" wrote:
Does the Royal Mail receive any subsidies or is it responsible for
its
own financial well-being and charged with making a profit?


The latter, and Royal Mail is currently making a healthy profit. The
profits go into a reserve account and are supposed to be used for
investment and/or to cover future losses, but the Treasury tends to
keep it and deny permission for investment. RM suffered serious
losses for some years as a result of investment plans being cancelled
by the Treasury. :-(


France's SNCF is state-owned, though I heard an official once say
that
they have not received any since the early 1980s. Of course, I have
no
way of knowing if that is true or not.


At one point in the early 1990s, SNCF vied for the title of the
world's most indebted company with EdF, the French electricity
company. The debt was about the equivalent of three times' Network
Rail's current debt. The debt was run up by borrowing money to build
the LGVs.

The French government moved the debt out of SNCF and into an
infrastructure company which has no means of ever paying it off.
Meanwhile, SNCF claimed that the TGVs were making a profit, which was
patently untrue.

The same was done with EdF, and France's claim that the country
enjoys cheap nuclear power while EdF makes profits is also patently
untrue because, in each case, the debt remains.

The French government's innate ability to borrow colossal sums of
money and conveniently forget about its debts is why France's credit
rating has been downgraded.

On 02/01/2012 20:18, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
wrote
in :

They were running steam engines well into the 1970s, were they not.

Yes, but that was true in West Germany. East Germany used steam
traction into the 1980s on goods trains.

Didn't know that. Where else in Europe, either East or West, were they
running steam in revenue service until the 80s?

On 02/01/2012 20:28, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
wrote in
:

IIRC, some of the trains from the East Berlin U-Bahn wound up in
revenue service on the Pyongyang Metro.

http://www.pyongyang-metro.com/

It's the fourth picture down when you click on the photos link.

Actually all rolling stock on the Pyongyang metro is from Berlin, but
there are two different types.

The box shaped ones are G stock, a narrow profile type made in East
Berlin in the 1970s/80s and still in service today:
http://www.berliner-verkehr.de/ufg.htm

Giselas! Yes, I remember riding a couple when I visited Berlin in the
'90s. I remember most vividly the noise they would make when coming to a
halt.

I wonder if any of them are still in revenue service in Pyongyang,
because any videos of the place seem to show only Dorotas.

Admittedly, however, those videos only show YÅ�nggwang and PuhÅ*ng, on the
Ch�llima line. I have also seen a contemporary photo of Kaes�n station,
which is also on the Ch�llima line. But those photos were official and
showed only the Chinese-built stock that they had run.

Perhaps the Giselas are on the Hy�ksin line? I have seen official
pictures of HwanggÅ*mbÅ�l and KÅ�n'guk, but nothing contemporary or
independently taken.

"Bruce" wrote in message


The French government's innate ability to borrow colossal sums of
money and conveniently forget about its debts is why France's credit
rating has been downgraded.

It still has a AAA credit rating.

On 02/01/2012 20:47, wrote:
On 02/01/2012 20:18, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
wrote
in :

They were running steam engines well into the 1970s, were they not.

Yes, but that was true in West Germany. East Germany used steam
traction into the 1980s on goods trains.

Didn't know that. Where else in Europe, either East or West, were they
running steam in revenue service until the 80s?

When did BR cease operating the VoR?

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

Am 02.01.2012 20:46, schrieb Wolfgang Schwanke:
The thatcherites have just called me loony left. What's your label?

Social-democrat.

So einer der alten Schule, kaiserlicher Hofsozialdemokrat.

Immer brav den Arsch zusammenkneifen und gehorsamst den Krieg führen
für die eigenen Ausbeuter.



mfG,
L.W.

On 02/01/2012 20:28, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
wrote in
:

IIRC, some of the trains from the East Berlin U-Bahn wound up in
revenue service on the Pyongyang Metro.

http://www.pyongyang-metro.com/

It's the fourth picture down when you click on the photos link.

Actually all rolling stock on the Pyongyang metro is from Berlin, but
there are two different types.

The box shaped ones are G stock, a narrow profile type made in East
Berlin in the 1970s/80s and still in service today:
http://www.berliner-verkehr.de/ufg.htm

The ones with the red/white livery are D stock, wide profile made in
West Berlin in the 1950s/60s. Some were transferred to East Berlin in
the late 1980s, and finally sold off to Korea in the 1990s.
http://www.berliner-verkehr.de/ufd.htm


Is there a good book in English about the Berlin S & U Bahns?

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail

Am 02.01.2012 13:35, schrieb Neil Williams:
What about the Rothaus brewery, just to cite one little example?
Commerzbank?

Are they owned by the state? If so they are nationalised. As are a few
UK banks, at least in part.

So what? In what respect does that cause the commercial company to
collapse?

I guess you are also looking at the color of the skin of the
shareholders, or their religion.

Really, really crazy.


Cheers,
L.W.

Am 02.01.2012 18:37, schrieb :
France's SNCF is state-owned, though I heard an official once say that
they have not received any since the early 1980s. Of course, I have no
way of knowing if that is true or not.

SNCF proudly announced that they pay 223 million Euros (or so)
dividents to their shareholder.

The German federal government decided that they want a 500 million
Euro dividend from the shares they hold of Deutsche Bahn AG.


L.W.

Am 02.01.2012 13:26, schrieb Graeme Wall:
You don't even know the history of your own country yet you presume to
lecture others on their history.

I guess you learned history from the Ministry of Truth.

George Orwell knew very well what he wrote. About his countrymen...
He collect his experiences at the BBC.


Cheers,
L.W.