New station signals pier revival (From Southend Standard)

The New Pier Station looks great and just wonderful to see the full length of pier railway fully restored to it's former glory. Just one small problem in that the canopy is absolutely useless as a shelter from the elements experienced way out on the Thames Estuary.

I agree with above comment.

The comments made by the politicians are typical of an idiot.

We stood there with our young grandchildren recently for 30 mins after a sudden change in the weather the wind blew up and it rained hard, there was nowhere to shelter whatsoever, which is a total disaster and very dangerous for the old, disabled and vulnerable, only a total idiot would have designed and built a station at the end of a pier in the middle of the estuary with NO SHELTER FACILITIES WHATSOEVER!!

So Mr stupid politician STOP TALKING WITH A FORKED TONGUE!!

TELL THE TRUTH.

I preferred the earlier story you were running last night. (see below) Talk about off the rails! This is the Mayor who refused to share £15,000 of food which he ordered at the Cliffs Pavilion over the weeeknd Air Show, and hardly any of his guests turned up. So instead of opening the restaurant and inviting taxpayers (who were queuing for takeaways down below and with the restaurant all beautifully set up) to come in, he allowed all the food to be wasted. And we've never had an answer to our complaints....


"Southend Pier train comes off the rails on the way to station opening
7:50pm Thursday 17th September 2009

By Mike Miners


SOUTHEND Pier’s train derailed...on its way to the official opening of the new pierhead station.

Mayor and mayoress, Brian and Lyn Smith were among those on board the train, headed for the opening ceremony, when the embarassing incident happened, just past the halfway mark.

Officials had arranged for the train to drive to the end of the pier and as it arrived at the newly refurbished station , for it to plough through a ribbon and officially open it.

Echo photographer Louise Morris was on board with Mr Smith and the rest of the civic party.

She said: “There was a loud clunk and then you could feel it lurch off the rails, before it came to a halt.

“I suppose it was lucky it didn’t go the other way, towards the edge, which was closer to the sea.

“And luckily, it wasn’t really travelling that fast.”

She said the driver looked very upset, but the mayor laughed the incident off – and was even happy to pose for photos, pretending to try to lift the train back on to the track.

In the end, Mr Smith was transported to the pierhead for the ceremony on the buggy used to shuttle lifeboat crews to the end of the pier.

The other pier train was sent from the pierhead to collect the rest of the guests.

Lynn Jones, resort services manager, also made light of the incident.

She said: “The important issue was the re-opening of the station. When the mayor eventually arrived, thanks to the lifeboat buggy, I said we’re here to celebrate the station and we’ll not not mention trains!

“At the moment, we’re not absolutely sure what happened, the engineers are looking at it.

“Obviously, there was no risk because the trains simply don’t go fast enough.”

Council officials and guests were still able to join a party to celebrate the opening and enjoy a jazz band."

You couldn't make it up!

Nice to see Southend is carrying on its long tradition of having a buffoon as a mayor.
.
I remember some years back i was playing in a match at roots hall and the teams were all lined up to meet the guests of honour before the kick off.
i was the keeper (dressed all in green, wearing my gloves, etc) the rest of the team was in red.
Along comes the then mayor and asks me what position do i play!

and they are in charge haha

and they are in charge haha

I'm interested in the train; who got it back on the rails?