In message
Mike Roebuck wrote:

On 26 May 2006 20:42:41 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos
wrote:

In uk.railway Mike Roebuck wrote:
[Euro accounts]
It's very easy for a company to get one. I write from experience.

Is that any old company? So can anyone get an account by being a Sole
Trader trading as Made-Up Company Name (which has no assets, income or
outgoings and isn't registered for anything)?

I had no problem getting Euro and dollar accounts for a limited
company, something which you can set up very cheaply in the UK. No
obligation to be registered for VAT, but of course the company name
has to be registered.

As I'm not operating as a sole trader, I can't say what applies to one
(but can ask).



AFAIK (and I haven't checked for years) you can get a personal account
'trading as...'

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

In message , at 09:49:41 on Sun, 28
May 2006, Graeme Wall remarked:
I had no problem getting Euro and dollar accounts for a limited
company, something which you can set up very cheaply in the UK. No
obligation to be registered for VAT, but of course the company name
has to be registered.

As I'm not operating as a sole trader, I can't say what applies to one
(but can ask).

AFAIK (and I haven't checked for years) you can get a personal account
'trading as...'

Yes. But my own efforts to open a "Business" foreign currency account
from that starting point have been met with polite refusal. The
remaining, personal, foreign currency accounts seem to be aimed at
people with lots of cash, who want to partake in various "offshore"
activities (far be it from me to suggest tax avoidance) or to buy/sell
property overseas; and who want to make a very few, very large,
transactions.

There's nothing I can find that seems suitable for someone wanting to do
a few hundred/thousand pounds worth of "normal" business each month,
with customers or suppliers who just happens to be overseas (rather than
equally far away in, say, Scotland...)

ObRail: for example, buying an E* ticket in Brussels, in Euro, with a
Euro debit card; then getting the EU Commission to refund the "expenses"
in Euros. [Saves two lots of currency conversion charges].
--
Roland Perry

On Sun, 28 May 2006, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at
01:37:17 on Sun, 28 May 2006, Tom Anderson
remarked:
It's basically Thameslink, or the Watford DC line.

Conceptually and operationally it's closer to the DLR, I think.

Is there a Docklands equivalent in south Amsterdam? There is that World
Trade Centre stop ...

Yes, sounds plausible. Although Hoopdorf (the next stop on the line,
where many of the Centraal-Schiphol trains terminate) is also somewhat
of an upmarket business park.

I don't think Amsterdam has an ex-docklands area quite like London. I
would guess that most of the country's port activity was serviced via
Rotterdam, rather than Amsterdam.

I didn't mean a specifically ex-docklands area, just an area outside the
historical centre of the city which is a major business centre.

However, on the subject of ports, while Rotterdam's certainly a bigger
port, Amsterdam's still a port:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=amst...21698&t=h&om=1

Moreover, there's definitely an area to the east of the city centre with
loads of buildings that were clearly old warehouses and had been converted
into flats and offices; there's also a maritime museum and modern art
museum, two very reliable signs of a regenerated ex-dock area. Not that
it's a major business centre, or on the metro.

tom

--
The idiots are winning.

In message , at
14:01:50 on Sun, 28 May 2006, Tom Anderson
remarked:
there's also a maritime museum and modern art museum,

Yes, that's where I'd look for an ex-docklands area.

two very reliable signs of a regenerated ex-dock area. Not that it's a
major business centre, or on the metro.

It's pretty close to the first stop south of Centraal. Not somewhere
that one's first choice of transport would be rail.
--
Roland Perry

Tom Anderson wrote:

That seems really quite perverse. Is there a reason for all this?

Yes. It's because the clocks (like the standard BR/NSE 8-segment ones)
are centrally controlled. However, to make things simpler, a control
pulse is only sent once every minute (thus moving the minute hand on)
rather than once every second. Thus, the second hand is on a local
motor, and to ensure it doesn't get out of sync it's set to go around
in about 58 seconds rather than a complete minute.

