Slow high-speed rail
Ted Wong
unbelieveableism:
High-speed trains in the UK from the Channel Tunnel exit to London will run
at the staggering speed of 47 MPH.
47 MPH?! That's slower than a car! No wonder the British engineering
establishment is the laughing stock of the world.
Whenever I wonder why I left the UK, I find something that makes me stop
wondering...
Ted
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Ted Wong <tm...@cornell.edu>
Cornell University
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M Holmes
: I was reading Reuters newswire when I cam across the following
: unbelieveableism:
: High-speed trains in the UK from the Channel Tunnel exit to London will run
: at the staggering speed of 47 MPH.
That's unless there are leaves on the line, the wrong sort of snow, or
trains on the track.
Peeve: British Rail. I just spent a week in the clammy paw of BR and the
London Tube. They vied constantly to outdo the other for atrocious service.
FoFP
--
So now that Hawkwind have done a reggae version of "Processed", a rave
version of "Right To Decide", and a pop version of Quark, Strangeness,
and Charm", I suppose we can expect a Christmas version of "Brainstorm" soon?
B A Page
>Peeve: British Rail. I just spent a week in the clammy paw of BR and the
>London Tube. They vied constantly to outdo the other for atrocious service.
Hur hur were you one of the 100,000 that had to claw their way along
between 200 and 3000m of unlit tunnel when the entire London underground
was forced to a halt due to some mysterious power failure? Aforesaid
power-cut occurred on the Central line, but for reasons which are not
apparent this meant that there were no trains on the Circle, Piccadilly,
District, or Northern lines either. Typical London Underground logic.
A quick burst of arithmetic comes up with the staggering sum of 5
unaffected lines. My, a lot of work got done in London last Wednesday.
!Peeve: The delightful frisson I experienced at the thought of 50,000
stiletto-heeled women scrambling along unlit, rat-infested tunnels at
some god-forsaken hour in the morning. Just the thought of the sound
effects made me chuckle in glee; imagined from the perspective of the
rat it would be something like: "SQUEEEEEK (clop clop clop CLUNK SQUEEK
KERSPURT) SCREEEEEEEEM". Serves them right for having jobs - bet they
wish they were unemployed like me[*].
Just like London Transport to come up with such a drastic plan for
reducing the rat population in their tunnels.
[*]Spot the bitter note of sarcasm.
Babs
Not Al Crawford
>
> High-speed trains in the UK from the Channel Tunnel exit to London will run
> at the staggering speed of 47 MPH.
>
> 47 MPH?! That's slower than a car! No wonder the British engineering
> establishment is the laughing stock of the world.
Nothing at all to do with engineering, everything to do with politics.
While the French government has been only too willing to funnel masses of
cash into building a new high-speed rail link to the tunnel, the UK
government has been somewhat reticent to do anything at all. This is
because...
a) Building a new link would cost money, something the government is much
keener to have other people spend than themselves.
b) The new link would involve ploughing an enormous furrow right through
what's left of the Tory heartlands, thus enraging several thousand
retired Colonels, who'd proceed to march on London and get the Tory
ministers expelled from all their favourite gentlemen's clubs.
The end result is that, for the time being at least, we'll have very swish
trains running on very rickety old rails. I suppose you *could* run them at
150mph if you really had to but you'd have to keep cranes, ambulances,
bulldozers etc handy to clear up the mess when they fell off the tracks
going round the first bend. It's all rather sad - zoom from Paris to the
tunnel at 200mph or so, chug up to London at a snail's pace then zoom up
the rest of the UK at 150mph (east coast) or (soon on the west coast)
200mph.
What I found rather more interesting (the slow trains thing is old news -
at least 6 months old, probably more) is a recent survey revealing that 3
out of 4 people questioned *wouldn't* use the channel tunnel. The reasons?
Well, the main reason (terrorism) is perhaps understandable but the other
big reason was...rabid foxes. Assuming these people aren't stupid enough to
think that if they don't use the tunnel nothing will come through, or that
perhaps the foxes will cling for dear life to the bottoms of the trains, I
can only guess that they're terrified that these rabid, slavering animals
are going to lie in wait in the tunnel, ready to leap out on the first
train that comes along and wrestle it to the ground before consuming
everyone inside.
