You’re sure?

Perhaps it’s time for a bit of a guerrilla feminist campaign in the public space in the UK. All we would need would be 2 triangles of blue sticky back plastic, and 2 white triangles.

(Inspired by Sociological Images)

Personal Democracy Forum - CC / Flickr

I’m in the United States for just the second time in my life and I’ve had some time to reflect a little on my impressions of the place. Last week I was at Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) in New York, and I’m currently writing in Washington DC. I’m here simply to feel what the place is like.

I feel there’s something terribly schizophrenic about the United States and it’s fascinating.

At first glance there’s this excellent, overwhelming bonhomie that’s really genuinely expressed. The guy that makes a smoothie for you in a little NY deli who assures you his concoction is excellent (and it is), the waiter in the Cuban restaurant who enthuses about the chef’s creations, even passers by in the street with whom it’s possible to strike up a conversation.

Professionally for me all of this manifested itself at PdF in the presentation of a whole line of tools – from VoteiQ to Visible Vote – that are explained as the way to change politics. Let the geeks program the coolest tool and everything will be just fab!

Yet the flip side of all of this is an entrenched paranoia, rule obsession and risk aversion that is hard to avoid.

For every cool tool at PdF there is the fear that politics is beholden to special interests and the future of the country is in peril. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill typifies it perfectly – this devastation of the great American nation’s nature, before the overweight local politician criticising BP pulls himself into his groaning SUV that consumes the cheap petrol the USA so craves.

PdF’s unconference even ran a session in Citizen Gerrymandering – how to get citizens interests involved in drawing the electoral map, but surely that’s answering the wrong question at the very start?

At the individual level there are signs and announcements telling you what to do and not do everywhere, and what fines you’ll receive for everything from congregating near the galley in the Delta Airlines transatlantic aeroplane to honking your car horn at the wrong junction. The law is to be respected because it’s the law, not because it’s a sensible way to enshrine the rules that make the society function.

All of this, in the land of the free, is summed up in the Newseum, a museum on Pennsylvania Avenue in New York dedicated to the 1^st Amendment right to a free press. As a visitor I’m not trusted enough to press the button in the elevator on my own to get myself to the 6^th floor of the building. Not as if it’s that complex – that was the only option – but I received a stern word from the attendant nevertheless, and he had to push the button for me.

So what does ‘free’ actually mean?

Eurostar passes Stratford International - CC / Flickr

Scandal! The new Stratford International station might well not have any international trains stopping there. Among others the Mayor of Newham and investors building a shopping centre at Stratford are up in arms, as reported by the Evening Standard.

Actually it’s no scandal. It’s just sensible. And I say this as a Eurostar frequent traveller who, when in London, lives 1 stop on the Underground from Stratford.

Think about it. Every stop on Eurostar requires a 700 tonne, 18 carriage train, slowing down from 200+ km/h to a stop, using loads of energy to re-accelerate, and for each stop adding about 8 minutes to the journey time. Add to this that very very few passengers ever get on or off Eurostar at Ebbsfleet or Ashford as it is and the notion of Eurostars stopping at Stratford, just 7 minutes from St Pancras, is crazy.

Here’s an alternative solution. Why not have a Southeastern Highspeed service set off from St Pancras 20 minutes ahead of a Eurostar, and let that collect passengers at Stratford and Ebbsfleet and stop at Ashford. Then a large number of Eurostar trains would stop at Ashford and collect Stratford, Ebbsfleet and Ashford passengers there. It would surely be possible to coordinate timetables and tickets to make that work rather easily? Problem solved, surely?

This was essentially the sentiment behind Boris Johnson’s promise to get a new Routemaster bus onto London’s roads by 2011 2012, replacing the bendy buses he made such a fuss about. It’s time to restore a London icon was the refrain, and the original design proposals that I previously blogged about did at least look a bit like the bus of old.

But shock of shocks: the realisation that no manufacturer makes a front engined bus chassis, that an open back would require a conductor at all times, and that hydrogen power is not yet adequately advanced means that the plans have been changed quite a bit, culminating in the unveiling of the final design a few days ago – as shown in this Youtube film:

More from the Mayor’s website here.

The engine has now been moved to the back, the characteristic bonnet has been removed and the only two aspects of the traditional Routemaster – the curved rear and back entrance – remain. Only the back does not even have to be open all the time.

