"Joe" wrote in message
...
Offramp wrote:
I remember being daunted at the huge, staffless Paris Metro stations.
Not very nice!

I remember being stuck inside the station because the unstaffed ticket
barriers wouldn't accept my ticket. Unlike UK ones they were too big to
jump over. Fortunately one was broken so we eventually managed to escape!

You will have to get fitter :-) I once saw 5 African youths jump over the
barriers. The Parisians just looked at each other and shrugged their
shoulders .

Peter
Sydney

On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:46:04 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
And the reverse is equally true in my experience. I have lost count of
the times when 3,4 or even 5 Picc trains have arrived and departed at
Finsbury Park while I wait for a Walthamstow bound Vic line to arrive.

In all my years travelling on the tube I've never seen that occur and
I used to generally take the vic to finsbury park to change to the
piccadilly.

B2003

Paul Corfield wrote:

And the reverse is equally true in my experience. I have lost count of
the times when 3,4 or even 5 Picc trains have arrived and departed at
Finsbury Park while I wait for a Walthamstow bound Vic line to arrive.

Try wearing a disguise. ;-)

You will have to get fitter :-) I once saw 5 African youths jump over
the barriers. The Parisians just looked at each other and shrugged their
shoulders .

Heh. I was surprised how tall they were - much bigger than anywhere I've
seen befo

http://knol.google.com/k/-/-/2sp607v...ticketsmlv.jpg

On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:53:08 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
Only in Belgium could they spend a fortune on tunnels and then not use
them.

Oh they've done better than that - in Charleroi they built an entire
extension to their pre-metro - station and tracks - and never used it!
A monument to the hubris of local government IMO.

Theres loads of interesting photos knocking about of it though these are
the best:

http://diggelfjoer.swalker.nl/index....sub=abandcharl

B2003

In message ,
writes
In article ,
(James Farrar) wrote:

wrote in
:

Those changes will just make it useless for most of the journeys
I currently make on it because there will be no service through
Edgware Road between North and West sides of the Circle.

Really? You've never told us that before.

Yes I did. See the limited steps discussion for King's Cross - East
Putney journeys.

---- Whoosh! ----

:-))
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

In message , writes
On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:53:08 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
Only in Belgium could they spend a fortune on tunnels and then not use
them.

Oh they've done better than that - in Charleroi they built an entire
extension to their pre-metro - station and tracks - and never used it!
A monument to the hubris of local government IMO.

I was about to mention Charleroi. A perfect example of the original
point. It's the equivalent of having something on the scale of the
Tyne & Wear Metro inserted into somewhere like Reading.

It was largely built, as Boltar says, for political reasons. The
Flemish North had a light metro (as the Walloons saw it, anyway) in
Antwerp, so the Walloon South had to have something the same.

It's a long trine since I've been but the **vastly** over engineered and
little used infrastructure was incredible. (Mind you, Gent built an
extension for a proposed housing area that never materialised and which
terminated in a no-mans-land beneath a motorway for years. I
understand that it's been abandoned now.)
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

Ian Jelf wrote:

I was about to mention Charleroi. A perfect example of the original
point. It's the equivalent of having something on the scale of the
Tyne & Wear Metro inserted into somewhere like Reading.

It was largely built, as Boltar says, for political reasons. The
Flemish North had a light metro (as the Walloons saw it, anyway) in
Antwerp, so the Walloon South had to have something the same.

It's a long trine since I've been but the **vastly** over engineered
and little used infrastructure was incredible. (Mind you, Gent
built an extension for a proposed housing area that never
materialised and which terminated in a no-mans-land beneath a
motorway for years. I understand that it's been abandoned now.)

Closer to home, Sheffield's tram network has a branch to serve a high-rise
housing estate which was demolished while the tramway was under
construction.
Speaking of underused infrastructure in Sheffield, what happened here?
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&...06866&t=k&z=18

And of course, even closer to home we have the Finsbury Park to Highgate
line, electrified but never served by an electric passenger train.

On 29 Apr, 10:42, Ian Jelf wrote:
It's a long trine since I've been but the **vastly** over engineered and
little used infrastructure was incredible.

In Manchester, as part of the 2002 Commonwealth games site, they built
several major tram underpasses but didn't bother building the tram
line to go with them, which has onyl just now got proper funding:
http://tinyurl.com/d74bss

On another unbuilt branch, there's also this enormous, speculatively
built elevated station:
http://www.gifford.uk.com/ProjectProfiles.asp?id=28

And a little way along the line, an elaborate finback bridge what I
can't find a picture of. Again, the branch itself has only just been
authorised.

(and of course there's the Thameslink ECML tunnels, which will sit
empty for at least 10 years. And Stratford International, which will
potentially never handle international passengers)

U

"Richard J." wrote in message
m...
Clive wrote on 28 April 2009 16:42:41 ...
In message
, Alex
writes
If they were to rate architecture and general impressiveness of
appearance - then Moscow Metro would probably win. But as a transport
service it certainly lags behind.

I found the Moscow Metro a curious setup, the trains seemed old but all
had rheostatic braking, and I didn't like the juice rail right under the
platform instead of furthest away. Paris has stations too close together
and their rubber tyre stock can throw you off balance when braking, like
Ligne 1 at Les Halles, the train brakes, enters the station then
accelerates then brakes suddenly to a halt.

In my experience the acceleration/deceleration of the rubber-tyred trains
is no worse than the Central Line, and your description of arriving at Les
Halles (it's Line 4 by the way) sounds just like the Victoria Line.

--
A bit OT, I think, but how often are often are Paris Metro drivers required
to manually operate their trains? I think that the whole system is on ATO.
Line 14 certainly is.