I live in the USA and work for NJ Transit, in New Jersey. I'm a carman/car inspector in the mechanical department on the rail side. I normally tell people that we pretend to inspect and repair the trains. I find that the workers here are some of the most backstabbing, gossipy grown toddlers I have encountered in my working life. I think it's because most my co-workers have too much free time since most of them only do like 1-3 hours in an 8 hour shift, so they have too much extra energy to spare. Does anyone else here work for a railroad and feel the same or care to share contrary experiences? Could you cite your job title and which railroad you work for if possible also.
>>2067138Just a bunch of selfish, lazy, liars, cheats, and thieves that don't want to accept responsibility. I was a yardmaster for a chunk of that time and joked that I babysat grown men that made $150k a year. I'm glad that I finished my degree and only work adjacent to railroads now instead of working for them.
>>2067139So you mostly dealt with conductors, hosteler conductors and some engineers? I don't deal with them as much because they are another department, the transportation department.
>>2067480I dealt with everyone. Transportation, mechanical, maintenance of way, signals, dispatching, CN police, etc. I was a conductor, yardmaster, and even worked in the track department for 7 months as a laborer when I was laid off.
I’ve read accounts from old timers that booze, weed and pills were once an everyday part of the job, then there was a big crackdown after a fatal commuter train crash where the engineer was stoned. Is getting loaded on the job still a thing? Do they pee test on a regular or random basis?
>>2067543>Do they pee test on a regular or random basis?Yes. Also look up the NTSB report of an IC derailment in Livingston, LA in the mid 80s. The crew was drunk, speeding, and letting a clerk run the engine. Several of these sorts of incidents led to much more strict drug and alcohol testing.
Disasters never have one root cause and neither did the destruction of cycling. But I know some important milestones in the decline and fall:1. COVID 19. Enough said.2. Full suspension mountain bikes. Enough said.3. Reddit. Enough said.4. Twitter. Enough said.5. British "people". Enough said.6. The d-tch. Enough said.7. The state of Utah. Enough said.8. Zwift, Peloton, "Spin Class", and other cancer. Enough said.What were some other key moments?
>>2040505>Cars and motorcycles can be bought for $500-$3000 used.i know people who pay 500$ per month for their car. not on maintenance or even leasing. just straight up loan repayment from financing a new-used car literally made in 2018
>>2058229ive unironically considered buying the Princess Auto Mini-Bikehttps://www.princessauto.com/en/212cc-mini-chopper-bike/product/PA0009158890only thing stopping me is it's a little TOO mini, looks like sitting on it would be a little cramped
>>1962645I just get on my bike and I ride it where I feel like going. what other people are doing doesn't bother me as long as they don't fucking crash into me. I don't care if the lycra freds pass me on their $15k cervelos. I don't care if the future doctors want to weave between cars on their electric aliexpress deathtraps. I just keep on pedaling my shitty old trek and doing my best not to get run over by a car along the way
>>2067497dangerous subversion . how're we going to get this guy to consoom?
>>1962645Biking is destroyed? Couldn't be, I bike practically everywhere!Of course, if you are an American or otherwise developmentally impaired, this might be different for you. Tough luck.
I did not see another thread on this so here we go. How does /n/ feel about downtown city airports? I know most world class cities such as London, New York, Washington DC, etc. Have proper downtown airports. It looks like Toronto is going to get one as well. Until now, the Billy Bishop island airport, so named after a Canadian WWI fighter pilot ace, could only accommodate turbo prop aircraft. The Province of Ontario is now looking to extend the runway to allow Jets. This would greatly expand the range of the airport, especially to far cities in western Canada and the southern United States. Potentially even western Europe. Is this a good move, or a short sighted volley?https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/2026/03/09/ford-doubles-down-on-toronto-billy-bishop-expansion-plans-calls-island-residents-squatters/
LCY.
>>2067443Seems like a no-brainer and recently Ontario announced they'll be taking over the airport from Toronto, which would expedite the expansion. It has the benefit of not being encroached by private property that would need to be secured. I wonder what their plan is to handle additional parking and services for jets, that area looks crowded now. Ultimately they could close the smaller runway to free up space - it's only 750m/2400ft long.>>2067449General aviation is driving runway expansions to handle jets. Airports that can't or won't upgrade to handle them will get left out. Bishop is missing so much revenue by not being able to land them, especially given its proximity to downtown. The closure of Downsview makes the need and demand all the greater.
