Monday’s Friday Reads – 15 April 2019

On By In Friday Reads, New York

• The Shipping Forecast podcast (BBC)

• Noah’s climate train travels across Europe (RailwayTechnology)

• The 6 types of urban tribes (CityMetric)

• Inside 45 year old 2nd Ave Subway tunnel (NY1)

• Vancouver Greenways are improving locals’ fitness (PriceTags)

• Will co-working change how we move around? (CityLab)

• Phone distracted are more common than drunk drivers (SmartCitiesDive)

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10 comments

  1. “Noah’s Train” wil have zero effect, unless governments change the rules concerning subsidies for heavy road transport & concerning Britain, the ridiculously-low-levels of freight going through the “Chunnel” – though the dog-in-the-manger attitudes of both SNCF & the French Rail Unions really do not help. The pollution generated by road transport ( See our “ULEZ” thread? ) could be reduced enormously if governments co-ordinated theor efforts.

    The “phone addicts” piece is unsuprising, but … it’s almost impossible to stop. I have seen many car-drivers using phones, but it’s always been too late to do anything about it, in spite of the fact that it’s unbelievably dangerous.

    Lastly, the links found on the BBC SHipping/Weather-forecast were fascinating & thoroughly “Romantic”. Wonderful stuff!

  2. “About a month after leaving Katowice, [Noah’s] train reached its first stop, Vienna”

    That is a distance of 240 miles, suggesting an average speed of 8 miles a day. Sustainable transport is all very well, but even an ox-cart should manage more than that.

  3. Not sure modal percentage comparisons between countries are a fair comparison, as those countries with coal fired power stations will have massive volumes of coal being delivered by rail, but that’s hardly an environmental win!

    Indeed every time a coal power station in the UK shuts, the rail share of overall freight delivered probably goes down.

  4. Apart from being a mechanical marvel, Severn Bridge Junction signal box deserves preservation as a perfect brick structure for its purpose, like Stockport (and many another) viaduct. Not pretty but very effective.

  5. Maybe I’m losing my marbles – I ‘ve just read an article on remaining UK mechanical signal boxes which I thought was here, but now can’t find. Re. SBJ, there was a nice pic and the statement that it would remain open for the foreseeable future as there are no plans to resignal Shrewsbury/Newport.

  6. @GB In 2012, Historic England launched a review of all the signal boxes across Great Britain, including heritage and privately owned railways, to provide an extensive list of boxes that should be protected. Network Rail claimed there were only around 800 left in the UK by 2012, approximately 157 locations have closed and been migrated.

    pic of 1904 Severn Bridge Junction – the largest operational mechanical signal box in the world.
    https://rail.nridigital.com/future_rail_feb19/steam-age_signalling_paying_homage_to_rail_signal_boxes_in_the_uk

  8. @PETERW

    Thanks, those numbers are really interesting.

    The graph on page 5 sums it nicely. A minuscule increase in non coal movements since 2004 – indeed the line is virtually flat – completely overshadowed by the drop in coal from 10m tonnes to 3.1m.

  9. Re mobile phone distraction, I wish this would be given greater emphasis in the railway environment. As an East London Line driver I’m alert to the drunken Friday and Saturday night revellers as their body language and movements draw my attention to the possibilities that they might stumble or fall. Peak time commuters on the other hand stood right at the platform edge totally engrossed in their phones are absolutely oblivious to anything around them (including 200 tons of approaching yellow fronted train). Mobile phone users rank very highly in my table of near misses. The last one on board is normally someone with their head down texting what time they’ll be home. Well it would be a few minutes earlier if there wasn’t one of you at each station…

  10. Greg Tingey,

    Even traffic through the Channel Tunnel is not necessarily green. Regular traffic includes two metal flows that must account for a significant proportion of the Channel Tunnel freight tonnage.

    Novelis recycles used aluminium drink cans into new ones. The cans are collected and melted down to create aluminium ingots at Latchford, near Warrington. The ingots are then taken by train to Neuss in Germany, where they are rolled into aluminium sheet. The sheets go back to Latchford, by train, to be made into new cans.

    Similarly, steel slab from Scunthorpe goes to Hayange, France to be rolled into rails, many of which are used in the UK.

    The aluminium trains normally make six return trips each week and there is a train from Scunthorpe most week days (unless there have been recent changes).

    You can’t help thinking that it would be more efficient and save energy to do the rolling in the UK.

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