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TheVertigoOfBliss posted:The trains on the Glasgow Subway are loving tiny. Wiki tells me the tunnels are only 11 foot in diameter so presumably by the time you take an arc off that for the rails to sit on and include the height of the rail themself youre only left with like 7 foot of headroom for the whole train to the middle of the carriage. It's less than 7 foot, I'm 6'2"/3" (haven't bothered measuring in a while) and if my hair's spiked up it brushes against the roof even in the centre of the carriage.
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May 29, 2012 08:11
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Wootcannon posted:It's less than 7 foot, I'm 6'2"/3" (haven't bothered measuring in a while) and if my hair's spiked up it brushes against the roof even in the centre of the carriage. He meant the whole tunnel's clearance, so the rails, wheels and carriage chop a fair bit off of that.
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May 29, 2012 08:49
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In light of Bozza's level crossings effort post (currently delayed due to poor railhead adhesion), have a 40 minute documentary from 1969 about how they built London Underground's Victoria Line: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00sc29t/How_They_Dug_the_Victoria_Line/
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Jun 17, 2012 14:50
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Venmoch posted:When I lived over in Japan I had no problems whatsoever with the privately owned Tobu line granted this was a few years ago but the private lines still seem subject to some severe requirements. But like many things, "your mileage may vary"  The whole 'different train companies running along the same route' is just as lovely and confusing as in England, though. Especially when you get off at what you think is the right station, but you're three miles from where you expected to be because the name of a station on one line doesn't necessarily match its neighbour on the other.
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Jun 17, 2012 23:47
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Has anyone else seen white fences partitioning stations in London? Does anyone know what they are for?
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Jun 18, 2012 12:24
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notaspy posted:Has anyone else seen white fences partitioning stations in London? Does anyone know what they are for? Construction work? Separating football fans?
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Jun 18, 2012 13:05
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Hezzy posted:Construction work? Separating football fans? They seem to be permanent, I'm guessing they are there to help with a two-tier infrastructure or something like that. I have seen them in both North and South London.
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Jun 18, 2012 13:36
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notaspy posted:They seem to be permanent, I'm guessing they are there to help with a two-tier infrastructure or something like that. Maybe they're there for revenue protection purposes then?
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Jun 18, 2012 15:13
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Do you mean the big trellis style gates than close across passageways? They're used to change passenger routes around stations when it's high traffic. Otherwise I am clueless to these white fences.
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Jun 18, 2012 15:18
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:Do you mean the big trellis style gates than close across passageways? They're used to change passenger routes around stations when it's high traffic. Otherwise I am clueless to these white fences. Sounds like them, and that seem reasonable. The idea of having some sort of hosed up two-tier train service scares me, it would be like the liberals knowing what a natural monopoly is but have decided it's an ideological barrier that needs to be overcome... or something.
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Jun 18, 2012 15:28
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Payndz posted:Especially when you get off at what you think is the right station, but you're three miles from where you expected to be because the name of a station on one line doesn't necessarily match its neighbour on the other. track in Japan (with the exception of a few services which start off as a private railway, go into the Tokyo Metro, then come out again)
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Jun 18, 2012 15:38
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ookiimarukochan posted:The only time I was burned by that - JR Sagamihara vs Odakyuu Sagamihara (where the stations are on opposite sides of the city and there's no simple way to get from one to the other) the routes are entirely different - in fact I don't know of any point where you have 2 companies on the same I'm extremely grateful for the Japanese desire to use their English skills by helping clueless Westerners get to where they meant to go.
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Jun 18, 2012 16:01
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Payndz posted:It was going from Tokyo to Chiba where I got lost; from what I remember, two different companies run parallel routes, sometimes with the stations right next to each other (but not directly connected). Adding to the fun, every station seemed to be called Chiba-something, like having every tube station prefixed with London. (And outside Tokyo, the signs stopped being in English.) They're only "parallel" in that they run in the same general direction though -- with very few exceptions, different train companies don't lay track right next to each other for any great length of time. (I know there is a portion of the Keio Sagamihara line and of the Odakyu Tama line that do actually run adjacent to each other between three stations, and some of the Metro lines, in addition to what ookiimarukochan posted above, run adjacent to each other in places.) For the most part, the population density in the city is so great that you can have two major railway lines (Keihin-Tohoku and the Keikyu main line) both run between Tokyo and Yokohama within a 2-3km wide corridor and be both crowded and profitable.
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Jun 18, 2012 23:24
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Still anxiously waiting for this level-crossing effort post 
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Jun 18, 2012 23:38
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Baronjutter posted:Still anxiously waiting for this level-crossing effort post Bozz  You'll be losing your title as D&Ds foremost train effortposter at this rate y'know.
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Jun 27, 2012 12:37
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It's halfway done! I was gonna finish it yesterday but I went to the pub instead,
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Jun 27, 2012 12:58
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BrokenBritain.txt
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Jun 27, 2012 13:00
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Bozza posted:It's halfway done! I was gonna finish it yesterday but I went to the pub instead, Ladies and gentlemen, your inefficient public sector!
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Jun 27, 2012 13:03
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Vando posted:Ladies and gentlemen, your inefficient public sector! I thought he was privatised? Clearly then he had more productive and efficient things to do in the pub, like create jobs.
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Jun 27, 2012 14:08
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Orange Devil posted:I thought he was privatised? Clearly then he had more productive and efficient things to do in the pub, like create jobs. Network Rail is as close as it is possible to be to public ownership while appearing to operate in the private sector.