Hmmph, and the survey didn't even list *my* favourite reason for not using
the tunnel - it leads to France.
--
Not Al Crawford - Not_Al_...@ed.ac.uk
"Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty sheepdog"
James Kew
> Hur hur were you one of the 100,000 that had to claw their way along
> between 200 and 3000m of unlit tunnel when the entire London underground
> was forced to a halt due to some mysterious power failure? Aforesaid
> power-cut occurred on the Central line, but for reasons which are not
> apparent this meant that there were no trains on the Circle, Piccadilly,
> District, or Northern lines either. Typical London Underground logic.
Babs, your numbers are a little wrong: 100,000 were trapped underground,
but only (huh, only!) 20,000 were evacuated along the tunnels.
Why? No mystery. The Underground is powered by 2 London Transport power
stations, one in Chelsea covering West London and one in Bow covering
the East. Power from Bow is fed to the rest of the system at Liverpool
Street. This feed, and its backup system, failed. Presumably they had to
shut down a lot of lines to avoid overloading the Chelsea supply.
Peeve: Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to have emergency
arrangements with the National Grid?
Peeve: The failure was eventually traced to a fault in "life-expired"
cabling. "Life-expired"? Why not just say "knackered"?
!Peeve: London Transport has neatly flipped this one around on the
Government. They responded well to a potential disaster, the evacuations
were well-handled and orderly, they issued full and frequent
explanations and updates, and then revealed that the real cause was
chronic underfunding. A very elegant example of passing the buck.
___________________________________________________________________________
James Kew "This dog and I are incompatible. For a start I think he's
IC, London the wrong star sign..." Letter, TVQuick Problems Page
B A Page
>In article <CHEvK...@festival.ed.ac.uk>
>B A Page, ege...@castle.ed.ac.uk writes:
>Babs, your numbers are a little wrong: 100,000 were trapped underground,
>but only (huh, only!) 20,000 were evacuated along the tunnels.
Humph. Accuracy is the thief of dramatic overstatement (*sigh*).
>Peeve: The failure was eventually traced to a fault in "life-expired"
>cabling. "Life-expired"? Why not just say "knackered"?
>!Peeve: London Transport has neatly flipped this one around on the
>Government. They responded well to a potential disaster, the evacuations
>were well-handled and orderly, they issued full and frequent
>explanations and updates, and then revealed that the real cause was
>chronic underfunding. A very elegant example of passing the buck.
Meanwhile, the Tories have cut the Transport dept budget. Unfortunately
they don't seem to realise how heavily our fragile economy relies on the
Tube. How much money is lost per day if 100,000 people can't get to work?
And if they're that desperate to eliminate rats from the tunnels, I suggest
renokil would be more effective (if less spectacular) than an army of
stilletto heels.
Babs
Ha Li
>High-speed trains in the UK from the Channel Tunnel exit to London will run
>at the staggering speed of 47 MPH.
That's not too different than our own Amtrak over most of the US. The
Chicago to NY runs used to average over 100 mph in the heyday of passenger
service, but today runs like LA to Portland (~1000 miles) take about 28
hours (that's a measly 35 mph average - keep in mind that the train does have
to climb and descend the southern Cascade range, no small feat). The high-
speed corridors like Wash. DC to NY are considerably faster than that, however.
These slow speeds are sometimes due to low-speed tracks (i.e. deteriorating
ties and track beds) but now nice smooth welded rail is replacing a lot of
that. Also, in the US, priority is usually given to freight service over
passenger service (which is why the passenger train sits stationary on the
siding while a team of 20-cylinder 3600 hp diesels pull 100+ boxcars along
at 80 mph).
