Meldrew of Meldreth writes:


... people did tend to work most of the time.

Boggle. We are talking about student life here are we? My recollection
is rather different.

1/ students are not gonna spend 3000-4000 commuting, so
we're talking (well i was talking) about staff (teaching officers and related

2/ students do not have to live in hall, so they cannot be policed
in fact.

3/ staff and students have to "keep nights"
which actually is described
(in the statutes and ordinances and is on the web somewhere or other) as
no more than a number of nights sleeping away in a certain period where
"away" (or whatever it says) is
a certain distance (has varied over the years and for category of people.
(is now in miles, was at least for a while in hours walk/horseride

4/ this ALL contributes to the high cost of housing in and near cambridge
and probably doesnt particular reduce traffic (as the distance is still
driving for staff, and there are enough of them to constitute congestion
with families and they are badly enough paid that they wont all live near
enough to cycle unless they were practically born here and inherited a house
(or worked here for 10 years) (imho)

London University has 3 taught terms of 12 weeks with a reading week, and
5 day terms - Cambridge taught term is 8 weeks of 5.5 days max - in practice
UCL and Imperial students attend more lectures in sciences (at least where I
know) though whether this constites working "harder" I couldn't possibly
comment....well actually as an examiner at 10+ UK universities over the last 24
years I could - I'd say that the residence and working practices and
"boarding school" or otherwise of the UK universities is remarkably uniform
in the end, though.

Bigger Pictu
If I compare it to other European countries I am familiar with (e.g. UCD/TCD in
Ireland, Lulea and Stockholm, Paris XI, Nice, Pisa, Athens, etc etc), I'd say we
are more residential - if I compare it to US similar places, I'd say actually
less (at least e.g. Dartmouth, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, UPenn,
Michegan - note some of those are private, some state).

Of course, the trains in the rest of Europe are probably better
and we know the ones in the US are probably worse, (if thats possible)
so there's probably a Masters thesis in looking at the effects of
fast and reliable rail travel on the residential nature of faculty
and student body culture and locales in various countries of the developed
world. :-)

[can discuss Universities in Brasil and New Zealand too if you like:-]

p.s. If the current cruiser train time is 45 mins,
and we were discussing a possible time of 35 mins,
and the distance is 55 miles, I am not quite
sure where speeds of 125mph come up - 100mph
tilting trains would work on most the route
provided track and points are made up to a higher
quality surely? If you've ever been on a eurostar
coming into the chunnel from the continental side, when
it stops sometimes, it is on a mighty lean - looks like
even decent bogie design is sufficient given track
conditions (yes, I know TGV track is ruinously
pricy coz of fancy welds etc)...

--
Jon Crowcroft

In message , at 17:55:43 on Mon, 3
Jan 2005, Jon Crowcroft remarked:

London University has 3 taught terms of 12 weeks with a reading week, and
5 day terms - Cambridge taught term is 8 weeks of 5.5 days max - in practice
UCL and Imperial students attend more lectures in sciences (at least where I
know) though whether this constites working "harder" I couldn't possibly
comment....

In my time the average Cambridge science/maths/engineering student
worked a 6-6.5 day week, while friends at London used to regularly skip
Friday afternoons and Monday mornings to facilitate weekends away (and
clearly had no intention of ever working Sat/Sun).

p.s. If the current cruiser train time is 45 mins,
and we were discussing a possible time of 35 mins,
and the distance is 55 miles, I am not quite
sure where speeds of 125mph come up

Currently the ECML is a high speed line with the KX-Hitchin part taking
approx 21 minutes (that's in an IC225, I'm not sure the WAGNs could keep
up with that, it's an average of 90mph).

This leaves 25 miles on the Cambridge branch. To meet a 45 minute
schedule that requires an average speed of just over 60mph, which is
what they just about manage to achieve on today's track.

To meet a 35 minute time, they'd need to do the 25 miles in 14 minutes,
which is an average of 107mph !

- 100mph
tilting trains would work on most the route
provided track and points are made up to a higher
quality surely?

Yes, but a *very* big "provided" !!!

