[PRCo] Re: The Rest of the World -Electric Rails - Britain

[Fred Schneider]

What a lot of us do not recognize in our isolation in the United States or in our isolation in Canada or in our isolation picketing against the tuition hikes for a university education in Britain or our demonstrations against a higher retirement age in France is that the entire developed world has suffer a global recession in a way that we never before experienced.   Yes, we had a global depression in the 1930s but each country managed to recover on its own to a very large degree.   We had exports but we didn't depend on every other nation like we do today.   

I recall Tom, a conversation with my granddaughter a couple of years ago in which I said, "I understand your bank had the greatest meltdown in British banking history.   She had no clue that Citizens Bank, which is the remnant of the old Mellon Bank and Trust Company of Pittsburgh, was a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland.   I suspect that few people know that the largest issuer of Visa cards in the USA is Barclays Bank of Delaware, a subsidiary of Barclays of England.   If I walk down a street in Budapest, I'll find an Office Depot.   My wife shops at Aldys, but I don't think many Lancastrians know it as a German supermarket chain any more than the Brits walking into Safeway recognize it as a spinoff of Safeway of San Francisco.  In 1960 every nation had their own automobiles but today I find the same cars on the streets in the USA or Canada or Germany or France or Sweden or Russia.   Who would have believed that Buick would have become a big seller in China.  Like it or not, Tom, we we're in it together.   

The Brits are in dire economic straits as you mentioned Tom ... probably worse than their lottery can support.   And so is everybody else but we still are in a dream world.  

As a former boss of mine said 30 years ago, how long can McDonalds help keep serving hamburgers to Burger King employees and vice versa?   

One consolidation, perhaps.   A lot of the urban data from the 2010 census came out today and it shows we are moving back into our cities.   That could enable us to live with less fuel.   Philadelphia, for example, actually had a population increase.   Pittsburgh, however, did just what I expected ... not as bad but it dropped.   I had a hunch it could fall to 299,000.   It came out just under 306,000


On Mar 9, 2011, at 9:47 PM, TEP wrote:

> Fred, Not quite that simple. The dual-mode streetcars that operate on DB
> tracks require a higher buffing strength than streetcars on city trackage.
> The railways themselves have lower buffing requirements than in North
> America. I'm not sure but think the French follow this. Time separation is
> still required, just that they work in multiple minutes rather than the
> night/day over here--requiring all equipment to be fitted with cab
> signallingand automatic stops--with a few exceptions worked on exclusive
> possession.
> This may change. DB has been going downhill lately with reduced equipment
> availability and reliability--just like their automobiles. The results are
> worse punctuality. The Berlin S-bahn has still not recovered from two years
> of utter fiasco with services reduced to one-third at some times--due mainly
> to deferred maintenance--all related to moving the railway into profit
> pending stock market listing--sounds slightly familiar.
> 
> As to the Brits, they are in dire economic straights and are cutting many
> grants and lottery funding. Which will be the next preserved railway to go
> bankrupt? They have far more than can be supported by the usual parsimonious
> railfans. At least tram preservation has been concentrated on Crich.
> 
> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>[1] Yes, Dwight, but not the
> buff strength issues. Isn't it amazing that in Germany, they can run freight
> trains and 180 mph passenger trains on the same tracks with urban streetcars
> because they put their emphasis on making sure things don't come together. 
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> Tom Parkinson Tom Parkinson 2 64 2007-04-17T20:06:00Z 2007-04-17T20:06:00Z 1
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