Reading Roars!

You are browsing the archives of 2008 February.

I’m not into the “celebrity thing”.  The lives of famous people don’t interest me (unless they happen to be footballers, politicians or business people).  Nevertheless, I was interested to read about Pete Doherty sightings in west Reading (”Rocker Pete was just so charming“), of all places.
The scruffy singer who, much like Amy Winehouse, always seems [...]

According to The Times (”Commuting by coach in the lap of luxury“), National Express will be running a daily coach service from Reading to London, stopping at Hammersmith, Trafalgar Square, Victoria Street and finally Victoria coach station.
On offer will be:

leather seats
Wi-Fi
an SMS alert service
a fare that is 60-70% cheaper than a monthly rail ticket

Journey time [...]

I have been keeping track of First Great Western mentions in the press. It appears that pressure is mounting on the train company.
Chancellor Alistair Darling recently told FGW to “get a grip”.
In Cardiff, tougher words were said by Jenny Randerson AM (”Train service branded ‘Worst Great Western’“) :
First Great Western is rapidly gaining the title [...]

The Evening Post has published a summary of traffic and transport complaints submitted to the Reading Independent Transport Commission by local residents. The Commission has been gathering comments since November last year.
On the whole, residents’ views have been rather negative. The Evening Post reports:
Of the 541 submissions the think tank has received, a [...]

It has been a week since my last post.  Even longer since my last post about things other than trains.   Here’s one on football.
Reading FC’s John Madejski has become the latest footballing notable to rail (oops, train reference there) against the Premiership’s so-called “Game 39″ proposal (a plan that would see games played overseas). Madejski [...]

“Has the London commuter hit Reading?,” asks Evening Post columnist Allie White:
walking past the station the other day felt like stepping into Charing Cross at 8am on a rainy day. There were scores of solo commuters wearing grim expressions, jostling past each other. If you caught the eye of one of the workers, they would [...]

The writer behind the influential I Hate First Great Western blog has had enough:
at the risk of making myself blogless, this year I’m going to channel my energies towards working from home, and leave the world of First Great Western behind.
It’s a shame. For us, I mean. The blog, I’m sure, prompted the creation of [...]

Another five days of rail travel over and I’m now enjoying the (beautifully sunny!) weekend. I found time today to participate in a Rail Crowding Survey handed to me a couple of days ago at Reading Station.
The survey began with the words:
Thank you for taking part in this survey on crowding on rail services in [...]

More train woes.  This morning my First Great Western train to Paddington crawled along the track at an average speed of 50mph, marginally faster than the speed of an Ostrich.  Choo choo! Just to compare, a new super-fast train was unveiled yesterday in France.  The AGV will cruise at a speed of 210 mph and [...]

Brazil is currently enjoying Carnaval. Our dazzling equivalent is the pancake race. Sadly, not everyone’s happy. One town not celebrating this year is Ripon, up North, whose race was cancelled because of (it is alleged) health and safety regulations. I experienced health and safety nonsense myself this morning, when travelling on a First Great Western [...]