|
Lofty132 posted:Authorities claiming the derailed Nuclear Flask Train at Barrow had empty flasks anyway, I would have thought the police would have sufficed rather than the army in that case? It'll just be standard procedure, which is fine. Someone needs to have special training and I don't really care if it's members of the police or the armed forces. I'm glad they're doing well at responding to these things now; I remember when I was working at a nuke plant they had a drill for "vehicle transporting nuclear waste has accident" and it took emergency services hours to get there
|
# ? Sep 17, 2013 11:24 |
|
|
# ? May 28, 2024 15:54 |
|
I was at a train station passenger lounge and decided to charge my phone for 10 minutes on one of the numerous spare plug sockets in the place. I was just getting up for my train and some guy sat next to me and asked if I'd gotten permission to use it. I told him no and, long story short, he said he was going to report me for "theft of electricity". I invited him to do so and gave him my name and partial address. I got on my train, saw that the guy had moved into the chair I was sitting in and was on his phone, inspecting the plug socket. I'm doing big laughs at the image of the police chuckling at him down the phone but I also am mad at myself for getting wound up and giving him my name. Am I danger of getting a visits from the British Transport Police or should I carry on laughing?
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 13:49 |
|
Carry on laughing. He was taking the piss. And in future don't give you name or address to anyone without cause.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 14:06 |
|
In a statement that says more about local politics than it does about national politics, Ed Balls returns to making non-statements about High Speed 2:Ed Balls Threatens To Kill Off 'Mismanaged' HS2 Rail Project posted:Ed Balls has dropped the heaviest hint yet he would like to scrap the High Speed 2 rail project were Labour to win the next election, opening up a split at the top of the party. Ed Balls' constituency is Morley and Outwood, which is half within Leeds and half within Wakefield. In 2010, Balls was the expected Portillo moment that didn't materialise, and his lack of meaningful statements on the matter may indicate concerns about his majority; Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Metro are both fully in favour of the plans, and why wouldn't they be? They'll get the some of the biggest benefits from the line.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 15:23 |
|
For the last week or so Charing Cross station in Glasgow has completely reeked of shite. Don't breath through your nose levels of shite. There must be raw sewerage pouring into the tunnels somewhere. My addition to trainchat. twoot fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Sep 23, 2013 |
# ? Sep 23, 2013 16:14 |
|
Olewithmilk posted:I was at a train station passenger lounge and decided to charge my phone for 10 minutes on one of the numerous spare plug sockets in the place. I was just getting up for my train and some guy sat next to me and asked if I'd gotten permission to use it. I told him no and, long story short, he said he was going to report me for "theft of electricity". I invited him to do so and gave him my name and partial address. I got on my train, saw that the guy had moved into the chair I was sitting in and was on his phone, inspecting the plug socket. I'm doing big laughs at the image of the police chuckling at him down the phone but I also am mad at myself for getting wound up and giving him my name. Am I danger of getting a visits from the British Transport Police or should I carry on laughing? If it happens again, tell them your phone was overcharged and you were depositing electricity back onto the grid. Keep a straight face and insist that's how it works no matter how much they protest.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 16:21 |
|
Despite the headline, Balls doesn't really say that he opposes or dislikes HS2, but that he thinks the coalition has done it wrong, which isn't a massive surprise. I remain not an expert on HS2, but it seems like at least a step in the right direction if it'll alleviate pressure on the West Coast Main Line. As the Demand Nothing article says, there are better things to do, but they'd be less headline-grabbing than HS2 is, and we're unlikely to see a transport minister who'll do smaller things to improve the railway system overall than an expensive and fancy system. I do like how that article says £30 billion, but I'm sure there's articles which pin the HS2 cost as lower than that.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 21:33 |
|
Allan Assiduity posted:Despite the headline, Balls doesn't really say that he opposes or dislikes HS2, but that he thinks the coalition has done it wrong, which isn't a massive surprise. Bring Adonis back. He was actually competent and knew what he was doing. And hey, he got Wakefield Kirkgate and Halifax upgraded after years of neglect. He gets props in my book.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 21:41 |
|
I think HS2 in a nutshell comes down to: Many other options > HS2 > nothing And "nothing" is probably what we'd have on the agenda right now if we didn't have HS2, not those other better things. Given that choice, I'd go for HS2.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 22:19 |
|
Could you (or anyone) go into a bit more detail about those other options? Genuinely curious. Apologies as I'm sure it's been talked about before ad nauseam.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 22:56 |
|
Overminty posted:Could you (or anyone) go into a bit more detail about those other options? Genuinely curious. Apologies as I'm sure it's been talked about before ad nauseam.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 23:06 |
|
The best "other option" would probably be a 150mph 2-track WCML relief line, built to a loading gauge equal to that of HS1, with stations in similar locations to HS2 and a connection to HS1. This would achieve 70% of HS2's goals at a much lower price... but there would never be any political will to build something like that. At the very least there is no real reason to go for a 250mph high speed line, 200mph would be fine.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 23:34 |
|
coffeetable posted:The central problem in my eyes is that HS2 supposes more people should be working in London. £42bn of investment in the North would go a long way towards correcting the brain drain half the country suffers. HS2 is investment in the North.
