyway. Eventually the boys goaded each other into a fight. Involving a glass bottle. Which luckily didn’t get used, or broken. And I wasn’t too sad to see them getting kicked. It was a bit like a fight between UKIP and the BNP – you wanted them both to lose.

But glass bottles and drunken angry boy-men are a danger to everyone, sadly, not just themselves. And it wouldn’t have taken much to set Bottle-Guy off again. Like, say, someone looking at him in a funny way.

So with the carriage totally silent, and – no shit – every single person in the carriage looking at me, I walked out. Out of the carriage, past Bottle-Guy, Miner-Guy and all of their little friends, past every other fucker who’d done nothing, and down to the other end of the train. Where I found the conductors, tried to tell them what was happening and – burst into tears. Shaking, crying, the works.

How humilliating. And how fucking terrifying.

The good news is that this persuaded them to get the police out.

The other good news is that at least one of them will be charged for fare evasion.

The bad news is that nothing’s likely to happen about the guy who was waving the bottle around.

But. They were trying to get to Sheffield. They got arrested a stop down the line. The last thing the conductor said to me was that he sincerely hoped the police would keep them nicked until the last train had gone. And at least one of them will be fined for it. So. The moral of the story is: don’t be a pillock on the train. Otherwise, I’ll do my best to get you arrested.

Three news items are making headlines and they have a common thread running through them. The first is the case of a luxury train in Russia having been bombed leading to derailment and loss of life. Another bomb blast on the same line has the security setup in a tizzy in Moscow. This possibly is another terrorist attack.

The second news item that caught my eye was a ‘flood’ in the Saudi city of Jeddah. The city has come to a standstill, the roads have been blocked and the drains are chocked. Jeddah was never ready for such a down pour. Coming in the month of Ramzan, the misery has been compounded as there is a deluge of people from all across the globe. The result has been that ninety eight people have lost their lives in these floods. Is this unlikely downpour due to climate change?

The third news item that is more innocuous and may not have made news in the west is that heavy water was found to have been mixed with drinking water in Kaiga, here in Karnataka. Kaiga nuclear plant is used for power generation and parts of the state depend on Kaiga for their energy needs.  Anil Kakodkar, the chief of the Indian Atomic Energy has termed this as mischief. 55 people have been exposed to radiation and needed to be hospitalized.

The fact is that climate change is a reality. The sea levels are rising, the monsoon cycle has been erratic and the glaciers are melting. Because of the rise in the sea levels humanity may lose some of the most beautiful Pacific islands in the next couple of decades. The monsoons in India this year were extraordinarily late and there was drought declared in many parts of India. And when the rains did come, they were so ferocious that many parts of Bihar were inundated and there was a flood like situation. Many people lost their homes to floods yet again this year. Gangotri, the mouth of river Ganga is not where the glaciers melt and the formation of the river starts now as it used to be some decades ago. One has to tread another few kilometers up the hills to find the source of the Ganges – another indication of global warming!! The Arctic icecap is melting and that could spell disaster in the years to come. Europe and America saw a dip in temperature last winters and that was quite unprecedented. Five to six meters of snow halted life in North America. Is humanity listening? The answer is yes and no.

The fact is that most people realize that our world is in danger because man has pillaged nature indiscriminately. We have had little regard to our environment and we have done as we thought fit with Mother Nature. We have scant respect for our surroundings and we are myopic in our approach.  Ancient Hindus realized that humans were a part of the cycle of life and not life per se. The Western approach that all is for the convenience of the human race is a very ungrateful way of looking at life on this planet.  We are a part of a whole, a small part and not the be all and end all of this planet that has been bestowed with life.

The present US president has taken up the cause of climate change and global warming as his political raison de entre and has vigorously pushed for a global consensus on measures to check global warming with participation from the major economies in the world. The presumption is that with industrialization starts pillage and pollution which consequently contributes to global warming. This is true but may not be the whole story. The focus of this debate seems to be the power industry. The coal burning thermal energy has been targeted most furiously. I do not for a moment defend this method of power generation. Burning coal is surely not the most eco-friendly way of power generation, but I have serious reservations about the alternative that is being bandied about so forcefully. The answer to this problem, the experts say is to go in for the ‘clean’ energy option of – guess what – nuclear energy. Nuclear power plants were all but discarded by most western nations after the eighties Chernobyl disaster. Humans have short memories. People have forgotten what a nightmare Chernobyl was not only for the Soviet Union of that time but also many adjoining countries. Europe was shivering not with the biting cold but because of the possible horrific outcome of the Chernobyl disaster. And now countries like Finland have built one of the largest nuclear power stations in the world. Other western countries and some of the developing countries like India, China and Brazil are looking closely at the developments in Finland so as to be able to build similar nuclear behemoths to serve their increasing power needs.  Even such backward countries like Bangladesh are being encouraged to have nuclear power plants as a source of ‘clean energy’.

