Mancunian Blues
Created | Updated Jan 26, 2006
24-Hour Party People?
So, that was my first h2g2 meet. I was the one mostly sat in a corner. I left rather early because I’d forgotten to check the times of my train home.
Within 50 minutes of leaving Liverpool Street Station I was back at home in Essex, 40 miles away. It could easily have taken me 50 minutes to get back from Manchester city centre to my flat four miles out when I lived in the Rainy City. This is where the similarities end.
If I'd actually gone from my local station, I'd have had to have left by about 9 o'clock. Because of reasons best known to the rail companies, no trains will run towards my town on Fridays and weekends past about 9-ish. This makes nights out in the city rather difficult. So I drove to a nearby station with a few more trains; even then, I had to cut the night short. I left the meet just after 10-ish; the main bar was empty and the pub doors were locked.
One of the things about the City of London is how dead it becomes at weekends. While the suburbs and outskirts are busy and full of life, the Square Mile is nearly silent. No pub in the centre of Manchester would dare be caught shutting up its doors by 10pm.
No wonder 24-Hour Party People came from Manchester.
However, because I was driving, I have invented a new game. It's called 'Lemonade Lottery'. You get a bit of card with a selection of prices from 50p to £2.50 printed on it. Each time somebody asks for a soft drink at the bar, they call out the price they were charged. If people have the matching price on their card, they mark it off. I got charged 3 different prices for a glass of lemonade (no ice).
So I'm off to Manchester for a couple of days for my birthday.
I'm taking the train.
Because I'm organised (though most people will disagree), I booked in advance. It cost me a total of £21 for the 500-mile round trip. Bear in mind that a full return to London (that I have to go through anyway) costs £16: this is a cheap ticket.
People keep quoting that a return from London to Manchester will cost you £150. It's the call of the pro-car lobby highlighting how expensive rail travel is. And yes, the standard fare is £150, and it will let you travel on any train. However, because this ticket is valid for any train, it doesn't guarantee a seat, so you could be standing all the way.
My £21 return will guarantee me a seat. However, there are catches. I can only use one train on the London to Manchester leg. So, in the likely event of the train from Essex to London being delayed, I'm rather stuffed. Because the rail companies are now rivals, they will try not to honour your ticket even if it is another rail company at fault.
An alternative is the Saver ticket. This can be bought anytime and does not tie you to a train. There are certain trains that they can't be used on, normally the trains at peak time, but otherwise are entirely flexible. A return from London to Manchester comes in at £40 or thereabouts.
It has both flexibility and value. And the rail companies have managed to get the government to try and drop the Saver ticket. Apparently, they say, it will allow them to sell more advance tickets. Millions of Saver tickets are bought a year and they are vital in the fight against pollution.
One of the great benefits of the car is that you can go whenever you want. The Saver allows somebody to travel between cities with the flexibility of a car, quicker than a car and at a cost less than a tank of petrol.
It does seem that if this goes though then it will add to the government's bizarre, contradictory policy portfolio: another example of one policy undermining another.
Personally, I think that more freight should travel by rail. We have the infrastructure to move vast amounts of traffic off the roads; however, a government can't afford to upset the truckers.
I was born too late for the golden days of long freight trains crossing the country. As a bluesman, I shouldn't be travelling in a reserved seat in an air-conditioned carriage. I should be travelling to Manchester with a guitar on my back, hopping trucks at switching yards, third boxcar, midnight train and all that.
Anyway...
Until next time
Love peace and blues
tjm
