New High Speed Rail Service

Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Flying Scotsman is an express train that runs between London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland, and is currently operated by the East Coast Main Line Company. It has been in almost continuous use since the railway it runs on was built in 1862.

In 1862, the Flying Scotsman was actually named the Special Scotch Express, and it would depart at GNR’s London Kings Cross at 10 am, with a simultaneous departure from North British’s Edinburgh Waverley. The journey originally took a long 10 ½ hours, which included a half-hour stop in York as a lunch break. However, the time was reduced to 8 ½ hours in 1888 due to increasing competition with other railways for the Race to the North. The Race to the North was where trains would actually race to see who could get to the appointed destination first.

From 1900 on, the train took on dramatic modernizations, including heating and dining cars. Now, passengers could take their lunch on the train, so the York stop was reduced to only 15 minutes. However, the travel time of 8 ½ hours stayed the same. In 1924, it was the London and North Eastern Railway that officially renamed the Special Scotch Express the Flying Scotsman, which had already been its unofficial name since the 1870’s.

Private operators of Anglo-Scottish trains that run on the East Coast Main Line have maintained the name of the Flying Scotsman, and the former Great North Eastern Railway even called itself The Route of the Flying Scotsman. When British Rail was privatized, GNER operated the Flying Scotsman from 1996 to November of 2007, and then National Express East Coast took over until November of 2009. It is now operated by East Coast, which is a publicly operated railway company that had been created after National Express East Coast had collapsed. The northbound service once again leaves London King’s Cross at the traditional time of 10 am, and the southbound service departs from Edinburgh at 1 pm.

An InterCity 225 Mallard set mostly operates the now-modern Flying Scotsman, and the travel time only takes 4 hours and 25 minutes going down, and only 4 hours and 41 minutes coming back up. It now makes stops at Peterborough, York, Darlington, and Newcastle.

On May 22nd, 2011, East Coast will begin a new, early morning Flying Scotsman service at 5:40 am, and it will only stop at Newcastle. The train will arrive in Edinburgh at 9:40 am, making the trip a short 4 hours long. The express train is being introduced as part of the largest timetable overhaul within 20 years on the East Coast Main Line, and they are hoping it will lure in business passengers that are traveling for morning meetings away from air travel. East Coast expects the new timetable to bring in more than three million additional seats to the route when it begins this May, with nearly 20 new weekday services.

What You'll See When Touring in Ireland

Posted on Friday, September 03, 2010

Your friends have told you about many of the sights they enjoyed in Ireland:  Dublin’s pubs and Abbey Theater; Ha’Penny Bridge over the Liffy River and , of course, kissin’ the Blarney Stone!!  And you wondered, as they extolled the beauty and history of the fantastic Ring of Kerry, what’s the Ring of Kerry…who’s Kerry and what kind of ring?

To begin, the Ring of Kerry is a 110 mile loop on the Ivenagh Peninsula in south-western Ireland.  Here you will encounter the raw beauty that is real Ireland.  Rolling hills and forested valleys, colorful villages and towns; traces of ancient monasteries and stone circles, such as the Seven Sisters, erected by pagans during the Bronze Age.  Starting in Killorglin, and proceeding on a counter-clockwise route, you will enjoy the Ireland of your dreams; verdant, charming and sparsely settled (except you will see lots of other tourists!). Note that I said counter-clockwise…the road is narrow and tour buses are many, so you can avoid traffic problems by starting early and stopping at any and all sights that may intrigue you.  Yes, you can do this by tour bus, but you’ll miss the leisure of stopping at an out of the way town, having a pint at a small pub, or just dreamily looking out over the ocean and mulling over the year of history, the Troubles and the Great Famine.

Take your time…yes, you can drive the entire Ring in a day, but so much nicer to stop for the night at a charming B & B,  relax over a fine dinner, perhaps enjoy an Irish Night with set-dancing, or just chat with the locals. After a hearty breakfast you can be on your way. You’ll have a chance to drive Coomanaspig Pass, the highest point accessible by car; from which you can see the Skellings and other small islands.  There’s a sixth century hermitage once inhabited by monks. Or you may wish to pay homage to Daniel O’Connell, the Emancipator, at Derrynane House, his home, now restored.

