Foulounoux

Having driven back along the A30 yesterday from Launceston  10hrs might be a bit quick for a bank holiday;-)

On 18/03/2024 at 07:42, JeffP said:

Do you know why they are spending money at those locations?

I gather the reason the Limoges to Angouleme line remains closed is due to a lack of money?

Well it made a debate in the national assembly last week   I follow the AngouLim page on Facebook and lots of activity including recent protest walk along the line.

Although most of the local chabanais posts this week were around the Vienne floods   apparently the river rose 4m rather quickly 

Colin

Well at least this one can't be blamed on HS2..... or has that TBM taken an extended trip .

23 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

 

So not scanned every single time (as happens to all Eurostar passengers and their baggage)

 

So still double standards when it comes to how the rules are applied to the railway versus road based travel*....

 

 

*Though adb968008 has made some interesting observations as to why this might be the case.

Phil you may say double standards 

I say appropriate risk analysis driven approaches 

Just in same way at airports different groups of passengers arriving from certain destination  get different treatment 

Maybe in some future universe with international trains from various European cities the same approach would apply ie Amsterdam trains get treated differently (behind the scenes ) to trains originsting from say Strasbourg based on what risks  they present.  Ie more overt drug detection measures for one of them 

8 minutes ago, Foulounoux said:

Your  car at Eurotunnel may well have been x-rayed

  Those rather large boxes just before French passport controls  and the great big signs saying warning x rays don't stop in the marked area.....

Adding this for reference https://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/travelling-with-us/safety-and-security/

6 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

You miss the point.

 

If you were travelling through the port of Dover or on a Eurotunnel shuttle would you expect the contents of your car to be x-rayed and all persons get out and March through a scanner?

 

Eurostar is a train NOT a plane, stop treating it like one!

 

As such the security measures which apply to Eurostar (or any competitor) should totally match those in operation at Dover or Folkestone when they process motor vehicles because (1) the countries connected by both services are identical and (2)  and their occupants because a sane analysis of the threats to life due to terrorism (or indeed the risks of smuggling) will show there is no meaningful difference between the two (in many respects transporting motor vehicles provides even grater opportunities for smuggling).

 

Foulounoux has highlighted that checks at the likes of Dover / Folkestone are primarily intelligence led - not the lazy and systematic detailed examination of everybody and everything before boarding used by Eurostar - and that is the sort of approach which should have been adopted rather than this ‘strip everyone of everything metal and walk them through airport scanners procedures.

 

Comparisons with airports (with respect to security needs) are largely invalid - airports deal with flights from a huge number of countries whose risk levels vary widely - very different from a facility which only deals with travel to EU countries (Dover, Folkestone, St Pancras) and can, broadly speaking, assume a certain level of risk applies to all those who pass through the facility and taylor what they do to that narrow passenger base.

 

And I repeat a bomb going off on a ro-ro ferry could cause just as much loss of life as a bomb set off in the channel tunnel and a car stuffed with drugs will cause much more harm that a person carrying them in their suitcase will…..

Your  car at Eurotunnel may well have been x-rayed

  Those rather large boxes just before French passport controls  and the great big signs saying warning x rays don't stop in the marked area.....

7 hours ago, phil-b259 said:

 

IIRC nothing different from what vehicles have to do when passing through the port of Dover, which isn't much - just a quick visual scan by the passport person that the photos in the passports offed up match the identity of the occupants basically.

 

Obviously for freight they both Dover and Eurotunnels have x-ray scanners but these are more geared to looking for illegal migrants or, in the case of Eurotunnel other heat sources (which could lead to a repeat of the various fires that have occurred since the tunnel opened).

 

Certainly there is no requirement for people to vacate their vehicles and march through a security portal while their car gets x-rayed - which is what would happen if the measure demand 'essential' for Europstar were replicated for ALL users of the tunnel....

