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I found figures at activity level : https://www.groupe-sncf.com/medias-publics/2025-03/rapport-financier-annuel-2024-groupe-sncf.pdf?VersionId=JTU9hiMEroCrrgimyGnThNGNHlt1oK5G page 31 TGV/Intercités operations have an EBITDA margin of 15.5%. Im not sure that it’s the same metric as the “2 to 5%...

The profitability figures for SNCF Group mentioned above are consolidated. Even though intragroup transfers (such as track access charges) are neutralized in those revenue and profitability figures, I would certainly not use them to evaluate the profit margin of commercial, open-market railway...

I’m certain about the dates. Probably he was imprecise in his recollection. Or he didn’t specify a denomination and I automatically assumed it was £1 ;) I’m not aware of any other country using that payment system for electricity, intuitively I would think it is quite labour intensive and...

My father spent a year in London in 1978-79 and he remembers having to pay for his electricity directly at the meter, by inserting one-pound coins. Is that still a thing? At current rates, one would need several coins per day! He also remembers mechanical Cadbury chocolate dispensers on the...

One side remark about this amusing screwing business that is presented to us the next Klondike for Americans in search of success and wealth - I'm not aware of much manufacturing capacity left in the US to actually make the screws in the required quantities. - My comment is not only sarcastic...

So many moments of life that whisked in and out in front of your eyes ;) I wonder if any picture left an impression in your mind?

Absolutely. Even if there were many different parameters, for negative film stock - typical Kodak tones were warm, Fuji cooler and greener, and Agfa highly saturated and contrasty. Going back further, the color rendition of Kodachrome reversal film is unmistakable - exactly as Paul Simon sang...

Lots of stuff linked to film photography. For example, photo minilabs. Especially, the once-ubiquitous red-and-yellow K (for Kodak) signs advertising “1 hour pictures” - although some of them remain, sometimes as marks of a distant past, sometimes to indicate one of the last Mohicans minilabs...

I mean, from an infrastructure point of view, the French LGV/HSL ends at Fréthun. (Amusingly, the official name of that section of line is “Ligne de Frétin à Fréthun”, two names that are pronounced the same or only slightly differently depending on where your French accent is from. But I...

And “Régulateur SSTA” (the red button on the intercom on the left) means “Régulateur Sous-Station” i.e. a signaller in charge of the substation and power supply. Note that the directions of track 45 [LGV tracks are bidirectional] are given as Paris and… London!

It could be tempting to consider that Swiss French people are French people with a tad slower accent and who show better dexterity in putting trash in the bin, but here are more details on structural differences between Switzerland and France that bear significant effects on social culture and...

(replying to Bletchleyite above) I'm afraid that you concentrate on trifling matters such about funnily fussy condominium rules but fail to tackle the historical, religious, and social causes of the major differences between Swiss-French and French culture and norms.

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/what-are-the-historical-religious-and-social-differences-between-swiss-french-and-french-culture.284445/ While there is a cultural continuity in the Jura between Switzerland and France, there absolutely are significant cultural...

Let's not dismiss too quickly the scenario whereby Trump stands for the Housing and Urban development secretary position in Vance's future administration and discreetly asked Putin to fire a TOPOL-M at Congress during the first State of the Union :D

Myanmar is not short on 14-year old children ripe for exploitation in Florida orange groves.

I would pay good money, perhaps the price of an Anytime Standard Return, just to see a train crew firmly escorting a passenger back to First class where they belong :D The situation has the potential for utmost Pythonesque comedy. With Palin as the dumbfounded passenger and Chapman as the...

Yet they are transferring fewer pounds and pence into the TOC's wallet than what the company expected at the time of purchase for a journey in Standard class, so surely the TOC must be at a loss. /s

Cheeky question: Does a person who buys a first class ticket that is cheaper than all Standard fares on offer for the same journey and sits in Standard class rather than in their assigned class of carriage commit a ticketing offence?

First of all, it's Code de Procédure Pénale, not Code Pénal, but that's a point of detail. Article 529-3 states that for certain categories of offences (ticketing, smoking, etc.), prosecution will be extinguished by the payment of an "indemnité transactionnelle", literally a "transactional fee"...

47 minutes is too short for PMP-PLY. If you are seated at the rear end of the incoming TGV, it's either a long walk to the bus plaza right outside Montparnasse (almost 10 minutes) or a hike up to the Montparnasse 2 - Pasteur loop terminus of the 91 bus, but the extra stops can add significant...