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I recall reading an article years ago accusing either Network Rail or the DfT (I forgot which) of a false economy in not wishing to clean up the legacy signage mess. The argument was something along the lines of that all HGVs have their height stated in the cab on a plate created by the...

Fun fact, the use of feet for altitude in aviation is not a global thing. Countries that developed aviation outside of American influence use metres for altitude and flight level. Mainly Russia, China and surrounding countries and countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union or in its...

It makes sense if you think about it, really. The UK switched to metric in 1965 and by the end of the 1970's most industries had fully switched. The UK is now officially a metric country, engineering and regulation are fully metric. That's why the coronavirus distance instructions are in metres...

To be honest, in the end I don't think it matters. The Eurostar travels at a top speed of 300 KM/h, KM/h is what the signalling system tells the train and that's what the driver will see on their display. Still, Eurostar advertises the speed as 186 Mph to the British public. I suspect that will...

Yep, KM/h would be my assumption too. The track is designed in metric (hence the debate about whether the design speed should be reduced from 400 km/h to 360 km/h to save cost) and Network Rail is apparently still moving to metric (albeit at a glacial pace). I remember the uproar after the...

Sorry to be pedantic but I assume you mean KVB and not LZB, right? Though I assume it will be replaced with ETCS too when the rest of HS1 gets ETCS.

It's the fixed blocks that are removed when upgrading from ETCS Level 2 to Level 3.

Leaving the EU won't change the ability to implement ETCS. There are easily a dozen countries that would never be allowed to join the EU, from Australia to Thailand, that use ETCS. Those countries don't use ETCS because they have to, they use it because it works, they don't need to reinvent the...

I'm not that convinced that Waterloo is such a great place for it, I'd probably rather see it at Farringdon. Great interchange with Crossrail (again), Tube and Thameslink. Anyway, if you ask me the greatest blunder is putting Birmingham on a spur. It would have greatly benefited Birmingham if...

It's a shame that Willesden Junction is just a tad too far away. Now they have to build two stations, one for each Overground branch. If a better connection with W. Jct was possible you'd have easy interchange with both those Overground branches, the Watford - Euston line and the Bakerloo line.

I am not a massive fan of people movers as to me it feels like a break up of the transit, it's an extra journey in itself. If needs be I'd rather have a moving walkway Châtelet-Les Halles style. In an ideal world, where money or time scales are no object, I would go full crayonista and create...

I wish there was a half decent way to connect Old Oak Common with Willesden Junction. As that is before the Overground lines split it means you'd just have one existing Overground station instead of two new ones. It has the Bakerloo and Watford - Euston lines as an added bonus. Connecting OOC...

I suspect that Euston Underground could benefit a lot from separating the different traffic flows and functions completely. Ideally the only reason to use the access with escalators from the mainline ticket hall is for people who are already in the ticket hall. Traffic coming from HS2 would use...

I found this old article about the Euston station revamp that includes an image covering the underground station upgrade. The article is from 2015 so may not cover the most current approach but at least it shows that upgrading the underground section is very much part of the original plan. It...

I know there are plans to connect Euston Square station with Euston Tube station as part of the Euston upgrade. All to make it easier to handle all the people that 200 - 400 metre trains will unload at Euston every fifteen minutes or so. That work would provide a good opportunity to improve...

And while we're under WTO rules. If other WTO members can make a case that the UK is subsidising an industry in a breach of WTO agreements they can take punitive measures against the UK. This all means that it will never be a simple as the UK government just buying British Steel Ltd. and...

You're, of course, right about it being technically not that easy. Both Excel and Woolwich warrant their own station and are already close together. I don't think a bus service would cut it, though. That doesn't fit in with the type of service LCY wants to offer. LCY is a "premium" airport if...

Obviously, they could cut them up for melting into rail ;-) I was not actually referring to bits of the plant but bits of the operation. If the part of the operation that produces rail for Network Rail is still viable because they have a long term domestic customer then that might get sold on...

If they collapse the administrators will probably try and sell of the bits that are still profitable and not impacted much by Brexit. That could include rail for NR. The problem may be that it might be hard to run a profitable business when exporting becomes harder post-Brexit. Is a dedicated...

I have to say, I always found it mad that Crossrail passes near City Airport but not close enough for a station. I had always assumed that it was a deliberate up yours from Crossrail to LCY, as if one was a Conservative held DfT and the other a London held mayoral role.