Stories tagged with "trains"

A side trip to Scotland

Posted by Heading Out on October 18, 2008 - 9:40am
Topic: Alternative energy
Tags: department of energy and climate change, light rail, trains, wind farms [list all tags]

The rains in the Southwest of Scotland, at the end of last week, had an unfortunate consequence relating to the use of a car, beyond Dumfries. With all respect to Alan, as one moves away from the population centers, up from London, past Newcastle and Carlisle and then up to Dumfries, one runs out of viable public transport, and thus a car becomes critical to go further, at least in this day and age. Time was when one could have relied on buses to penetrate into the Land of the Southern Upland Way but they no longer run with useful regularity. And so I shared my rented car (there not being enough to go around because of the rain) with a young lady now working just outside the village on the installation and operation of wind farms in these parts.

More under fold...

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Local Rail - An Overview

Posted by Jerome a Paris on July 6, 2007 - 9:15am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: public transportation, trains, transportation [list all tags]

This is a guest post by DoDo, a railway professional in Hungary who front pages over at the European Tribune and posts here on TOD under the same name.

BruceMcF introduced us to various local transport modes as potential 'recruiters' for high-speed rail. Pursuing most of these is worth on its own, for local traffic. This diary expands on one of these: local rail. As the Recruiters diary indicated, local rail is just one alternative, but it should be the backbone of any decent public transport system.

Public transport near Budapest's Keleti pályaudvar (East Terminal): express and local rail (black), subway (thick red), light rail (thinner red), trolley bus (dashed red), bus (blue) all linked up. Blaha L. t. to the West is again a hub.

Below, I first want to chart distinct categories of local rail: describe their specialities, their differing best uses, and some newer developments. In the real world, however, the boundaries of those categories are rather blurred, what's more, different locales use a bewildering array of rail terminology. But there are also some ingenious ideas mixing the 'basic categories', some of them will be described below, too.

This diary can also be viewed as a general guide as to what kind of projects local initiatives could aim for, and tries to give examples around the world that can be used as model for supporters and argument against opponents.

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A Traveller's Notes

Posted by Heading Out on September 4, 2006 - 10:59pm
Topic: Miscellaneous
Tags: congestion, drax, london, trains [list all tags]

Having had to take an unanticipated flight to Europe this week, I thought I would pass on a couple of comments about changes in flying conditions after the recent change in security levels, as well as other observations. There really was not a whole lot of change in flying, provided you packed away all your "bathroom cabinet" types of products in your checked luggage. I did and, apart from a question about taking laptops on the plane (I could) had no problems with the flight. The gentleman in front of me, however, had all the domestic products he used set out in front of us, and (at his choice) relegated to a waste bin. The flight from the US to London was as full as usual at this time of year, and London as hectic, it seemed, as the airport always is.
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