Queen Elizabeth

The Queen Elizabeth Bridge.

The other day I was driving south bound along the M25 so called motorway or to many at times (The M25 Car Park) to my destination in the heart of the so called garden of England, Maidstone in Kent when not for the first time the traffic came to a halt just before the Dartford River crossing bridge over the wonderful River Thames.

At first like most motorists before and after me being parked on the motorway I was looking at the great construction ahead of me The Queen Elizabeth 11 Bridge and I started thinking.

The bridge was designed by a German and built by the English Company maybe not with all English workers at a total cost around 150 million pounds way back in 1991 so I started to do the maths about number of cars etc, against the original building costs. Working out that around a 100 thousand vehicles must go over the bridge a day at an average cost of a pound per vehicle since 1991 that would be an income of around 36 and half million pounds a year.

Taking the original build costs of 150 million even at borrowings of 10% per year for the first 10 years would only come to around 500 million so after 20 years of toll fees the bridge is now well in credit/profit.

The reason for these thoughts about costing etc, are as follows. I think you will agree especially if like me you have been caught in a traffic Jam or sat on the M25 Car Park for a few hours on a hot summer’s day late for that meeting or just to get home for a BBQ etc.

On all major roads at sometime there will be a breakdown or an accident it’s just a fact of life. When all of a sudden the traffic stops in front of you or as the vehicles start queuing at busy times some 4 miles from the toll, it’s the paying at the toll booths that makes are delays even greater.

So my conclusion to the major problem is so simple when the traffic has stopped or queuing for long periods at Busy times why not just lift the toll barriers to enable the traffic to pass through far more quickly, Surely it can’t be that we are still paying for the bridge construction costs, it must be just greed of the owners.

With some knowledge and research do you think in Australia they all sit queuing at the Sydney Harbour Bridge or what it would be like if we had to pay to gain access into The City of London via Toll Booths. The London congestion charge system works, so why not use the system at the Dartford crossing.

Your thoughts and comments please don’t be shy.

Wayne.

Waynecollier.co.uk

wc@waynecollier.co.uk

First impressions

First impressions.

The other day I needed to get to a breakfast meeting in the centre of London by 8.00am. So I raided the bank cash point and decided to go by train, below are my thoughts on my personal journey.

From the start I felt I was not set up for train travel as it all started to go wrong when I got to the station car park and found that the cost for all day parking was £5.10 who ever thought up the ten pence part of the fee needs to be shot.  After that I went to the ticket office where I asked, could you please let me know the different travel costs of a return ticket to Liverpool street the lady said £28.60 when I said is that first class she looked down her nose at me and said that would be £52.40 or you could wait for a cheap day return after 9.30am at £18.10. For more information on prices etc visit,  www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com

So looking at the amount of people coming into the station at 7am I purchased my required ticket and off I went to get a large coffee and the Daily Mail newspaper to read for the short journey to London Liverpool Street Station.  Now thinking back I can see where I could have so called got it all wrong before thinking about getting on a National Express East Anglia Train.  Firstly I was wearing a pair of jeans and training shoes so the ticket lady must have thought wrongly that I could only afford to travel second class.

However my day went from bad to worse when the train did arrive, only 2 minutes late the doors opened and it was like being at a cattle market as everyone pushed forward to get in, but this was not for me as I had paid for First Class so I opened the door and went in sat down.  However as soon as I was in my seat I felt them, as six 6 pairs of eyes were staring straight at me. They were thinking no business suit, no Times or Pink Financial Times newspapers so what on earth was I doing in First Class.

Maybe the Daily mail, and I pod, jeans, training shoes and my blackberry kept ringing meant that I couldn’t afford to travel in the first class section of the train but none of the six men had the balls to say anything they just sat silent staring at me for the journey as I sat drinking my coffee reading my newspaper between phone calls.  I was hoping that a ticket inspector would visit our carriage but not for the same thoughts as the six gentlemen were having as they would have liked to have me removed in to second class.  So what had I done wrong?

When we arrived in Liverpool Street station I stood up left the train first and went about my journey to the Hotel for my breakfast meeting. When I left the Hotel to return home I got on to the 2.30pm train in the afternoon sat down all alone in the first class section and thought maybe just maybe I could get a bit of shut eye on the 45 minute trip back to Witham Station. But I was wrong just as I slipped into a sleep I was woken up by this grinning ticket inspector who must have looked at my Jeans and trainers and thought to himself that I must be in the wrong section and he had caught someone at last, after I showed the rude inspector my FIRST CLASS RETURN Ticket he left with his tail between his legs.

So why oh why do people judge people by their dress. If I had been about 16 maybe and just maybe I would have understood but at almost fifty clean shaven why should I have been judged in this way.

 Overview of my trip on National Express East Anglia railway the Train along with Witham station were  very dirty inside and out, with a lack of general facilities and definitely in my view that it’s not worth the second class fare let along the first class charge. So in future I will take the car, drive and pay around twenty pounds to park the car and ten pounds worth of fuel used will make it a total of £30 and a cheaper return trip for me.

 I experienced on my trip that people even in this day and age are only to ready to judge people on the clothes they wear  the newspapers they  read etc, so in future when I hear that someone say that they have been picked on because of their colour or race I now understand how they must feel as I experienced the lady in the ticket office judge me that I could only afford a second class ticket, along with the 6 men in suits  as I was not dressed in a suit I could not afford to be in First Class and then finally the ticket inspector judged me on my jacket, sweatshirt, jeans and trainers which by the way cost over £600 pounds, just  working out that my clothing cost that day to be about double than any of the suits worn by the six office workers or maybe I can’t call them so called office workers as maybe I would be judging them!

The National Express website at www.nationalexpress.com provide cheap train travel across the UK please check it out for yourselves as I wish I had.  

Have you had any experiences like me, and why in this day are people like that?

Wayne.  

Waynecollier.co.uk