http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/damaged-railway-to-be-fully-93714/


A few pictures and audio from southeastern and Kent route manager

In Flanders there are wind turbines painted green at the base and light blue at the top. It's still obvious they're there, but it is surprisingly effective at toning down their presence. There is a bit of a height difference between OHLE and the turbines though.

tins of paint would be much cheaper than replacing the lot, and by the time the paint starts to wear off, people will be used to them

I think the frequency can make a difference as well as the actual noise level. I live about 200m from Maidstone East Station and since the last timetable change there have been more class 375 electostars on the route instead of class 465/9 networkers. the 375s seem to be much more noticeable when they pull out of the station in the up direction, and hit a certain speed. It seems to reflect off of the buildings along the river and, when the window is open, is audible over the A229 dual carriageway. But in a station environment, I notice the 465s more.

465/0s with Hitachi traction package are less noticeable. Tunnel freight VERY noticable in the wee hours. but the railway was there first!

Also when out the back it's often possible to hear the Eurostar go through as well, even though that is 2.5 miles away, and the other side of the M20. quite a distinctive sound on that one!

not really about being late. but travelling from Waterloo to Exeter about 10+ years on a very crowded six car 159. the guard comes on the PA^▸ (Public Address) and announces how sorry she is for the crowding on the service, adding "But it is half four on a Friday, so what do you expect?". It was delivered very tongue in cheek, and she was in good cheer when she did her "tickets and excuses" check

The app offered two options, a return and two singles. It must have remembered in the settings that I had a network railcard as well as when I printed the tickets at MDW this morning the return leg was marked "NSE^▸ (Network South East)", which I hadn't appreciated at the time of booking. Luckily I still had a week left on the railcard!

I do the occasional trip to London and I get my day return from Maidstone West to St Pancras from the ticket office in the morning, this time I thought I'd get it via the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) app for the Nectar points and the app told me two singles would be cheaper by about ^3. I'd like to see that replicated at the ticket machine too.

That ^3 will almost pay for a coffee when I get to London...

I must admit hearing that there is catering for first class passengers on TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) is news to me. In the many times that I've taken TGV atlantique to Brittany, I've never had any form of catering offered apart from once when a member of staff offered to fetch something from the buffet (I had to give him the money to do this). TGVs are fitted with vending machines, so there will still be some access to food/drink.

Eurostar sets only have one door each side on each carriage. That and the lengthy door opening and closing processes would lead to increased dwell times at intermediate stations.

I understand it's power/weight ratio is lower on the "Transmanche Super Train" than other TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) variations due to their fixed formation 18 carriage length with only two power cars vice four in a double length TGV reseaux. Shortening them may improve this, but whether that would prove cost effective is one for the 'experts'.

If they were introduced on the East Coast route, Im sure the executive compartments in coaches 9 & 10 would prove popular with ministers traveling between London and Edinburgh.

Not! It appears difficult enough to get consensus in one language, let alone 25 (or however many).

Alternatively, to settle the discussion, we could introduce qualified majority voting on this forum, 10 posts qualifies 1 vote...

They used to, but the locals made such a pigs ear of it, there was a coup d'^tat. I think this happened Serco 2004

This just about sums up my experiences of la SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) !

Does it huff at you in disgust when you feign lack of French language skills and ignorance of the need to compost your ticket before boarding the train?

Route via Melksham, cut out the reversal...


Manual announcement did come, but too late. T'was just myself, one member of staff (in purple jacket) and a meandering subway beaker (the modern day tumbleweed) remaining on platform 10.

I would have thought a few more people would have known it was a bay platform. Thats more local geography than technical rail operations.

Visited Reading earlier (not been there since the rebuild completed), and I was waiting for the 19:18 service to Paddington (from Newbury) on platform 10 when there was an automated tanoy announcement to say that there was a platform alteration and that this train would depart from Platform 1!

People started to make a dash for the escalators, only to drift back a few minutes later, presumably when they realised they realised the train wouldn't be advancing any further!

Staff on the over bridge were advising people to take the stopper to Paddington, and these looked to be full to standing. But at 19:40 a service originating from Penzance rolled in and got that one to Paddington, Passing several stoppers on route.

Watching some of the video reports on French news site http://lci.tf1.fr they're also talking about realigning tracks in some locations (Lyon was mentioned) to permit two of these trains to pass on adjacent tracks.

Does anyone in the industry (or outside for that matter) know how well the half hourly Southeastern Highspeed Boxing Day service between Ashford and St Pancras went? Southeastern website has remained quiet on the subject. It was being marketed at those looking to go shopping at Ashford designer outlet, Westfield and London by using the park and ride service from Ebbsfleet quarry.