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I understand (or have read on blogs and such) that there are activists leveraging this argument still today. It would seem to me that it's a bit of a catch 22 really, because if you have a choice of building through a costly neighborhood vs a cheaper one, all other things being equal, and you...

True, what is remarkable here is that most of the examples shown are not big cities or even second tier cities, but essentially mid-sized towns in which buses do not typically have any natural advantage. Places such as Brighton and Bournemouth are typically associated with more affluent...

I love Geoff Marshall's videos. can absolutely recommend.

The concept of bi-level train cars has been around since almost the very beginning of passenger trains: Here is one from France (seen in in the Mulhouse railroad museum). Note the outside stairs. and I guess this one needs no explanation. I'm not quite sure how people would have gotten upstairs.

Before we talk about catenary within CUS, we would have to talk about which lines or corridors are the most obvious candidates for electrification. So far nobody has even been able to make a case for electrifying the bits of Metra that have not been electrified since forever already. If they...

I understand that in Ireland too, many government positions require applicants to be bilingual. Some people consider this unfair and unnecessary as it shrinks the pool of applicants without adding any value, as in most areas of the country, nobody actually uses Irish. OTOH I guess the rule...

Switzerland saw a minor spat as recently as the 1970s when the French speaking minority in the majority German speaking Canton of Berne protested and engaged in acts of civil disobedience. All very restrained and civilized and Swiss style of course. This did lead to the French speaking part...

That map is also interesting in that the names of Russia and Belarus have been painted out, and by the looks of it some places within Ukraine have been renamed or had their bilingual names removed. If the experiences of countries like Spain, Romania, Italy, Croatia, Wales, Ireland etc are...

I've seen people with canes on Amtrak trains many times. It never occurred to me that this might be a security issue.

I would disagree. I had a relative, unfortunately no longer with us. But she managed to maintain an active lifestyle right into her mid 80s, and this included doing zumba exercises and going for all day hikes in the mountains. She also looked about 20 years younger than she was, and I think...

Indeed. There was a lot of pilfering by individual soldiers. In fact one of the famous photos showing Russians soldiers celebrating in Berlin has recently been revealed to have been doctored. They painted over the wrists of one of the soldiers to hide that he was wearing a watch on both wrists...

Indeed. And also, this being war, both sides are in total propaganda mode, overplaying successes and denying or distracting from failures.

and also dovetails nicely with the Soviet philosophy of making everything to cookie-cutter designs. I have heard that during WW2 the Red Army were having to rebuild thousands of bridges that the Germans were blowing up in their wake as they retreated. The Red Army essentially had full-blown...

If you want to ride it, don't delay too long. Unconfirmed rumours have it that SBB is less than lukewarm about these cars. They are a small batch and have many non standard parts. They might need heavy rebuilds to keep them running, and SBB is unlikely to do this in view of classic loco hauled...

What happens if an incoming train is significantly delayed? I guess they have to keep at least some exits open and some active staff on site until all passengers have left the building.

I don't think it is accurate to say every country has its own networks. Countries collaborate on international night trains. It is not uncommon to see cars of three different countries in the same consist, which then get switched and shuffled along the route to reach different destinations. For...

It's a big if to assume that random terminals in a provincial station would be able to access secret movements of troops or equipment. This would mean every village station clerk would need to have military level security clearance.

One problem is that bus stations the world over seem to be magnets for panhandlers and other antisocial elements. They are often also poorly designed by mediocre architects with lots of concrete and dark corners. This weighs negatively not just on the bus station itself but on surrounding...

I guess they would have thoroughly considered CTA's capability before even bidding to host the convention? The cynic in me says journalists are trying to build a narrative where there isn't one, which is actually counter productive, as it may create doubt in CTA's ability to cope and so...

When India announces it will build something, I guess one can safely assume that it will actually get built pretty soon, and not that they have just approved the intention to grant permission to do more studies to evaluate the potential possibility that might result from further studies into...