Travelling Stockholm - Hamburg - Cologne - Brussels for a two-day conference about public metal detecting. It'll take 24 hours, one third of which I'll spend asleep. It's the 2024 way to #travel.
Reservoir builders in South Wales used an astonishing array of railways, gauges and engines!
This is a book for the devotee of industrial locos and the systems which they worked
It includes huge variety of machines - in an industry beset with problems!
See our latest review online (text/audio): ‘Reservoir Builders of South Wales’ by Harold D. Bowtell & Geoffrey Hill from The Industrial Locomotive Society
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
@jon@25kV@seatsixtyone Thanks everybody, I tried HVV switch and mo.pla now, both refuse to work with my chromebook. (although the other hvv app and various other transport apps work).
A map of the Alexandra Dock (Newport) railway as it was in 1919.
The restricted nature of the 1835 Newport Town Dock led to the development of plans for an additional dock (Alexandra Dock) built on a much larger scale incorporated by an Act of 6 July 1865.
During construction of the dock itself, bulk landfill materials were stored near Ty Trist Colliery in Tredegar, in sidings just off the LNWR line.
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!
A knock on effect of the chaotic management of the railways in the last decade(s) has been its impact on the manufacture of rolling stock.
While always cyclical, in the current economic environment, firms are less willing to weather periods of low demand & as a result both major manufacturers (Alstom & Hitachi) are now about to lay off staff and are warning about a permanent loss of domestic rolling stock production capacity.
Another aspect of UK's enduring infrastructure 'problem'
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!
@ChrisMayLA6 when will politicians finally realise that a) the staff working in private providers were trained by the NHS and can only do more for private providers if they reduce their NHS work
& b) the policy of reducing beds since 1990, has steadily increased the chance of overload and hence long waits.
c) Speeding up discharge will make next to no difference as the main bottleneck is getting most patients in not getting them out.
@ChrisMayLA6
🇬🇧 private healthcare is already a racket. My elderly uncle & aunt pay £16k a year for private health because NHS is simply no longer accessible to them. The staff who treat them were trained in NHS, mostly still work for NHS & often use NHS facilities: all funded by taxpayer.
In 🇨🇭 we have a totally private health system, no subsidies, much higher salaries for staff, yet wife & I pay £13k for our insurance.
No way 🇬🇧 private health should cost more than 🇨🇭, except for profiteering.