Railways

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Gfamily
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Re: Railways

Post by Gfamily » Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:26 am

Aitch wrote:
Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:52 am
A trivial question. Our new bridge (see previous posts) has four bridge plates - two oval, two rectangular. It also has a information 'plate':
Image
5g - Information Plate
by SteveH, on Flickr
When did they start putting those on bridges?

And what is the point of putting a small sign 15' up on the side of a bridge where it can't be easily read?
Presumably they identified a problem where they couldn't get the details from a previous contractor. Attaching them to the structure seems like a reasonable approach.
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El Pollo Diablo
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Re: Railways

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:35 am

I doubt it's for public use. Probably a contractual thing to give information to NR maintenance staff on when the bridge was painted.
If truth is many-sided, mendacity is many-tongued

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El Pollo Diablo
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Re: Railways

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:36 am

Whether that information exists digitally or not is quite another matter entirely.
If truth is many-sided, mendacity is many-tongued

plodder
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Re: Railways

Post by plodder » Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:36 am

bagpuss wrote:
Sat Jul 16, 2022 4:41 pm
But the fact that construction has started before HS2 even properly engaged on issues that were raised very early on - ie years ago - does suggest that something isn't working in the current process.
Evidence that they didn't properly engage please

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El Pollo Diablo
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Re: Railways

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Mon Jul 18, 2022 11:03 am

Fwiw HS2's annual report admits that they haven't always been good neighbours in places where construction has started, and there's more work to do there
If truth is many-sided, mendacity is many-tongued

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Re: Railways

Post by bagpuss » Mon Jul 18, 2022 11:25 am

plodder wrote:
Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:36 am
bagpuss wrote:
Sat Jul 16, 2022 4:41 pm
But the fact that construction has started before HS2 even properly engaged on issues that were raised very early on - ie years ago - does suggest that something isn't working in the current process.
Evidence that they didn't properly engage please
Like I said, I haven't been keeping up so don't have the evidence and I admitted up front that I might not have everything completely right. I'm not invested in this discussion enough to spend significant time in tracking evidence down but if I come across it (and I'm certain it exists), I will return and share.

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Re: Railways

Post by tom p » Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:20 pm

El Pollo Diablo wrote:
Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:35 am
I doubt it's for public use. Probably a contractual thing to give information to NR maintenance staff on when the bridge was painted.
And putting it 5 metres up will deter casual vandals from wrecking it for info purposes.

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TimW
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Re: Railways

Post by TimW » Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:09 am

Shapps was glorious on BBC breakfast this morning. Obviously he doesn't read any newspapers or anything because he had no idea that Avanti have cut their Manchester - London service to 1 direct train per hour.

How's his job security looking?

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Opti
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Re: Railways

Post by Opti » Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:13 am

Wasn't Shapps saying only the other day that government had no place in the wage/conditions negotiations?
Today, apparently, the government is going to wade in and impose its chosen solution.
Time for a big fat one.

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El Pollo Diablo
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Re: Railways

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:19 am

Yeah, Shapps has been lying about that one right from the start. NR and the TOCs have their strings pulled by the DfT in this regard. For Shapps to claim he has no power to intervene or negotiate is just an outright lie.
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Re: Railways

Post by headshot » Fri Aug 19, 2022 10:12 am

TimW wrote:
Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:09 am
Shapps was glorious on BBC breakfast this morning. Obviously he doesn't read any newspapers or anything because he had no idea that Avanti have cut their Manchester - London service to 1 direct train per hour.

How's his job security looking?
They've also closed bookings completely on their website. I can't book a train from Birmingham to anywhere using Avanti's website. Mental.

