Okay, so it’s not from the vaults, it’s from my attic.

I just happened to mention in passing to “me” from Sidepodcast on Identica the short-lived F1 magazine GPX. He asked me to upload it so that he could see what it was like, so I took photos of the two issues of GPX I own and uploaded them to Sidepodcast’s Dropio. I hope the people at Haymarket don’t mind too much. But this is over ten years old and it obviously didn’t make them much money at the time, so…

If you’re interested, Issue #3 starts here, and you need to click the left arrow to go through the magazine. Issue #4 starts here.

Issue #4 was the final issue of GPX. Obviously Haymarket had high hopes for it, and I even remember seeing posters in the window of a WH Smith advertising it. The magazine totally tanked though.

Originally designed to be a “laddish” magazine, issue #4 shows some signs of desperation with features designed to appeal more to females, including the “Top 20 sexy F1 drivers of all time” and a “hunky” poster of Mika Salo. Stuart C from F1 Racing has a bit more on GPX over at Sidepodcast here and here.

In retrospect, GPX wasn’t a quality magazine. It did have some good gags in it though. I like ‘Brainstorming with the Prost team‘ and the joke about spelling out ‘Schumacher’ with beer cans made me chuckle at the time.

The magazine as a whole has slight shades of The Red Bulletin and Sniff Petrol. In fact, GPX might actually have had a chance if it was as consistently funny as Sniff Petrol…

While I was rummaging for those issues of GPX, I found some other interesting old F1 magazines and various other bits and pieces. Most of these almost certainly came free with F1 Racing. Click below to see what I found.

Click for more »

It seemed to be going so well too. In 2006, Scotland’s rail service was pretty good from my perspective. The route I take — Fife to Edinburgh — is meant to be one of the worst in the country, but I think it is fine.

Granted, I no longer have to go at peak time like I used to. But even so, I thought the service was pretty good. During the day there are usually two or three trains per hour to Edinburgh, which is pretty good going really. Delays seem to be less frequent and carriages seem to be less crowded.

This article from The Guardian also put things into perspective by comparing a Kirkcaldy–Edinburgh journey to other gruelling commutes.

If you are strap-hanging on train lines in England and value the remains of your sanity, look away now. It will do you no good to read about the record 88% satisfaction rates that Scottish rail commuters report, nor the £1.9bn, seven-year programme to introduce extra carriages, longer platforms and new rail lines across Scotland, or that train operators rarely breach their promise that no one should stand for more than 10 minutes. Even a recent BBC Radio Scotland phone-in on commuting struggled to find hair-raising stories. In fact, several callers bandied words such as “excellent” and “very comfortable”.

It’s true really. Things on Scottish trains have been quite good. And the current work going on at Edinburgh Waverley station serves as a constant reminder of the improvements that are being made. I was also becoming sympathetic towards First ScotRail for always being blamed even for things outwith their control.

But it seems as though ever since that article was published it’s been all downhill for Scotland’s rail passengers. The brand new trains that First ScotRail have been buying over the past couple of years are now developing more faults.

I’ve heard some slightly concerning noises, which is nothing much to report in itself. But a couple of weeks ago I was on a train that was late because of “poor engine performance”. The week before that I experienced a bit of a rarity — a train completely failing and being cancelled.

Now, after that period where we were getting loads of new trains, I’ve noticed some increasingly colourful liveries around the place. So we are now getting lots of other train companies’ second hand trains.

Apparently First ScotRail had lots of trouble with peak time Fife Circle services earlier this year. Major signalling failures, particularly at Haymarket, occur far too frequently.

More than one recent derailment at Waverley Station is also a slightly worrying record. And the fact that a heavy freight train found itself heading towards a passenger train is downright scary.

(There have also been some moans on other blogs, here and here.)

Sure, not all of these incidents are the fault of First ScotRail. A lot of the blame seems to rest on Network Rail. There are a few unacceptable problems creeping in for whatever reason, particularly at Edinburgh.

Now there is the strike that is currently taking place. Of course, neither First ScotRail nor Network Rail seem to be particularly to blame for this. That accolade goes to Bob Crow, who appears to have unilaterally ripped up an agreement which was almost reached on Monday. He comes across as power crazy. Mr Crow really must have a massive boner thinking about all the disruption he has caused to the “ordinary working man” today.

I feel the need to defend trains as a form of transport. As I woke up this morning I was listening to the morning phone in on Radio Scotland. It might have been my not-yet-properly-awake early morning head fuzz, but I am sure I heard some woman saying that she had booked a train for the first time in years today, and she will never be taking the train again after today’s strike.

That is a bit of a silly attitude if you ask me. So signal men go on strike on the one day she happens to have booked a train. It is a piece of bad luck, but it is hardly as though railways are particularly susceptible to strike action. I mean, what the hell is she going to do the next time bus drivers strike or something? And then air traffic controllers? With a stubborn attitude like that, she’ll be marooned in whatever wee dump she lives in for the rest of her life.

I have to say, even this bare-bones train service is pretty good. The train I normally take on a Wednesday morning is usually packed out, but today it was almost deserted (this was before the strike began at noon). I got a normal train back in the middle of the afternoon, and it was as if nothing had happened! (Mind you, I dread to think what the last train was like.)