Interestingly the bus actually has 3 doors and 2 staircases – a welcome innovation… But where else in the world are there double-deckers like that? In Berlin of course – the MAN Lion’s City DD… This irony has of course not been noticed by ‘design critic’ Stephen Bayley who is quoted thus in a sycophantic and ill-researched BBC article about the new bus:

It proves the old rule that if you want things to stay the same, they have to change. And it was designed for London, unlike the hated and insulting bendy-bus, which was designed for Berlin

No Stephen. This bus has not been designed with London in mind. It’s a standard chassis, probably built in Sweden, with a slightly amended body on top of it and some odd bit of 1950s history bolted onto the back, making the bus work more like a Berlin double decker than a London one. It’s a horrible mess, designed with the heart rather than the head. And who’s to say it will even be on the roads by 2012?

DB 115 - CC / Flickr

5 days into the volcano mess and the finger pointing is starting, some of it more and some of it less well argued. Charlemagne has an elegantly penned argument of why he will not comment, while EUObserver has a summary of the rants of Europe’s politicians. Alejandro meanwhile has a go at interpreting everything according to bureaucratic meltdown.

I’m not going to try to wade into the debate about whether (or not) to open or close airspace. I haven’t got the faintest clue about the pros and cons of all that (although I fear an irrational approach to the risk that something scary might happen is behind it).

No, instead I am going to return to a common theme of this blog – what the railways of Europe ought to be doing to help get people out of this mess. I was on a train from Berlin to Brussels yesterday and those hours gave me some time to think…

Firstly, large (ex-)state-run operators are going to do a better job to get people home that smaller, private ones. Deutsche Bahn has a whole bunch of extra locomotives and 200 km/h capable carriages hanging around that can be put into action swiftly (Class 115s in operation in Köln yesterday for example). Equally SNCB could use all its extra P trains and locomotives. Smaller, private operators just do not have this legacy capacity – although eventually short notice leasing (Dispolok etc.) might help in this regard. Splitting of goods and passenger businesses may also not have helped here – could freight locos be commissioned as easily as a decade ago? Of course the caveat to this is SNCF whose staff have been on strike for the past few days making routes through France very complicated…

Secondly, if your train is on a dedicated high speed line, or is reservation only, you’re more likely to have problems. SNCF and Thalys are the prime examples here. Investment has been in high speed trains on dedicated lines, to the detriment of investment elsewhere, and with the rapid expansion of the network there are few spare train sets. Plus as these trains are compulsory reservation you can’t easily stand in the trains either. The German hybrid model – ICEs and ICs on most new lines – can cope better in times of exceptional demand. Also the little signs in ICEs telling you what seats are reserved when really helps fill a train efficiently.

Thirdly, if you’re on an international route it’s even more hopeless, especially if that’s served by a high speed line (for example Köln-Brussels, Brussels-Paris). There will be a lack of train sets and the problem will be additionally compounded by a lack of multi-voltage locomotives that could run replacement trains. SNCB Class 16s could be pushed into service, but that of course would require cooperation of SNCB and DB… hmmm.

Fourth, all of this is compounded by a national approach and a lack of proactivity on the part of the railways. Eurostar is an exception here, having laid on extra trains and made tickets available at a special price, but the railways never seem to be able to give the impression of flexibility and proactivity. I’m convinced that passengers would all be ready to get to their destination more slowly if only everyone was to be able to get there in reasonable circumstances – I’m not convinced the railways always bear this in mind. Could better planning for exceptional circumstances be better legislated for?

So then, in summary, you’re stuck somewhere in Europe and you want to get home. What should you do?

1. Go through Germany rather than France – no compulsory reservations, no strikes, extra trains, and even when no extra trains then buses.
2. Use Deutsche Bahn’s rail planner – reiseauskunft.bahn.de – to plan your trip and for some journeys you can even get online tickets. You can also search for connections not involving any high speed trains.
3. Get on Twitter and Facebook and ask for some help. I’m happy to assist via Twitter (and to friends via Facebook).

Last of all – if you have managed to get to the end of this post – head over to RailRights.eu and help me and fellow bloggers to keep an eye on Europe’s railways and improve matters for passengers!

