Search results

Well, maybe a Metro Mayor should have the ability to regulate and "take over" rail services. He couldn't do a worse job than TPE and Northern.

That’s what Civil Servants are employed to do

725 Stevenage to Rickmansworth Arriva Minor changes to timetable for peak times journeys to make service more punctual. It has to be said the timetable as is, is ‘ambitious’. Much as I am in favour of longer distance routes, once of the criticisms of the 300/301 routes was that a rounder from...

Yes 1713272512 It's fascinating, and a product of their education system, which has children learning German at nursery schools, and then Luxembourgish, followed by French at age 7, and transitioning to 50:50 German and French at secondary school (German for scientific stuff, French for...

It's very, very complex, and very tiresome, but there's a certain amount of pigheadedness in Belgium about this. One of the issues is that the Flemish (ironic, given the above) tend to speak better French than the Walloons speak Dutch (ir's rare to find someone in Wallonia who speaks fluent...

The practice and politics of this can be interesting (and wearisome). If you catch a SNCB/NMBS train from, say, Liege to Brussels, you pass through Wallonia, the Flanders, then Brussels. For the areas that are contained wholly within Wallonia and Flanders, you will generally only hear...

If I had a pound for every time I heard "English is the world language", I would be a rich man by now. As I said before, if the train had been an international train, then this could possibly be a relevant supposition, but it was not. 1713039377 ...or German, or Dutch, or Spanish, depending on...

I'm not sure why French staff should be learning foreign languages for domestic routes, to be honest. How many domestic trains in the UK have announcements in languages other than English, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic? That will be zero. That said, perhaps announcements should be made in Alsatian...

"In French only" On a French train, in France - who'd've thunk it ?

Almost all other TOCs and sites don't charge a booking fee, and yet brand recognition means they hoover up a huge number of sales. I've recently been converted to using QR codes on Thameslink and they work even better than my smart card. One of the minorly irritating things about the Key...

From personal experience further down the line, the 0723 is standing room only by the time it gets to Hitchin, though I believe that (provided you get there early enough) there are seats available at CBG. The 0709 is difficult for getting a seat because it's come all the way from Kings Lynn.

It makes sense in most urban conurbations and beyond. The fact Stagecoach fought so hard against it made me doubly convinced. I suspect whether you like what Burnham has done or is proposing depends very much on your politics and personal view of the Metro Mayor

I suspect that most of the "Customer Service" has been outsourced - their social media presence certainly has. I see no compelling reason Arriva have to change - they have little or no competition or service level agreements to meet and can run as few or as many buses as they have drivers or...

I avoid this supermarket for precisely that reason. Even the ones that theoretically do accept them sometimes don't. And some shops don't even accept cash, just Maestro cards, and good luck in getting one of these in the UK. Some vendors are being dragged kicking and screaming towards acceptance...

I always advise carrying some cash wherever you go. A comrade recently went abroad for a few days (accommodation and transport already paid for) and exchanged the equivalent of around €500 (!) at a shonky exchange booth offering about 5 cents less per pound than the market rate (which adds up...

For some bizarre reason, the Daily Mail become extremely agitated about this at one point (along with "overtravellers" claiming asylum after buying a Brussels - Lille ticket) wanting people to be "counted out" of the UK - I've never really understood why they wanted this.

Bring back the birch/cane/hangingzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Most people who aren't sent to prison aren't sent because i) they are already full ii) they are universities of crime - go in as a minor offender, come out as a grade A1 crim

This is what is theoretically available (sleeper) https://www.nightjet.com/dam/jcr:57df4df9-c7b6-45f6-8adc-7d850bf914b4/speisekarte-schlafwagen.pdf

I've only ever participated in one sit-in was at Kennington when I was attending a concert at Clapham Common, and because so many people were travelling there, there were significant delays - this meant every single Northern Line train was being curtailed there, and also meant that the train...

Deleted - repost