Search

There are two gauge changes that would make through carriages rather unlikely. So travel would still require several changes of train. Channel Tunnel trains are rather specialised so would certainly not be suitable to travel beyond their usual routes - recently extended to Amsterdam.

Possibly more appropriate, would be for the people engaging in such behavior, to consider potential dangers to themselves and others (crew and passengers) of these actions. You will note that these protests have occurred in many cities, not just in Britain, just as the consequences of global warmin...

I find the franchising system so obnoxious that I don't really care which bunch of scoundrels is running them. But it is being said that Stagecoach will lose its current stash and Virgin too. Perhaps that's why Virgin is moving to America.

I think the intent of the protests is to make governments more likely to take action about climate changes. So far governments in most countries have done very little, and not nearly enough, to tackle to problems of global warming. As one of the main causes has been burning coal I would hope that ad...

In 1970 or thereabouts I took the train from Port Elizabeth to George and stayed the night there. I remember seeing a less than Cape Gauge railway there. I don't think there were any passenger services on it but I am sure it was still active.

The West Clare railway was the result of a British policy, following the Irish Famine, to improve transport in the rural areas. The government chose three foot gauge for most of these new lines, to reduce construction costs. The result was a number of these small gauge lines in rural Ireland. Of cou...

The Stagecoach company has been refused new franchises in Britain, mainly because they refused to accept liabilities for pension financing for railway workers. Probably they will also lose their current franchises on the West Coast route. I think they are also linked with Virgin trains on the West C...

I have been enjoying Adrian Garner's book "Monorails of the 19th Century." I discovered that the first rail link between what was at the time Port Kampala and Kampala itself was a monorail! Rolling stock was propelled along the line by bullocks rather than any form of mechanical propulsio...

I've said it around here before and I'll say it again; The railroads joining Amtrak made a "Faustian pact with the Devil". The "strongs" could have survived the statutory five year moratorium on train discontinuances, but the industry chose "solidarity" with the "...

Add to the mixture, Mr. Matthews, European Elections due if the issue is not resolved by mid-April, in which the EU does NOT want UK participation. Interesting times, indeed! Sam At present it seems quite likely that the actual date of leaving the EU will be postponed yet again - from the end of ne...

There are new rules about whether a government has to resign and call an election after losing a vote in the Commons. I don't really understand exactly what they are but to defeat the government needs a vote of consequence. At present this seems fairly unlikely. But the situation at present is very ...

French TGV trains are much lighter than Acelas - and much faster. American rules, which produce very heavy trains, make them unsaleable almost everywhere.

Pretty good ridership. Around 2000 per day , if there is 40 trains a week that is 333 per train . Unless there is something wrong with my maths , which is entirely possible. The numbers of potential passengers on the route Jeddah-Makkah are very large at the times of major demand for pilgrimage. A ...

It is not surprising that the Chinese have turned out to be just as oppressive as the Europeans had been.

I feel no sympathy for those people at all. It may well be that the train was slow but it would have been all too easy for the person outside to fall off, perhaps after a jolt of the carriage. There is a reason for safety regulations, and there is a reason why people caught doing that sort of thing ...