Yes, it's quite variable, like a lot of the scottish roads - when empty on an evening it's definitely "Whee!", fast, good scenery, mind out for plod. During the day it can be rather more frustrating.
cheers, clive
In message , at
14:04:04 on Thu, 5 Jun 2008, Clive George remarked:Which is telling you the distance by road, around 840 miles - as confirmed by at least two other sources.
Actually, a surprising amount is on Motorways (Exeter to Perth, almost exactly 500 miles), plus more miles on good roads like the A30 and A9.
The Natural Philosopher wrote: I've been driven new york to loas angeles nonstop on a greyhound,but
Bugger that. I've done Vancouver B.C. to San Francisco in 27 hours inc stops and would want an iron bum to do it again, certainly not by choice the second time.
Paul
It's also the only road I know of that has numbered laybys.
No, the distance by road for 600 miles is 600 miles. Why do you keep going on about 840 and LEJOG? That's got nothing to do with what I eas saying.
clive
The lines are also on the sides of buildings too. This creates problems in itself for building maintenance and when some drop down - or teenagers pull them down.
There is a new ground pickup point for street trams. It is about 1 foot beneath the surface and is only energised when the tram is rolling over the rails. It is completely safe, so they say, so kids can't get fried, and used/being tested on the Continent.
There are also tram/trains, used in Germany (Karlsru?) and being tested in Yorkshire. These run fast on conventional rails and then onto slow streets.
Trams are light rail (slower), trains are heavy rail (faster). Underground trains are heavy rail. There are also duel fuel trains, (electric pickups overhead or 3rd rail) and diesel.
Trams are not a great thing. Manchester, Sheffield and Croydon adopted them and only Manchester is successful. They shake adjacent buildings and the overhead lines are ugly. Manchester only adopted trams because building a city centre rapid transit underground system was massively expensive. Liverpool has an underground system and countless disused underground tunnels, and stations, than can be brought back into use, creating an outer city centre circle line with a part overground using tram/trains.
In message , at
15:25:42 on Thu, 5 Jun 2008, Clive George remarked:I never mentioned LEJOG. 840 miles is the distance between Lands End and John o Groats by road. This journey has featured in the thread. The distance by road is *not* 600 miles, as earlier suggested.
That's all.
And it causes massive disruption when they're being built. Edinburgh city centre traffic is in chaos at the moment, and will remain like that for another 18 months. I'm suffering constant road works outside my office at the moment. The only consolation is the the tram company staff, on the floor above, are suffering it too.
Over here they get scrapped when something major in the chassis or drivetrain breaks beyone economical reapir. There's no annual MOT, so it's common to see vehicles on the roads that just wouldn't exist in the UK. In terms of saving the planet by not buying new vehicles as frequently it's a good thing - but on the flipside, there's a lot more metal on the roads that has very little in terms of emission control.
cheers
Jules
Has this ever happened? Teenagers pulling them down, I mean.
It is in service in Bordeaux. Previously the conduit system has been used (London, and various other places in other countries) to avoid overhead lines. The modern system is similar in principle to the stud contact system used occasionally in the early years of tram operation, though that system was not very succesful, as studs often did not de-energise after trams passed. The Bordeaux system seems to work as intended.
Karlsruhe was first, several more have started in Germany and in other places since.
The terms "light rail" and "heavy rail" as they are so often applied inconsistently. In Europe "light rail" tends to mean technologically descended from trams rather than heavy rail vehicles, but if you compare something like a 3 (articulated) car DLR train to a tube train, you won't find that much difference between them in terms of speed, passenger capacity, weight and so on.
Croydon manages 24 million passengers/year on 18.5 route miles compared with 19 million on 23 miles for Manchester. Somewhat shorter in length, Nottingham manages 9.7 million on 9 route miles. Sheffield, often regarded as the poor relation of Manchester and Croydon manages 13 million on 18 miles, which isn't too bad. Of course "successful" is an entirely subjective term.
The pertinent question is whether they shake the buildings more or less than the alternatives. One tram can replace 3 buses, or about a hundred cars.
If they are really a problem, adopt the Bordeaux solution. Personally, I don't find them too bad, especially if care is taken with the supports (the Nottingham approach rather than the Croydon one).
Robin
In message , at 16:02:07 on Thu, 5 Jun
2008, August West remarked:Add Nottingham to your list of successful trams.
Ummmm...
And that's not LEJOG in precisely which way?
And the distance by road for 600 miles is 600 miles. Why the hell do you have such difficulty accepting that? I've not deviated from my original point, which is based on a 600 mile trip.
clive
Yes. Regular in NZ.
They still shake buildings.
The Bordeaux system with rubber wheels is the way.
Trams are fine in principle in some cities an can fill in gaps where underground and overground rail does not reach. They are getting to be trendy because they are visual. Politicos can be seen to be doing something as they are highly visual. Realistically the implementation of trams is poor, for the reasons I outlined. The likes of Liverpool is looking at trams for this reason when they have an underground and disused rail tunnels and stations to connect onto the system. Madness!! Saying that, Liverpool has boulevards with wide central reservations built for trams - they abandoned trams like every other city 50 years ago. These routes can be re-used. The man who designed the boulevards was commissioned to design those in New Deli.
But the best is a rapid transit underground as the stations reach the centre of districts without any hindrance to the district. Look at London and the centres where there is a tube station - vibrant. The likes of Liverpool should focus on expanding their easily extended underground, and overground, not trams. Many cities have overground track, or disused track or track-bed, that can easily be brought back to rapid transit use. Many stations can have retail built on top like Tesco are doing at Gerrards Cross, bringing the trains right to where people want to go.
Good idea! "Hello, I've broken down" / "Where are you?" / "On the Axxx in bay 8"
Paul
Jules gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Give us a hint as to where "here" is?
In message , at
16:30:06 on Thu, 5 Jun 2008, Clive George remarked:I have no idea. I wasn't the person who introduced "LEJOG".
My recollection was that 600 miles was introduced as the mileage between Lands End and John o Groats. But this thread is now so obese it's difficult to know who said what.
You men in the same way a cars air intake is a long way from its exhuast pipe?
Sorry,but you seem top have lost your marbles here.
The lack of "Tesco in Gerrards Cross" in the list of "places people want to go" seems to have been a major problem there.
(The lack of an actual Tesco built on top is only a minor inconvenience.)
Well, it's not exactly hard to take the initials and work it out...
I know precisely who said what. It's just you struggling here. There are usenet archives to help if you can't keep up.
I was never talking about LEJOG, I was always talking about an arbitrary 600 mile journey.
clive
In message , at 18:03:05 on Thu, 5 Jun 2008, The Natural Philosopher remarked:
No, in the same way that many cars have an air intake rather low down that doesn't cope with floodwater. Except that air is for combustion purposes, and is drawn in with quite a "suck", but extended pipework for ventilation ducts for your batteries will reduce the cooling efficiency significantly.
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