Electric vs. Diesel
Posted: Thu 23 July, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts, Travel 2 Comments »I have to say that attempting to justify electrifying the main train line between London and South Wales as “cutting the running cost and environmental impact of train services” really is utter, utter bollocks.
Now OK, I’m not an engineer, nor am I a train person in particular, so I don’t know the exact correlation of energy usage/efficiency between a diesel train and an electric one. And maybe the electric trains themselves are more energy-efficient than the diesel-powered ones. Fine.
But when you look at the bigger picture, that’s one fuck of a lot of electricity being chucked down the trainline. And that electricity has to be generated somewhere – which is still generating CO2 (unless it’s a nuclear power station, of course) and thus still having an effect.
So far as I can see, when you look at the entire thing, at least a diesel-powered train is using the energy it creates purely to power the train on demand. The electric line is (to my knowledge) powered constantly, rather than just “on demand”, which simply has to be more of a drain/waste, unless I’m completely mistaken.
This is the future. It’s greener, it’s cleaner, it’s faster, it’s more reliable. It’s making the railways fit for the 21st Century and encouraging more passengers to use the railways”
Aye, right. A £1billion project that’s not greener or cleaner. And I’d be more encouraged to use the railways if the services were a) on-time, b) organised and c) not utterly fucking extortionate.
Wembley Stadium Parking Revisited
Posted: Thu 9 July, 2009 Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Cynicism, D4D™, Music, Reviews(ish), Wembley Stadium Parking 1 Comment »Ten days ago (roughly) I was at Wembley Stadium, and at the end of the evening had a total farce of a time getting out of the car parks. The following morning, I sent off a complaint email to both CS Parking and Wembley Stadium’s “customer services” people.
In fairness to CS Parking, I got a response back pretty quickly from the MD of the company – impressive in itself – after which there was a fairly long email ‘conversation’ about what had happened. That all got closed off by last Friday (i.e. a week after the even) and was all fine. I still think the parking situation is
- Shit
- Unmanaged for people leaving Wembley Stadium
- Farcical
but I can at least now understand why it’s shit, unmanaged, and a total Grade One ClusterFuck.
Wembley Stadium’s customer services, on the other hand, have only just come back to me today, and their email is rather more of a “Not our problem, mate. Go complain to someone else” effort…
All event day parking is managed by a contracted 3rd party; City & Suburban Parking in partnership with the local authority Brent Council and the Metropolitan Police.
The official car parks were full, accommodating in excess of 3,000 cars and in addition there were approx 3,000 cars parked in unauthorised car parks and a further 1,000 vehicles collecting from the area after the concert. As a result of the high volume of traffic, there were delays clearing the car parks the main car parks were not clear until 1½ hours after the end of the concert. We do not believe that these delays are acceptable however the local roads are under the control of Brent Council, not Wembley Stadium. We will be reviewing the exit plans with Brent Council and the Metropolitan Police for future concert events.
Thank you once again for contacting us. We hope you will be able to visit Wembley Stadium again in the future.
Considering that I’ve since had comments here on D4D from people who had the same problem with Wembley Stadium’s Parking after the Take That concerts, I think it’s fair to say that you’re actually far better off if you can avoid using the car parking at Wembley Stadium. Well, either that or make use of the “pirate” car parks around the stadium, rather than the Stadium’s piece-of-shit “official” car parking.
Road Widening
Posted: Wed 8 July, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel 4 Comments »Oh Good, just to make life even more fun, the M25 is going to be buggered until at least 2012. Not only will it be getting widened between Junctions 16 (the M40) and 23 (The A1M), but there’s also going to be similar work going on round the other side, from the M11 to the Dartford River Crossing.
I know, it’s hardly a shock to the system to know that there’s going to be even more congestion on the M25, but widening it by only one carriageway isn’t going to do a damn thing – well, not until Peak Oil kicks in, anyway. By the time the work is completed, I’ll pretty much guarantee you that it’ll go straight to being solid traffic jams again – just on four lanes instead of three.
What I don’t understand is why the planners for these projects (or the people at the start, when the M25 was originally being created) don’t just say “Oh fuck it, let’s actually think ahead for once, and make it six lanes in each direction, to cater for future demand.” Do the whole job at once, no need for further sodding about.
I’m sure there’s a good reason (rather than just that the planners are fuckwits) but it’s beyond me right now.
Think 25 – A response
Posted: Tue 7 July, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism 11 Comments »I emailed Sainsbury’s yesterday, asking about why they’d introduced the Think 25 policy. This is what I (eventually) got back…
Thank you for your email asking why we have adopted the think 25 policy for the sale of alcohol.
Although there has been no change in the law for buying and selling alcohol, the policy is promoted by local authorities, health departments and the police to limit the consequences of selling alcohol to underage people. As cashiers now have a personal responsibility by law they must take this very seriously.
I am grateful for you taking the time to write to us and allowing me to explain the background to the policy.
So – despite all their waffle about it being related to ‘all age-related items’, it’s actually only related to the sale of alcohol. And it doesn’t actually explain why they can’t just check for ID that the purchaser is, you know, over 18.
In short, “Think 25” is utter, utter bollocks. What a shocker.
Think 25
Posted: Mon 6 July, 2009 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Security, Stupidity 2 Comments »Over the weekend, I noticed that Sainsbury’s (and, I assume, the other supermarkets) are now operating a “Think 25” policy, where if you’re buying items that are prohibited under a certain age, you’ll get asked for ID first.
What items are we talking about? Well, to my knowledge – and this isn’t a comprehensive list, although I could probably find one if I tried – it consists of :
- Cigarettes (18 or over – it used to be 16, but changed in October 2007)
- Alcohol (18 or over)
- Blades – knives, razor-blades etc. (18 or over)
It used to be that if you looked under eighteen, you’d be asked for ID. Fair enough – 18 was the limit for most of the age-limited items.
Then the stores started getting paranoid about customers who just “looked” 18 getting through the system, so they invoked the “Check 21” policy, where even though you were legally allowed to buy said products, if you looked up to three years older than that, you would still get asked for ID – and not allowed to purchase the products if you didn’t have ID.
Now they appear to be even twitchier about it, and the “ask for ID” limit is 25 – and that’s if you look 25, not whether you are or not. So a whole seven years more of being asked for ID.
And the really stupid bit? The entire thing is voluntary – which means it’s perfectly legal for the only-just 18 till-person to sell the (for example) beer, but ask ID of someone who looks up to seven years older before they can sell it.
Totally barmy.
Howler Sirens
Posted: Sat 4 July, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »While I think the idea of the new “Howler” sirens on emergency vehicles is a good idea, I can’t help but think they won’t actually work to get people out of the way.
After all, if someone is so much of a cock on the roads that a) they can’t hear sirens because their music is too loud and b) not looking in their mirrors, then they’re not going to notice and shift if they feel the car vibrating. In fact, if the music is that loud inside the car, the odds are that the bloody car will be vibrating already.
And if the driver is that much of a cock and they do feel their car vibrating, I’m pretty sure they’re actually more likely to panic, wonder what’s wrong with the car, and probably stall it right in the way of the emergency vehicles.
So it’s a nice idea, but I suspect it’ll fail against the wall of human nature.
Too Much Free Time?
Posted: Fri 3 July, 2009 Filed under: Creativity, Cynicism Leave a comment »Definitely filed under “Too much time on their hands” comes this – 50 examples of ‘coffee’ art.
Although on a more cynical note, I can’t help wondering if some of those designs have been brought into being through the wonder of Photoshop…