 

Not for the first time we see blatant double standards applied - rail passengers facing intense scrutiny despite the transit being between 4 well matched countries who routinely exchange information about illegal activities / threats and who all have good levels of policing etc, but road users face minimal checks (even though blowing up a car ferry would be just as devastating as blowing up a Eurostar)

Most security checks are intelligence led, so just because you haven't been submitted to additional checks don't assume they don't happen.  Years ago after an old boss decided we would stop at tobacco alley he was rather surprised to be pulled in for additional checks and it was clear that this wasnt random  and our shopping trip had been observed 

Frequently cars are routed after UK passport control and before French control for explosives checks 

And we have seen cars pulled in for more exhaustive checks 

There are also x-ray checks, with warning signs not to queue in the x-ray zone but frequently ignored 

Car and passenger details must be submitted in advance 

I'd also suggest that the navettes are designed to take into account any such incident   

And Eurotunnel have also made preparations for the impending new controls.

We have been users for 29 years and seen additional controls implemented over that time 

We were very fortunate 

Richard Hale School in Hertford and Halerail

A geography teacher who also happened to be a rail photographer  one AEYoung   (I note many of his photos on disused station site)

End of term days where school trips were arranged including rail excursions Blackpool York etc ,  trips to London terminii and arranged trips to Finsbury Park and Old Oak Common 

And managed to get  connections to Sir Peter Parker and Bert Gemmell (chief passenger manager ER and creator of the sidings hotel) which enabled some pupils to get tickets for the inaugural  Silver Jubilee in 1977

Plus for me dad working in London and having to go into the office on Saturdays meant trips to London in Cravens sat of course behind the driver

1 hour ago, APOLLO said:

This is interesting.

 

ANDREW NEIL: At over £50bn a year, Britain is the world's 6th biggest defence spender. So why are our forces so badly equipped and humiliatingly hollowed out? The answer is that MoD bureaucrats are guilty of incompetence, stupidity and reckless squandering

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13066863/Andrew-Neil-Britain-biggest-defence-spender-Armed-Forces-badly-equipped-incompetence.html

 

Behind a paywall but you get the gist.

 

Brit15

I spent a  few months contacting for the MOD 

3 of us contractors 2 ex forces covering 13 vacant roles  and in 6 months we had the outstanding order balance at the lowest it have ever been.   The debrief when I left for a permanent role was enlightening....for the MOD 

On 06/11/2023 at 09:09, rogerzilla said:

I bought an N gauge Dapol class 22 last week.  No photos at all, but it was like new and runs as it should.  I may have been lucky, but the three or four used items I've had from Hattons have been perfect.  I've had less luck with brand new items, not just from Hattons, many of which have been DOA!

I purchased 4 Bemo Rhb coaches all perfect and for <20 £ a coach I was expecting at least one to have a problem but all good    

As until recently the EMEA Warranty Manager and still closely related to the claims team for a manufacturing company I really empathise with Accurascales comments about contacting support 

The number of time I have had to counter a sales manager who happily says oh we have a massive problem with product x.   I pull the claim datav and respond  No wevdont we have had 5 claims in 4 years and 3 were dekivery and the other 2 claims are separate issue to what you claim.

Of course turns out noone has contacted warranty so we had no parts returned

Getting product back is vital

a)  It gets the claim recorded in the system so we get to build a picture is it a one off or something more serious ie multiple returns from different customers

b) We can analyse the product to determine root cause and take action

c) We can inform the customer if we believe the issue is application 

And we also have to deal with product that has been altered by the customer   of course we can deny straight away but given we are often dealing with large oems anc some custimers who are explicitly allowed to adjust product the this not always the right response so I had the team consider one simple question 

Did the alteration cause the failure?  if yes then we need to explain that as the alteration may still have been sometging the customer woukd reasonably expect to do without cauing a problem.  If the alteration did not cause the failure then we need to focus on finding what did 

The aim is always to learn from returns to improve products 

Of course as a B2B business it's  slightly less personal/emotional  than retailing to the public 

Great photos 

Until a few years ago Morges was a regular destination for me as our EMEA HQ until it was moved to Budapest  and always by train from Geneva airport 

Never had the opportunity to stop in Geneva so these posts are answering questions I had 

Just one observation on 4 tracking and capacity towards London 

Welwyn 

Reading the arguments about speed and see responses that 186MPH v 140mph/125mph

But surely  the issue is that the design was for 225mph 360kph and that requirement meant  gentler gradients/ larger radius curves etc.    And this had an exponential effect on costs 