>>2067484>General aviation is driving runway expansions to handle jets. Airports that can't or won't upgrade to handle them will get left out. Bishop is missing so much revenue by not being able to land them, especially given its proximity to downtown. The closure of Downsview makes the need and demand all the greater.I'm circling back and I will concede that the economic forecasting has changed since I last reviewed the topic. I mostly recall the debate in the 2022 municipal election, and there was a strong argument at the time to not renew the agreement expiring in 2033 (especially with the cost of the legally mandated runway extension looming). But it looks like the academic research was revised in 2024 and paints a slightly better picture.And certain commitments to invest have already been made since 2022 so if we take those as sunk costs and not items up for re-debate, then this move is much more incremental progress than I pictured on hearing the breaking news.Still, Doug Ford remains a narcissistic moron and all his ideas deserve a skeptical reaction the moment they dribble from his mouth.
Most of the airports have developed away from city centers because planes and tall structures should avoid each other, and the ones that do remain are functionally obsolete or second-string at best.The closure of Meigs Field was a gross overreach of mayoral power but it was also not very useful as a major airport, either.
>>2067533You can just say it was a crime. I don't know when americans turned into such cucks that they're afraid to call elected officials criminals when they do criminal things in broad daylight
How do these large cargo backpacks compare with a bicycle trailer? I need to haul 100kg of cargo on a bicycle
>>1957568to give you a direct answer:100kg (220lb) is a crazy amount to carry on your back, whether youre totally yolked or not. I found the doordash delivery backpack, and it's about 111L, so the only way you'll carry 100kg of cargo in it is if it's not much less dense than water. Are you transporting rocks? It would also move your center of mass above your hips, so rolling over will become an issue if you corner too fast.Just get a trailer. You'll probably need one with a break line, but I'm not sure if that even exists. If you insist on doing this with a bike, get a cargo bike.
>>2067311congratulations, surely nobody in 192 replies since>10/27/23(Fri)10:58:24has said anything like that.well done.
>>2067317thats correct nobody did, there was debate over if the responders are DYELs, and what anon may be carrying, but no one did dimensional analysis, and pointed out that the density would be greater than or equal to water
>>2067351If somebody believes they can ride a bike with 100 kg on their back, they won't be convinced by appealing to their sense of specific gravity, they're just delusional.
>>2067438My gf is 105kg and I've ridden a bicycle with her on my back, on the handlebars, etc. It can be done.
go out and do some centuries
>>2067466This too. This is just masturbation. Go ahead and call me fatty or nigger or pajeet, you know you're not contributing anything of value. I hate people like you for shitting up the internet.
>>2067461>>2067467>yapping and nagging are valuable contributions and not shitting up the internet
>>2067467Nigger. I am replying to this line >>2067461>Running a prolonged calorie deficit takes mind games because it's going to suck and things that suck will make you want to stop doing them.I am saying dont bitch out and commit to your calorie deficit. Stick it out.
>>2067470Yes and I am saying you are saying nothing of value and the only purpose of your post is to masturbate. I'm not the fat guy, my BMI is 22, but I have done bulk/cut cycles before, and from personal experience (something you lack), the psychological part is the hard part, success comes from figuring out what motivates/demotivates you, and that's different for everyone. So "don't be a bitch" is absolutely fucking useless. People know it's hard. That goes without saying. So shut the fuck up, idiot. You aren't smart.
>>2067472W/kg?
Road signs. What do you think of them? Which country does them the best? Would you change anything in the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals?
I like how the US has a variable "Stop" sign in the form of flashing red.
Unfortunately, flashing red light meaning "Stop" is incompatible with the Vienna convention>Article 23, paragraph 1(b) (i) A red flashing light, or two red lights flashing alternately, one light appearing when the other is extinguished, and mounted on the same support, at the same height, and facing the same direction shall mean that vehicles shall not pass the stop line or, if there is no stop line, shall not pass beyond the level of the signal; these lights may be used only at level-crossings, at approaches to swing bridges or ferry-boat landing stages, and to indicate that traffic may not proceed because of fire-fighting vehicles entering the road or of the approach of an aircraft which will cross the road at a lower altitude;It's treated the same as the double flashing alternating red light and in some countries it's the preferred or the only signal on railway level crossings. But maybe the conventon is right and the two signals are too similar, you wouldn't want them to be confused. How does it work in practice in the US and Canada?
