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Not just Geneva-Luzern. Apart from being used to expand the IC2000 stock at peak times, they're also appearing on some Luzern-Konstanz connections, at least one of the Luzern-Zurich peak-time extra trains, and judging by the timetable they're also on some Basel-Interlaken connections (and possibly other trains too, I haven't done an exhaustive search so I'm just going by what I've seen).

I'm not sure why people here are so focussed on lithium - 2 steps behind methinks (rather like that adage about the faster horses). Shortages breed innovation, and there's plenty of research ongoing into alternatives (and that alternative might end up not being a battery). Will they be ready tomorrow? Probably not. Ready in time for a wholesale switch? Likely yes.

With good insulation you barely need any heating. In fact I went a year with (unknowingly) broken heating in a flat in the UK simply because it was well insulated and perhaps the hot-water boiler provided enough heat to maintain the temperature (the fault lay with the pump for the heating apparently). Houses will need more heat than a flat obviously, but it's entirely possible to minimise heat requirements. You'll want the insulation regardless of which energy source you use. My current place gets its heat and hot water via a low-power ground source heat pump (i.e. electric), some neighbours even use it for cooling.

Indeed, it's something I also brought up earlier in the thread. Being in a single market simply got rid some of the usual inconveniences when trading within that market (that's the whole point of the single market after all), but those inconveniences already applied for the rest of the world. Actually - as someone who is in Europe but not the EU - Brexit has brought about one benefit: British sellers now consistently remove VAT and attach the right customs paperwork. Prior to Brexit I'd keep running into issues where sellers mistakenly charged VAT (that was rare though) or forgot to attach the paperwork (that was more common, and has resulted in many delays in the DHL warehouse). All that said, I have to say I prefer the US model where there's generally no charge at the border (unless subject to duties) and therefore no additional customs handling fees, instead you pay use-tax for out-of-state purchases yourself. The disadvantage of this approach is that of course there's plenty of fraud.

Most of my small parcels come by electric trike - does need a licence, but only the moped licence (which is easy to get) I believe: In fact they're sufficiently happy with this system that they're making it even bigger: (There's still a van for the bigger parcels, but the more parcels go by trike the fewer vans they need.) Now on to that nonsense about truly renewable electrons: even if it were possible, you wouldn't want it - there's no point in sending electrons (or rather the energy, because the electrons themselves don't move all that far) a longer distance to the precise customer that paid for it - you're simply increasing wastage (and thus energy costs) that way. As long as you've put the right amount into the network at the right time you're effectively getting renewable energy out - easy peasy.

But do we all need fast charging at home? I suspect that 99% of the population don't, and the 1% can pay for it on demand when they need it. That said, I haven't even felt the need to get a driver's licence yet, never mind a car, so I may be being naive. Most people would presumably need to charge overnight and can do so slowly - and overnight is also when demand is already lowest. I can imagine it working out all right. Mind you I live in a town where they installed new glass fibres (underground) to every household a decade ago - so I have no doubts they could upgrade our electricity supply if needed.

Does Germany's safety record have anything to do with the trains, or is it rather the signalling systems? If the latter, then that's a strawman argument. Bear in mind that UK trains go on fire all the time. Fortunately the people who are working on Hydrogen trains these days have more than just a very outdated schoolperson knowledge of Engineering, Chemistry and Physics - so I think it's fair to place a bit more trust in their claims. Yes, they are talking about trains. Yes, there are British experts who say the same thing. Yes the RSSB is actively working on the topic. Of your 3 stories, only one involves hydrogen. It's not hard to find equivalent stories with diesel: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-60720079

I believe there's portable hardware, and I'm not sure RETB even has to integrate with the other safety systems on board - my understanding is that there's TPWS at the entry to all sections anyhow. But it also seems to be a prime candidate for ETCS regardless.

Germany already has Hydrogen trains and they are no more concerned about it than diesel or other liquid-fuel trains. Bear in mind that a hydrogen train is likely much less explosive than say a tank wagon full of diesel (never mind a train of such wagons). In fact some experts seem to say hydrogen vehicles are safer than petrol/diesel... Nay, I think the safety aspect is a distraction. Hydrogen supply/production and experience with the technology seem like the real concerns.

Oh, but it's certainly much harder to argue about the legitimacy of a project when it's actually directly approved by the voters instead of through multiple layers of proxy. (In fact there's a lot more where that comes from 1 2 3 etc. - but don't worry they do the same with controversial or expensive roads too.) Now you may think I'm getting a bit off topic... but my point is: there's a lot less protest and disruption when projects have received direct blessing from the populace (in this case protestors would be looked on unkindly as they're directly subverting the will of the people). Another relevant aspect is that such projects generally won't later be cancelled by the ruling-party-du-jour - in fact they often can't be cancelled without another referendum. The other side of the coin is that certain projects won't be approved, but it's hard to come up with good examples of bad rejections. That strikes me of being rather anti-democratic - you're proposing depriving people of their rights, including general human rights. (That's not to say people shouldn't cover the damages they cause, but you can't just take away all their rights by virtue of protest - you can merely make them pay for what they cause.)

