Sponsored by
Tuesday's Letters: Yorkshire travels backwards on a railway return journey
IT is many years since I last travelled the rails of Yorkshire. Much of Friday afternoon was spent travelling by train between Doncaster, Leeds and Sheffield and I must admit I was shocked at some of what I saw – but equally impressed by other features of my trip.
Let's start at Leeds – an impressive station with heavy traffic, but what a woeful selection of junk on wheels operated on many services. Shabby diesel multiple units rattling and banging around the area with some awful overcrowding on peak services.
Moving on to Wakefield Kirkgate. I was last there in the dying days of steam trains.
Back in 1967, the station was more intact but had appalling lighting – very atmospheric in the days of steam when grubby steam locos could hardly be seen in the murk that constituted this station. Passing through in daylight was something of a surprise.
Despite the passing of 42 years, little had been done to improve the situation.
My hopes were raised as a few miles further south at Barnsley there is a wonderful new bus/rail interchange. There are lots of lovely newish buses but the same piles of scrap on wheels running the train service.
A pity because the interchange would be the envy of many communities in other parts of the country.
Northern Rail is responsible for portraying my jaded image of Yorkshire. As you might imagine, I was not impressed by the level of investment when compared to railways further south, the lack of cleaners on trains between duties, the lack of good deep cleaning on the trains when they are stabled overnight and the different levels of infrastructure investment across the region.
Overall, a not very impressive performance for an outsider and one who
would love to see the area blessed with modern electric units like the ones I use to commute daily in the Midlands.
I put much of the blame on Northern. I know their defence is a lack of decent rolling stock but the junk they operate could be better presented if they spent some money on cleaning and loving care. The lack of pride by the operators is soon reflected by the travelling public and soon sees the refurbished units return to their previous woeful state.
So 1967 compared with 2009? Little change and something like Leeds to Morecambe had decent-length trains. You could also get a seat on other local services as train lengths were less standardised and depended more on expected traffic levels for the time of day. Leeds has a much better station, so does Barnsley, but the current diesel units need urgent replacement.
Come on Yorkshire. Do something about your railways. Stand up for what you deserve and get equipment and train operators that can do a decent job. How do you achieve this? You need to be more vocal in your dissatisfaction at railway provision and remember that outsiders judge you on what they experience in your area. I, for one, was not impressed.
From: Lou Johnson, Compton Road, Stafford.
From: John Cookson, Old Court House, London.
ABOUT two months ago, I wrote to your letters page describing my shock at the dreadful state of Moorthorpe station, near Pontefract.
The once fine Victorian station buildings had fallen into a terrible state and the car park was a swamp. It looked like something out of Mad Max.
I suggested some ludicrously overpaid "suit" from the railway company thought this was acceptable and passengers would just have to lump it.
Now I hear from my family in Yorkshire that Moorthorpe is now being totally renovated and made fit for purpose by the travelling public.
So thanks, once again, to the Yorkshire Post. Great work!
Two voices of sense that expose idiocy
From: Rev Neil McNicholas, St Hilda's Parish, Whitby.
BERNARD Ingham in his column last week ("Open idiocy over MP selection", Yorkshire Post, August 26), but also every week, and Bernard Dineen in his column, constantly shine the spotlight of common sense and right thinking on a continual parade of political idiocy so bizarre you couldn't make up such ludicrous scenarios.
I wonder how many other readers feel the same way and, indeed, if they had access to the YP, how many people nationwide would agree with them?
It's the "King's Magic Clothes" all over again – how many people are screaming from the sidelines that, figuratively, the guy is naked? And if the voice of common sense is so loud, how is it that no-one in government is listening and so this idiocy continues unabated, wrecking our society and our nation?
If only we were French, we would have had a revolution years ago.
From: Chris O'Connor (PPC Calder Valley Independent), Westfield Avenue, Lightcliffe, Halifax.
BERNARD Ingham's rant over people up and down the country wishing to stand as Independents at the next General Election on an "anti-sleaze" ticket (Yorkshire Post, August 26) seems a little strange when the party of which he is a member, when led by John Major, was thrown out of office on that very issue.
I accept that Tony Blair promised us a squeaky clean government and failed and that Gordon Brown has been equally reluctant to clean up this mess.
With all the major parties involved in the expenses scandal and those MPs involved being cherry-picked whether they go or stay, what are we to do, Bernard? Sit at home? Accept the status quo?