>>2066513>How does it work in practice in the US and Canada?Intersections with a flashing red light to signal traffic to stop don't have crossbucks
>>2022131It's Australia. The adults are a bit slow, too.
You've all seen a green right turn arrow but have you seen a green forward arrow on a T-shaped intersection? Admittedly here it's a bit pointless because it never seems to go outhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6oGH0HfgmU
Post your favorite or most used train station or bus stop.Once a year or so I like to start this thread, it usually ends up pretty interesting.
>>2066936They actually adapted the one trolleybus line to IMC a few years ago and had already removed wires from the town center. But now the trolleybus line is kill and I'm raging with the power of a million billion suns.
>>2066952>But now the trolleybus line is kilWHAT
>>2067009Yeh, see >>2064502They've been introducing those gay shitty battery buses and were going to shut down the trolleybus in a few years, but they discontinued it ahead of time because of construction work.
>>2067021Oh I thought you meant Seattle and was ready to go break some legs at King County Metro. RIP your system though.
>>2066771To which point, dear?
What would you do in this situation?
>>2063186The weebs are probably worse than the japs in that regard, they're not throwing rocks in from a glass house.
>>2063156>a read light district is not for sightseeingwtf? literally the entire point is to go look at titties, posters with titties on them, titty-themed objects, engage with titty-laden interactive media, and then get really embarrassed with a hooker paying them money to keep lapdancing even though you're gay but don't want to offend the homies who took you out for seeming disinterested or ungrateful. how is the point of somewhere like kamurocho not for sightseeing? you literally go to look at stuff. mostly titty stuff but stuff you look at nonetheless. for that matter the reeperbahn is also for sightseeing, and i have actually been there, it's full of people just looking at stuff
>>2065008lol
ACK
>>2063156Jokes on them, I literally booked my hotel in Kabukicho
Old thread from 2023 finally hit bump limit >>1955863New thread. "Cycling infrastructure" is harm reduction. But not in the way you probably think. The anti-bike crowd considers riding a bicycle on public roads as an offense against the interests of motorists. An so, they wish to create infrastructure to reduce cycling (harm). Yes! Those who advocate for "separate but equal" are (whether they admit it or not) working against the interests of bicycle users:-The American Automobile Association strongly supports bike lanes-Countries that place responsibility on car drivers have 70-90% fewer fatalities per billion km traveled by bike. This is of course beyond the pale, drivers must always have total immunity. But hey, look, green paint! We solved safety!-The true purpose of bike lanes is to neutralize the opposition by corrupting the discourse. Don't support bike lanes? Then you must not care about safety!-Bike lanes have a curious pattern of appearing where they are superfluous, and vanishing as you approach potential traffic conflict zones. This way, when you get run over by a dump truck making a turn, it's your fault! You shoulda been in the bike lane that wasn't there!In conclusion: bike lane activists hate cyclists and want to eradicate cycling as a form of transportation.
>>2065836Ah yes, Europe. That one perfectly uniform super‑country where Portugal and Finland are basically twins and everyone agrees on everything because, obviously, 44 nations are just cosmetic.
>>2065867Yes and you are fully tarriff'd. You are property now! BTFO. Remind yourselfs whose flag is on the moon.
>>2064488Where are you?
>>2064481>threatening to kill me.Looks like he moved over for you and is now returning to the right lane.
>>2065648you're dumb but>No level of government, at any point, actually learns from experience and iterates on bike infrastructure after some initial misstepsname even one(1) time this has happenedeven the dutch utopia is an unnavigable mess of lanes that dont take you anywhere and require you go an extra five miles to turn off to get into a place legally
A few years ago people starting referring to certain China wheelsets as not just "the best Chinese wheels" or "the best budget wheels" but simply "the best wheels". This year, Winspace released the T1600, a CDM (Chinese Domestic Market) product that costs more than a Madone or a Tarmac. It's UCI approved right out of the box (though you may need to tape some lead weights to it to get it to pass the weight restrictions). Western buyers need not apply, though they no doubt will try.Western brands were folding right and left before the iron curtain 2.0 was raised, now the "tiro de gracia" has been fired and big companies like Trek are going to go bankrupt because their supply chains have been cut off by Import Substitution Industrialization, a popular third world development tactic pioneered by visionaries like Pinochet and Galtieri.Is this the end of the western bike era? Will tomorrow's dentists settle for nothing less than Chinese bikes on 100% Chinese groupsets?
