This is a gloriously nerdy book. Shuichiro Yamanouchi - considered to be one of the founding forces behind Japan's "Bullet Train" system - takes us behind the scenes of its development. It's a mixture of autobiography and corporate retrospective, with a healthy dose of engineering geekery. Although originally published in 1999 there are fairly comprehensive footnotes updating the reader on…
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Interrail were having a sale on their month-long first class tickets. So Liz and I decided to do a "Grand Tour" - running around and seeing a dozen European cities. There are lots of companies which will sell you a pre-designed package Interrailing tour - but we decided to tread our own path. We spent a few weeks poring over maps and rail planners, scouring booking.com for hotels, and working…
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I bloody hate this cartoon that's doing the rounds (I think it's by the incredibly talented Len in Private Eye). Here's what I want the caption to say: OK, one more time: Get here at least 30 minutes early because the queue barely moves and you'll inevitably be stuck behind someone trying to pay for their season ticket using pre-decimal coins. The person behind the counter either won't…
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Here's a quick tutorial for turning an old Nook into a passive display. This is an update to my 2013 post End Result An eInk screen which displays the trains I can catch from my local station. It shows the next few available trains, and whether they're delayed. It also shows how long until the next local bus to the train station. Updating the Nook Before doing anything, manually update the …
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Do you want an ultra-minimalist, open source, train times website? If so, Dan Pope, has created trntxt.uk just for you! 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. …
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Train companies in the UK are uniformly awful. Because they are privately run but endure no meaningful form of competition, we get to see just how hostile corporations are to customers when left to their own devices. I am a long-suffering passenger on First Great Western. The line between Oxford and London regularly suffers from delays. According to their own statistics, journeys on that line …
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No, I'm not talking about Masabi's innovative technology, but of this rather odd bit of advertising found on the back of a train ticket. There's no specific call to action - but there's not much space to play with. Let's give it a scan... sigh A non-mobile site. With an Adobe Flash plugin in the top right which won't work on any iPhones. Why on Earth do marketing companies insist on pointing…
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An amusing mistake spotted by my wife on her way to work. SouthWest Trains are trying to promote their Twitter service - @SW_Trains - via their LED message boards. Looks like the displays don't understand the underscore character. I wonder if anyone tested this before it went live? You can watch the full video …
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