I, along with a great many people, have watched, with anger and shame, our leaders dragging us down to the level of a banana republic. Some of us have got off our backsides and will probably use our own money to fund our stand as Independent candidates.
Maybe sir, it is you that has the "moral arrogance and presumption" that says that the "little people"should not fight back but accept every disgraceful activity emanating from the "Mother of Parliaments".
Sir Bernard, I have great concerns for the future of this country and the political parties that claim to speak for us. The alternatives are good respectable people voting for extremist parties and that is even worse for democracy.
Nightmare in Number 10
From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.
THE other night, I had rather a disturbing dream. It was 1997 and Messrs Blair and Brown were visiting a noted political consultant, a Dr Faustus, for advice on planning the New Labour Government.
The good doctor told them they should first start a war or two which would be good for a macho image and show others it would be better not to mess with us.
Then they should let rip with a spending spree financed by unsecured loans, credit cards and cheap mortgages to make people feel good.
He suggested they get the private sector involved with building hospitals and schools. This would be cripplingly expensive for the public purse but by the time the payments feel due they would be long gone.
It would help to promote the feelgood factor by creating lots of jobs in the public sector which increase the public's purchasing power.
I then woke up and wondered how it could all have gone so wrong. Next time I will make sure and remember to have my Horlicks!
The letter of the lore
From: Paul Bates, Bowden Wood Crescent, Sheffield.
WITH regard to Michael Hickling's article on mail trains (Yorkshire Post Magazine, August 15), the popularity of the documentary film Night Mail, when first released, was the very thing that he dismisses, watching letters being sorted.
Most people knew that the GPO sorted mail on their "travelling post office" trains but very few ever saw these in action. It certainly wasn't the "speeding footplate", as footplate sequences occupy less than 30 seconds of the film.
The first sequence to feature WH Auden and his verse shows the "Night Mail" climbing Beattock bank and this is confirmed in that verse.
This section of the line was in Dumfriesshire which now forms part of the Dumfries and Galloway Region, which is, of course, in Scotland. It cannot, therefore, be described as the "roof of England".
The "Night Mail" reached Scotland from London via what is still referred to as the West Coast Main Line.
The only part of this route that Mr Hickling's train traversed was the few yards of line, in Carlisle, between Citadel South Junction and the station of the same name.
Duped by the Labour rulers who sold their souls
From: A Ogden, Oxford Road, Gomersal, West Yorkshire.
"EDUCATION, Education, Education". "British jobs for British workers"'. Does everyone remember these phrases and others? How they trip off the tongue, so simple yet, like a bullet, straight to the target. The target being us, the British people, so gullible, so passive, so tolerant, such fools.
We've been had, conned, taken for a ride and treated like idiots by a Government which has sold its soul to a Metropolitan lite, that views us with contempt, and sees us as "the little people" – not worthy.
At last, after 12 long years, the verdict is finally in. You've failed us, you've put party before country, power before duty, politics above all else.
The country, meanwhile, is the loser, brought down to it's knees, deep in debt, with violent crime and illegal immigration out of control, and in hock to Brussels.
How will history view this last decade-plus? What will the people's verdict be to the "New Labour" experience – disgust, outrage, despair that we did not get their number earlier?
Yet, we are as much to blame. We elected them, not once, but three times – never again.
They've lied to us, deliberately misinformed us and have forfeited the right to govern us.
Running home to mother
From: CS Jeffrey, East Mount Road, York.
WHEN British Armed Forces entered Afghanistan eight or so years ago, for some time the perception was that we were winning (few casualties).
Now, there are a high number of casualties andthe view, of both the military themselves and the British public at large, is that we are losing – or at least we cannot win the war in the foreseeable future. Consequently, many people are now saying we should bring the troops back home. It does make me think of the bully who gets a bloody nose and runs home to mother.
Wool gathering
From: Carol Hammond, The Wool Shop, Knaresborough Road, Harrogate.
REGARDING Chris Benfield's article "A gripping yarn about the homespun revolution that's reviving British wool" (Yorkshire Post, August 24).
He writes that wool shops are becoming an endangered species and that even Harrogate does not have one.
I have had a wool shop in Harrogate for nearly 10 years, firstly on Bower Street.
Recently, I have moved to larger premises on Knaresborough Road.
Vermin listing
From: Tony Kirby, St Davids Road, Otley,
IN response to Pat Thomson's letter (Yorkshire Post, August 29), asking if she could be enlightened where the fox is listed as vermin. The answer is simple – Section 95 of the Agriculture Act 1947, brought in by the Labour Party.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