ICE Train - CC / Flickr

I’ve had a nightmare winter on the rails of Europe – stranded 3 days thanks to Eurostar (and missing a friend’s wedding as a result), delays with SNCF, and mess with a journey to Germany.

Yet today, back home in Brussels, everything looks just a little better.

Almost 2 months ago I booked a train ticket for €60 for Berlin-Brussels for Monday 19th April. Little did I know at the time how sensible a choice that was. The Berlin-Köln ICE was standing room only from Berlin Spandau but with my reserved seat I was happily sat by the window watching the plains and wind turbines of eastern Germany roll by. At Köln things were a little messier – DB decided at the last moment to change the platform of the train – not a good idea to get 200+ people through a narrow underpass and stairs. Then security had to be called to get passengers without reservations off the train. Once more I was OK with my reservation, while a British guy next to me who had travelled overnight from Split in Croatia, no doubt at exorbitant cost, was turfed off.

So next time when friends of mine laugh about my devotion to the train (particularly Marko) then remember the effects of the volcanic cloud!

In the meanwhile I’ve given some more thought to how rights of rail passengers can be better protected in Europe, a matter first raised in this post. The first fruits of the work are now at RailRights.eu

Friskis & Svettis Sveavägen - J. Worth - CC-Sharealike

Forköpsremsor. The patter of winter tires on worn tarmac. Blåbuss 3 mot Karolinska sjukhuset. The absence of overweight people. Påfyllning. Drunken happy people on the Tunnelbana. People that say hello to you when you go to the till at a shop. Showers that allow you to set the exact temperature but splash water over the entire bathroom floor. Doors so well insulated you can’t easily open them. Doorbells that make a rather lousy ‘ping’. Long door keys with a strange plastic bit on the end. Big blocks of mild cheese made by Arla. Polarbröd. The view across the water from Stockholm town hall.

Yes, I’m back in Sweden, and – for the first time in ages – I’m having fun here.

Korv - J. Worth - CC-Sharealike

Any society has two sides to it, and how you think of a place depends on your state of mind. 2 years ago I was annoyed by Sweden. Today I’m annoyed by Belgium. Social norms are a restriction, or they are a way to get things done. Every second adult on the street pushing a barnvagn is either a society where not having a family is odd, or it’s a society that is thinking of the future.

In short, after now close to three years in the relative chaos of Belgium, the order and optimism of Sweden (and indeed Norway too – I was briefly in Oslo before arriving in Stockholm) is like a breath of fresh air. This is a society that feels less afraid of the future than others in Europe, is less stuck in the past, less beholden to old people, it’s a place that feels like it has its best days still ahead of it. Here and now I’m really appreciative of that.

Last but not least this street poster made me chuckle – in Sweden a postcode lottery really is a lottery, i.e. you win things. In the UK the term is used to determine whether you’ll get good treatment from the NHS or not!

Postkodlotteriet - J. Worth - CC-Sharealike

TGV Sud Est, original livery - CC / Flickr

The early spring sunshine is setting behind a straggle of clouds strewn across the agricultural plains of that non-descript part of France somewhere between Bourgogne and Paris. In the blink of an eye we’ll be looping around Paris and heading north to Brussels.

But before that, a pause, for this rail line is a symbol of the France of 2010 more than any other.

Opened to commercial service in September 1981 between Lyon and Paris, the 270 km/h LGV Sud Est line marked the start of proper high speed rail in Europe. The track was laid straight across field and forest, the most direct line between the two major urban centres, bettering the aeroplane.

The TGV railsets that ran then still ply the route to this day, a fantastic design that has still never caused any victim on board a train due to a derailment or accident. 16 car, double decker versions swell the capacity today, serving towns and cities as far apart as Lausanne, Milan, Nice, Marseille and Perpignan. The trains are engineered by Alstom, national champion befitting of French pride.

Yet a glance out of the window shows the other France. Tractors in wheat fields, charolais cows stood motionless in the deep mud puddles under the boughs of old oak trees, neat lines of vines lining the hills. Clusters of stone houses grouped around churches in small villages from a bygone era. Meandering, unlined roads tracing their way through ill tended deciduous woods.

Which of these is France? The blue and silver work of engineering mastery, or the slow rural life? Both I suppose. Reflect on that the next time you’re on the TGV heading south from Paris.