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HIGHLAND AIR GETS JUBILEE GRIT OUT OF STEEL'S LUNGS
00:00 18 May 1995
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While some people are supping their pints on Friday night, Bill
Steel speeds north to Inverness, to rest before returning to London
by Monday morning.
After yet another hard week working as one of the client's supervising engineers on a major tunnelling project, he is sleeping on the overnight train. Gone. Out for the count.
It is the same again on Sunday night as he rushes, back to the capital and the Jubilee Line extension. 'Some people say that I must be mad' he says. But they are missing the point, he explains. 'Distance has nothing to do with it.'
The trip to Inverness takes 11 hours 'or thereabouts' each way, 22 hours per week. Resting, he emphasises. A full night's sleep. Compare that to London: commuting from south east England, which can be up to four hours per day - 20 hours per week. Not resting. Who's mad?
Fair point. In the Royal Burgh of Inverness he rests up. Fresh air and peace, says Steel. He has 36 hours to 'do things' or 'whatever I'm told,' he laughs.
Steel, a keen observer, says that a couple of days up north is more beneficial than a longer period in London. That's how he recharges.
Inverness has always been the focus in Steel's itinerant professional life, when working across the UK or overseas. In fact, he was in Wales to build a dam when he got married. His wife hails from Inverness.
The family, with Highland and Italian influences, is strongly bonded to the area - especially as he and his wife are now grandparents. So he shuttles back and forth.
Construction was not part of the family background, but Steel got into heavy civils contracting as a teenager for reasons lost in the mist and worked locally on hydroelectric schemes.
After a stint of National Service, he circuited from London to East Anglia, on to Wales and Cornwall, and then came back to Scotland to tackle the Cruachan hydroelectric scheme.
With the urban infrastructure experience also under his belt, he then thought: 'Time for a change,' as he puts it - both generally and professionally. Being part of the growing Cementation group, he was able to move within the company to South Africa.
From there he studied deep shaft sinking in North America and put it into practice in the Philippines. You needed an airplane to access the site on the island of Luzon, he says.
His children had reached secondary school age near the end of that job. The family went back home, the children stayed for a Scottish education and he went back to the Philippines on bachelor status.
But, in the Pacific, his heart was almost stolen away from Inverness once. He had been there for several years, mostly on Fiji, and 'I had intended to stay longer,' he concedes.
Basically, though, Steel does not worry where he lives as long as he enjoys his work, his family feels things are fairly reasonable and there is 'something to do with money,' he quickly laughs. Bill Steel:
Senior Supervising Engineer
JLE Project Team
After yet another hard week working as one of the client's supervising engineers on a major tunnelling project, he is sleeping on the overnight train. Gone. Out for the count.
It is the same again on Sunday night as he rushes, back to the capital and the Jubilee Line extension. 'Some people say that I must be mad' he says. But they are missing the point, he explains. 'Distance has nothing to do with it.'
The trip to Inverness takes 11 hours 'or thereabouts' each way, 22 hours per week. Resting, he emphasises. A full night's sleep. Compare that to London: commuting from south east England, which can be up to four hours per day - 20 hours per week. Not resting. Who's mad?
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Fair point. In the Royal Burgh of Inverness he rests up. Fresh air and peace, says Steel. He has 36 hours to 'do things' or 'whatever I'm told,' he laughs.
Steel, a keen observer, says that a couple of days up north is more beneficial than a longer period in London. That's how he recharges.
Inverness has always been the focus in Steel's itinerant professional life, when working across the UK or overseas. In fact, he was in Wales to build a dam when he got married. His wife hails from Inverness.
The family, with Highland and Italian influences, is strongly bonded to the area - especially as he and his wife are now grandparents. So he shuttles back and forth.
Construction was not part of the family background, but Steel got into heavy civils contracting as a teenager for reasons lost in the mist and worked locally on hydroelectric schemes.
After a stint of National Service, he circuited from London to East Anglia, on to Wales and Cornwall, and then came back to Scotland to tackle the Cruachan hydroelectric scheme.
With the urban infrastructure experience also under his belt, he then thought: 'Time for a change,' as he puts it - both generally and professionally. Being part of the growing Cementation group, he was able to move within the company to South Africa.
From there he studied deep shaft sinking in North America and put it into practice in the Philippines. You needed an airplane to access the site on the island of Luzon, he says.
His children had reached secondary school age near the end of that job. The family went back home, the children stayed for a Scottish education and he went back to the Philippines on bachelor status.
But, in the Pacific, his heart was almost stolen away from Inverness once. He had been there for several years, mostly on Fiji, and 'I had intended to stay longer,' he concedes.
Basically, though, Steel does not worry where he lives as long as he enjoys his work, his family feels things are fairly reasonable and there is 'something to do with money,' he quickly laughs. Bill Steel:
Senior Supervising Engineer
JLE Project Team
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