Colin Youngs wrote:
"Adam H. Kerman" schreef

Does Europe pool collections from the VAT?

A sum calculated as a proportion of notional VAT receipts is paid into the
EU budget as one of its "own resources".

http://ec.europa.eu/budget/explained...ing/fin_en.cfm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_...European_Union ("VAT based own
resouces")

Thanks

Neil Williams wrote:
On Jan 24, 4:53 pm, John Levine wrote:

I expect the Europeans question the sanity of a country with thousands
of different sales tax rates that vary by what you buy, where you buy
it, and even who you are, and that require that the clerk compute the tax
at the time of the sale.

It seems to me to be pointless to tax anything requiring a subsidy, as
that just creates a money-go-round, as it were. Thus, the German VAT
on domestic rail services seems stupid to me - all that does is create
administration where you could instead simply reduce the subsidy.

It doesn't seem like a bad idea to make a unit of government subject to
tax collection duties, same as a businessman, so it understands how
very painful it is to deal with the revenuers.

I think government-owned land should be subject to real estate assessment
and taxation and that the taxes paid, even if to itself, would show up
on someone's budget. This might force more efficient use of land and
buildings.

Neil Williams wrote:
On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:57:21 -0800 (PST), wrote:

SL-2/3 the situation will improve, but the SL-4 still have manual
traps.

What do you mean by "traps" here?

Say your railcar is designed to berth at stations with two different
platform heights: high platform, or floor-height boarding, and standard
platform height. In North America, the standard platform height is
8 inches above top-of-rail. There can be a high step up, then two or
three more steps to get up to floor height.

When berthing at a high-level platform, a trap door is lowered,
covering the steps in the vestibule.

What would you call it?

Chicago South Shore and South Bend uses traps because it has trackage
rights on Illinois Central suburban tracks to reach the Chicago Loop.
IC suburban stations were generally high level, back to the 1870's.
On its own tracks, CSS&SB passenger trains are mixed with freight,
so there are standard platforms.

Why 8 inches? Because it is still assumed that a brakeman or switchman
or carman is hanging off the side of the train, sigh. This hasn't been
railroad operating practice in decades except when cars are actually
being switched, something that just won't happen too often near
passenger stations.

Generally, high-level platforms were designed so that a standard
boxcar could clear. IC has two branches with high-level platforms, both
of which used to have freight customers.

Someone told me that there are merely three oversize freight car types in
North America that won't clear an 8 inch platform, and that 15 inches
might make a practical platform standard. It would sure speed up boarding.

On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:35:23 +0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
wrote:
When berthing at a high-level platform, a trap door is lowered,
covering the steps in the vestibule.

Thanks.

What would you call it?

I don't think we'd have a name as we don't have any - the UK is all
high platformed, or for the rare low ones (not US low) there are
usually wooden steps left on the platform.

The only thing even vaguely like it is the retractable step on
Metrolink trams in Manchester, but I think the platforms are now all
high so they are unused now. All other tram systems in the UK are
all low platform with low floor trams.

Neil

--
Neil Williams, Milton Keynes, UK

On 24/01/2012 21:15, John Levine wrote:
What about on petrol, or gasoline, what are the taxes on them in New
Jersey?

Quite low, 14.5 cents/gal compared to about 44c in New York

Is it often that people from neighbouring states who live close
to the state line nip across to tank up their automobiles?

All the time. Keep in mind that if you're in New York City, a visit
to NJ involves a toll of $7.50 (E-ZPass) or $12 (cash) so it's not
worth it unless you have other business in NJ. But there is a
significant land border between the states, and plenty of cross-border
gas shopping.

Can authorities do anything about that?

Not that I've ever seen.

For the same reason, Canadians nip into the US to buy gas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estcourt_Station,_Maine

R's,
John




But customs authorities can do something about that, can they not? This
was also an issue in Germany, when people would cross into Poland to buy
petrol.

writes:
In other words,
smart-card-based POP essentially needs "optional" faregates (which
pass-holders can bypass).

A 'tap' reader is a heck of a lot simpler than a turnstile.

The fare-card-reading part can be the same though, when using a
smart-card based system. After all, it's really doing exactly the
same thing in both cases: making a note on the card that the passenger
has entered at that station, and maybe debiting some "initial" amount
from any amount stored on the card.

Faster, too.

You've never used a modern Japanese faregate I guess... :]

[there's no "turning bar" like NYC-style turnstiles, in fact they
normally don't present any barrier, they just stay open while people
walk through -- but there's an extremely fast gate that shuts if
someone tries to go through without paying (it also opens very quickly
as soon as they've paid).]