Tomorrow we will still be getting a train an hour (or maybe two; I’m not sure if I’ve read information correctly) between Fife and Edinburgh. It is a step down from what we are normally used to, for sure. But if demand remains as depressed as it was today, it will be no big problem.

What is a real bummer is the fact that I am planning to go to Dundee tomorrow for a friend’s 21^st, and there are no trains going any further than Markinch. This is the first time I will have done anything vaguely fun since new year. I am already making a few sacrifices for it (although I am determined to go, for the sake of my sanity — I’ll burn out otherwise).

It is very annoying for this to coincide with the strike. I will have to take the bus. I absolutely hate buses. They are uncomfortable, full of neds and they always take bloody ages. They are subject to road congestion. They are far less safe than trains. And they are expensive. And I always bash my head on the ceiling when I sit down!

Apparently there are no direct buses from Kirkcaldy to Dundee. You have to get a bus to Glenrothes first. And it takes about two hours. I don’t really have enough time tomorrow as it is. What a pain! Imagine if the trains were always off.

Wow, is Haymarket station crumbling or something? I went to the station at just before 9am to find out that there was a signal failure at Haymarket which meant that no trains were going into or coming out of Edinburgh. Apparently the trains are only starting up again around about now (after 11am). Too late for me. I missed my tutorials, but I guess it’s a more relaxing day than I expected!

This was also just in time for cheap tickets to become valid, so there were a lot of elderly ladies wanting to make their trip to Edinburgh. One went into a boring tirade about how this never used to happen when she travelled on steam trains.

Another looked at the monitor with all the departure times on it, and thought that because some trains (trains that were coming from the north and were hours away from turning up anyway) weren’t showing up as “cancelled” that the staff members must have been lying.

Staff member: “You can’t go by that. It’s all computerised, you see.”
Old lady: “But computers are meant to be wonderful things that never ever go wrong.”

She’s obviously never used a computer.

Last week my train back from Edinburgh was delayed by 70 minutes, also because of a signal failure at Haymarket.

This has spurred me on to finally sign up to First ScotRail’s text alerts, which is actually pretty cool. Imagine waking up to a message that says

KDY to EDB: 10:41 may be cancelled or delayed – signalling problems, 10:57 may be cancelled or delayed – signalling problems, 11:29 may be cancelled or delayed.

You could just go back to sleep! Brilliant! Mind you, it’s good to get up early I guess.

I’ve not got any ‘update’ alerts yet though, even when the actual website has been updated.

Update: Unlike last week, there is a story on the BBC News website:

“As part of the Waverley redevelopment project major investment is being made in the signalling which services at Haymarket.

“The problems underline the importance of that work.”

Bloody right.

Update: Big article on Scotsman.com.

It’s just as well for First ScotRail that I was in a good mood today. I came in to Edinburgh Waverley after my lectures this afternoon, and I looked up at the departure boards to see which platform I should go to. I couldn’t find my train, so I scanned the board for any mention of Kirkcaldy. I was amazed to see that the 14:45 train hadn’t left yet. That was a bit of a relief.

But then I took a closer look at the board. Delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed. Every single train was trapped at Waverley due to some kind of problem at Haymarket, which was never fully explained. I can’t find anything about it in the news either.

My train left around seventy minutes after it was supposed to, after we were told that we were all now on the wrong train just minutes before.

According to this article on BBC News, the railways are actually in pretty good shape. Round here the trains seem to get posher all the time. I used to think those Turbostar Class 170 ones were quite luxurious as trains go (certainly compared to the crummy Class 156s).

Then last week I went into a train that looks like a normal Class 170, apart from the fact that it has red seats instead of the normal First ScotRail blue. I’ve been on one of them a few times before, but I’ve never walked through the First Class section. I thought I was on a different planet. The seats were so big, like thrones. You could only fit three in a row. And there’s some kind of funny reception area (it’s always closed whenever I see it though). I guess it must be some kind of Virgin-style shop.

Well there are the impressive bits. Now here’s something that doesn’t anger so much as confuse me. Whenever I catch the 0844 (unfortunately not fancy Class 170s, but the Class 158s with the grey plastic seats and the carpets that always smell of curry-vomit) it ends up being extremely late — without fail. I am not talking about a train occasionally being three or four minutes late here. I cannot remember the last time this train wasn’t about fifteen minutes late (though I should note that I only catch these trains on Tuesdays and Fridays). And this is supposed to be the fast train. For a journey that’s only supposed to last about thirty-five minutes, that’s pretty ridiculous.

The thing is, it never seems to be running late, as far as I can tell, until we head towards the big old bottleneck at Haymarket. Then the train just sort of stops. “Awaiting a platform,” as the conductor always says. One time we even ended up on the other platform at Haymarket, the one that Fife trains just don’t go to. After sitting for ages at Haymarket station we get going again. Then we stop again outside Edinburgh. “Awaiting a platform” again. Eventually we trundle on in to platform 21, which I always saw as the “shit, all the other platforms are full, so I guess we have to use this” platform.

As I say, the whole process usually takes about 15 minutes. Every time. Now I don’t really mind this too much, because the train arrives about twenty-five minutes before I need it to anyway, but other passengers are clearly irritated by it. I just don’t understand why it happens though. I mean, they have timetables, right? So where does it all go wrong? Did they just mess up the timetable and have about five trains trying to go through Haymarket at once or what?

* I cannot believe I am now referring to trains as ‘Class xxx’. I need to get out of this.