THREAD... It's time for my now-annual Big Adventure From A Modest Station™ trip... starting with a local GWR train for an 8 minute trip from Yate to Bristol Parkway. My last diesel train for a while. #rail#railways#RailTravel
Welcome to another #RailwaysExplained thread… this is my first completely new thread on Mastodon, and boy is it going to be an epic one.
HOW IT WORKS (AND WHEN IT DOESN’T) – DISCONTINUOUS ELECTRIFICATION
Something I get asked about A LOT is discontinuous electrification. A typical comment on social media will be something like “well with battery technology so readily available we can just electrify the easy bits and run on battery in between…”
Welcome to another #RailwaysExplained thread... a while back I asked for ideas and @DiegoBeghin suggested something on AC versus DC electrification. So here goes!
As mentioned in today's historic pic, it's 40 years ago this week that the great branchline passenger #train massacre of November 1983 descended on NSW's #railways It was a sad time in which nine or ten lines lost their passenger trains on the same day. That's got to be worth remembering, so here's a thread. (1/21)
#electrification pop quiz: somewhere in South London there is a section of rigid bar overhead electrification in amongst all of the third rail. (Trams don't count)
Welcome to another #RailwaysExplained thread... a brand new one this time. A couple of weeks back @chris asked about specific challenges in electrifying railways in mountainous and forested terrain.
Lets first take a look at what characteristics mountain railways have which differentiate them from lowland ones...
European governments have “systematically” shrunk their railways and starved them of funding while pouring money into expanding their road network, a report has found.
The length of motorways in Europe grew 60% between 1995 and 2020 while railways shrank 6.5%, according to research from German thinktanks Wuppertal Institute and T3 Transportation. For every €1 governments spent building railways, they spent €1.6 building roads.
Having listened to friends' endless stories about delayed trains, truncated journeys, overcrowded carriages & a general dismal service on the West Coat Line... I now would never consider using the train for any journey (and as such have given up even thinking of going down to #London).
If I wasn't retired & having to travel for #work, then I would defiantly be favouring my car (again).
If we are ever going to achieve a #greentransition then the chaos on the #railways has to be resolved!
The #green future of #transport must include a major role for railways..... but rather the #Tories are focussing on 'financial sustainability' to force through more cuts & 'efficiency gains' on the #railways.
Rather than trying to expand passenger numbers by improving service levels & reducing ticket prices, we now see a Govt. telling the railways they must cut back because off declining revenues caused by lower passenger numbers.
NO! the point is to reverse this decline not cut back more!
Another #RailwaysExplained thread... this one is another port over from the Site We Don't Mention. More to come!
HOW IT WORKS - SPARK GAPS AND SURGE ARRESTERS
One of the things that I spent a lot of time on back in 2019 was sourcing good quality images for the #OLEbook - getting the more obscure stuff from publicly accessible places was quite hard.
That's why I had to go all the way to North East England to hunt down this Spark Gap on the Tyne & Wear Metro
trying to buy #DeutschlandTicket from abroad - until Feb I used to do it via deutschlandticket.de (Transdev) but they switched from SEPA only to credit card only and the billing address can only be D, A, CH - while my card is a UK one. DB navigator app has SEPA with scary looking identity checks that don't work with my (German) online banking. VRR app doesn't like my device. Any suggestions? @seatsixtyone#travel#germany#railways
The remains of the railway viaduct running parallel to Osborne Street in Glasgow. This once carried trains from Bellgrove in the east end to the grand Saint Enoch Station in the city centre. Run by the City of Glasgow Union Railway, it formed part of the Saltmarket Junction which operated from 1882 until 1966.
Anyone know why there don't seem to be any direct trains from Nice to Ventimiglia next week? Bahn.de is sending me via Breil sur Roya #railways#Europe@jonworth any ideas?
The BBC is now reporting that the government won't be paying for #HS2 to be connected through to central London, so the project will need to find the money from private backers if wants that section to be built.
Outstanding work from the government - they have turned an essential, vital piece of infrastructure into a regional rail line from Birmingham to the outskirts of London.
Nothing sums up the madness of current UK rolling stock policy better than a 7 year old 125mph bi-mode express EMU running on a local commuter route (Bristol to Gloucester) with no electrification and a speed profile that doesn't touch 100mph. Meanwhile my connecting express train to/from London is another 5 car like this one instead of a 10 car; and thus is rammed solid with people #railways
'The way you make [disruption] less costly in the long run is by spending more money upfront to build a more robust & resilient system in the first instance.... But the do-nothing option costs a lot more money over a longer period'!
Hmmm.... First Group (that owns/runs Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway & South Western Railway) has 'warned' that a Labour Govt (re)nationalisation of the #railways threatens the sustainability of their company... which of course, its meant to, given the range of failings of privatised rail.
However, this warning may be a not to subtle threat of legal action over the transfer of contracts back to the state at their end... there may be some fireworks to come (which Labour must expect?)
Me, thinking:
wait, why are LNER running a HST?
... With InterCity carriage livery?
... And the 91111 driving car, still with the "For the Fallen" livery. Wow!
As nice as the Azumas are, you can't beat a dolled up 225. Unit 91111 at Leeds this evening. #ukrail#railways#trainspotting
(Edit to correct a cockup: the HST was the InterCity 125 - this is a 225)
Why when the NHS is in crisis does the 'solution' seem to be increased private healthcare, but when the railways hit crisis point, it was finally the state that had to step in...
The solution to constrained funding is not to introduce more suppliers who by their very market character need to make a surplus out of any available funding....
And yes, in Wes' terms... if saying that makes me a middle-class Leftie - then so be it!
Is Avanti West Coast the next failing (under-performing) rail franchise to be taken into state hands to resolve the wide-spread problems with its service?
Certainly across the North there are wide spread calls for state action, not least as it appears Avanti lied about improving services ahead of its contract renewal.
Given rail is a key element in any green transition the continuing failure to deliver a reliable & affordable service is a major green issue!