Apart from the fundamental environmental questions that emanate from such a rampant use of nuclear power plants and the expertise needed to run them and the paucity of trained staff in such backward nations, I am also concerned about the safety and security of these strategic installations from terror attacks. I am also inclined to think that some of these nations may want to further enrich the uranium at their disposal and try and build nuclear weapons. Proliferation may be a very real outfall of this rampant use of nuclear energy. I know that the IAEA is doing a wonderful job and will keep a hawk’s eye on all these nuclear reactors but some cheating may take place and the checks and balances are not foolproof.

What has happened in Kaiga could well be a terror plot. This is just a precursor to the things to come. No technology is so well guarded and so complicated that a group of persons with vile intentions cannot use it to unleash carnage at a people unmindful of the dangers around them. Access to the control room in a nuclear power plant even for a short time could be enough for a jihadi who has come on a suicide mission to wreck the kind of havoc that we can only imagine. If small weapons like rifles and grenades made a Mumbai happen, access to any of the nuclear installations to one of the jihadis could well mean Armageddon for the region (I do not believe in the year 2012 theory though). This whole debate on climate change to me seems to be a concerted attempt by a lobby to force the world to take up technology that is not necessarily clean but could mean billions of dollars in profits for these multinational behemoths.

For starters we need to realize that our daily life needs to be more environmental friendly. The use of plastics and chemical based materials must be banned. In India the use of polythene bags is rampant and these are the worst environmental hazard. Cows munch on them and many have died because of kilos of such toxics accumulate in their stomachs. The use of trucks and Lorries that run on diesel is a huge pollutant. Railroad is a much cleaner option (Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway has invested heavily in rail road companies in the US looking at the possibilities in future. Returns may start only after at least a decade or so, but then the Guru was always a long term investor). High rise buildings are seen as a solution to the burgeoning housing needs of the modern citizens of metropolises that abound. These are a huge burden on a fragile eco system of any city. The cities need to expand laterally rather than vertically. The onus should be on each home to be a self sufficient and eco-friendly dwelling. In a country like India, solar power is a very real option. Homes must be given licenses only if they comply with solar power generation norms that the state must outline. These may vary according to the size of the home. Public transport, like the Metro must be expanded so that cheap and comfortable option dissuades people from using private vehicles. Besides, if cities expand laterally it will be tedious for people to drive for hours to work. The public option if comfortable and fast will be the preferred option – the environmental friendly option. Wind energy is another source that is not being harnessed. In both solar and wind energy, my only reservation is the lead battery that is used to store the power generated. Lead is carcinogenic and we need to develop better storage options for the power generated. All this can be done without much cost. This high rise homes option is really an ecological disaster and taxes the resources exponentially. While there are many builders here in Bangalore, where I live, offering home solutions in the form of high rise buildings, not many are attracted.  Bangalorean’s want their own ‘house’ and not a flat to live in. Bangalore is expanding like no other city. The Bangalore Metro will only help the city expand further as this a fast, comfortable and cheap option.  Most of these layouts in an ever expanding Bangalore are green and have lots of trees around them.  Most houses have solar panels for water heating. These could be expanded and could well be the source of power for most of these homes. Rainwater harvesting is also being done in most houses, though this could be taken up more vigorously, I feel. The clean air that we breathe is such a boon. But the traffic is increasing and most roads face a traffic jam during peak hours. I hope the public transport option comes fast and the roads can then be free of most of the gasoline guzzling monsters that hum around belching out fumes that suffocate us.

The coming Copenhagen Summit is more of a charade than any real effort at cleaning the environment. I would be impressed if the White House had eco-friendly energy options. It is good that the first lady has again started the kitchen garden in the White House’s sprawling lawns. We need to emulate that too – try and grow organically our own food.  The solutions to climate change that are being put forward just do not excite me. They are not solutions but a mockery and a circus that has little import. Man needs to learn to live with the environment around him. Nature has enough for us all. We need to learn to listen to Mother Nature more closely.

Update 4.12.2009: India has decided to unilaterally cut 20 to 25% of emissions. Sounds good. Copenhagen is going to be one big circus with little to show except maybe help a few industries that shall benefit from this extravagant exercise. While the colder nations may need nuclear energy as the ‘clean’ alternative, here in tropical countries we must try and harness solar energy that we have in abundance. That is surely clean and renewable, besides in countries like India there is sunshine almost 300 days a year, we do not need expensive nuclear power where the spent fuel is such a headache and a threat to humankind.

To me this whole hype over climate change is a lot of hot air. Especially when there are such ridiculously outrageous ’serious’ attempts at controlling greenhouse gases. There was this one report about a group of scientists trying to genetically engineer sheep so that they burp less. Their take is that sheep burp is methane and this in turn affects the environment. How about genetically modifying humans so that we burp and fart less, we are many more in numbers. This debate is getting out of hand and from doing small things that count we are going to outlandish detail which is an exercise in futility.

China has also said that they will cut emissions by 40 percent. That’s nice – but who is going to monitor there. It is a closed country and we will have no choice but to take their word for it.