The Russia to Japan Ferry

I've added a new page to the North Facing website providing an in-depth guide to travelling on the Vladivostok to Fushiki ferry. This ship takes you from the far side of Russia where the Trans-Siberian proper terminates, across the Sea of Japan to the land of the rising sun. Detailed practical information and photos about the ferry service are a bit thin of the ground online so this new feature is set to put it right! Please take a look!

Virgin Trains - the red brand goes green

Virgin Trains is now featuring the environmentally friendly credentials of their trains on its website. The Pendolino trains, which use a regenerative braking system which actually returns electricity to the grid, emits 76% less CO2 than cars or domestic flights, the website states. The trains return an amount of electricity equivalent to making 2.6 billion brews a year.

Public transport pricing

The government seems hell-bent on ensuring that only the rich are able to travel - by any means. The latest report is that rail prices - specifically on the saver tickets - will increase, following hot on the heels of the annual above inflation increase in fares. This comes on top of proposed road charges which Labour seem determine to implement, although the validity of the petition against the proposal was dubious in the way that many things on the internet can so easily be. Meanwhile there's the less than stealthy taxation on flying which was brought in under an environmental banner but of course none of the revenue raised are going into those schemes.

Whichever mode of transport we wish to take, and in this day and age many people don't have much choice in the matter due to the spread of friends, family and work commitments, it seems we're going to be paying more before much longer. I don't have a problem with more being charged for less environmentally friendly modes of transport if the more environmentally friendly modes are made more affordable and attractive. However at the same time I think the government needs to look at intelligent methods of tackling the environmental issue rather than pricing the poorest out of travel while the rich continue to swan about as they please. Perhaps a system whereby an individual's carbon footprint is kept on a database with their passport number. This could perhaps lead to an escalating rate of tax as more flights are made. It's not an easy solution, but then easy solutions seldom prove to be the best solutions.

Edinburgh or Manchester for a quid

Following up from yesterday's comparison of rail fares; today's Guardian ran an article on finding cheap fares. This mentioned that Megatrain covers both South West and Virgin routes. I thought maybe this was where routes merge south of London but had a look anyway. To my amazement I discovered that Oxenholme is covered on a route that runs from Manchester to Glasgow and Edinburgh. I could travel to Scotland or Manchester for a quid! The routes are clearly designed to use lightly loaded services and I suspect the choice of using Oxenholme rather than Lancaster or Preston is that passenger numbers are lighter too from here. It's great news, and a service I endeavour to make the use of soon.

Alliance or rumour mill?

After I glimpsed a story about an alliance between Virgin and other airlines on one of the news channels last night I thought I'd try to get some more information about it. At first details were thin on the ground but as of this morning the story seems to be making many of the nationals and regional papers.

Details are unconfirmed to say the least. The initial story wrote of an alliance between Virgin Atlantic, Malaysia based AirAsia and EasyJet with the prospect of flights from Manchester and possibly Luton to Asia from £43. However later reports reveal that EasyJet are denying any negotiations with Virgin.

This morning, while more local papers continue to report the 3-party alliance and potentially rock bottom fares to Asia, the Times has taken a entirely different tack, indicating the Virgin may be looking to buy a stake in AirAsia with an eye to opening up routes within Asia.

Glorious Cumbrian rain

If my big trip around Asia and Oz taught me something is that for much of the time a lot of the world seems to be a pretty dry place. I encountered precipitation so seldom in fact that when I did it was something of a novelty; a tropical downpour in Bangkok flooding the streets within minutes or an infrequent shower during Japan's so called wet season. No doubt most places do get their fair share of rainfall at some point, but having been back in Cumbria for a few days and subject once more to the westerly prevailing winds I can safely say that I've more or less encountered more rainfall in the past few days than in the previous seven months abroad. Perhaps we don't win in volume here, as those tropical showers are nothing short of torrential, but yesterday it began raining in the afternoon and only eased and gave way to sunshine this morning. When it comes to persistent rainfall the British Isles, or at least their Western coasts have it made.

Thing is, I love it. It may be damp, cold and seemingly miserable especially at this time of year but it feels like home. Damn it, it is home, and convivial or not for outdoor pursuits it's the climate I've grown up with and rather oddly become attached to. It sounds odd to say I'm attached to lakeland relief rainfall but that's just the fact of the matter. Now I don't mind living somewhere dry; I lived on London for two years and it hardly ever seems to rain down there; yet familiarity is driven by more than just sights and people, it's the whole caboodle of which getting rained on on an all too regular basis is part and parcel thereof.

Yet now the sun is shining. The field across the way is slightly waterlogged and the sleep are all sitting down looking contented in whatever warmth the December sun is able to offer them. The northern English green-ness is positively glowing. I'll pop into town shortly and no doubt there'll be that unmistakable smell of fresh rain, the damp ground offering a cacophony of hitherto hidden scents and smells. And to think I had some reservations about returning to the UK in mid-winter. How quickly dispelled they are. Certainly it's not a climate conducive to the sort of walking I was until recently doing in Australia, but then the same could be said of the weather in the rapidly approaching Aussie summer and give me cool weather over an excess of heat any day.

It's time to go and support my local Post Office while I still can.

The blog is back!

The attention all shipping blog has been in a hiatus for the past seven months while I'll been gallivanting across Europe, Asia and Australia (details of which could be followed on my travel blog). I returned to the UK on Thursday and having had a few days to get over the jet lag and caught up on seven months of news from friends, family and wider world it's about time the show got back on the road.

I arrived back in the UK amidst news of expected widespread Post Office closures. This makes my blood boil as many Post Offices are central to rural communities and it seems to be a further step that the government is either unaware or uninterested in the needs and workings of towns and villages.

One of the most glorious features of Post Offices is that they're the most local of services, residing often at the heart of village life. Despite previous closures Post Offices are still for many an easy walk down the street; a crucial factor for the sizable elderly population that exists in rural communities. If these were to go thousands if not millions would be faced with a substantial journey to the next branch, which in turn creates untold additional car journeys and yet further CO2 emissions at a time when the government is in theory looking at cutting this greenhouse gas. Closures will also rive the heart out of many small towns and villages and toll a further death nell at a time when community spirit should be being nurtured.

Particularly annoying is the fact that these closures are being announced with no effort being made to look into options for diversifying Post Offices' incomes. One particularly interesting suggestion I heard on the radio was to use the network of Post Office branches as collection hubs for the many couriered parcels that are undelivered each day. Currently these return to local courier depots, often scores of miles away and redelivery may be attempted another couple of times which on a national basis much constitute a huge number of needless road journeys and CO2 emissions. However more broadly there have got to be a number of avenues that can be tried to introduce new services to the Post Offices and boost turnover.