The old clocks at Manchester Oxford Road are/were (not sure if they
still exist) of the same type, but without the second hand.

Neil

Neil Williams wrote:

UK Maestro cards work fine abroad?

My Switch/Maestro card from Royal Bank of Scotland worked fine at both
Schipol and A/Dam Centraal ticket machines last October.
The only downer was a 75p charge, plus commision on each transaction,
around £1.50 on £25 of tickets.
Alan.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

On Sun, 28 May 2006, Neil Williams wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

That seems really quite perverse. Is there a reason for all this?

Yes. It's because the clocks (like the standard BR/NSE 8-segment ones)
are centrally controlled. However, to make things simpler, a control
pulse is only sent once every minute (thus moving the minute hand on)
rather than once every second. Thus, the second hand is on a local
motor, and to ensure it doesn't get out of sync it's set to go around in
about 58 seconds rather than a complete minute.

Bloody hell; that really is a twisted, Heath-Robinson, arse-backwards
piece of engineering. Presumably, the Swiss railway subcontracted its
clocks to British engineers!


tom

--
coincidences, body modification, hungarian voice sebestyen marta, **

On Sat, 27 May 2006 14:17:57 +0100, Tom Anderson wrote in
, seen in
uk.railway:
On Thu, 25 May 2006, Neil Williams wrote:
Tom Anderson wrote:
[...]
Double-deck trains! Wheee!

In a nice big loading gauge. Very basic (and sometimes somewhat garish)
interiors, though.

Yes, they were very spartan - even the intercity trains. Maybe it reflects
some sort of ascetic tendency in the Dutch character. Or maybe they put
crappy trains on the lines tourists use .

Gods, no.

They put the crappy trains on branch lines tourists definitely don't
use. Try riding the rural branch lines and you'll find out.

You'll also find out that the much vaunted myth of perfect punctuality
and everything planned to connect with everything else is just that -
a myth.
--
Ross, in Lincoln, most likely being cynical or sarcastic, as ever.
Reply-to will bounce. Replace the junk-trap with my name to e-mail me.

Demonstration of poor photography: http://www.rosspix.me.uk - updated with Czech photos
AD: http://www.merciacharters.co.uk for European charters occasionally gripped by me

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Sun, 28 May 2006, Neil Williams wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

That seems really quite perverse. Is there a reason for all this?

Yes. It's because the clocks (like the standard BR/NSE 8-segment
ones) are centrally controlled. However, to make things simpler, a
control pulse is only sent once every minute (thus moving the minute
hand on) rather than once every second. Thus, the second hand is on a
local motor, and to ensure it doesn't get out of sync it's set to go
around in about 58 seconds rather than a complete minute.

Bloody hell; that really is a twisted, Heath-Robinson, arse-backwards
piece of engineering. Presumably, the Swiss railway subcontracted its
clocks to British engineers!

Actually, having guessed that was how they worked from this description
(never having been there), I was thinking to myself what a clever piece
of engineering this is. It is essentially a digital hours and minutes
clock with a second hand "for show". Now where can I get one of the BR
digital ones that seem to be becoming quite scarce? When I was younger,
my family would quite often get the 20.05 off Rochester station, and I
always loved watching them tick over from 19.59.59. Also the pattern of
loud and quiet ticks depending on number. I will always remember the
TIC TIC tic TIC TIC tic TIC TIC tic clatter.

Robin

"Ross" wrote in message
...

You'll also find out that the much vaunted myth of perfect punctuality
and everything planned to connect with everything else is just that -
a myth.

ClogRail usually runs OK, but when things go awry, everything can go tits up
just as badly as elsewhere.

The weekend they brought the "old" Schiphol tunnel back into use was such a
case. As if it wasn't going to be fraught, it blew so badly that the
knitting came down near Hoofddorp, and after that I went back to the
apartment and made a nice curry (they had it repaired by the next morning
rush hour).

--
Tim

Selective killfiling - because life's too short