--
Roland Perry

In article , Roland
Perry writes
Currently the ECML is a high speed line with the KX-Hitchin part taking
approx 21 minutes (that's in an IC225, I'm not sure the WAGNs could
keep up with that, it's an average of 90mph).

This leaves 25 miles on the Cambridge branch. To meet a 45 minute
schedule that requires an average speed of just over 60mph, which is
what they just about manage to achieve on today's track.

The bit of the working timetable for Cruisers that I've been able to
find gives:

KX depart XX15
Finsbury Park pass XX18.5
Alexandra Palace pass XX20 0.5 pathing allowance
Potters Bar pass XX25.5
WGC pass XX30
Woolmer Green pass XX32
Stevenage pass XX34
Hitchin pass XX37
Letchworth pass XX40
Royston pass XX47 2 engineering allowance

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is:

In article , Clive D. W. Feather
writes
In article , Roland
Perry writes
Currently the ECML is a high speed line with the KX-Hitchin part
taking approx 21 minutes (that's in an IC225, I'm not sure the WAGNs
could keep up with that, it's an average of 90mph).

This leaves 25 miles on the Cambridge branch. To meet a 45 minute
schedule that requires an average speed of just over 60mph, which is
what they just about manage to achieve on today's track.

The bit of the working timetable for Cruisers that I've been able to
find gives:

KX depart XX15
Finsbury Park pass XX18.5
Alexandra Palace pass XX20 0.5 pathing allowance
Potters Bar pass XX25.5
WGC pass XX30
Woolmer Green pass XX32
Stevenage pass XX34
Hitchin pass XX37

22 minutes. I had allowed 21. Nice to be so close to the actual answer
using only classic engineering estimating skills!

Letchworth pass XX40
Royston pass XX47 2 engineering allowance

(And it means one minute less for Hitchin to Cambridge, 25 miles to do
in 13 minutes for a 35 minute journey - 115 mph average. Not very
realistic...)
--
"now, the thing you type on and the window you stare out of are the same thing"

In article , Clive D. W. Feather
writes
The bit of the working timetable for Cruisers that I've been able to
find gives:

KX depart XX15
[...]
Royston pass XX47 2 engineering allowance

and Cambridge at XX61 (IYSWIM) of course.

Feeding that into a spreadsheet, I get the following:

A B C D E
King's Cross
Finsbury Park 43 46 40 3.5 1.5
Alexandra Palace 99 118 84 1.5 1.5
Potters Bar 84 88 81 5.5 4.5
Welwyn Garden City 101 107 96 4.5 4.5
Woolmer Green 106 121 94 2 2
Stevenage 111 127 99 2 1.5
Hitchin 87 95 81 3 2.5
Letchworth 54 59 50 3 2
Royston 88 91 85 7 6
Cambridge 56 57 55 14 8

A = average booked speed between locations
B = booked speed using a time 0.25 minutes less
C = booked speed using a time 0.25 minutes more
D = booked time between locations
E = time between locations required for 100mph

B and C are to allow for the fact that booked timings are only given to
half minutes.

The 2 minutes difference between D and E out of King's Cross is to allow
for the train to accelerate, so we should expect the same at Cambridge.
That leaves 4 minutes lost between Royston and Cambridge in 13 miles.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is:

I wrote a table, which showed the actual booked speed from Royston to
Cambridge as averaging 56mph. I then said:

The 2 minutes difference between D and E out of King's Cross is to
allow for the train to accelerate, so we should expect the same at
Cambridge. That leaves 4 minutes lost between Royston and Cambridge in
13 miles.

Sorry, that should be 2.5 minutes (compared with a 100mph journey
throughout). The other 1.5 is allowance for engineering work.

So the current actual booked speed is 74mph north of Royston, not
including deceleration allowance.

Overall, the timetabled 46 minutes consists of:
- 2 minutes accelerating
- 2 minutes decelerating
- 3 minutes for pathing and engineering work
- 39 minutes at speed (compared with 34 at 100mph).

