Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Trump's Card

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Bicycles are no use if you are disabled. Neither is a jammers bus. There would need to be some increase in frequency and road segregation to make buses near adequate for Dublin.

    Comment


      Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
      I’m done now. Surely Trump has done something awful by this time today.
      Nothing...just yet!

      Comment





        That's the rail and motorway networks, obviously. Which looks good until one considers a train journey of 30km can take over an hour (example the next train from Telč to Jihlava takes 1h08 for the 30.7km journey). Epicly slow would be a suitable description. Christ alone knows how much it loses per year...
        Last edited by Janik; 19-04-2018, 20:40.

        Comment


          Originally posted by Gerontophile View Post
          Oh Christ. If the GOP back that (and they will) then we are fucked barring a spectacular mid-terms. I’m sure the Dems wouldn’t fuck it up needlessly, oh no.

          Comment


            There is an argument that Beeching was in essence right, that the rail network now hoaching with passengers is a result of his surgery. Except where lines he recommended close were reprieved they’ve often massively exceeded projected demand. But without Beeching UK would fairly closely resemble the spidery branchy Czech network, and would probably be falling apart if not almost all closed by now.

            Comment


              And I explicitly didn’t compare the Sligo line with the Borders railway. I’d also think a country much richer than Scotland could afford a line twice that length. And generate demand if it goes to the right places.

              Comment


                Originally posted by Janik View Post



                That's the rail and motorway networks, obviously. Which looks good until one considers a train journey of 30km can take over an hour (example the next train from Telč to Jihlava takes 1h08 for the 30.7km journey). Epicly slow would be a suitable description. Christ alone knows how much it loses per year...
                Good god Janik. How many border crossings is that? I mean I lose count somewhere near 16. This is another good reason for why the Irish rail network looks like it does. We're a bloody Island with one border crossing, The Czech's need that network, because otherwise Europe's rail network would collapse utterly.

                Erm, Why is that train journey so slow? Trains were doing over 100 MPH 140 years ago.

                Comment


                  Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
                  There is an argument that Beeching was in essence right, that the rail network now hoaching with passengers is a result of his surgery. Except where lines he recommended close were reprieved they’ve often massively exceeded projected demand. But without Beeching UK would fairly closely resemble the spidery branchy Czech network, and would probably be falling apart if not almost all closed by now.
                  I think Beeching was basically right. I saw sometime ago how few people were going on the branch lines. It was even lower than I thought it would be. Plus British Rail had just spunked a fortune on its Modernization Plan, which barely had proper investment appraisal. He saw the potential of Inter City, to his credit, and I don't know if that could have happened while also supporting all the branch lines.

                  For what British politicians were prepared to spend on investment, it was the right sort of approach.

                  Comment


                    TAB, since you are such an accomplished defender of your native rail network, can you afford an explanation for the layout of Limerick Junction?

                    Comment


                      The major lesson of the Dart and the Luas, is that they really benefit only a relatively small number of people, Admittedly to the tune of a couple of hundred grand on their house price, But still.
                      Well, the Dart is slow as shit and half of its catchment area is the sea, where nobody lives.

                      The only good bit of the Luas is the green line, and a lot of it is close to the existing Dart. The rest of the Luas is a tram system. Trams are notoriously shit. But city councillors the world over love them because they are way cheaper than metros or rail lines and look shiny and new.

                      Now they want to build a Metro that will take the ruggers from the south side direct to the airport. Costs billions and doesn't address the connection to the airport from a nationwide point of view. Why isn't the metro extended to an interchange station on the Belfast line? And ff you are coming from Naas or Kildare and want to get to the airport then you will have to take the train to Heuston, change to the Luas red line on-street tram, change to the metro at O'Connell Street. Don't see people doing that.

                      They should have electrified the commuter lines and joined them up with a tunnel (like the Paris RER, German S-Bahns).

                      Comment


                        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                        TAB, since you are such an accomplished defender of your native rail network, can you afford an explanation for the layout of Limerick Junction?
                        Hahah! Most perplexingly shite half hour of my life spent there. Express train to Cork with piss dripping down into the carriages from the jacks. Sure it’s all deadly now.

                        Comment


                          Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                          Erm, Why is that train journey so slow? Trains were doing over 100 MPH 140 years ago.
                          Because the network is a mess in the opposite direction. There is so much of it that most parts are vastly underused and effectively being subsidised by the few lines that link reasonably sized places*. That stretches any maintenance budget, so everything goes at a crawl even on the more (potentially) popular routes. Apparently there is no track anywhere on the network with a speed limit at or above 100mph.
                          The motivation for posting was to show a situation where a place the size of Sligo having a dedicated line running to it wouldn't be in the least eye-opening. Everywhere of ~20,000 has a station, but the net result is a system that fails to cope for the opposite reasons. Despite the presence of all the lines, town to town transport is generally easier and quicker by bus than train. Losing passengers and their fares to road only further reduces the chances of getting the rail network up to scratch.