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 23:36 |
|
coffeetable posted:The central problem in my eyes is that HS2 supposes more people should be working in London. £42bn of investment in the North would go a long way towards correcting the brain drain half the country suffers. Which would have a pretty big positive effect on London's transport systems too. I really don't see how it's actually to London's advantage if people have to move from Edinburgh or Liverpool or Manchester down to London to work, because you then end up in a situation where any possible extra revenue they bring is completely wiped out by the stupendous expense of things like Crossrail, which is only likely to make things worse in the long run. I'd not really realised just how bad the situation had got for commuters, until I recently had to get to Bloomsbury for an 11am meeting (which required being suited and booted so the bike was out, unfortunately) and the Central Line at Bank at 10 o'clock in the morning was like a vision of hell. I have no loving clue how people stick that day after day, there's no amount of money you could pay me to get onto one of those trains - and that's an hour after rush hour was supposed to have finished! (Mind you i did wonder how many people on that train, especially those cramming on at Bank, were actually going much further than I was - when I did used to commute by tube the CL trains were normally empty by Holborn, the majority o those people could have had a pleasant 20 minute stroll down to St Pauls rather than death by armpit - I knew it was only a half hour walk to where I was going so that's what i did. Harry Beck's map has seriously skewed a lot of people's perception of London's geography badly, I'm sure most non-natives would be astonished to find out how close together, say, Aldgate, Liverpool Street, Moorgate and Bank stations are. Maybe the solution to London's transport problems is just to return to the old geographic Tube maps...)
|
# ? Sep 23, 2013 23:48 |
|
goddamnedtwisto posted:(Mind you i did wonder how many people on that train, especially those cramming on at Bank, were actually going much further than I was - when I did used to commute by tube the CL trains were normally empty by Holborn, the majority o those people could have had a pleasant 20 minute stroll down to St Pauls rather than death by armpit - I knew it was only a half hour walk to where I was going so that's what i did. Harry Beck's map has seriously skewed a lot of people's perception of London's geography badly, I'm sure most non-natives would be astonished to find out how close together, say, Aldgate, Liverpool Street, Moorgate and Bank stations are. Maybe the solution to London's transport problems is just to return to the old geographic Tube maps...) The issue, I think, is that most people don't want to spend any longer on their commute than they absolutely have to. Walking between stations can be pretty quick, but as long as there aren't any delays, it's still quicker to get the Tube than it is to walk. However, since my train is only once every 30 minutes, if there's no realistic chance of getting it, I'll happily have a walk.
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 09:23 |
|
Cerv posted:Carry on laughing. He was taking the piss. OK! I do feel real dumb about doing that, but he managed to push all my buttons all at once. Semprini posted:Nothing will come of it. Haha! Ok, the guy seemed really worked up about it so maybe I'll see him there waiting for me next time and I can do this.
