Tag Archives: Manchester Victoria

Sep 27 2022
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Daily Post, Transport

Bike rack, Victoria

Monday 26th September 2022, 3.25pm (day 4,050)

Bike rack, 26/9/22

The Truss regime unveil their new approach to sustainable transport solutions for the North of England. Quiet and clean, these devices will doubtless prove a more than adequate substitute for TransPennine ‘Express’, and its present business model of dissuading absolutely everyone from using their services, at any time. “We think this will do for that scabby region up towards Scotland that we don’t give a toss about”, said Truss’s new Transport Secretary, who no one can remember the name of. “At £104.85 for a single ticket to Leeds, I’m sure the people of the North will appreciate the value-for-money that our investments in their transport infrastructure and welfare….. Whaddya mean you’re ungrateful? We’ve got some big tax cuts for the top 1% of earners to pay for!”

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Mar 10 2022
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Daily Post, Urban scene

The Victoria bee

Wednesday 9th March 2022, 7.55am (day 3,849)

The Victoria bee, 9/3/22

Third shot in a row taken in Manchester, and that’s the first time that has happened since early February 2020. I’m pulling an early one, too. Manchester, in need of some kind of symbol (as everything has to have a ‘brand’ these days), has adopted the bee, and statues like this in a variety of colours crop up at points in the city.

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Mar 07 2022
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Daily Post, Transport

On the way home

Monday 7th March 2022, 4.20pm (day 3,847)

16:22 to Leeds, 7/3/22

In comes the 16:22 to Leeds, about as on time as it gets. It didn’t get me home at the scheduled time but that’s just natural variation in the Northern Rail time-space continuum.

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Jan 21 2022
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Daily Post, Transport

Manchester Victoria (monochrome)

Thursday 20th January 2022, 2.00pm (day 3,801)

Manchester Victoria, 20/1/22

“Go back to the office!” says the Chief Clown, though going on numbers coming through Manchester Victoria in the mornings, most of the population (those who can, anyway) feel quite happy with the idea that they might make this judgment on their own. Admittedly 2pm isn’t peak time but one still might have expected a few more people around.

POSTSCRIPT: To be fair, I was browsing earlier pictures just now and found this one from almost exactly 5 years ago (25th Jan. 2017), of the same spot; and there weren’t any people on that one, either. Comparison of the two photos also shows how the light shines through exactly the same bit of the roof at this exact time of day in late January; and the photogenic consequences of this.

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Aug 19 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Joe visits Manchester

Wednesday 18th August 2021, 11.10am (day 3,646)

Joe at Victoria, 18/8/21

Three weeks and two days until Joe goes off to university, the psychological implications of which (for us all) remain unexplored. But at least we can get the logistics prepared, so he accompanied me to Manchester today to pick up practical stuff, plates, cutlery, you know, things that mean he won’t have to eat off the floor. Will this be the last shot of him in this particular city? Impossible to say what the future will bring.

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Aug 05 2021
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger, Transport

Near-normality (Victoria station)

Thursday 5th August 2021, 10.15am (day 3,633)

Replacement bus sign, 5/8/21

I had a work meeting today, that included lunch, face-to-face with two other people. The rail service is having its annual summer ‘upgrading’ spasm and so my journey to and from this meeting was a complex — but not, it should be said, unpunctual — tangle of three different trains, two buses and a taxi.

All in all then, a sense of normality returns (perhaps leaving out the bit about punctuality).

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May 12 2021
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Daily Post, Transport

One way only

Tuesday 11th May 2021, 8.50am (day 3,547)

One way at Victoria

One would like to think the Great Fear of 2020-21 is coming to an end, but I suspect absurdities like this stairway to remain, possibly permanently. An attempt to enforce ‘social distancing’ leads to everyone crowding closer together than they would otherwise have done. But it makes it look like Authority has Done Something, and we will probably never be permitted to go back and say — you know, all that stuff actually had no effect at all, did it? Too late now.

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Apr 19 2021
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Daily Post, Interior

Trampling a cherub

Monday 19th April 2021, 7.50am (day 3,525)

Victoria war memorial, 19/4/21

This morning was one of those occasions where a minor diversion from my usual route — in this case, leaving Victoria station by a different exit — helped me spot an opportunity for a picture. I had never noticed the S & M nature of this war memorial before. People pay to get trampled in this fashion: or so I’m informed. Actually I think the sub creature is an imp, or little devil of some kind, rather than a cherub: but the wings took longer to see.

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Mar 22 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

The back bridge, Victoria

Monday 22nd March 2021, 4.30pm (day 3,497)

Back bridge, 22/3/21

A generally optimistic sheen to the day. Even the unused footbridge in the arse end of Victoria station has had a new coat of paint, and I suspect the pigeons know this somehow.

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Jan 04 2021
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Daily Post, Interior

Not rush hour (a study in green)

Monday 4th January 2021, 4.15pm (day 3,420)

Victoria stairs, 4/1/21

Four days into 2021 and Bojo the Clown runs out of ideas so puts us all under house arrest again. But I still have to go to work, now and again, along with a few other people here and there.

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