Shaun McDonald's Blog » Transport

Day Trip to Calais

smsm1986 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:59:29 +0000

On Saturday I took a random day trip to Calais on the train and ferry. It’s been eleven years since I last travelled on the Dover to Calais ferries. This time I was on foot instead of being in a car.

I learnt quite a few things that I should do differently the next time.

Don’t get lost in Dover by taking a wrong turn
Take the bike
There is a 45 minute check-in for foot passengers, while only 30 minutes for car vehicles
Aim for an earlier return ferry, so that I don’t have to take the 2304 from Dover to Faversham to change at 23:42 to arrive in London Victoria at 01:29, and then have to take a night bus home. (The stop before London Victoria on the last train is Dartford).

I did have a nice wander around Calais, and you will be able to see the trail of destruction next week when the data is rendered on the main map. So far it seems that someone has traced the railways from landsat, which isn’t particularly accurate.

The Dover Docks. (I’m sure that OpenStreetMap can do better than the commercial mapping agencies, however it isn’t going to be easy, as I doubt the port authority nor the border controls will allow you to wander round the port.)

Got 2 stations added.

OSM cycle map of Shandwick Place, Edinburgh diversion

smsm1986 — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:07:00 +0000

For the next five months Shandwick Place in the west of the centre of Edinburgh is closed for work to move the utilities for when the trams are going to be introduced in a few years time.

The council, TIE and Lothian Buses were quick enough to produce alternative routes for cars and buses, however their alternative route wasn’t suitable for cyclists.

On Friday they provided some written instructions without any maps, which they had done for the car drivers and bus routes.

See below for a map with the council’s route drawn on top of Andy Allan’s rendering of the OpenStreetMap cycle data.

Photos from my trip to France (OpenOffice.org conference and Apple Expo)

smsm1986 — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 15:45:00 +0000

Please take a look at http://www.byphotos.com/album/4050544 which contains all the photos from my trip.

I know some of them have not been rotated.

It was the first time I can remember being in London. Over a decade ago I had been round the M25 on the way to Dover, it was so long ago, I can’t remember, mind you I would probably have been sleeping at time.

There are some pictures of the trams and trolley buses in Lyon in there, if anyone is interested.

I found it quite good at being able to catch the sunset whilst on the Eurostar on leaving France.

How about the Trolley bus instead of the Edinburgh Tram

smsm1986 — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:04:00 +0000

See my letter to the Evening News at: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/letters.cfm?id=155522006

Buses back on George Street

smsm1986 — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 14:08:00 +0000

It seems as though there is at last going to be some buses using
George Street again, through the reversal of the Central Edinburgh
Traffic Management Scheme (CETM.

See Lothian Buses web site.

Upcoming Lothian Buses changes

smsm1986 — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:27:00 +0000

Some more changes to the local buses.

It’s strange that they are making the 20 circular considering that in July 2003 the took away the last of the circular routes, I wonder what caused their change in mind.

The 35 is being extended to the Airport again, yet they don’t seem to be putting it into the Gyle Centre. There is demand for this. One example being two weeks after Lothian Buses took it away the last time a couple came up to me, while waiting at the Gyle to ask which bus went directly to the Gyle.

The 36 is being extended to the Scottish Parliament, I wonder what frequency it is going to be! The last time they had a bus doing a similar route, it was every half hour. So infrequent that you could walk o your connection by the time the bus would turn up if had missed it.

The number 30 has finally been increased to every 10 minutes. I knew it would eventually get increased to this frequency, ever since they took the other services away from Fort Kinnaird.

The 29 is going to have more journeys to Gorebridge in the evening. Will they be going into Tesco Hardengreen?

Evening and Sunday journeys to ASDA the Jewel using the 49 are all very well, but it takes longer than walking there directly from South Edinburgh.

So it seems as though they are not going to extend the 18 from the Royal Infirmary to Fort Kinnaird and ASDA the Jewel. It worries me when they don’t say what the changes are explicitly and just say “revised timetable” or “minor timetable changes” as in the past this has meant that there was a decrease in frequency.

Edinburgh Travel Survey

smsm1986 — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 11:14:00 +0000

The City of Edinburgh Council, Lothian Buses and Colin Buchanan are doing the “Edinburgh Travel Survey” to make a model of travel in Edinburgh.

The only reason I found out about the suvey was because I just happened to to be on a 22.

Take a look at http://www.edinburghtravelsurvey.com. To see for yourself what the survey is.

Buses in Edinburgh

smsm1986 — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 18:33:00 +0000

The dispute with Lothian Buses drivers is now over.

Great, I’ll get the refund for the inconvenience of buses not turning up.

I have noticed that they are trying to bull-doze through the trams, when there are far too many buses runing in the place that the trams are due to run.

Vital Flaw inroad pricing plan from Darling

smsm1986 — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 12:07:00 +0000

I’ve had another letter published in the Evening News

Edinburgh City Centre

smsm1986 — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 12:33:00 +0000

Lothian Buses have come out with a leaflet detailing the changes from the 19 June 2005 regarding the City of Edinburgh Council’s so called Central Edinburgh Traffic Management Scheme (CETM). There will be even MORE buses on Princes Street. Grrr.
All the buses via George Street or Queen Street are being diverted away over to Princes Street. Why??
Supposedly to reduce congestion. Eh? Take longer to get to where you want to go maybe, though extra diversions, you end up using extra fuel, and by the way paying extra tax.

Unfortunately, almost all the buses in the city go via the city centre, so avoiding the city centre as much as possible could prove very difficult. Especially after Lothian Buses cut all the circular service back in July 2003.