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Jun 27, 2012 14:32
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Keeps our £27.2bn net debt off the government books too!
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Jun 27, 2012 14:35
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Bozza posted:Keeps our £27.2bn net debt off the government books too! The "too" there is rather misleading... Btw, I know moving block signalling turned into a total disaster but is there really no way to use the improved tracking capabilities offered by GPS and modern comms technology to provide some sort of improvement over the existing system? How big an impact has technological change had on tracking activity on the network etc?
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Jun 27, 2012 15:39
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Munin posted:The "too" there is rather misleading... Yes, there is.
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Jun 27, 2012 20:53
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Labour in considering good idea shocker? Labour backs plans to return railway network to public control The Observer posted:If adopted by Labour it would mean ending franchises as they come up for renewal on the east coast, west coast and midland mainlines – ousting the likes of Sir Richard Branson from one of the country's most profitable routes – and bringing the running of trains and infrastructure under one publicly owned and accountable company.
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Jun 30, 2012 20:27
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Emsee posted:Labour in considering good idea shocker? They're "considering" it - I assume they'll water down the proposals or just chuck them in the manifesto and never come back to them again. Just, in fact, like they did before on this exact issue.
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Jun 30, 2012 22:47
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Spotted this on the BBC News website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18644343 Short video piece about 'ghost' or 'parliamentary' trains that run once or maybe twice a week, only because it's cheaper than the whole procedure of shutting a line down. Well worth a watch, if only for "Nobody got on, nobody got off, just me on the train".
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Jul 4, 2012 18:49
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Heard of those before, it's absolutely ridiculous that they have to do that.
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Jul 5, 2012 09:50
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There's one in South London that goes from Clapham High Street to Olympia each afternoon, but never comes back. It's especially baffling because London Bridge - Willsden Junction would be a good route to add to the London Overground network.
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Jul 5, 2012 11:47
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kingturnip posted:Spotted this on the BBC News website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18644343 This is mad! I had no idea these existed but I can't say I'm surprised. The Northern Rail PR person is cute.
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Jul 5, 2012 13:51
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:There's one in South London that goes from Clapham High Street to Olympia each afternoon, but never comes back. It's especially baffling because London Bridge - Willsden Junction would be a good route to add to the London Overground network. Actually on that - am I the only one to be really impressed with the Overground? I know in a lot of places it's effectively just a rebrand of a load of existing suburban services and is a bit of a lashup on the technical side, but it's a great example of how a unitary (and public) system can vastly increase the utility of a fragmented and underused system. Alas we'll probably never see similar things happen in, say, Birmingham or on the trans-Pennine routes, both of which could massively benefit from that sort of integration (with what is really pretty minimal investment).
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Jul 5, 2012 14:35
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Actually on that - am I the only one to be really impressed with the Overground? I know in a lot of places it's effectively just a rebrand of a load of existing suburban services and is a bit of a lashup on the technical side, but it's a great example of how a unitary (and public) system can vastly increase the utility of a fragmented and underused system. Absolutely. I remember getting a train from Richmond to South Tottenham over a decade ago. The train itself had clearly seen a great many better days, it was late getting to my stop and progressively later as it crawled along the track, mostly full to capacity on a really warm day. Not pleasant. I don't get the Overground much these days, but to go from that to air-conditioned, walk-through coaches is impressive.
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Jul 5, 2012 16:44
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Alas we'll probably never see similar things happen in, say, Birmingham or on the trans-Pennine routes, both of which could massively benefit from that sort of integration (with what is really pretty minimal investment). Birmingham has got Network West Midlands, which means free car parks and surprisingly cheap season tickets if you travel within it. If you're near a train station there's no better way to commute into the centre (though you still have to put up with the shitness of central Birmingham stations). It also keeps Virgin from gouging the urban commuter services as well as the provincials.
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Jul 5, 2012 17:03
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I love the Overground. When I had to commute out to Stevenage for a couple of months it was great. Much better than the First Capital Connect service I had to switch onto during my journey. Shame I missed out the on free wifi though.
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Jul 5, 2012 17:13
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Midland Main Line electrification: a good thing, yes, but is it a foolish pipe dream or something that might actually happen (on budget)?
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Jul 17, 2012 00:10
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Apparently Preston to Manchester is getting electrified by 2016, which is great. Does anybody know if the Preston to Blackpool bit is being done also?
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Jul 17, 2012 10:04
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Shockingly, the last major electrification programme initiated by central government was the East Coast Main Line in the 80s, also by the Tories. I reckon there's some BR entryists milling around in CCHQ somewhere.
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Jul 17, 2012 10:10
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Hey Bozza, is there any way I can find out whether South West Trains are going to pull their rolling stock from out of their fundaments at any point and put some wifi in along some of the busiest commuter routes in the country?
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Jul 17, 2012 10:11
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Actually on that - am I the only one to be really impressed with the Overground? I know in a lot of places it's effectively just a rebrand of a load of existing suburban services and is a bit of a lashup on the technical side, but it's a great example of how a unitary (and public) system can vastly increase the utility of a fragmented and underused system. The DLR and the Overground are the two parts of my daily commute and they're so much better than the rest of the Underground that it's not even funny.
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Jul 17, 2012 10:24
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The Silverlink -> Overground transformation was incredible and i use it as often as possible.
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Jul 17, 2012 10:37
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Have to agree. The difference between the Silverlink and the Overground is amazing. I've yet to use it during the rush hour though and the Silverlink was unbearable unless I could grab one that terminated at Camden.
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Jul 17, 2012 10:44
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