                          * - there are only 4 places with a population >120,000 in Czechia. There is a current proposal to develop a high speed network, which will presumably focus on connecting these cities and joining up with the pan-European network. And all those other lines will become even more decrepit until they shut totally.

                          Plan for the proposed new high speed routes here:-



                          Much more sensible and practical. Just need to find the €25-30 billion it will cost to build it all...
                          Last edited by Janik; 19-04-2018, 22:24.

                          Comment


                            look man, Copenhagen metropolitan area is a nice neat square 75% the area of Dublin Metropolitan area, and 30% more people live there. The population density is nearly twice that of Dublin, and of course they have an amazing underground system. They're fucking denmark. They're just better at doing things than anyone else. It's their fucking thing apparently.

                            Comment


                              Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                              TAB, since you are such an accomplished defender of your native rail network, can you afford an explanation for the layout of Limerick Junction?
                              erm. it's to the rail network what Cahir is to the road network. Its where the Dublin Cork Line meets the limerick waterford line. The Station is absolutely fucking massive because it was a major transport junction back when an awful lot of agricultural produce was being moved to Dublin, and a meaningful proportion of the British Army was based in North Munster. (The war of independence started 5 miles down the road, and much of the actual fighting took place in Dublin, Tipperary and Cork.) It is also without doubt the coldest place in ireland. It's at least 10 degrees warmer across the road. I suspect that it's something akin to wandering around rome in about 700 ad. You know that this place was a big deal once, but you can't figure out for the life of you why.

                              It's secondary claim to fame was Tony Ryan, founder of Ryan Air, and rather less successfully GPA, was born in one of the railway cottages. I'm sure that there's a plaque, but I doubt that it points out that his greatest claim to fame was to turn Ireland into the Liberia of Jet Aircraft.

                              Comment


                                Well Amsterdam has a similar size to Dublin, they have inefficiently fucked up metro expansion and the like, but they do have a metro network. And Ireland is a rich country. With the will, things could be less fucked. There is no will.

                                Comment


                                  Much more sensible and practical. Just need to find the €25-30 billion it will cost to build it all...
                                  Czech Republic debt is less than 35% of GDP, and falling fast. Shouldn't be too hard to find that.

                                  Comment


                                    I should have known that about Tony, but he was always reticent about certain elements of his personal history when speaking to lawyers.

                                    Junctions are an important element of any rail network. It is, however unusual to have mainlines crossing at a 90 degree angle.

                                    Comment


                                      Unless the Govt has an ideological thing against even capital expenditure borrowing.

                                      Comment


                                        There is that. I don't know how much the EU would put in. It ought to be very much their thing.

                                        Comment


                                          Or a series of rather unstable coalition governments that tend to collapse every couple of years. The party of the current Prime Minister was only formed in 2011...

                                          Comment


                                            That's a bit of a nuisance, but it's the sort of thing you can get cross party agreement and draw up a plan that runs past when general elections are going to happen.

                                            Actually, forget that. If any lines are going to close, it'll be impossible to get any kind of agreement. Every party will want to spare where their supporters live.

                                            Comment


                                              Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
                                              Well Amsterdam has a similar size to Dublin, they have inefficiently fucked up metro expansion and the like, but they do have a metro network. And Ireland is a rich country. With the will, things could be less fucked. There is no will.
                                              There is no will. I remember visiting Ireland during peak Celtic Tiger. My aunt and her husband are teachers. They have two daughters, who were in college at the time. Their house is on one of the main bus routes into town. And they are close enough to town that you could even walk it in 45 minutes if you wanted. There were four fucking cars in the driveway. Madness.

                                              Comment


                                                Prague has no metro or rail link to the airport, at least in 2014. Didn’t matter a fuck to me. The three metro lines trams and buses covered most of the city pretty well, including the non touristic parts. But the amount of times I’ve heard Dublin is the only European capital without some kind of airport link... that’s the least of Dublin’s problems.
                                                Last edited by Lang Spoon; 19-04-2018, 23:12.

                                                Comment


                                                  They should reclaim the coast along the Dart and build fuck off huge flats. They can start in Dalkey

                                                  Comment


                                                    Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View Post
                                                    it's the sort of thing you can get cross party agreement and draw up a plan that runs past when general elections are going to happen.
                                                    Fat bloody chance.

                                                    The last Chamber of Deputies election produced the following result:-
                                                    Macronists (hard to place probably centrists but really just a cult of personality effort before Macron even thought of it) - 78 seats on 29.6%
                                                    Establishment right-wing party - 25 / 11.3%
                                                    Pirates - 22 / 10.8%
                                                    Straight up fascists - 22 / 10.6%
                                                    Not even ex-Communists (it's still in the name!) - 15 / 7.8%
                                                    Establishment left-wing party - 15 / 7.3%, but despite this terrible result an ex-Prime Minister of theirs (Zeman) was re-elected as President this year. Not that that is any great cause for celebration (pro-Israel, pro-Russia, anti-immigration, climate change denier, etc., etc.)

                                                    FUBARed is the phrase, I think.
                                                    Last edited by Janik; 19-04-2018, 23:16.

                                                    Comment

                                                    Working...
                                                    X