>>2067402It stems from wansui/banzai culture present in Eastern culture similar to Western culture saying "Long live [the king]" but wansui/banzai horizontally translates to glory, even if the direct translation means ten thousand.
>>2067403no, you idiot, I'm talking about not writing it in Chinese. how the fuck is china being glorified if you're spelling it in English?
>>2067408Lol I didn't think of it like that but it is funny, I'm Western born and raised but come from Eastern parents so I never thought of it like that
>>2039960Isn't this a result of offshoring manufacturing knowledge to China? Sure, designing might be done in some western company, but that doesn't mean the factory owners won't reverse engineer and provide alternatives for cheaper. Seems like the bill for cheaper short term manufacturing is coming due.
>>2067402yeah idk I think China Glory conveys the point well enough, well enough that I want to cop me one of those rare ass bikes. also aren't half the team not Chinese
How is it that 50 years after the invention of the Concorde we still don't have universal ubiquitous supersonic flight everywhere? The Boom XB-1 even solved the sonic boom noise issue and yet nothing is happening with the tech. Why isn't this being fast tracked by airlines and governments everywhere? And don't give me that bullshit about fuel costs being too high. Supersonic flight uses 2x the fuel at most and fuel is like 10% of the cost of a flight, so ticket prices would barely change. Most people would probably gladly pay 50% more for a plane ticket if it meant getting there twice as fast.
>>2066110>is that true for though tiny Honda jet engines too?Engine maintenance programs on very light jets are probably $50-200/hr.
>>2064686>and yet nothing is happening with the techBoom, Hermeus, and Venus Aerospace are all currently doing engine development. The Venus engine design is completely insane, a combined cycle engine that starts as a rotating detonation ROCKET engine with Jet-A / High-Test Hydrogen Peroxide propellant for launch/landing and then cuts over a RAMJET at Mach 2.5 to cruise at Mach 4. Hermeus is a "normal" turbojet/ramjet combined cycle engine aimed at Mach 5 military applications as well as airliners, and then there's Boom, who's also doing Mach 1.7 airframe development and taking preorders from airlines.This is all happening very fast relative to what's possible - the whole civilian supersonic industry basically died on the vine with boomer retirements and so these startups have no support structure other than NASA. Boom's not the holdup yet.
look up how many gallons of gas that gas chamber burns up per second at take off.
>>2066149https://simpleflying.com/hondajet-2600-operating-costs/Maintenance for the HondaJet 2600 is estimated at $300 to $500 per flight hourAssuming Jet-A price of $6.50 / gallon, a flight covering the aircraft’s maximum range of 2,625 nautical miles would cost around $13,650 to $17,063 in fuel alone.
>>2066755>Boom>Producing anything but renders and a prototype'no'
An entry level new bike, that is agreeable to ride, not dragged down by antiquated standards like QR, that you won't regret buying, nor immediately feel the urge to swap out half the components because of cut corners, cost approximately USD $1500 at standard retail prices as of late 2024, give or take a few hundred (depending on the finer details).Now, the prices are going to go up by at least 20%, and the smaller independent brands are going to go under as only the largest players will have the spare cash to ride out the sudden loss of consumer confidence. The most interesting and original bike products will simply disappear from the market permanently until the next wave of prosperity (which may be entirely concentrated somewhere far away and foreign, so that only the wealthiest of your peers will be able to import and use such goods).How does that make /n/ feel?
>>2067373War brings production back home
>>2036143where the america bikesu promised america bikes
>>2067424After the war, we'll have great American bikes again, it'll be great, I promise greatly
>>2067425i cant believe "bigly" has fallen out of fashion among MAGA and MAGA-parodiers alike
>>2067426Bigly is too on the nose, great flies under the radar greater
"Wofür ist das?"-EditionAnything public transport in German-speaking Europe is fair game.
Remember there is a strike on Monday in many municipalities.