d "dynamic braking grids make me horny" m
(O)
O O O O O OO (OOO)
O O OO O OO O O OO OOO O O OO OO OOOO OOO OOOO O (O(OOO))
O OO O Dave Munroe; Hewlett-Packard (dmu...@hpvclmun.vcd.hp.com))
O OO OO O OO OO OO O OOO OOO OOOO OOO OOOO OOO OOOO((OOOOO))
O O OO OO O O (OOO))
(OO)
_______----------. ___ _____ ___ _____ ___
--' `| .----. |---------| |---------| |----' `[3985]
|| |____| | |__
|--------- UNION PACIFIC ____ _________________ |-'
| | 3985 /----------------(____)/,---------------_||__
| |========/ / \ / _\_/_<|==(____) \ / _\_/__<|==[__]_\\_
---._---_./=|,-._,-\ o---{o}=======\>=[__]o---{o}=======\>=[__]----\=
___(O)_(O)___(O)_(O)___\__/_\__/_\__/_______\__/_\__/_\__/____(O)_(O)_\______
James Kew
writes:
> >!Peeve: London Transport has neatly flipped this one around on the
>
> Meanwhile, the Tories have cut the Transport dept budget.
Ah... funding is up, but the government contribution is down. London
Transport is supposed to raise the extra cash by selling off bus routes.
A sort of "amputate to survive" philosophy -- but what happens when you
run out of limbs?
> And if they're that desperate to eliminate rats from the tunnels, I suggest
> renokil would be more effective (if less spectacular) than an army of
> stilletto heels.
I've never actually seen rats; lots of mice though. Shared a cheese
sandwich with one at Victoria last night. You can always spot visitors
to London; they're the ones peering over the edge of the platform cooing
at the rodents.
Articulate Mandible
In article <CHFAn...@vcd.hp.com>, dmu...@vcd.hp.com (Ha Li) writes:
[railing at transit deleted]
|>d "dynamic braking grids make me horny" m
|>
|>
|> (O)
|> O O O O O OO (OOO)
|>O O OO O OO O O OO OOO O O OO OO OOOO OOO OOOO O (O(OOO))
|>O OO O Dave Munroe; Hewlett-Packard (dmu...@hpvclmun.vcd.hp.com))
|> O OO OO O OO OO OO O OOO OOO OOOO OOO OOOO OOO OOOO((OOOOO))
|> O O OO OO O O (OOO))
|> (OO)
|> _______----------. ___ _____ ___ _____ ___
|>--' `| .----. |---------| |---------| |----' `[3985]
|> || |____| | |__
|> |--------- UNION PACIFIC ____ _________________ |-'
|> | | 3985 /----------------(____)/,---------------_||__
|> | |========/ / \ / _\_/_<|==(____) \ / _\_/__<|==[__]_\\_
|>---._---_./=|,-._,-\ o---{o}=======\>=[__]o---{o}=======\>=[__]----\=
|>___(O)_(O)___(O)_(O)___\__/_\__/_\__/_______\__/_\__/_\__/____(O)_(O)_\______
That's quite a challenging .sig, Dave. 'S too big, though. 'Sides, taint got
no dynamic brakes!
--
Nolan "and SP4449's purtier, too, fer a large chunka iron" Hinshaw
Internet: no...@twg.com Dingalingnet: (415)962-7197
Ha Li
>That's quite a challenging .sig, Dave. 'S too big, though.
I take it that your tastes are more consolidated than those of the big boys?
>'Sides, taint got no dynamic brakes!
Oh, very well, here are your braking grids ___
/
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/
V
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[]--|/(o)#(o)#(o) )_______________( (o)#(o)#(o)|-|]
-Dave "count the puns" Baldwin
Articulate Mandible
In article <CHHv0...@vcd.hp.com>, dmu...@vcd.hp.com (Ha Li) writes:
|>no...@twg.com (Ephraim Shay)writes:
|>
|>>That's quite a challenging .sig, Dave. 'S too big, though.
|>
|>I take it that your tastes are more consolidated than those of the big boys?
Down with main and side rods! (see below)
|>>'Sides, taint got no dynamic brakes!
|>
|>Oh, very well, here are your braking grids ___
[gratuitous drawing of leviathanic petrochemical burner deleted]
Gimme a ten ton woodburnin' sidewinder any day, 'speshally 30 inch gauge or
skinnier.
--
Nolan "or a similar sized Forney" Hinshaw
Internet: no...@twg.com Dingalingnet: (415)962-7197