Pretty much any European manufacturer offers ETCS, in fact in some countries all new stock must either have ETCS only (foreign systems allowed for cross-border travel) or at least support it. So there's no need to limit yourself to CAF. The Stadler UK Flirts are merely ETCS ready but they will be based on the same software as the contintental units that are delivered with ETCS - and as of recently Stadler even produces their own ETCS system (previously they'd buy it in). Siemens have long been producing ETCS hardware and they are delivering plenty of trains with it. Bombardier is fortunately gone - they had a disastrous history with some trains failing to reach certification - but I'm not sure how much of an influence the Alstom takeover will have had on Aventra production in any case, so it might be worth staying away.

That truly is surprising. EU countries, or at least Germany, will simply perform the normal import process for any goods that are missing the IOSS paperwork, meaning receiver pays taxes and duties and a processing free (and there are quite a few UK sellers who continue to send to the EU without IOSS). Then again the UK solution is quite pragmatic, the taxes collected likely exceed the implementation costs for lower valued parcels. I'm somewhat confused - selling to/from Europe includes non-EU countries (Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine, etc.) too. Private sellers are apparently excluded from these new rules anyhow: https://www.ihk.de/stade/innovation-umwelt-energie/umweltschutz/verpackungsverordnung-vollstaendigkeitserklaerung/online-shops-und-ebay-haendler-3991432 I have to agree it looks like a complete nightmare for small businesses though. Fortunately there seem to be some companies offering to do the registration work for you (e.g Lizenzero), but it certainly adds to the costs.

At the risk of being OT: buildings have been moved for railway reasons in recent times, although the one I know of was moved in order to make space for additional platforms. (Obviously worth the money in that case, but not really worth the money if it's not in anyone's way.)

Can't speak to Holland, but in Poland with 3kV DC they do have special rules about using both pantographs in some situations - at least with older stock or heavier trains they'll generally put both up when stopped and moving off - precisely because of the currents.. (Newer equipment can likely limit currents via software at lower speeds so it's perhaps less common now?) The photos that I've looked at suggest that Dutch OHLE actually consists of 2 wires - could that be the difference? (I did also find one video of a Dutch loco following the Polish practice, but I figure that's not common?)

Run rounds, coupling, and top and tail are all happening regularly on the ETCS systems in Switzerland. Not sure about how possessions are handled. The convenience probably depends on both the signalling software and the interface in the cab as opposed to ETCS itself? I'm curious as to why the UK has incompatibility issues mind you, Switzerland's installations partly predate the Cambrian one, and there at trains from 3-4 countries and yet more manufacturers running on the oldest regular installation. My brief research suggests the Cambrian runs baseline 2.30d, whereas CAF is building new systems with baseline 3 (although that doesn't mean the 197s will be baseline 3) - but in theory the trains are backward compatible and should be installed with the most recent version available. In Switzerland there are plenty of trains with both baselines, the pure ETCS lines are using the older baseline but the rest of the network has also received an overlay with the newer baseline allowing for ETCS-only trains if they have baseline 3 (trains with baseline 2 need to keep their conventional safety equipment).

Yes - although I believe it's really 25 4-carriage capricorn units (comes out to the same thing).

Pierogie Ruskie Ukrainskie definitely don't have meat in them - although they can be served with bacon. But indeed I'm seeing the renaming:

Forgive my ignorance, but how do the SBB manage fine with 4 Axles on the RE 460 which offers 6.1MW (and BLS's RE 465 even manages 7MW) - the 91 is a similar weight, and doesn't even achieve 5MW. It's true that the RE 460 has a slightly lower top speed, but these locos get used on a wider variety of duties and even the passenger usage is fairly heavy (a MK IV rake is child's play compared to a 10-car IC 2000 never mind the additional EW IVs at peak times).

FWIW the answer earlier in this thread is mostly incorrect (except on the topic of UK VAT which the Danish indeed don't care about for obvious reasons). What you should really do is: 1. Check what the Danish rules are - gifts up to DKK 360 (around GBP 40) are exempt: https://skat.dk/data.aspx?oid=2244328 . (You can declare the price after subtracting British VAT of course, because that's not part of the item's value - whether or not you can reclaim the British VAT is a separate question.) If you want to avoid import taxes and duties, make sure your shipment is under this value. 2. Make sure to select the checkbox titled "Gift" on the CN22 - that's the contents box between 1 and 2 as listed on the Royal Mail instructions: https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/customs-forms/CN22-form-guide . Do not select any of the other checkboxes. (And of course declare the items and values as per usual.)

Indeed, codes are optional for private shipments - it's usually stated in the instructions (e.g. those from Royal Mail are here).