Making an average "full" speed of 87.5mph.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is:

I wrote:
The bit of the working timetable for Cruisers that I've been able to
find gives:

KX depart XX15
Finsbury Park pass XX18.5
Alexandra Palace pass XX20 0.5 pathing allowance
Potters Bar pass XX25.5
WGC pass XX30
Woolmer Green pass XX32
Stevenage pass XX34
Hitchin pass XX37
Letchworth pass XX40
Royston pass XX47 2 engineering allowance
Cambridge arrive XX01 1.5 engineering allowance

The reverse timetable is:

Cambridge depart XX15
Royston pass XX27.5
Letchworth pass XX34.5
Hitchin pass XX37
Stevenage pass XX41
Woolmer Green pass XX43
WGC pass XX45
Potters Bar pass XX50
Alexandra Palace pass XX54.5 1 pathing allowance
Finsbury Park pass XX57 0.5 pathing allowance
KX arrive XX64 2 engineering allowance

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is:

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
.uk...
In message , at 17:55:43 on Mon, 3
Jan 2005, Jon Crowcroft remarked:

London University has 3 taught terms of 12 weeks with a reading week, and
5 day terms - Cambridge taught term is 8 weeks of 5.5 days max - in
practice
UCL and Imperial students attend more lectures in sciences (at least
where I
know) though whether this constites working "harder" I couldn't possibly
comment....

In my time the average Cambridge science/maths/engineering student
worked a 6-6.5 day week, while friends at London used to regularly skip
Friday afternoons and Monday mornings to facilitate weekends away (and
clearly had no intention of ever working Sat/Sun).

The word "taught" is superfluous, the correct expression being "Full Term".
Back in my day in Oxford, and I doubt that Cambridge was different, there
were lectures at 9 and 10 on most days Monday-Saturday, but attendance was
not compulsory (although desirable, as questions in finals were mostly based
on the lecture course over three years. A certain amount of attendance at
the laboratories was also required, but could usually be fitted in between
11 and 1 before lunch. Afternoons would often be devoted to sport, games or
the pleasures of punting, and in some cases to flying with the Air Squadron.
One hour per week for a tutorial, and some hours (often after midnight) on
doing the reading and essay-writing for the next tutorial. Organic
preparations tended to require more than a day, and were regarded as only
for the dedicated.

In theory one was required to get permission to reside and to travel more
than 3 miles from Carfax, and to be absent overnight. One was also required
to come up a few days early for college Collections and to delay one's
departure until after an interview with the tutors. For the final year in
Chemistry, one was expected to spend at least 10 weeks in Oxford for each
term, essentially working 9 to 5 Monday to Friday and possibly Saturday
morning as well. Depending on the subject being studied, time could be much
longer, especially if working towards a deadline for the thesis submission.
--
Terry Harper, Web Co-ordinator, The Omnibus Society
75th Anniversary 2004, see http://www.omnibussoc.org/75th.htm
E-mail:
URL: http://www.terry.harper.btinternet.co.uk/

In article , Terry Harper
writes
The word "taught" is superfluous, the correct expression being "Full Term".

Yes, but there's been a bit of an effort to avoid Oxbridge slang, I
think. Cambridge also had the 8-week lecture term plus approx half a
week either side for "housekeeping".

Back in my day in Oxford, and I doubt that Cambridge was different, there
were lectures at 9 and 10 on most days Monday-Saturday, but attendance was
not compulsory

Indeed, not compulsory, but in the later years with some specialist
lectures being given to a handful of familiar students they were
effectively compulsory.

(although desirable, as questions in finals were mostly based
on the lecture course over three years. A certain amount of attendance at
the laboratories was also required, but could usually be fitted in between
11 and 1 before lunch. Afternoons would often be devoted to sport, games or
the pleasures of punting

My experience of Engineering at Cambridge was lectures 9-1 Mon-Fri and
9-12 Saturday; plus two or three afternoons of labs, and at least one
5pm lecture. The labs were just collecting experimental results, too;
you could easily spend another two hours writing up and crunching the
numbers - this being before electronic calculators, let alone PCs.
--
"now, the thing you type on and the window you stare out of are the same thing"