{"id":3120,"date":"2023-09-03T01:37:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T01:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/sunday-variety-18\/"},"modified":"2023-09-03T01:37:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T01:37:02","slug":"sunday-variety-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/sunday-variety-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Variety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chaos And Confusion In California<\/span><\/p>\n

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This sounds like particularly good news for the sir-travelling American folk as the nation and its inhabitants wrestle with the challenge of global warming, cheap oil, pollution, air quality and international pressure to save a bit of the planet.<\/div>\n
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Although six train sets to serve the massive mega cities of the USA west coast doesn’t seem a lot, on sober reflection.<\/div>\n
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Equally sobering is a timeline of the plans.<\/div>\n
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1996\u00a0<\/span>– A Proposal!\n
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CHSRA formed to build the line.<\/div>\n

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1996 to 2000<\/span> – Good plan; full study begins<\/div>\n
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2005<\/span> – Implementation plan for 8 ro 10 year project. Ludicrously optimistic!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2008<\/span> – put to a vote of California people<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2009<\/span> – support from President Obama<\/div>\n
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2011<\/span> – unease grows!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2012<\/span> – initial work to start<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2013<\/span> – contracts for part of the first section (Madera to Fresno) signed\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2014<\/span> – second contract signed<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2015<\/span> – digging starts<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So a look at the maps. This is where its at, man!\n
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In the diagrams below hase 1 is in blue, phase 2 in yellow as here at the Frisco end.<\/p>\n

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… and to the city of angels and beyond.<\/p>\n

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But it is the bit in the middle where work is in progress.<\/p>\n

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2016 to 2017<\/span> – work continues but opposition grows.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2018<\/span> – Damning report on the finances of the project<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2019 February<\/span> – California governor curtails scope of the line. Mainly the middle but.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2019 May<\/span><\/span>\u00a0– President Trump cuts federal funding drastically<\/div>\n
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2019 July<\/span> – CHRSA (remember?) remains positive<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2020<\/span> – CHSRA announces that 5000 construction jobs have been created<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2021<\/span> – CHSRA announces that the money stopped by Trump is now available<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2022<\/span> – Good progress but with vocal opposition.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
2023<\/span> – The Video\n
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All this for six trainsets?<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hmmm? One US commentator concludes …\n
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… which leads neatly into the next headline!<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
How Is UK’s HS2 Going?<\/span><\/div>\n
Just published are artists’ impressions of the massive Old Oak Common interchange.\n
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Here HS2 will interchange with GWR and the Elizabeth Line line – but other nearby stations are proposed or possible. It is the HS2 bit that is illustrated.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Entrance<\/div>\n
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Looking out via the entrance<\/div>\n
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The “footbridge” (like Reading but bigger)<\/div>\n
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And seen from outside<\/div>\n
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Looks much more impressive than Euston might – or might not!!<\/p><\/div>\n

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When Men Were Men And Trains Were Trains …<\/span>\n
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… and nobody had invented Global Warming to scare us all. Oil fired and up hill!<\/p><\/div>\n

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It’s All In Line But Don’t Believe It!<\/span><\/div>\n
Buckton Fields is a new block of housing that fills in a site between the Welford Road and the Harborough Road to the north of Northampton. Here is the full plan …\n
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… and below a map of the early stages …<\/p>\n

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… and even earlier stages c\/o Google Earth!<\/p>\n

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In an ideal world ruled by common sense and a desire to promote bus travel rather than clogging the town up with cars, you would expect a bus service to be in place and operating early to encourage those that move in to be “green”.<\/p>\n

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One obvious way would have been to take a bus only link through from Stagecoach service 14 …\n
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… and, indeed, there is a road off Acre Lane called Fair Mile …<\/p>\n

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… where, as we see blow …<\/p><\/div>\n

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… someone once had a similar idea. But nip round into Buckton Fields itself and all you get is a very solid and impenetrable border – not even a footpath to route 14.<\/p>\n

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It is called “planning”!<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
But never mind, eh? The internet has the answer.\n
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A couple of phrases have been given a very new meaning by the anonymous author of this little nugget of (un)helpfulness. One is well linked<\/span> and the other is several<\/span>.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
On the very east of the site is Stagecoach’s hourly X7 …\n
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… with no convenient stop between Whitehills and Boughton turn which might offer a well linked<\/span> route into the town.<\/p>\n

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On the Welford Road, things are less amenable to bus travel.<\/p>\n

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Well linked<\/span>\u00a0 with one journey into town?<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Traveline thinks UNO operates route 60 …\n
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… but UNO is not so sure!\n
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Depending on where you look, however, you can eventually find the timetable\n
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But there is a P.S. Neither the internet extract nor Stagecoach’s network map reveal, shock horror<\/span>, that service 14\u00a0is actually extended to “Buckton Fields” …\n
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… but Stagecoach is keeping it a closely guarded secret.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

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Where it goes, nobody knows!<\/div>\n
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So much so that Traveline doesn’t think it goes there at all! It just shows the traditional route round the Acre Lane loop.\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Now, if we had a proper public transport system, as in Cherbourg for example, we might just be able to find out how to get to or from Buckton Fields.<\/div>\n
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More stuff tomorrow …<\/div>\n
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THE USUAL WARNING<\/span><\/div>\n
Sunday and Monday\u00a0<\/span>are the fbb’s monthly fellowship meetings. Blogs may need to be reduced in scope on Monday and Tuesday due to fatigue and a slight touch of associated insanity.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Next Variety blog : Monday 4th September\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chaos And Confusion In California This sounds like particularly good news for the sir-travelling American folk as the nation and its inhabitants wrestle with the challenge of global warming, cheap oil, pollution, air quality and international pressure to save a bit of the planet. Although six train sets to serve the massive mega cities of the USA west coast doesn’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}