@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

schotanus

@schotanus@mastodon.nl

Future of mobility. Public Transport. Railways. Urban planning. Utrecht. Liberalism.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

jon, (edited ) to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

How do you even say “Takt" for a timetable in English?

With contributions from @amyisard @tristramg @PGLux @EnriqueAndres @partim @serac here on Mastodon yesterday

Maybe, I conclude, we should try to bring the concept of Takt into English, and promote a Europatakt?

https://jonworth.eu/how-do-you-even-say-takt-for-a-timetable-in-english/

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon I think it’s just entirely stupid to use a timetable concept as the basis for European railway policy. The question you should answer, from a European perspective: how can we get skilled transport planners to do their work and make great timetables…

…at the appropriate level.

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon

The kind of situations where I think a Taktfahrplan is useful:

🔹 For trips lasting 30 mins .. 2 hours (50..200, maybe 300 km)
🔹 For regions with medium density and a special distribution that fits with the intended nodes
🔹 For systems with a clear orchestrator who can take the task of coordinating and maintaining upon him
🔹 For systems where the fare system allows you to switch between trains and connections

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon

Situations where I would advice against it:

🔹 Longer trips, especially when reservations come in play
🔹 If you need a high utilization of infrastructure
🔹 If you want a high utilization of rolling stock (and you definitely want that with high speed trains because of their energy usage)
🔹 If you have a monocentric spatial distribution
🔹 If you have low density / low demand
🔹 If you do not have the organizational model with an obvious orchestrator

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@kaat0 @jon

Infrastructure utilization:

A Taktfahrplan has the typical alternation between slow and fast trains. In a typical scenario you run 4 trains per hour per direct: 2x fast, 2x slow. A more denser scenario might be 8 per hour.
For high infrastructure utilization you would want to handle 20 to 30 (same speed) trains per hour.

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@kaat0 @jon

Station utilization:

A Taktfahrplan has a node every 30 or 15 minutes. During that node all vehicles must be at the station simultaneously, you’ll need enough tracks for that. And it needs enough transfer capacity to handle all passenger movements during these bursts.
Between nodes, the station will be empty.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Maybe it’s because I come into railway politics with a background in EU and comparative politics, where every country is benchmarked against everyone else…

Or maybe it’s because my lived experience of rail transport is pretty wide, in Europe anyway…

… but then trying to find comparative numbers on anything experiential in rail, EU wide is hard.

How many passengers? Sure.
Reliability? Just about.

But how it is to USE a railway? What makes a good railway? Accessibility? V hard to get.

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon I think you really are approaching railways from an interesting perspective.

Railways have been, for the past century, very much a national business. Railways are used to being sovereign on their own territory and not being bothered by comparison.

Maybe in a way “Europaisation” might be just as bad as (or even synonymous to) “liberalization” 🤔

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon @kaat0
In the 1980s, when I started to get interested in railways, we had a Taktfahrplan in The Netherlands, which was actually quite nifty and predates the Swiss one (we were actually the odd-man in Europe and did something completely unauthorized).

As a teenager I spent hours and hours studying the timetable and traveled throughout the country to understand how it worked…

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon @kaat0
…in the late 1980s, early 90s, I’ve worked with Maurits van Witsen, the inventor of this timetable, on “Rail 21”, an ambitious plan to bring the railway system to a next level.

Your line of thinking brings up memories of this period. But unfortunately, in hindsight, I don’t really see the results we achieved in doing so really as a success.

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon @kaat0

That’s definitely an interesting question, I don’t claim to have definitive answers.

You’re not working in a vacuum, you are part of society. And you will always have to sell yourself and prove your efforts are still worthwhile for society at large.

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

The thing that nags at me with the endless “the state should run the railways!" or “we need more private firms in railways!” fight is the ideological nature of it.

Some state railways aren't very good
Some private railway firms are likewise terrible

And yes, the opposite is true as well - some state railways are excellent, and some private railways very good too

Sorry if the world doesn't fit your neat ideological frame

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@pettter @jon

“infrastructures run by corporations”

Railway infrastructure run by corporations is simply not in debate. Nowhere in Europe. Not an issue. Nothing Nada Niente…

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

As part of some research I'm doing I'm looking at rail timetable design, and stumbled across this slide pack by Swiss consultancy sma - PDF
https://platform.evenito.com/upload/ckfinder/d2422f19ea1e987b3e7b583f17807d42/files/02_190819%20Referat%20St%C3%A4hli(3).pdf

It contains this gem of a slide

With a “Taktfahrplan” (clock face timetable) for Nancy-Luxembourg you can reduce the trains units you need from 40 to 17, and go from 260km per train per day to 662km! 🤯

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon Nice find!

In my view, increased efficiency is really the core of survival for railway industry.

ErikJonker, to random Dutch
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social avatar

Blij met Bontenbal bij CDA , duurzaamheid/klimaat is daarmee wel geborgd bij het CDA hoop ik. Dat is weer goed voor eventuele samenwerking met een flink aantal partijen in een nieuw kabinet. Overigens benieuwd hoe meer rechtse partijen zich gaan opstellen mbt onderwerp klimaat/duurzaamheid, nu de urgentie voor iedereen op deze wereld wel duidelijk is geworden.
#politiek #verkiezingen2023 #bontenbal

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@ErikJonker

Zie deze post van @vosje62: “Wat doen de kiezers in Wierden?”

