Category Archives: Transport

Shinjuku station

Monday 27th March 2017, 2.35pm (day 2,041)

Shinjuku station, 27/3/17

Shinjuku railway station is a few hundred meters from my hotel, and is not only the busiest railway station in the world, but the busiest transport hub of any kind. 3.5 million people DAILY pass through here — that’s the entire population of Greater Manchester plus Leeds, or more-or-less the population of Los Angeles, through one single railway station. Every single day. It beggars belief. This picture was taken at a relatively quiet point in the daily cycle, but still gives an impression of it all, I think.

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Heading home

Thursday 16th March 2017, 5.55pm (day 2,030)

Going home, 16/3/17

Long day for me today. In on the 7am train out of HB and back on the 17.45 from Manchester, on which this shot was taken. I felt like the woman in the middle.

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Contrail weave

Wednesday 15th March 2017, 5.50pm (day 2,029)

Contrailscape, 15/3/17

On evenings like this it is as if the flight paths are creating some kind of tapestry. There is the latest weave going in, from top left. We humans seem to have found various ways to fiddle with the climate, and these artificial clouds are just another example of that, but they’re so everyday now, do we even think about them as much as we should?

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Boarding, Tromsø airport

Friday 10th March 2017, 8.00am (day 2,024)

Tromsø airport, 10/3/17

Last morning in Tromsø. It started snowing. I could say I took the good weather with me, but it was crappy at home too (although not below freezing). Great week though — many good things to enjoy.

It crossed my mind that with Tromsø being on a small island, I have not been on the mainland of Europe at all this week. Small islands (not, like, Great Britain or New Zealand) that have appeared on this blog: Tromsøya, Kvaløy (this week), Snilstveitøy (also Norway), Kangaroo Island, Stradbroke Island, Tasmania (Australia), Stewart Island (New Zealand), Wayasewa and Wayalailai (Fiji), Æbelø (Denmark). None in the UK… perhaps I should make an effort…

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The airport bus, Gardemoen

Monday 6th March 2017, 3.35pm (day 2,020)

Airport bus, Gardemoen, 6/3/17

Ah, the airport bus, a quintessentially 21st century mode of transport: in that it’s a rather pointless extra waste of energy because, let’s face it, we could all just walk to the terminal building. Gardemoen airport, Oslo, makes its second appearance on the blog, but this was not my final destination: I had another couple of hours’ journey north after this. More on that tomorrow.

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Platform 5, Leeds station

Saturday 4th February 2017, 4.10pm (day 1,990)

Platform 5, Leeds, 4/1/17

Once again, Leeds becomes the place to change trains when on the way to somewhere else for an evening out: but once again it was quite fertile territory for photography today, bathed in golden late afternoon light. I had a couple to choose from today but in the end went with this one due to the randomly bendy child. Like a stray piece of wind just tried to whisk him away.

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Skip wagon

Wednesday 1st February 2017, 12.45pm (day 1,987)

This extremely battered old skip wagon was parked outside my house all day, presumably being used by the builders working two doors along, but if their scaffolding is as knackered as their wagon, I wouldn’t trust it. Still, it was something to photograph in an otherwise dull day: I like the different textures, lines, it’s like a collage almost.

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Victoria station canopy

Wednesday 25th January 2017, 2.00pm (day 1,980)

Sunny but chilly day in Manchester, trains being obedient. Got out of the house at least, even if it wasn’t a very profound change of scene. However, some very good travel news received today — looks like in two months’ time I will be in Japan for the first time in my life, a long-cherished dream destination.

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Ghost bus, Portland Street

Friday 13th January 2017, 3.30pm (day 1,968)

Ghost bus, 13/1/17

Sometimes the light is right as I am walking to the office in the morning. Sometimes, like today, it’s better in the evening. So it goes. Why a ‘ghost’ bus? Well, there are no passengers on it; and the route indicator says something weird, like ‘Logistics’ which definitely isn’t a district of Manchester.

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London bus stop, Monday morning (tube strike)

Monday 9th January 2017, 8.00am (day 1,964)

Have a nice day, 9/1/17

Due to the 24-hour industrial action on the Tube, the bus stops on Euston Road this morning were like scenes from Dante’s Inferno. The bus advert just adds tragicomedy.

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