Just returned from a 4 week trip to Switzerland - it was a family vacation, so I didn’t really do any real railfanning, but we traveled car-less, which is no problem at all in Switzerland and therefore I rode a lot of trains anyway. We got back last Thursday night and today, we did a quick trip on Caltrain to Menlo Park to have brunch, etc….
First impression after getting on the train here and feeling it start? Boy these things are slow … and bumpy. Note that it was an old gallery car trainset, so not the newer Bombardier bilevels. I mean, if you look at the track, it looks very straight and smooth. How can these things ride so badly? And the acceleration is terrible … I really hope that they will be able to push through the new crash standards that they’re shooting for so that when they (Caltrain) electrify the line, they will be able to buy nice modern off-the-shelf (European) EMUs … something like this one maybe:
Intended to operate at speeds of up to 320kph on the French, German, Swiss and Luxembourg networks, the trains will be fitted with signalling equipment which is compatible with all European networks.
The French national railways SNCF will order an additional 80 + 40 TGV Duplex bi-level high speed trainsets, according to recentreports.
The order will reportedly consist of three lots:
Lot #1 is for 25 so-called “DASYE” type trainsets, as a continuation of the current order for 24 of this most recent variation of the basic TGV Duplex design. The “DASYE” subtype is basically a trainset composed of TGV-POS power cars (minus the 15 kV AC equipment) with 8 Duplex trailers (”DASYE” is for Duplex Asynchrone ERMTS-2). These trainsets will be equipped with the ERMTS-2 train control system.
Lot #2 is for 30 second generation Duplex trainsets capable of running in Germany and Switzerland (i.e. essentially a second generation Duplex trailer set with POS power cars)
Lot #3 is for another 25 second generation Duplex trainsets for French domestic service (i.e. minus the Germany/Switzerland specific train control systems, but retaining the 15 kV AC capability).
The 40 options that are to be part of this contract are not specified yet - these could be of any type.
The RENFE Series 103 (Siemens Velaro E - the equivalent of the DB ICE 3) trainsets are scheduled to finally start running in commercial service starting June 22, on the Madrid-Zaragoza-Camp de Tarragona (-Barcelona) line.
On 1 April 2007, the European Railways launched the new InterRail product offer. This offer consists of the classic Global Pass, valid in all participating European countries, and the One-Country Pass, which allows you to explore one country in-depth.
I have developed this site in an attempt to show the up to date position of all Locomotives, Multiple Units and Loco Hauled Coaching Stock currently authorised by Network Rail to run on Britain’s railways (or railroads for my US friends).
Network Rail is pleased to launch the May - Dec 2007 National Rail Timetable on the web which contains rail services operated over the National Rail network together with rail and shipping connections with Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Isle of Wight.
Click on a train name link in the Timetables list to open or download a printable PDF version of that timetable. Timetables are only as current as the date of the last printing.
During the past months, I ran across two British Railway Magazines, that are published online only as a PDF. And the great thing about them - they’re completely free! Now you might expect, oh well, then this is just some bad pictures cobbled together by some amateur. Nothing could be further from the truth - they’re actually excellent reads, contain lots of good or even great photographs. One of them is actually published weekly!
So, in short, if you’re interested in British railroading at all*, you should take a look:
Do you guys know of any similar publications in other parts of the world? Please let me know …
* if you’re not familiar with the British scene (like me), I’ll admit things might look a bit boring at first sight - all those diesels and EMUs/DMUs - don’t they all kind of look the same? But if you look closer, there is actually quite a big variety there. I think it’s the same in every country - US railroads might also look very boring to foreign eyes - after all, an SD40 doesn’t really look that different from an SD70 or Dash 9, does it?
Once more, it’s budget crunch time in Sacramento and the powers that be seem to be following the Governor’s “lead” and intend to reduce funding for both High Speed Rail and Transit in general.
…the news is not good. If you don’t want to see HSR dead in a week please mobilize people to make calls now!
It is looking like some $900 million out of $1.3 B that had originally been coming due to public transit is may be diverted, leaving transit with only $400 M. HSR was hoping to get funded out of that pot. If public transit only gets $400 M then it will be difficult for HSR to get $50 M out of that.
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In any case if you want HSR, tell them now and also tell them to support higher levels of funding for public transit.
