Recent content by WAO

You can have a common specification (even for service components) for all suppliers to give seamless ticketing. You can buy nuts 'n bolts from different suppliers that fit together. WAO

Many thanks - it zooms in and stays very clear. Fascinating to see the variety of transformer ratings and the clear distinction between overlap and neutral sections. Also Kings Langley and Headstone Lane adjacent neutral section TSC's with KL n/c. Were Crewe TF's 10 and 15MVA? Let's salute the...

When moving off from a terminus, there is often restrictive point work ahead. Hence the gentle starts. Compression Ignition engines do tend to be noisy.

But modal share is high because of the limitation of road capacity with London's population size and density. Car/bus (or LRT) is more of an option in smaller settlements. I would also consider that the populous South East generally has a poorer road system than the North; hence rail's modal...

Railways need volume; Greater London with a population of c8M has that. Regional cities typically with populations of 0.5 - 1M don't. Also geography is an issue; railways have problems with topography, such as in Yorkshire. Where the regions score is in their wider populations; those of the...

Which suggests to me that railcards are volume discounts for those willing to dedicate significant amounts of their travel needs to the railway but are also price sensitive (being on the edge of the employment market). I tend to regard mine as a sort of subscription or method of support for the...

The best comment I've read for a long time! In Neon lights please! WAO

My engineering work taught me that a fair price was materials + labour + overheads + profit (c15%of previous sum). You could adjust the profit a little but essentially you charged what it cost a reasonably profitable business. The "dynamic pricing" model tries to take advantage pressing need...

Seed-corn is always better planted than eaten. WAO

Low interest rates were a banking deception after the crisis. They distorted the balance between investment and maintenance temporarily but they were fools' gold as government is now discovering. New stock will only be cheaper than repaired mid-life stock if there is significant technical and...

My take on this is that there is plenty of demand in the economy; what we are short of is the home produced supply side. This means that too much money goes abroad rather than improving employment and reducing (foreign) debt. The Treasury recently had to warn Departments that they were buying...

So paused but nearly there.

Pure conjecture but freight clearance would likely be done on a route basis, not bridge-by-bridge as one out of gauge structure would restrict the while route, making the other work pointless. It also seems that freight clearance generally (W8) is enough for OLE, particularly with present...

In other words the clearance part of MMLEP (typically 25% of cost) is still ongoing, pause notwithstanding, under the guise of freight clearance (not paused). Good on yer, Heidi! WAO

Hate to point it out but K's stay at Liverpool from 71 - 71 was seminal. He said "it made him as a player and a person" WAO