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Re: Railways

Post by bagpuss » Fri Aug 19, 2022 10:25 am

bagpuss wrote:
Mon Jul 18, 2022 11:25 am
plodder wrote:
Mon Jul 18, 2022 10:36 am
bagpuss wrote:
Sat Jul 16, 2022 4:41 pm
But the fact that construction has started before HS2 even properly engaged on issues that were raised very early on - ie years ago - does suggest that something isn't working in the current process.
Evidence that they didn't properly engage please
Like I said, I haven't been keeping up so don't have the evidence and I admitted up front that I might not have everything completely right. I'm not invested in this discussion enough to spend significant time in tracking evidence down but if I come across it (and I'm certain it exists), I will return and share.
I've had more time recently and been hunting for it but can't for the life of me find the links and info I read before. I'm starting to believe I imagined the lot, in which case, I withdraw everything I said (I don't really believe I imagined it but it's a bit odd that I can't find any of the info, so maybe I did?!).

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TimW
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Re: Railways

Post by TimW » Fri Aug 19, 2022 10:28 am

Part of this morning's Shapps interview here: https://twitter.com/BBCBreakfast/status ... 6129212416
(There's more though, will try and track it down.)

Fantastic combination of cluelessness and arrogance.

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El Pollo Diablo
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Re: Railways

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Wed Sep 07, 2022 3:26 pm

No real general sense yet of how Trevelyan will be as Transport Secretary. Clearly she's mad, but hopefully her madness points in a useful direction.

More happiness though that Simon Clarke has f.cked off out of Treasury, and Rees-Mogg out of the Cabinet Office. They've both been blockers for progress on HS2, with Clarke in particular recently demanding an 11th hour removal of £10m, a figure plucked entirely out of the air, from the contract award for Birmingham Interchange, at risk of delaying the construction of the station. This now means that the station will have no solar power.
If truth is many-sided, mendacity is many-tongued

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Re: Railways

Post by IvanV » Thu Sep 08, 2022 3:07 pm

El Pollo Diablo wrote:
Wed Sep 07, 2022 3:26 pm
More happiness though that ... Rees-Mogg out of the Cabinet Office ...
Happiness for you, perhaps. At least the scope of what he could try and "make efficient" as Minister for Imaginary Opportunities and Government Efficiency was fairly limited. Now he covers business and energy.

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Re: Railways

Post by Bird on a Fire » Tue Sep 13, 2022 9:47 am

IvanV wrote:
Thu Sep 08, 2022 3:07 pm
El Pollo Diablo wrote:
Wed Sep 07, 2022 3:26 pm
More happiness though that ... Rees-Mogg out of the Cabinet Office ...
Happiness for you, perhaps. At least the scope of what he could try and "make efficient" as Minister for Imaginary Opportunities and Government Efficiency was fairly limited. Now he covers business and energy.
Business: full privatization of all railways and associated infrastructure.

Energy: all trains to be powered by coal.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

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Bird on a Fire
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Re: Railways

Post by Bird on a Fire » Mon Oct 17, 2022 5:05 pm

This is interesting - apparently there's a new London-Edinburgh service called Lumo (I'd missed that), run completely as a private venture rather than a government franchise.

Anyway apparently it's genuinely grown the market rather than shifting customers from other rail services, according to these Seat 61 tweets. A nice demonstration of how boosting rail capacity gets people to stop flying.

https://twitter.com/seatsixtyone/status ... 0351612929
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Re: Railways

Post by veravista » Tue Oct 18, 2022 8:22 am

My daughter took the Lumo when it first opened, not to here mind because the nearest it gets to us is Stevenage. Only stops are Kings Cross, Stevenage, Newcastle, Morpeth then Edinburgh. Hmmm

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Re: Railways

Post by discovolante » Tue Oct 18, 2022 8:44 am

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Mon Oct 17, 2022 5:05 pm
This is interesting - apparently there's a new London-Edinburgh service called Lumo (I'd missed that), run completely as a private venture rather than a government franchise.

