THE Inland Waterways Association (IWA) has latched-on to all canal boats going electric.
It calculating that the system would need a charging point every 6½ miles—300 in all!
But who on earth is going to provide them, with so many canals and rivers having mile upon mile with no power lines anywhere near, it does not tell.
It's going to be a most expensive job and I should think far above poor Canal & River Trust's means as it is already scraping the bottom of the barrel from what it tells us. There is little doubt if going electric does come to pass the charging points will undoubtedly be far less than IWA imagine.
And...
In some cases there will only be single phase power available, which means hours of waiting for the charging to complete, which is fine, but when numerous boats need to recharge, just what length of towpath will be needed to accommodate the line of boats of up to 70ft each?
If three phase power is available, then boats will be charged more quickly, but will they all move on when charged? Not if those stuck at services are anything to go by.
But what about rivers—that of course flood? And especially what about recharging points on such as the tidal Trent? It's going to be the hell of a job constructing moorings for boats to be able to recharge their batteries. And they will have to be able to move with the tide. I just wonder if that has been thought about. And why 300? A bit pie in the sky, eh?
Piling it on!
I see that towpath stoppages being not so normal, now warrant a bit of self proclamation in CaRT's stoppage notices, they telling, what our Keith believes is the biggest load of hypocritical rubbish he's read from CaRT!
The one concerning the Huddersfield Narrow having its footpath closed, it telling: Safety along our canals and for all towpath users is the Trust’s main concern.
So it seems a towpath stoppage brings out special warnings.
CaRT adds that 'the towpath closure on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal between Huddersfield and Milnbridge is unavoidable due to safety concerns'. And again: ...'but our priority is ensuring people’s safety'.
No notice
Many of you will surely remember me telling, during our cruise, of our being stopped at Glascote Locks with a paddle stuck open.
Yet there was ner a stoppage notice!
And I'm fairly certain that Branston Lock where the top gate would not open, did not get a stoppage notice either. This was where we had to do as once taught by the then British Waterways to tie the bow rope to the gate and use the engine in reverse to open.
There is little doubt that this stoppage must now have been attended to as otherwise the canal would have been closed, and it isn't, so why no stoppage notice—again?
I just wonder just how many stoppages there really are...
Some emergency
I see Roger Fox brought our attention to the long stoppage at Woodend Lock on the Trent & Mersey, CaRT referring to it as an emergency owing to the 'slow drain', and Roger telling:
With reference to the piece 'What is an emergency', I have to mention this particular lock, Woodend Lock, was working with only one top gate paddle for years, though being told it was an emergency!
Until CaRT eventually removed the blockage—to wit two tyres...
See:
https://narrowboatworld.com/9572-read-with-total-disbelief?highlight=WyJ3b29kZW5kIl0=
https://narrowboatworld.com/9553-woodend-lock-closed?highlight=WyJ3b29kZW5kIl0=
https://narrowboatworld.com/9549-paddle-broke-for-four-years?highlight=WyJ3b29kZW5kIl0=
So if they fix it within a few months then that will surpass their last effort by a considerable margin!
Excellent
Thought we would try out the Boardwalk Bar and Restaurant at Mercia during last week and were pleasantly surprised, as the food would have been rated as 'excellent' by Gordon.
Whilst we were eating in came two ladies, sat down and were given a menu, paled, stood up and left rather quickly.
But, you know, you gets what you pays for...
How many?
So the visitors to the towpath a year have now reached 885 millions! At one time they gave the figures in even numbers such as 600,000,000 until I told them they would be more believable if using odd numbers, so now we have 885 million visitors. With CaRT having taken notice, but whether the figure is odd or even it's a load of you know what!
Whilst on the Coventry and Oxford canals, visitors were very few and far between as many of you will already know, but I've been informed CaRT gets is figures from 'counting' machines—one being on a short stretch of towpath in Manchester where workers use it to get to and from their work... And I understand others in similar places.
That will clock-up a few thousand or so. Then multiply it all by a few more thousands to take in more of the network, and the hundreds of thousands pile-up over the year. So it really will be a billion before too long.
Alas in reality it won't even be half that number as our coninued cruising over the network has time and time again easily verified.
Obvious
As to numbers, we often get asked what the number in the heading represents, though I think it's rather obvious.
It is the number of articles on the site since its last major update, this particular article being number 14,853, And that's no fiddle either, as each one is automatically numbered. Not like one number I could mention—oh, sorry, I already have!
Victor Swift... telling tales for 23 years