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 09:30 |
|
Gat posted:The best "other option" would probably be a 150mph 2-track WCML relief line, built to a loading gauge equal to that of HS1, with stations in similar locations to HS2 and a connection to HS1. This would achieve 70% of HS2's goals at a much lower price... but there would never be any political will to build something like that. At the very least there is no real reason to go for a 250mph high speed line, 200mph would be fine. This is the correct answer. A 140/150mph alignment is easy to achieve with the components we use for 125mph railways, build the thing to GB+ or a larger continental loading gauge and you're away. This is off the shelf stuff that we already do in the UK so have the expertise to design and build to these sorts of speeds, requiring no massive development process and/or import of skills. None of that moving block shite I believe they are proposing for HS2 either. Nice, standard, purist ETCS Level 2.
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 11:29 |
|
Bozza posted:This is the correct answer. A 140/150mph alignment is easy to achieve with the components we use for 125mph railways, build the thing to GB+ or a larger continental loading gauge and you're away. This is off the shelf stuff that we already do in the UK so have the expertise to design and build to these sorts of speeds, requiring no massive development process and/or import of skills. Is there not something to be said for pushing the boundaries of what's doable? Surely that's to our long-term advantage even if it ends up being more expensive and less reliable in the short-term. That's how we got - well, just about everything good on the British railway network.
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 11:51 |
|
Olewithmilk posted:I was at a train station passenger lounge and decided to charge my phone for 10 minutes on one of the numerous spare plug sockets in the place. I was just getting up for my train and some guy sat next to me and asked if I'd gotten permission to use it. I told him no and, long story short, he said he was going to report me for "theft of electricity". I invited him to do so and gave him my name and partial address. I got on my train, saw that the guy had moved into the chair I was sitting in and was on his phone, inspecting the plug socket. I'm doing big laughs at the image of the police chuckling at him down the phone but I also am mad at myself for getting wound up and giving him my name. Am I danger of getting a visits from the British Transport Police or should I carry on laughing? Regardless of the fact that you have nothing to worry about because nobody is going to care about "theft of electricity via mobile phone charger", wouldn't your ticket constitute permission to use it? I'd assume in your position that I had permission to use it on the basis that when you purchase a ticket you are entitled to take advantage of the various amenities provided to you as part of your journey. You are entitled to sit in the passenger lounge, sit down on the train, use the train's toilet, the luggage racks, the train's Wi-Fi if you happen to be on a train that has it etc. Some of the things on the train and the track are not to be used by passengers, or are only to be used in emergencies, and every single one of those things has a sign that says "emergency use only", "staff only" or "penalty for improper use". The plug socket doesn't have those signs, so it's an amenity of the station or train provided at least partially for the convenience of passengers.
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 11:52 |
|
kingturnip posted:The issue, I think, is that most people don't want to spend any longer on their commute than they absolutely have to. Walking between stations can be pretty quick, but as long as there aren't any delays, it's still quicker to get the Tube than it is to walk. This is true, though my commute is 20 minutes longer than it could be, because I walk from Charing Cross to my office rather than get the tube (also because it saves me ~£15 a week as I get a my house - London terminals season ticket rather than a Z1-2 travelcard)
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 12:29 |
|
Count your blessings, lads. At least ye don't have to deal with Irish Rail.
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 12:57 |
|
goddamnedtwisto posted:Is there not something to be said for pushing the boundaries of what's doable? Surely that's to our long-term advantage even if it ends up being more expensive and less reliable in the short-term. That's how we got - well, just about everything good on the British railway network. I do agree with you partially. A lot of the work done by BR Research, for example, helped develop a lot of the technology we rely on today and only worked through trial and error, proper R&D stuff. However, I think the case against (in this instance) is that 250mph running is largely pointless. Brum and London aren't far enough apart to justify it, and given the larger argument is regarding capacity, building a high speed (ie 140mph alignment) rather than very high speed alignment (ie 200mph+) is simply better economics. If this was France, with longer distances between cities, I think the case could be made, but what we essentially want is a "motorway network" of higher speed lines which can relieve the pressure from the existing main lines by bypassing bottlenecks in the conventional network.
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 13:06 |
|
On the ATOC website there's this press release: http://www.atoc.org/media-centre/la...-to-government/ Which this telegraph article was based on: Telegraph posted:
But these figures don't agree with the government's: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/230644/rail-subsidy-indicator.xls Which give a Total train operator subsidy without network grant of £-968.1m and a Total subsidy with network grant of £2,233.1m Am I missing something, does anyone how ATOC's claims can be justified? Did they just make them up and the telegraph reprinted them without question?