Anyway apparently it's genuinely grown the market rather than shifting customers from other rail services, according to these Seat 61 tweets. A nice demonstration of how boosting rail capacity gets people to stop flying.

https://twitter.com/seatsixtyone/status ... 0351612929
I've used Lumo a couple of times. Last time was a London-Edinburgh ticket. Got to King's Cross and the train was due to terminate at Newcastle. Nobody at the station (apart from the passengers) had a clue that it was originally due to terminate at Newcastle. The Lumo phone line redirected to Network Rail so they couldn't help either. Anyway long story short about 5 minutes before the train was due to depart they got us some taxi replacement service from Newcastle (we were due to arrive at Newcastle at like 10 or 11pm or something so there were no other trains). But no apology or acknowledgement and no consistent explanation about what happened. Bit annoying. But anyway was still cheap so would do it again. And in fairness LNER changed their timetable without notice the other day too so I had a ticket for a train that didn't exist.
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Bird on a Fire
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Re: Railways

Post by Bird on a Fire » Tue Oct 18, 2022 12:14 pm

Ah, so it's the Ryanair of trains.
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discovolante
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Re: Railways

Post by discovolante » Tue Oct 18, 2022 1:34 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote:
Tue Oct 18, 2022 12:14 pm
Ah, so it's the Ryanair of trains.
Haha - 'this lumo train from London Kings Cross will call at: Edinburgh Kings Cross'

Eta I just remembered this very important point. It was at the end of our 30 hour journey back from Cuba (tiny violin please!) and we ended up sharing a taxi with some drunk errr Arsenal?? dunno, who were mainly just interested in how many cigars we'd smuggled in to sell on (zero). Anyway then they fell asleep.
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El Pollo Diablo
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Re: Railways

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Wed Oct 19, 2022 12:55 pm

GBR delayed. Won't happen in 2024, so if it does happen it'll be under the next Government.

Seeing as that Government is highly likely to have a red colour in it, it'll be interesting to see how it progresses. The whole idea of GBR was the Tories' attempt to get in ahead of Labour and prevent them nationalising the TOCs by implementing a contracting structure instead of franchising. By shelving the idea (for now, at least), they open up that opportunity again.

Plus, the HQ argument. Give me strength.
If truth is many-sided, mendacity is many-tongued

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El Pollo Diablo
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Re: Railways

Post by El Pollo Diablo » Tue Nov 15, 2022 7:32 am

Simon Jenkins' latest sh.t on the floor really is a masterpiece. In it he claims that making thousands of HS2 construction workers redundant would be good for the construction industry, and that cancelling HS2 would only cost the money that's been spent so far. Not going to link because he's a c.nt, but still
If truth is many-sided, mendacity is many-tongued

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Re: Railways

Post by headshot » Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:47 am

I briefly heard a report on some ITV morning programme yesterday where they were talking about the benefit-cost ratio for HS2.

They said that for every £1 spent, there was a net financial benefit of £0.90.

This seems like total b.llsh.t.

Over what period? Why are the benefits being measured purely in financial terms??

Beware of this link to some naff news page: https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/9 ... n-reports/

Love some of the language in this:
Anti-HS2 figures have protested since the start that with modern technology such as laptop computers, this assumption is flawed.
Ah yes, those modern fangled laptop computers.
Having conducted extensive studies they found the large majority of business travellers did some work on train journeys and almost half of businessmen's travel time was spent working.

The report added: “"Sixty per cent reported that they would do no work in the 'saved' time."

HS2 Action Alliance said more than 40 per cent of the projected monetised benefits of HS2 come from assuming businessmen do not work on trains.
Apparently only men work in business.

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TimW
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Re: Railways

Post by TimW » Tue Nov 15, 2022 9:00 am

headshot wrote:
Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:47 am
Anti-HS2 figures have protested since the start that with modern technology such as laptop computers, this assumption is flawed.
What assumption? I had to look...
A key argument for the high speed line through the Chilterns has been that it will save crucial time for busy businessmen, assuming time spent travelling is wasted.
Another key argument is about how it affects strawy strawmen.

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