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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: HS2 - Government proposals, alternative routes and general discussion
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on: August 03, 2023, 15:32:07
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The problems with HS2▸ are all problems of government more than they are problems of delivery. The way the UK▸ Treasury works out its spending – especially on investment – is genuinely ridiculous and anathema to long-term thinking. Because spending is worked out in ‘envelopes’ of certain numbers of years, there is an obsession with working out what the five-year figure is, rather than looking at what will put the UK in the best footing in 20 to 30 years’ time. Not only are our engineers overruled by bean-counters, those bean counters don't even stick around to harvest the beans. |
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49
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All across the Great Western territory / Active travel: Cyclists and walkers, including how the railways deal with them / Re: Driving vs Active Travel: Changing Our Cultural Perceptions
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on: August 03, 2023, 10:52:01
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I thought this bit was key: Economically, the access-all-areas motoring network is already established so that things like pedestrian crossings and cycle tracks are seen as walking and cycling infrastructure which must be able to economically wash their own faces. The problem is that retrofitting can be costly as well as controversial so that investment in walking, wheeling and cycling is seen as a nice to have, where we can fit it in, and so long as we don’t take any motoring capacity. If we turn this proposition on its head, we can start to see that infrastructure to support walking, wheeling and cycling is actually motoring infrastructure because the only reason we need it is because the prevailing conditions created by motorisation are so hostile. Therefore, any use of benefit to cost ratio in this regard immediately appears nonsensical and it pushes us to think about better ways to consider and prioritise interventions to provide a basic level of service for walking, wheeling and cycling at the network level we have for cars. |
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53
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: HS2 - Government proposals, alternative routes and general discussion
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on: August 01, 2023, 16:53:48
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Whoever wins the next election, or doesn't, there are only three options for HS2▸ : - Abandon it, leaving some very expensive tunnels and bridges
- Get on with it
- Do it half-heartedly, trying to minimise costs as much as possible, probably ending up with a not particularly fast line from approximately the West Midlands to somewhere that Ryanair might be persuaded to call London
Residents of Acton & Solihull are eagerly awaiting their new express trains which they have been advised will arrive sometime around 2040 (they were a little disappointed when they were told that referred to the year, not the time!)  "Acton & Solihull Parkway is a railway station in the UK▸ . It is the only station on the UK's brand new HS2 line." (Wikipedia, 2049) |
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59
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Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Annoying / amusing use of completely irrelevant stock photos to illustrate press articles
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on: July 27, 2023, 20:46:51
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ChrisB's question led me to check the longest train that can be accommodated on the Severn Beach line (it's 5 cars, but I wanted to be sure). So I asked Google's AI tool Bard. It said: The longest train that can be used on the Severn Beach Line is 650 meters (2,133 feet). This is the length of a Class 150 single-car diesel multiple unit (DMU▸ ), which is the type of train that is most commonly used on the line. The Severn Beach Line has a number of short platforms, so trains longer than 650 meters cannot be used.
In the past, there have been longer trains used on the Severn Beach Line. For example, in the 1960s, Class 117 DMUs were used on the line, and these trains are 750 meters (2,461 feet) long. However, these trains were too long for the platforms, so they had to be split in two at Severn Beach station.
I'm really sad that I missed the spectacle of a Class 117 being split in two at Severn Beach. I'm surprised no-one thought to take a photo of this.  But... if you asked about the line, not the stations, 650m might be a reasonable figure. How long is the "Binliner" for instance? |
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60
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Ticket Office Closure Consultation
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on: July 27, 2023, 17:03:32
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I have a friend who's registered blind – and deaf. She's partially sighted and, erm, partially "hearinged", so is able to use screens with suitable modifications, which she has at home (font size, contrast, choice of colours, etc) but can't be done to a ticket machine. So she prefers to buy tickets online and either get them posted or pick them up from a machine, depending how much far in advance she's purchased. She doesn't like to use ticket offices because her hearing impairment makes communication difficult (station concourses can be a noisy environment as well).
But that's her, each person with sight or hearing disabilities will be slightly different.
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