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 20:41 |
|
Bozza posted:I do agree with you partially. A lot of the work done by BR Research, for example, helped develop a lot of the technology we rely on today and only worked through trial and error, proper R&D stuff. What's going to happen when we want to extend the line to Scotland and realise that 150mph isn't much more competitive against domestic air travel than 125?
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 21:19 |
|
Jonnty posted:What's going to happen when we want to extend the line to Scotland and realise that 150mph isn't much more competitive against domestic air travel than 125? You play to your strengths - no hassle with security, convenient city centre location of stations, better freedom of movement on that service, better frequency of service and overall comparable journey time (if you factor in travel to/from the airport, waits and security check time). Yeah, high(er) speed sells some of this better, but a lot of the benefits are more inherent in rail than high speed exclusively. vv also this Bozza fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Sep 24, 2013 |
# ? Sep 24, 2013 22:07 |
|
And ban short haul flights
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 22:13 |
|
Cerv posted:And ban short haul flights This is true. However, Bozza help out here, what would you have to do to the rail system in this country to absorb everyone currently flying up and down the country?
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 22:20 |
|
Bobstar posted:This is true. Make it cheaper and build new connections that are not just on the East Coast Mainline. For example; I live in Edinburgh and going to London by train is by far my preferred option when it isn't obviously more of a rip off than just flying down (which if you can't book far in advance isn't a guarantee even including transport to/from the airports) but if you're going somewhere else it can be a nightmare. If I'm going to Bedford to visit friends then the only decent option I have is to fly to Luton otherwise I'm getting the train down to London and then back up to Bedford at increased cost and massively increased time.
|
# ? Sep 24, 2013 23:58 |
|
coffeetable posted:The central problem in my eyes is that HS2 supposes more people should be working in London. £42bn of investment in the North would go a long way towards correcting the brain drain half the country suffers. I really don't buy this argument against HS2. My friends whose brains drained into London didn't relocate because the journey was easy, they went and stayed because it was hard. From (admittedly statistically irrelevant) personal experience, the rapid rail journey from home to the capital means I can work successfully on London projects from a base in the provinces. I earn money on Crossrail but I spend it in Settle. London will always get investment, because investment begets itself- we invest in better transport links, which allow more workers in, so we build more offices for the workers, which need better transport links... and so on. Regardless of whether that runaway expansion is right, it happens, and HS2 would allow a lot more people to tap London work but spend their earnings somewhere else.
|
# ? Sep 25, 2013 00:28 |
|
ANYTHING YOU SOW posted:On the ATOC website there's this press release: Can I suggest you get in contact with FullFact on Twitter, or via their website? They eat this kind of stuff up and it could be pretty embarrassing for ATOC if they were to follow it up.
|
# ? Sep 25, 2013 09:30 |
|
Incidentally, we've discovered the real intent of the Lobbying bill: to stifle anti-HS2 dissent.quote:MPs have taken the first step towards making the current activities of the Stop HS2 campaign illegal, by voting by 300 votes to 249 for the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill on Tuesday. Not only could this bill see the current level of Stop HS2 activities become illegal from May 2014, it could well cut access to the Parliamentary process, or at least limit what people can say and do when petitioning the Parliamentary Joint Committee which would be considering the HS2 Hybrid Bill at that time. Parliamentary insiders have told Stop HS2 that Part 2 of the bill, the bit that turns this piece of legislation into a ‘Gagging Bill’ is, besides being generally aimed a trade unions, specifically aimed at gagging Stop HS2, along with 38 Degrees and the National Union of Students in the run-up to the 2015 General Election.
|
# ? Sep 25, 2013 20:51 |
|
Bozza posted:You play to your strengths - no hassle with security, convenient city centre location of stations, better freedom of movement on that service, better frequency of service and overall comparable journey time (if you factor in travel to/from the airport, waits and security check time). I just don't really understand why everyone's been bemoaning us not getting on the high speed bandwagon back in the 80s and that now we have the chance they've suddenly decided that fast trains aren't important all of a sudden. I realise the main argument is capacity, but to make it work you need the speed as well. Sure, 250mph isn't necessary but we may at least plan the route to allow for it - how much would we actually save by reducing that, and how much might we regret it in 30 years? Endjinneer posted:I really don't buy this argument against HS2. Yeah - I have sympathy with the London-centric argument but the truth is that built anywhere else it would just cause massive bottlenecks at either end and make everyone beg for an extension to London as soon as possible. At least they're used to having huge numbers of people suddenly dumped on them every morning.