>6000 von 14000 Mitarbeitern werden bis 2030 entlassenDB Cargo hat wirklich konsequent alles falsch gemacht.Das lässt sich im Nachhinein immer leicht sagen, aber das haben hier eigentlich alle auch schon im Voraus gesagt.Aus meiner Sicht war in den letzten Jahren die fehlende Verzahnung mit der (ex-)DB Schenker ein schwerer Fehler.Das war eine potenzielle Goldmiene, die von unfähigem Management sowohl innerhalb des Konzerns als auch von staatlicher Seite zur in Flammen stehenden Bruchbude umfunktioniert wurde. Toll gemacht!
>Stuttgart 21 - Tiefbahnhof-Eröffnung wohl erst 2030https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/badenwuerttemberg/swr-stuttgart-21-108.htmlDer moderne Turmbau zu Babel?
>>2066632Würde mich nicht wundern wenn der Pfaffensteigtunnel noch vorher fertig wird (offiziell noch 6 Jahre, also sein wir mal nett und nehmen 2038 an) und sich dann dort wegen irgend einer Fehlplanung nicht anschließen lässt...
https://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/bus-brennt-in-der-schweiz-ab-mehrere-tote-und-verletzte_7cf1f740-2f00-414f-ba4f-738d58dab783.html...
Hey /n/!I could really use your help for something. I am writing a film about bike couriers in a mostly atemporal setting. This is set in a biome-rich beachside town so I would like a few different options for different terrains. Most importabtly of all I would really like to know what the ultimate "jack-of-all-trades" bike would look like if money were not an option.Thank you for this bikebros!
EPISODE 6: THE SNOW-KOMBUCHA CRASHEXT. THE BURB-CLAVES OF NEW ANGELES - DUSKThe air smells like ozone and hyper-inflation. The sky is the color of a television tuned to a dead channel, but with a highly targeted ad for crypto-deodorant projected onto the clouds.This is the franchised wasteland of Southern California. Every neighborhood is a corporate sovereign state. The roads require a micro-transaction every fifty feet.MAKO is riding "The Big Kahuna" down the side of the hyper-way. He is not paying the micro-transactions because the Big Kahuna has no RFID chip, no license plate, and arguably, no structural integrity.Beside him is SURGE, the disgraced e-bike jockey from Episode 4. Surge is riding a janky, salvaged electric scooter held together by duct tape and sheer panic.MAKO (V.O.)Some guys jack into the 'Mega-Vibe'—the digital metaverse where everyone is a neon god. Me? I stay in meat-space. The graphics are better, and you can actually taste the breakfast burritos.THE CARGOMako’s front basket contains a glowing, violently bubbling crate of "Snow-Kombucha." It’s a black-market, bio-digital probiotic.SURGE(Sweating, his scooter whining)Mako, you don’t understand! That kombucha is a virus! It’s infecting the Mega-Vibe! Anyone who drinks it loses their crypto-wallets and starts speaking in 2012 Doge memes!MAKO(Sipping from a regular coconut)Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
Griff is an absolute mountain of muscle wearing mirrored wrap-around shades and a leather vest. Tattooed across his forehead in bold, Gothic lettering is the phrase: LOW BATTERY ANXIETY.He is not riding a motorcycle. He is riding a heavily weaponized, self-balancing, off-road gravel unicycle. It has a knobby tire the size of a tractor’s and a rack of EMP ninja stars.GRIFF(Voice booming through a chest-mounted subwoofer)RELINQUISH THE SCOBY, FLESH-BAGS! THE FRANCHISE DEMANDS PURITY!SURGE(Screaming)It’s Griff! He’s got an autonomous unicycle! It’s gyroscopically perfect! We’re dead!THE CHASE: THE MEAT-SPACE MANEUVERGriff hurls an EMP ninja star. It hits Surge’s scooter. The scooter instantly dies, throwing Surge into a patch of genetically modified, corporate-owned cacti.Mako looks back. Griff is gaining, the massive unicycle tire chewing up the asphalt. Griff draws a high-frequency, vibrating katana.MAKO(Sighing)Bad vibes, man. Really harshing the evening commute.Mako reaches into his poncho. He doesn't pull out a sword. He pulls out a weathered, bright pink pool noodle.Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
Mako looks at the massive, 60-pound steel frame of the Big Kahuna. He looks at the hyper-advanced, gyroscopically balanced, software-dependent unicycle charging at him.Mako slams on his coaster brakes. He skids sideways, kicking up a cloud of pure, analog dust.Griff’s unicycle sensors try to calculate the trajectory of the dust cloud. The software overcompensates. The gyroscopes panic. The unicycle violently jerks to the left, launching Griff over the handlebars and directly into a holographic billboard for "Bored Ape Yacht Insurance."THE DELIVERYMako slowly pedals up to the VIP gate. The heavy steel of the Big Kahuna bumps against the scanner. The sheer, unshielded magnetic mass of the rusted beach cruiser causes the biometric scanner to short-circuit.The gates slowly swing open.Mako pedals into the neon-drenched festival, finding the CYBER-SHAMAN—a guy in a faux-fur coat living in a server rack.Mako hands over the crate of violently bubbling Snow-Kombucha.CYBER-SHAMANYou brought the Mother-Scoby! The Mega-Vibe is saved! I will transfer a billion credits to your neural implant!MAKO(Shaking his head)Nah, man. Just point me toward the ambient chill-out tent. And maybe a physical taco.Mako pedals away into the laser-lit desert night, the squeak of his rusted chain the only sound the corporate microphones can't auto-tune.FADE OUT.
