David: Fradley not so badly affected

IT IS very good news that Fradley Junction will no longer be so badly affected by the route of the new HS2 railway, thanks to the IWA commissioning an engineering firm to design a different route that will actually be cheaper.

This raises some worrying thoughts about the competence of the people in charge of HS2. Why did an entirely non-railway oriented organisation have to do the work for them? How many other locations on the route are similarly badly planned and who is supposed to check up—is every person affected expected to commission an engineering study of their own?

I can only hope that IWA will be reimbursed for their costs in doing HS2's job for them. With a price tag of £50 billion they ought to be able to afford it.

Volunteers

Our experience of volunteers this year has been that there have not been that many about. Volunteers supervised us at Watford and Foxton very efficiently, indistinguishable from the service offered by the paid lock keepers in the past.

The Bratch was controlled by a paid keeper, assisted by a volunteer. The top three locks of the Droitwich Narrow had two very helpful volunteers, who were especially concerned that the side ponds should be operated properly. Atherstone locks had no fewer than three volunteers; however, they were firmly ensconced at the top lock and their remit seemed only to extend to the top two. Given their number, I would have thought that they could have spread themselves out a bit more, at least as far as lock 7.

As a single hander, I would certainly have welcomed it. A wholly unofficial (no life jacket!) helper assisted us on the Stourbridge 16 and that was it for 14 weeks cruising, except for a helpful couple at Hillmorton on the way home.

No volunteers were apparent on the Cheshire Locks, anywhere on the Shroppie or the Staffs and Worcs (except Bratch) or the Birmingham and Fazeley.

It would help if one knew in advance when volunteers might be present. Perhaps something along the lines of the stoppage warning system could be developed—or it could even be included in it. It already has all sorts of details about regattas and bridge inspections which might cause a hold up, so why not include details of extra help being available?

David Hymers