And oh, the names!  MacGillycuddy Reeks, Staigrefort, Rossbeigh, Bog Village and Black Valley, Killarney.  Rossmaine and Cahersiveen and Cahsrdaniel…what names, how lilting!! 

How about a stop in Kenmare to see and perhaps buy, some Kenmare Lace, started as a cottage industry during the "Little Famine Years" by the Poor Clare nuns, and still being hand-made by the local women.  Take a jaunting car ride, and think back to the great classic movie with John Wayne and Barry Fitzgerald, "The Quiet Man" .  Look closely at the road side, especially if there’s a rainbow:  that brief movement in the bush?  Leprechauns!!

I must admit, my favorite tour was a drive on the Dingle Peninsula…further north and the westernmost area on the European continent. Only ten miles wide and forty miles long, from Tralee to Slea Head The locals will tell you that they’re so far west that the next parish is Boston!!!  But you may have a bit of trouble understanding the people in the villages; they often speak An Gaeltacht, a Gaelic-English mixture. But they are friendly and they’ll be glad to regale you with stories of their family, their history and a lot of lore…you’ve heard of  a load Malarkey, haven’t you?

Drive through the Connor Pass to Dingle, the most westerly town in Europe, and then Tralee.  You will be rewarded with beautiful drive, green and rugged and not too touristy.  The fishermen still sail out, not for your camera, but for their family’s living.  Only about 1500 people live in Dingle Town…but it is calculated that there are 500,000 sheep in the hills.

Along the way to your delightful hotel at the world’s edge, you will find Bronze Age settlements, monasteries from the Middle Ages, scenes straight out of the movie "Ryan’s Daughter" and even some of the "beehive huts" where hermit monks once lived.  The scent of peat, as you linger with your coffee after a wonderful dinner, and you’ll know you’re near the ocean, as the sea breeze wafts into your bed room and you snuggle into your feather duvet…dream, relax, know that you are truly in Ireland.   

Ireland Travel Tips and Information

Posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009

Famous for: St. Patrick, Leprechauns & Guinness

Language:  English & Irish

The currency used is the Euro.

Geogrpahy:  Mostly level to a rolling interior plain surrounded by rugged hills and low mountains; there are sea cliffs on the west coast. Over 40% of the population resides within 100 km of Dublin.

Climate & Clothing:  Ireland has a mild, temperate climate with cool summers and mild winters. Average summer temperatures range from 60ºF to 70ºF (15ºC to 21ºC), July being the warmest month. Average winter temperatures range from 40ºF to 46ºF (5ºC to 8ºC). The most useful clothes are casuals, lightweight wools, sweaters for cold spells, comfortable walking shoes and a light raincoat.

Food & Clothes: In the last decade, Ireland has made a giant gastronomic leap. Common foods include smoked salmon, soda bread, and a variety of seafood, and game when in season. Traditional dishes consist of Irish stew, boxty (potato pancake) and coddle (boiled pork sausages). The country is best known for its stout and beer, the most famous being Guinness. However other, popular brands include Murphy’s Irish Stout, Beamish, and Kilkenny beer. Whiskey is also renowned with the most famous distilleries being the Old Midleton Distillery in Cork, the Old Jameson Distillery in Dublin, and the Bushmills Distillery in Antrim. Water across the Republic of Ireland is safe to drink.

Best Buys: Tweed clothing, traditional Aran knitwear from the Aran Islands (once handmade by fishermen featuring family patterns), Irish music, linen, pottery, Waterford crystal, Irish whiskey and basketry.

The gender signs on the doors in the republic may be printed in Gaelic, not
English. ‘Mna’ is Gaelic for Ladies and ‘Fir’ means gentlemen.