The reason why I say the two would end up being structured very
similarly for a POP system where a large percentage of the passengers
aren't using passes is that you've got to (1) have enough "tap
readers" to handle large influxes of passengers, and (2) you want to
structure the station so that these large influxes of passengers can
use them in a short period of time (3) you want to ensure that
passengers can easily find them (even if they ran into the station at
the last minute to catch the train). In other words, you've got to
think about the flow of passengers who want to tap; simply plonking
down a few machines "here and there" on the platform doesn't scale
very well.

If electronic tickets are used, then the fare inspectors will need
portable readers. Actually, if going to POP, a paper based system
like the River Line would do the job and I don't see any advantage to
an electronic ticket. To me, electronic tickets are only justified
with turnstiles.

The problem with a "paper based system" is that it forces passengers to
stop and buy tickets, which is annoying and can be a huge bottleneck
(worse that a faregate by far).

For passenger convenience (which is very important I think), smart
cards completely thrash paper tickets.

-Miles

--
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*This is the cute bunny virus, please copy this into your sig so it can spread.

Roland Perry writes:
I wonder how many retail businesses accept only plastic ?

It's quite difficult to buy airline tickets with cash
(notwithstanding the alarms bells that would ring at Homeland
Security). My lawyer and realtor don't accept cash, and I've often
encountered railway ticket vending machines where the banknote
facility was broken, and only cards would work.

I suspect it's pretty location specific.

Japan (where I live) is still very much cash-based, for instance.
Retail acceptance of credit-cards in Japan is much broader than it was
15 years ago, but people using them are still very much "the
exception." It feels verrry different than the U.S., for instance,
where scads of people do stuff like use a CC/DC to buy their morning
coffee, newspaper, stick of gum.... :/

[I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
_can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if you
realize you're a bit skint this month; if you don't pay off in full,
you risk losing your card (you can get extended payment periods, but
you must explicitly arrange them in advance). In the U.S., by
contrast, people routinely extend payment of their card bill over long
periods of time; this isn't financially very sensible of course, but I
think the ability to do it does give people a feeling of security, and
probably greatly helped popularize CCs...]

-Miles

--
Ocean, n. A body of water covering seven-tenths of a world designed for Man -
who has no gills.

"John Levine" wrote in message
...
Going from plain to Gold to Platinum rarely brings any extra benefits,
other than it being loosely linked to the credit limit, but even that's
not guaranteed.

Depends on the card. I have a green UK Amex card, and there are certainly
benefits I'd get if I paid for a fancier card, although I don't think any
of
them are worth what they'd cost:

http://www.americanexpress.com/lacid...ss_cards.shtml

I have a mastercard from HSBC UK, which also provides travel cover. I
agree that the
differences among their cards are much less interesting.


Some time back I had a UK Amex card. I initially got it because a colleague
already had one and Amex were offering a case of wine (which my colleague
and I shared) to anybody recommending their card to a friend. After a long
period in which I very rarely used the card, I eventually closed the account
because I was fed up with repeated marketing calls trying to sell me an
addional service which I didn't want to buy from them. The additional
service was billed as identity theft protection and the marketing people who
were promoting it consistently got my name wrong when they contacted me

Martin

Neil Williams wrote:
"Adam H. Kerman" wrote:

When berthing at a high-level platform, a trap door is lowered,
covering the steps in the vestibule.

Thanks.

What would you call it?

I don't think we'd have a name as we don't have any - the UK is all
high platformed, or for the rare low ones (not US low) there are
usually wooden steps left on the platform.

I'm always amazed how well these platforms were built that they survived
120 years with minimal maintenance.

The only thing even vaguely like it is the retractable step on
Metrolink trams in Manchester, but I think the platforms are now all
high so they are unused now. All other tram systems in the UK are
all low platform with low floor trams.

The vestibules of cars that run in the Muni Metro subway in San Francisco
(the level above the BART subway in Market Street) when it opened in the
mid 1970's had steps that rise up for floor heigh boarding in subway and
lower for outlying stations with standard-height platforms. It didn't
always work reliably.

schreef

: On 24/01/2012 21:15, John Levine wrote:
: For the same reason, Canadians nip into the US to buy gas.
: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estcourt_Station,_Maine

: But customs authorities can do something about that, can they not? This
: was also an issue in Germany, when people would cross into Poland to buy
: petrol.

Belgians buy petrol in Luxembourg where it is cheaper. Very easy when the
road runs along the border.

http://g.co/maps/7e6qt Belgium on the left, Luxembourg on the right.
Follow the road along for a mile or so.

Free movement of goods and services in the EU - no customs.

Colin Youngs
Brussels