I'm a bit puzzled by all the complaints these days. Taxes have been around for decades, and duties for centuries - and they apply in virtually all countries. Any domestic purchase includes VAT (some small sellers excepted), and duties in the case of imports (those are hidden in the item's cost). Cross-border shipments simply mean that VAT and duties are charged by your country instead of by the seller - so you end up paying that money via the post or courier - but it's still money you would have owed even for a domestic purchase. Of course the EU rules made things a bit simpler in that the seller charged the tax in the country of sale and there was no assessment on crossing the border - but that only applied to inter-EU sales in the first place. And of course post offices and couriers charge some money for the work of assessing and submitting the taxes - but that's just the cost of not being in a single customs area (there's a fair amount of expertise involved in assessing in particular duties for imports). In some countries you can take care of the import process yourself to avoid the fees to the post office/courier (you still pay the taxes), e.g. I've heard of people in Germany having their packages delivered to a customs office - they then go there and file the right paperwork themselves - but that's in no way free either. Even pre-Brexit, anyone dealing with international shipments must have been aware of taxes and duties. It was perhaps a less frequent issue for anyone living in the UK or EU (since there are so many EU shops to choose from) - but it nevertheless existed even for intra-Europe commerce e.g. sales between Norway/Switzerland and EU or any 2 non-EU countries. I live in one of those non-EU countries, the fact that I have to pay taxes and duties on import is just a fact of life and I'm OK with it (I'd prefer a self-declaration system, such as applies in most US states for use taxes, to save me paying the post office processing fees - but I figure most people would cheat on it). Probably worth mentioning: for EU imports the IOSS system helps non-EU sellers simplify their EU customer's life (taxes are charged by the seller and remitted to the EU, so there's no customs processing and fees at the border). Alternatively just remind the buyer about the realities of taxes and duties for cross-border shipments (but surely they're not so stupid to not be aware of them).

Oh so one more thing: a bunch of nationalities - including Canadians - are allowed to use the UK/EEA immigration queue - and even e-passport machines (although the latter is age-restricted) - and even if you don't, no one will tell you off for using a British passport in the "everyone else" queue: https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control/at-border-control Some of that may be new (at least UK/EEA queues must be a new thing since Brexit - I think they were called EU queues before that), but I know that a bunch of non-European countries were already allowed to use the e-passport gates at least since 2019 if not earlier. Personally I'd be hesitant to use the non-UK passport at the border as it increases the risk of scrutiny and unpleasantness, but to each their own. (Some countries mandate using your local passport, I don't believe the UK is one of them - after all the UK requires you to submit your non-UK passports during UK-passport renewal so they should know you're British even if you use a different passport.) But once the UK launches the ETA scheme you might be forced to travel on the British passport regardless.

But you see: I face the opposite problem. I have no access to cheques because I don't live in the UK, but some cottage businesses in the UK take nothing but cheque. In fact I don't even understand your claims about "full banking services" because cheques are actually more restrictive than card payments - all bank accounts at least get a debit card which can typically be used online or over the phone. However to obtain a chequebook you need a fully functional current account (which involves a credit check of course). People who fail the credit check can't get such an account - and another issue is that to open a current account you also need to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. If you fail either of those requirements, your only option is a basic bank account... which doesn't offer a chequebook, but does include a debit card. (Yes, I was hit by exactly that residency issue when I temporarily moved back to the UK.) Postal orders of course are a different story, they're available to everyone in the UK -and you don't even need a bank account. But... they're still not available to those overseas (or at least I haven't found a way of ordering and paying for a postal order online).

Better late than never: this underframe etch doesn't really come with instructions. To be precise, the packaging includes the coach bogie instructions (the 4mmbogieframe linked to here) - but those don't help with much more than figuring out which way to bend the main frame and attach the springs. In other words: you'll have to figure out what all the other parts are yourself. I'm cross-referencing with the rumney models underframe instructions here instead - that kit is quite a bit more detailed so there's a lot I'll have to ignore, but it still provides some helpful hints: http://website.rumneymodels.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/B.13-B.18-16T-Mineral-Wagon-Chassis-Instructions-v3.pdf One thing I realised after folding the main frame is that there are optional holes in the axleguards, and I haven't quite figured out whether or not I should have drilled them. (The outer holes are already opened up, the inner ones are half-etched to allow drilling open from the rear.) // Edit: it looks like the 1/108 diagram has a mix of axleguards with only one or both holes, see e.g. 1-hole 2-hole - and there's even a no-hole variant where you'd presumably have to plug the hole.

Citizenship is fortunately not a factor - residency is: https://www.britrail.com/plan-your-trip/faqs/ Nevertheless, you'd probably be better off showing any non British passport if asked, since for Brits they state: "If you have not resided in Britain for the last six months you are perfectly entitled to travel on a BritRail Pass but may need to show you visa stamp as proof". You're obviously not going to have a Visa as a dual citizen, and in many cases not even any stamps in either passport - and that doesn't even begin to take into account British-only citizens resident in many countries (in particular in Europe) who may hold a residence permit but not have any stamps or Visas in their passport - I doubt that conductors will have any clue how to interpret a residence permit (the EU/Schengen residence permits are at least a consistent format, but what about things like Green cards and equivalents from further ashore?).