Hmm. 

Maybe Network Rail could use some of those engineering features in the UK, to resolve many of the level crossing and bridge bash issues we have here?  Would it also take out the 'Darwin Award candidates' from those pedestrians who squirm through / climb over closing level crossing gates? 

CfN. 

 
It's probably good to know that surveillance pricing exists. (I didn't.) Prices for items are not displayed and a system checks what it knows about someone and presents a personalised price for that person - which may take account of e.g. their pain point. It could be argued that dynamic pricing / surge pricing is on the way to this, but for the addition of the personal data aspect. It's easy to think how this could go south & become a 'mare for everyone if it crept in to transport ticketing.

Mark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_pricing

 

I'm old enough to remember when SWR, for marketing purposes, adopted a cartoon pigeon and seagull pair to represent their passengers and I immediately thought 'Ah, so that's what you think of us.'.

Mark

 

Not just one!

 
According to RTT just now.

 

The bid movement out of Newquay will be on Monday morning.  Music goes on till late tonight.

 

I would say it's pretty accurate most of the time.  If you have a sensor failure then it can lead to erroneous readings, but that's not too common.

 
Well you learn something new every day 

 
Just to bump this up. A reminder that this year's event is this coming Saturday, 15th August

 
It’s data available from IETs derived from sensors on the coaches. 

 

Basically then, it's chit or bust?

 
Have done Khabarovsk - Vladivostok on an overnight train. Interesting journey. Russian level crossing protection is brutal - a ramped sector plates that rise out of the roadway and presents its blunt edge to oncoming road traffic.

 
Staffed from 06:00 though the first train appears to be that one for Cardiff at eight.

Our hypothetical passenger for Aberdeen, if given a chit with an easement to vary their route, could travel on the next departure, the 08:45 for Waterloo and a relaxed connection into the 13:42 to Aberdeen from Kings Cross - this would get them into Aberdeen only half an hour or so after their original connecting service from Bristol.

(If their destination was Shetland, they'd have already been planning for a night and a day in Aberdeen as the ferry leaves at varying times between five and seven pm depending on the day, so, from Weymouth, that would need to be a weekday trip, via London - and with one of Graham's 'Plan 'b's in the back pocket.)

Mark

 
Answer: staffed on Sunday from 06:00 to 00:45. (Source: National Rail).

Mark

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/weymouth/

 
Have some anyway, and tbh, at 8am on a Sunday, is Weymouth staffed?

Mark

 
Is that based on seat bookings, or actual 'live' occupancy?

 
Cwertainly gone over my head.....do I need more coffee?

 

I'd read that last comment again, perhaps out loud to yourself before doing so.

(Apologies for the overhead shot!) 

 
I relied on National Rail and TfL to get me to work for the vast majority of my 50 years working on the UK National Railway system.

The challenge for train crew is I am guessing are the booking on and booking off times, I worked most of my career working normal week day shifts.

However in the days when I was "on the clock" when I started in the 1970's if my train was late I was late clocking in I docked pay, it was always in the contract of employment that it was my responsibility to get to work on time; so nothing new in what London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway are stating

 
I'd be straight on to the help point in that case....and then the phone

 

Unfortunately I have heard that an individual approached staff at Weymouth with precisely that scenario but was told that they couldn't give a chit....................

 
Last day of Boardmasters at Newquay, so naturally........................

Cancellations to services between Par and Newquay
Due to a broken down train between Par and Newquay fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled.

Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

 

 
Realtimetrains doesn't flag it as cancelled but on the other hand doesn't indicate that it ran...

The following train out of Weymouth via Westbury being the 10:38 in the direction of Swindon. The fate of the people (if any) who intended to catch the 8:01 will probably never be known... but if anyone was heading for the generous connection into the Aberdeen train at Bristol I hope that Weymouth staff gave them a chit and popped them on to something heading up to London...

Mark

 

Agreed! But best to give the whole honest flavour.  We treat timetables and reservations as estimates rather than firm quotations and typically have a "Plan B" - even if only as a vague idea.   Got caught out just once in the last 3 months and even then got something sorted on the fly.    Still prefer land / sea based to flying, and journeys that are less likely to result in being in queues like the one in the photo and overnight delays and very long distance buses!

 

And a lot of people in the night-time economy too.

 

Forgotten I'd seen it before.  Brilliant!



Edite note: Quote marks fixed. CfN.

 
The same for all heavy goods and bus drivers!

Shifts starting 04h30 and ending 01h30 (not one continuous one!).
Bus-wise, you have a bit of paperwork to do, plus paying in your cash, etc.
Then several minutes chat about your shift with the few who also finish late.

 

No, that was "Magpie" 

 

I have to say Graham, you're not selling that one very well! 

 
From my timeline


Interesting questions. New railways covering extreme places are not unheard of -

The Ghan from Adelaide all the way through to Darwin, final section opened on Febraury 1st 2004.

The high-altitude Qinghai–Tibet railway, also known as the Sky Train, runs from the city of Xining in Qinghai Province to Lhasa, Tibet, and takes around 20 hours, final section opened 1st July 2006.

Rail Baltica is an under-construction rail infrastructure project that is intended to integrate the Baltic states in the European rail network (Tallinn to Warsaw)

In 20 years, I have not ridden / been tempted to go as a tourist on the Sky Train or The Ghan (nor have I looked seriously at heading from St Petersburg to Vladivistok or Bejing, nor the Indian Pacific nor the Californian Zephr, Empire Builder or The Canadian). So unlikely to look to be an early rider on "rail acrose the roof of the world"

With a political will, and that would be a very changed world indeed from today, I would not rule it out. But it would need that political will, and depending on the strength of that will a business case as to who would be paying for / supporting its services. Technology across the Bering straight could, I'm sure, be solved though at a price and you might end up with a ferry - as per Van to Tatvan, Tallinn to Helsinki, or even Villa San Giovanni to Messina though that latter is proposed for a fixed link as has happened with the English Channel.

Personally, I suspect my lack of enthusiasm to try out these ultra-long routes is my lack of wanting to be in the same train all that time - curious because I have been quite happy up to 11 days without port calls on a cruise liner. And, yes, I know that passenger trains on The Ghan, for example, stop for tourist breaks and are rather like a land cruise.  Give me - I suppose - something that's slightly more like and less alien from my home-travel;  I probabaly would / will travel on Rail Baltica if still around, and indeed I have already travelled from Warsaw to Tallinn on the local trains through each of the countries, and been back with Lisa too.