Het grote probleem van Nederland op dit moment is dat het de voorhoede niet meer lukt de achterhoede mee te krijgen. Vanuit de belevingswereld van Wierden is Bontenbal gewoon de zoveelste “D66’er”.

https://mastodon.nl/@vosje62/110877105409890512

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@vosje62 @ErikJonker

Het verstandigste dat Omtzigt, in mijn ogen, kan doen is zorgen dat hij om procedurele redenen (aantal kandidaten, aantal kiesdistricten) nooit meer dan tien zetels kan halen. Dat kan hem een beslissende stem geven in de vorming van een nieuw kabinet, zonder dat hij de last van het premierschap hoeft te dragen.

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@ErikJonker @vosje62 Oké, kan ik me wat bij voorstellen

ErikJonker, (edited ) to random Dutch
@ErikJonker@mastodon.social avatar

Ik gebruik Twitter/ X en Mastodon nog naast elkaar maar het valt me op dat nu het moment daadwerkelijk daar is dat mijn Mastodon tijdlijn en lijsten, interessanter en beter zijn dan X

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@ErikJonker Dat is bemoedigend 😃

Ik vind iXsen maar niX en heb met mezelf afgesproken dat het zwarte “X” icoon betekent: “klik niet op mij” 😵

jon, to random German
@jon@gruene.social avatar

This Belfort 🇫🇷 - Delémont 🇨🇭 no more direct #CrossBorderRail trains from 2025 thing gets more absurd

Now Michel Neugnot, VP of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté has spoken to France Bleu... and he says the reason for the cancellation of direct trains is the only way to make it work would be to use Swiss trains

Yeah. Because Bourgogne-Franche-Comté HAS NONE COMPATIBLE WITH SWISS 15kV ELECTRIFICATION, and SBB DOES HAVE SOME FOR 25kV IN FRANCE 🤦‍♂️

Story here https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/transports/fin-2025-il-n-y-aura-plus-de-train-direct-entre-belfort-et-delemont-en-suisse-2368901

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon Well, I can remember a time when it was virtually impossible to spot any car from a non-French car brand with French license plates. I can remember how amazing I once found it that French people could actually speak English.

France is a chauvinistic country and they’ve come from a long way. So I find it recognizable (but still pretty bad of course)

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon Macron is loosing popularity for a reason I’m afraid…

I think that France has always envisioned Europe as something that would be lead by French culture. From this point of view it might be a nasty surprise that Switzerland just simply offers better railway services.

jon, to random German
@jon@gruene.social avatar

One of my oldest friends, and someone I trust greatly, told me straight up today I ought to be back on Twitter for my effort to get selected for the EP list for the Grüne

In terms of audience reach he is right

But in terms of ethics he is not - I want nothing to do with the Musk-run place

It is our responsibility to make alternatives work, and to line up our ethics with our actions. So this campaign will not be tweeted, and I will make the very best of Mastodon (and Peertube, Bluesky) I can

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon For me it’s less a matter of principle. But I do face the same dilemma. And I think you are making absolutely the right choice. 👍

https://twitter.com/schotanus/status/1686687606828826624?s=61&t=TU9Kk1WuCMgFe_5giVFcQg

jon, to random German
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Oh FFS

#CrossBorderRail Belfort 🇫🇷 - Delémont 🇨🇭, via Belfort-Montbéliard TGV and Delle are already awful

When I was there last year it was faster by 🚲 from Belfort to the TGV station than waiting for the intermittent train

And now Bourgogne-Franche-Comté wants to make it even worse and force everyone to change at the border 😡

https://www.rtn.ch/rtn/Actualite/Region/20230802-Fin-de-parcours-pour-la-ligne-transfrontaliere-entre-Delemont-et-Belfort.html

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon FFS is the Italian name for SBB, the French name is CFF 🤓

(But agreed, this is pretty bad)

jon, to random German
@jon@gruene.social avatar

Der Verkehr ist der einzige Sektor der europäischen Wirtschaft, in dem die CO2-Emissionen weiter steigen. Wir müssen die Menschen aus Flugzeugen und Autos in Züge bringen. Und dafür braucht es mehr politische Maßnahmen der EU.

Deshalb kandidiere ich auf der BDK im November für ein Platz auf die Europaliste der Grünen.

In diesem Video erkläre ich, warum ich kandidiere 👇
https://urbanists.video/w/bYWFGn6oUd3nWM8XErJMXT

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon Good step, wishing you good luck! 🤞

MattBinder, to random
@MattBinder@mastodon.social avatar

this Elon Musk post now shows up as the official tagline for the platform on the latest X / Twitter iOS update

“blaze your glory!”

not even sure what that means or if it even makes any sense

image/png

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@MattBinder I used to browse Twitter during my train ride. But with this dark “X”-logo (and other appalling stuff like the one you mention) I don’t feel like it anymore

jon, to random
@jon@gruene.social avatar

And really the sheer absurdity of European Sleeper

Here are two determined guys. They lease a freight locomotive, 2 ancient sleeping cars (at least with air con), 6 couchettes without air con (also old) and 2 seating carriages

And they manage to run a Berlin-Brussels night train, something that others - like DB, NS or SNCB - could much more easily do with their financial means BUT REFUSE TO EVEN TRY

And basic though it is it’s booked up all summer

Couchette compartment
from a couchette
Label on the locomotive. vMax 140 km/h

schotanus,
@schotanus@mastodon.nl avatar

@jon “the sheer absurdity”

The story of George Nagelmackers is not that different, is it?

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • GTA5RPClips
  • osvaldo12
  • love
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • khanakhh
  • everett
  • kavyap
  • mdbf
  • DreamBathrooms
  • ngwrru68w68
  • provamag3
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • normalnudes
  • tacticalgear
  • cubers
  • ethstaker
  • modclub
  • cisconetworking
  • Durango
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • tester
  • JUstTest
  • All magazines
    •