Database delights

To most, this is a photograph of a railway and, while that is not in dispute, there is a richer picture to behold. To me, this is a photograph of a wide array of railway assets, each of which is recorded in one of my employer’s databases, the data for which falls within the responsibility of the team I work with.
I don’t pretend to be an expert in the physical assets, nor the data for that matter, but the sheer volume of assets and range of asset type mean that it amazes me that more things don’t go wrong on our railways. 
As someone who commuted into London for 26 years and travelled regularly between Bedfordshire and my home town of Greenock on the Clyde, I have had my fair share of rail disruption and there is no doubt it can be frustrating. However, the reason that I travelled by train is because the roads in this country are often a nightmare to traverse and disruption is more regular than on the trains.
I am not showing loyalty to my employer here but rather, I work for that employer because I believe that we have a fantastic railway in our country and the only reason that the public think so badly of it is because of poor media coverage and it becomes an easy target for the critics. I think that with the volume of railway traffic, especially in the south east, it is amazing that so many people are delivered to and from work on a daily basis without major chaos.
Getting back to today’s blip, this is the West Coast Mainline at Milton Keynes and if one of the various pieces of equipment in view failed, it would most likely make the national news because of the disruption caused, while similar chaos on the M1 nearby would only make the traffic reports. The difference is that the traffic reports on the nearby M1 feature on a daily basis and the West Coast Mainline a handful of times in the year. So I say it’s time for us to be proud of our railway in this country instead of bashing every delay.

Back blipped on 3rd February 2015