Isn't the whole point that Hiro is a dilettante loser that lives in a storage container whereas YT is a seasoned veteran making a decent living?
>>2067385yeah, theres frequent use of lines like>Hiro knew he was out of his depth, but he did it anywaybecause hiro is a washed up programmer from the Before Times whose only claim to fame is he "coded" a popular Second Life hangout spot where he has secret backdoors to win every fight (this is not a joke, at one point he cyber-murders someone by spawning an anvil on top of them and every actual fight he wins is a cowardly ambush or through overwhelming technological supremacy, with the only one actually dangerous fight he gets into almost going bad because he forgets it's real life and not online and almost wedges his sword badly enough into a hick's brainstem that he considers just abandoning the sword (a genuine antique with sentimental value) instantly)meanwhile YT is actually an absolute beast on skates and has more powerful friends and allies (being able to summon the aforementioned Uncle Enzo, having a hypersonic dog buddy because she pets the dobot doge as she sk8s through burbclaves, etc) because >SHE lives her life on enthusiasm for a hobby
This thread is for talking about railways, and things related to railways, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - that means we're all about big intercity trains, modest rural trains, long freight trains, trips, tracks, trams, subways, stations, you get the idea. Trains are cool.If you're planning a journey, take a look at the nationalrail.co.uk/ journey planner - tell it where you're headed from and to, and it'll show you your options before handing you over to a train company so you can buy a ticket. Doesn't matter which train company, they'll all charge the same price for the same seat on the same journey. Overseas visitors - trip.com and thetrainline.com are your best option.Here's a few links:~New rolling stock currently on order, listed (trainlogger.co.uk/units/)~A Visual History of Railway Rolling Stock in Great Britain (gaelan.me/br-stock/)~The Man in Seat 61 (seat61.com/) - easily the best rail travel resource out there.~Geoff Marshall (youtube.com/@geofftech2) - likes trains. Mostly harmless.~Jago Hazzard (youtube.com/@jagohazzard) - London train history. Ditto....and some cool 'open data' stuff:~Realtimetrains (realtimetrains.co.uk/) - live train timetables: ideal for keeping on top of ETAs and platforms.~Openrailwaymap (openrailwaymap.org/) - not quite 'Google Maps for railway infrastructure', but close.~TIGER (https://tiger.worldline.global/home/) - live departure boards.Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
Hypothetically speaking if we wanted to have continuous high-speed services from Northern England to continental Europe, would it be better to build the link in Central London or as a bypass going through Gatwick and Heathrow, or building both?
>>2067374>build the link in Central LondonEither Old Oak Common or Stratford would have to be expanded in this scenario, no?
There's already a link in Central London, which was going to be used for the Regional Eurostar services that never got off the drawing board. Come down the WCML towards Euston, jump onto the North London Line near Camden, then there's a link onto High Speed One just north of St Pancras. The infrastructure's there, it's everything else that's holding back your direct Manchester to Paris weekend getaway.
Troll answer: you know that overnight ferry they're proposing from Rosyth? That, only with roro train carriages. There's even a railhead you could use! Watch the tourists' pupils dilate as you're shunted off the ship and head onto the Forth Bridge!
The Bakerloo is 120 years old today, as well. Just FYI.