Even if the trains will now run at more conventional LGV speeds 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/getlink_doublement-des-destinations-directes-via-ugcPost-7141396012505432064-S3aV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

Getlink post on linkedin

Back to the original purpose of the thread 

https://www-kentonline-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.kentonline.co.uk/folkestone/news/amp/the-67m-scheme-to-bust-kents-holiday-season-border-gridloc-298635/?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From %1%24s&aoh=17027216922764&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kentonline.co.uk%2Ffolkestone%2Fnews%2Fthe-67m-scheme-to-bust-kents-holiday-season-border-gridloc-298635%2F

Most of the article is about how eurotunnel will mitigate the impact of the new border controls by having processes in series.  But towards the end is the statement that Eurotunnel are looking to expand the range of operators using the tunnel 

37 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Yes wind turbines are getting more powerful but are we drifting off thread again. 

 

Jamie

B.....r I was just about to go full throttle on our involvement  :-)

Maybe model it as a double track line that has been singled...trackbed showing remnants of the second line 

Coming back to my OP seems to be taking a step forward 

15 minutes ago, 4630 said:

 

Indeed.  He was very critical in the run up to rail privatisation as I recall, calling it a 'poll tax on wheels'.  I'm not sure that his criticism would be tolerated in the party these days

 

I dread to think what he'd make of todays announcement.

Lets just say in those days heckling at party conference didn't lead to eviction .....well no one evicted me:-)

26 minutes ago, KDG said:

All a bit of a pickle.  Someone just lost my vote, don't trust the others either though....

 

What's a chap to do?

Just spare a thought for those of us who were conservative party  activists in the past,  and now are politically homeless 

That network north document looks like it was drafted on the proverbial fag packet, not just the contents but even the some of the sentences are incomplete.  And branding improvements in Devon and Cornwall as the north     ( need to repair the damage in the wall caused by my head)

The only railway project not on that list is four tracking Welwyn... mind you as  the MP is G Shapps ...

Oh for the MPs of old like Robert Adley who had the knowledge

Who needs cameras the telemetry capability of most modern cars means we are tracked more than we think.

There was a recent tv documentary where the criminal was convicted because his Mercedes A class  telemetry data proved his car was in the area of the shooting at the time it took place thus confirming his prescence at the scene  (with other evidence of course) 

So they know where you're driving

On 30/09/2023 at 07:38, Oldddudders said:

Uncontrollable in the slam-door era. 

And was  useful at FP if you had come up the wrong set of stairs.... wait for a semi fast through the compartment and onto the right platform:-)

4 hours ago, black and decker boy said:

In your narrow world, that might be the case but there are millions who are not WFH full time (or even part time).

 

I get the opportunity to WFH 1 or 2 days a month. I did so before covid too. Most of my life is in the road or railway, seeing people, seeing work in progress, talking, rewarding, guiding people in their day to day roles.

Agreed

In fact our company like many is now strongly suggesting that we minimise WFH and get people back in the office to the same level as pre covid.  It was pointed out that some new staff may not have even met colleagues and developing new products and technology etc needs that in person chemistry 

We have just implemented a new ERP system and training users is so much easier face to face than virtual training.

On 19/09/2023 at 16:39, adb968008 said:

Coming back to the EU, aiui its not passport stamping thats going to slow you down next year but the rollout of the new scheme.

 

new registrants need finger printing and entering onto the EU database. Given the millions of people whom will need to register, from across the globe, and upon first time entry to the EU will be huge in the first few years, the queuing will be massive.

 

After year 2/3 or so I’d image the wave will begin to subside as repeat arrivals overtake first timers.

 

Looking back at the US when ESTA was rolled out I remember all to well queues of 3-4 hours at JFK, Newark, Washington etc etc… sleeping in airport hallways, missed flight connections etc… it was total chaos, and it persisted a couple of years.

 

The biggest lesson the EU could learn from this would be “express lanes” for those whom have already completed fingerprinting.

 

Quite how this will work at Dover, Eurostar etc is going to be fascinating, and is maybe a factor in Eurostars decision to cut everything except core routes.

 

Well it now looks like the introduction will be delayed again according to an article on schengen visa site may 2025 now the earliest likely date