Fay Young

Category: Sustainable transport

  • Gathering seeds of hope – on a train trip from Scotland to France

    Gathering seeds of hope – on a train trip from Scotland to France

    —

    by

    fay
    in , , ,

    The ugly dark hulk has a daunting bulk. A grim legacy of the Nazi occupation. The old submarine base still occupies the Bacalan district of Bordeaux.  So many tons of concrete – 600,000 cubic metres of them – would be difficult to remove. But walk round it and there’s a surprising softening in an imaginative…

  • Don’t scrap the tram

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    Flashback to the successful Friends of the Earth Scotland campaign 2007 “A great city let down by its elected representatives”, BBC Scotland environment and science correspondent David Miller sums up last night’s Newsnight Scotland tram story, possibly the best news coverage so far of this extraordinary mess. The thunder is still rumbling around the city…

  • Welcome back to Edinburgh: you’ll have had your tram?

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    Berlin town planning with a purpose Some homecoming.  For a week we explored the most exciting city in Europe. We rode trains, trams and buses to the centre and one sunny day we took the train in the other direction to discover the public housing estate that was inspired by Britain’s first garden cities. We…

  • Lies, damned lies and tram headlines

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    Blue sky thinking: what Edinburgh needs. On a grey Edinburgh summer’s day I jump off a bus painted with blue skies and fluffy white clouds and on to the tram in Princes Street.  It isn’t going anywhere of course but it’s still a great ride if only to dispel  myths and misconceptions rumbling around town.

  • Tescotown – Tescotram?

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    The success of our business depends on listening to people and responding to what they tell us. [Tesco Corporate Social Responsibility] Here’s a shocking revelation in our local community newsletter.  Shocking but probably not surprising.   Tesco  will not be paying a penny towards the construction of Edinburgh’s tram route although it is perfectly – and…

  • Let’s boldly go into the future – it’s about time

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    Trams connect east and west Berlin What’s not to like about trams?  Why does Edinburgh insist on digging  itself into a dismal hole instead of exciting people with a picture of what a modern transport system means for the city?  Come on, it’s a horrible wet day, let’s go for a YouTube ride on a…

  • Treading softly from Scotland to France

    —

    by

    fay
    in , ,

    Sun in the south of France: getting here was almost as much fun. It was raining when we reached Paris but I didn’t mind. After Scotland’s cold apology for summer it was warm, welcoming rain and within minutes of getting off our Eurostar we were clinking glasses of wine in Terminus Nord. If we had…

  • Trains and boats and (no) planes

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    I’ve just been to Bruges and back without setting foot on a plane. Bruges, by the way, is a beautiful place; one of those living museums (like Venice and Dubrovnik) that still manages to give you a feeling of real life in a quirky time warp of its own making. But for me probably the…

  • Who says we have to make sacrifices?

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    Ray Perman finds a quicker, more comfortable alternative to flying. And, to coin a phrase, it doesn’t cost the earth. It has always puzzled me why anyone would fly from Manchester to London rather than take the train. By the time you drag out from the city centre to the airport, allow for your check-in…

  • Trail blazing

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    The Road to the Isles is getting straighter. That’s good news for holiday makers with carsick kids and haulage drivers winding through some of the most beautiful scenery in Britain. But it’s not so good for wonderful old woodlands laid waste to make way for the bold, broad ribbon of tarmac unfolding a new straight…

  • Borat for first minister

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    Here’s an appeal from Friends of the Earth asking campaigners for Edinburgh’s tram to pass on a pdf depicting Alex Salmond (biggest fish of the SNP) as Borat. I can’t work out how to upload the pdf so, even better, here’s a photo of someone outside the Scottish Parliament getting across the message that even…

  • Flight or fight

    —

    by

    fay
    in , ,

    I’m definitely going to be flying less than Blair this year so I’m feeling smug – but I know I’m hypocritical. Apologies to Jean whose comment on my last Global Gossip newsletter slipped down page and out of sight last month. I wondered if I should be encouraging a communal blog about places people are…