Hell wishes you a nice day

[caddyman]

So the gritters are out, are they? You have probably seen it on the news in one form or another, but I thought I'd record it here for posterity, or my dotage, or weblog obsolescence, whichever comes first.

UK roads are, like the wicked witch, melting. Tar, like gooey black mozzarella is sticking to tyres and feet and stringing out behind and below. Lovely. It is also the wrong kind of heat for trains (most weather conditions are the wrong type for trains), as tracks buckle and trains are forced top slow down or divert.

The water companies are complaining that there's not enough rain and that we are in drought conditions. At the same time, it's not their fault that the water reserves we do have are seeping away because the old Victorian pipes can't take it any more¹. It's not their fault that they are making record profits and paying handsome dividends. There's nothing left for maintenance. It's not their fault.

I'm no socialist, but back in the '80s when the utilities we supposedly already owned were being sold back to us, I couldn't see the logic (other than as a short-term idea to raise money for the Treasury so that the Thatcher years could be funded at low tax rates). Each of the privatised services is in a mess, and each is kicking out massive profits with little reinvestment - except the trains which seem to be getting worse with massive investment.

We seem to have forgotten how to run the country and judging by the temperatures, Hell is doing the subcontracting.

Edited to add: I'd forget my head if'n it wasn't bolted on. In addition to the melting roads, I meant to mention that the Thames is drying up. The first fifteen miles from the source down stream are now dry, dusty flatbeds. So drought, over extraction and wastage. Hurrah.

¹In London alone, Thames Water are running billboard adverts boasting that the work they are doing will save the equivalent of the GLA building full of water from being lost every 12 hours. Just how much water is being lost?

Comments

[pauln.livejournal.com]

Futher to the train issue, might I direct the Commodore's attention to a report from the Blighty Broadband Corporation?

Oh, and with coaching hat on, had you given thought to trading?

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Oh, and with coaching hat on, had you given thought to trading?

Not really, no. I want to see what I have after ageing and drafting before I start worrying about trades.

That said, I shall be looking for a young, technique-based QB to uderstudy for Reggie.

[snorkel-maiden.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that there's no weather suitable for trains, apart from maybe two weeks- one in early April and the other in October. The rest of the time it's either:

too cold
too icy
too snowy
too many leaves around
too hot
too wet

or any combination of the above.

[oldnick.livejournal.com]

To be fair, the railways have been in decline for a century.

In one area I've studied, passenger services were being withdrawn from 1911, with major further reductions in the late 1920s due to the arrival of the motorbus. In practice, once reliable internal combustion vehicles on tarmacced roads reached every village, the railways lost their advantage - that of keeping going through mud when horse-drawn vehicles with solid wheels got stuck.

That, of course, only applies to short distance transport outside of connurbations. For long distance travel they still had major advantages - except of course that without the short distance feeders, the convenience is lost. The economics of discount airlines have largely killed off what remained of that advantage.

Silver linings

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Tar, like gooey black mozzarella is sticking to tyres

Which means that I can go round corners faster without any fear of sliding off into the treeline.