Northern Fail

There should not be many businesses simpler than running a train line. You have your trains on the tracks, your routes, your drivers, your timetables: I mean, where does the complication come in?

Unless, of course, your Transport Minister is Chris 'failing' Grayling, who with classic Tory attention to detail - see also a Northern Ireland secretary belatedly discovering sectarian politics and a Brexit minister who learns on the job how busy the ports are - implements a new national timetable that the rail companies aren't ready for.

Truly, this has been a woeful year for Northern Rail, who were understaffed when the timetable came in but who, it must be said, don't seem to have done much about it since. Today Hannah was coming to meet me in Chorley and arrived at the station to find her train simply cancelled. 

Still, like the coper she is, she simply grabbed a coffee and waited for the next one before coming to meet me and Simon at the Ale Station, where we spent a very pleasant couple of hours, not so much putting the world to rights as wondering just whether it could be. 

And in the evening, the Minx and I went to Mike and Sarah's Christmas party, which was a delight, even if it did feel the like the start of the tsunami of Christmas calories!

****
-13.1 kgs
0 words
Reading: 'The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook' by Michael Brooks