|
# ? Sep 30, 2013 20:14 |
|
Jonnty posted:yet most of them could barely make a profit. LMS (the largest) never made a profit, it had so much debt from one of the companies it inherited.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2013 07:46 |
|
The HS2 requirements include right of way and stations being built to a more normal and larger structure gauge as compared to the typical british narrow and short one, right?
|
# ? Oct 1, 2013 18:52 |
|
Install Windows posted:The HS2 requirements include right of way and stations being built to a more normal and larger structure gauge as compared to the typical british narrow and short one, right? Yeah, like HS1 was, even though right now nothing makes use of the larger gauge on HS1. The main benefit is that HS1 and HS2 can accommodate double decker trains, something that cannot happen on the UK rail network even though its desperately needed. My proposes WCML relief line would also be this larger gauge. Its something that is prohibitively. expensive to retrofit onto existing lines.
|
# ? Oct 1, 2013 21:21 |
|
Install Windows posted:The HS2 requirements include right of way and stations being built to a more normal and larger structure gauge as compared to the typical british narrow and short one, right? The specification for HS2 is GC loading gauge. For comparison, most key freight routes are supposed to be at least W10, which I believe is between GA and GB: TinTower fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Oct 1, 2013 |
# ? Oct 1, 2013 21:30 |
|
Reveilled posted:Regardless of the fact that you have nothing to worry about because nobody is going to care about "theft of electricity via mobile phone charger", wouldn't your ticket constitute permission to use it? I'd assume in your position that I had permission to use it on the basis that when you purchase a ticket you are entitled to take advantage of the various amenities provided to you as part of your journey. You are entitled to sit in the passenger lounge, sit down on the train, use the train's toilet, the luggage racks, the train's Wi-Fi if you happen to be on a train that has it etc. Some of the things on the train and the track are not to be used by passengers, or are only to be used in emergencies, and every single one of those things has a sign that says "emergency use only", "staff only" or "penalty for improper use". The plug socket doesn't have those signs, so it's an amenity of the station or train provided at least partially for the convenience of passengers. Your ticket guarantees you travel and nothing else, not even a seat. I have to use this line on a regular basis with our single 153 carriage services, always fun. I've heard major time table changes in December can already be found on the Internet but my google-fu has failed me. Any of you crazy kids know where I would find such golden information for a member of train crew like myself?
|
# ? Oct 2, 2013 22:08 |
|
Lofty132 posted:I've heard major time table changes in December can already be found on the Internet but my google-fu has failed me. Any of you crazy kids know where I would find such golden information for a member of train crew like myself? OpenTrainTimes and RealTimeTrains have got the new timetable changes through their "trains at [station]" service Here's the link someone posted on the RailUK forums, apparently Stourbridge Junction's got a different service pattern: http://www.opentraintimes.com/location/SBJ/2013-12-09/0000-2359 Here's the RTT page of the same station because RTT is better imo: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/advanced/SBJ/2013/12/09/0000-2359 Change the 3 character station code to see if there's any changes at your local station lets go swimming fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Oct 3, 2013 |
# ? Oct 3, 2013 01:23 |
|
Lofty132 posted:Your ticket guarantees you travel and nothing else, not even a seat. I have to use this line on a regular basis with our single 153 carriage services, always fun. Start making friends with your fleet planners, and get them to sling you a copy of the carriage working notice for your units. If you can get added to the distribution for the altered CWNs as well, you'll be more accurate than any third party website could be
|
# ? Oct 3, 2013 08:50 |
|
|
# ? May 28, 2024 15:54 |
|
This is old news, but according to politicalbetting.com re-privatising the East Coast mainline looks like an election winner. Or not.
|
# ? Oct 3, 2013 17:02 |