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I spent a very enjoyable 2 weeks in Taiwan a couple of years ago. English is widely spoken and understood although sometimes with difficulty. Public signage is mostly in both chinese and english, including bus destination signs. I am unsure about train fares, but for memory they are fixed and...

I recently traveled in the opposite direction from Munich to Berlin. The train continued to Warnemunde. The route was via Jena. Yes, it is slow through the mountains. I would estimate about 3 hours with speeds never rising above 100kph. Still the scenery was excellent. I purchased a baguette...

As a Sydney resident with an Opal card I can say that I have found most of the issues with the card. Rule 1 ALWAYS touch in and touch out, on trains, buses, trams. The only exception is the Many ferry and there are large signs to this effect. The daily cap for an ordinary card Is $15...

Arrived safely in Munich. Few ICE services were departing Frankfurt on time. ICE78 to Hamburg was over an hour late. Unlike DB usual experience the aisles and corridors were full of standing passengers; including in 1st class.

Thank you WestCoast. There have also been RedCaps assisting near the information counter at Frankfurt. Around lunch time I went to the Ticket office hoping to get better information. It proved to be a good move. The very helpful young lady found that there would be a direct train to Munich...

I arrived here in Frankfurt on Tuesday to be greeted by the strike news. I am not very happy as I have reservations to Munich on Friday. The information on the departure boards is anything but clear at Hbf. Asking information can bring on an attack of no English. From the DB website there...

Sadly I agree with DownSouth. The interest of the hedge fund would seem to be premised on the "sum of the parts" is greater then the cost of "the whole". This kind of exercise has been done before and could happen again. I would not be surprised if the present standards of the services...

Firstly, you should have no problems with "fire bans" at the time of your visit. It is possible at those times, but unlikely. For the Garret, keep looking at the 2 websites quoted in earlier posts. The loco, 6029, lives in Canberra. It spent March at the Rail Transport Museum at Thirlmere. It...

In NSW there are a couple of telephone apps available to show the location and timing of the trains nearest your location. They are free. Special programs were written for Sydney Trains to provide these apps. There is a website which will show all of the trains on the national standard gauge...

I am unsure how old that Railpage posting is. The original Paxman/Valenta engines were renewed with 2200hp engines several years ago.. The customisation for NSW included much stronger engine cooling. Ambient temperatures are often above 35C during summer and no snow and ice to contend with...

It has been amusing to read this thread. As has been pointed out we made the imperial to metric change more than 40 years ago. There were no issues of concern. We all became accustomed to the new measurements very quickly. The cows continued to give milk. The chickens continued to lay eggs, and...

Slightly different; but last year I was able to use a contactless card at a supermarket in Paris. As previous posts advise, try it at a shop first.

The Canberra - Sydney service is operated by 3car DMU's. The 1st class car is car A and contains the Buffet. There is supposed to be more passenger space in 1st but this might be debatable. The bigger benefit is that you escape the backpackers and most of the pensioners on discounted fares. The...

Roma st Station is not very impressive but is is reasonably practical. I understand that there are plans to redevelop the station and particularly the bus/taxi interchange and terminal areas. The city itself is very impressive and an enjoyable placed to be. The area around Roma St station is...

The arrangements between NSW Trainlink and Sydney Trains is unusual. The $300 ticket is only available on the long distance Trainlink services and requires seat reservations. The ticket also applies to the connecting bus services; which also require reservations. The other Trainlink services...

The Ghan is certainly the more interesting journey; in either direction. The scenery is varied to a degree unimaginable. The most common complaint about the Indian Pacific is that the long crossing of the Nullabor can become boring and uninteresting. From a railfan point of view the...

A high speed line between Perth & the east coast is not a proposition. The distances are too great and the passengers available too few. Such a line would result in destination arrivals at inconvenient hours. Much better to load the trains up, slow down the speeds, and arrive at more agreeable...

The network covering the Sydney metropolitan area is extensive and covers some considerable mileages. All of the car sets are multi-level (double deck) and over 90% are air-conditioned. You would need to be unlucky/lucky to get a non-air train on most services. Except for the Illawarra line...

I do not know about Huddersfield, but on a recent visit to Newcastle I noticed that the Costa Coffee shop was INSIDE the gates. In my opinion it was the only outlet at Newcastle Central selling anything resembling a decent coffee. It was a puzzell to me that the gates were often open an...

Yes they can be used with jointed rail as well as with welded rail. Steel sleepers have been used on "pioneer" class lines in New South Wales for at least a century. Mostly, they were used where timber sleepers were subject to attack from termites. They continue to be used more widely around...