Click here if the embedded gallery above does not work.

It turns out, trains in Vienna are often late recently, but the display of expected arrival times greatly increases comfort for those who have an appointment.

(a serious design mistake here is that the next stop itself is not always visible, as it rotates with the speed display. Another important information, the current time, is also relatively hard to find.)

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The Haags Openbaar Vervoer Museum (founded in 1989) opened for visits on 21st May 2009. In the last couple of months, not only the old tram depot building was renovated, but a conference room was set up for groups and events, and the exhibition got a fresh graphical look under the name “Remise”.

A few people were already gathering around the museum building well before the 1 pm opening, as a good part of the collection van be clearly seen from the outside too (above left). Two axle and PCC tram cars, two Hague buses and a London Routemaster red double-decker bus (above right) are parking in the outside, the latter has only recently been removed from service according to the passenger information displays.

After the last tram reverse movements (as most of Hague trams are unidirectional) (above left) and bus Y-turns (above right), the museum opened its doors and four smaller rooms of models, destination panels and uniforms could be seen accompanied by a few photographs and short Dutch descriptions. The highlight of this exhibition is the tram boogie and the matching frontal section of the tram body turned over to show the joining mechanics (bottom right).

In the covered area of the depot, further trams and buses can be seen (below left), and the careful observer can even notice some model railroads on the tram seats waiting for a better time (below right). You can even keep an eye on the trams now via the webcam service.

Around half of the trams display the Kurhaus in Scheveningen on line 8 as their destination, which is not coincidental. A good series of revolutionary tram systems were introduced in this section before Amsterdam or Rotterdam: the horse tram (1864), the steam tram (1879) and finally the electric tram (1891). In 1927, the first “sneltam”, fast tram was introduced, having its track separated from other traffic. After WWII, the city saw the first PCC trams, grassed tracks in the seventies, later viaducts were built in the city center, even inside the Den Haag Centraal railway station building (below left).

In 2004, the tram tunnel of two stops was inagurated in the centre (above right), which allowed to convert the street level to a pedestrian area (bottom left). In 2007, two tram lines were converted to higher comfort, speed and punctuality under the brand name RandstadRail (bottom right), and these tram-trains travel as far as the neighbor city of Zoetermeer reusing a former heavy rail line. The ambitious plan of the near future is in fact the upgrade of following lines to the RandstadRail model.

The historic trams used to travel on more diversified routes, but problems of excessive wear arose from the different geometric profiles of the rails and the tram wheels. Some route restrictions had to be applied not only to museum stock but also for part of HTM’s own fleet. Hence last year, no tram rides were possible, and more replacement works are necessary to raise the restrictions.

The museum is open from May to October every Sunday 13am-5pm, he entrance fee is 3.50 euros, valid for a tram or bus journey too. The site is accessible with a short walk from Den Haag HS railway station, and if the museum leaves you curious, you can take a train to nearby Utrecht (below right) for the Dutch Railway Museum (below left).

More of my the Hague pics in Flickr.

Caprine Szilvásvárad maraton, 2009-05-31

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Magyarul a pendolino.blog.hu-n.

On-board WiFi has been a big hype among premium/high-speed rail providers, as they expect more business travellers from introducing the new service. The Belgian-French-Dutch-German Thalys has been testing its system since 2005, the British Virgin Trains and the US Acela Express also have plans. This wouldn’t make much sence on a traditional railway in the era of mobile (as in GSM/UMTS) internet, but the high speed trains travelling through 2+ countries and in tunnels can actually use an on-board system.

The technology is the following: the trains connect to a ground relay through a satellite connection, and repeaters are placed inside tunnels to make the connection continuous, as you can see on the picture from Thalys below.

The Thalys business model: 60 minutes for 6,5 euros or unlimited for 13 euros; free access in 1st class.

If I manage to publish this post, that would mean that the connection is pretty stable, as I am currently writing on a Paris-Amsterdam service. I measured 24/8 Mbps down/upstream, and while it’s true that there is connection even at 300 km/h and in tunnels, but it often disconnects in normal-speed tunnels like Antwerp station and Schiphol Airport. There is an electric socket on all 1st class seats (and on all classes on the refurbished trains coming this year for HSL Zuid), but it is a bit unreliable.

The extra feature is geolocation, as known from flights and the railjet. The screenshot below shows our train approaching Antwerp central station at 153 kph.

The map shows perfectly that the main mission of the Thalys brand is to exploit the HSL between Paris and Brussels. From this line, trains branch to nearby cities on partly traditional lines for journeys of 1-4 hours alltogether.

We are arriving at Amsterdam Centraal, check out my Flickr account for more images of Thalys or Paris.

Magyarul a pendolino.blog.hu-n.

Netherlands has been building an intercity light rail network for the past years, reusing previous sections of tram lines, metros and heavy rail and extending them with new sections of elevated rail and tunnels. The RandstadRail currently operates on the southern region of the “round city”, namely connecting the Hague to its suburbs and Rotterdam.

The tram lines 3 and 4 bring commuters from Zoetermeer and from the west to the Hague, using low-floor tram-trains operated by the transit company of the Hague. Although elevated tram lines were not at all unknown in the city centre before RandstadRail (and hence there is no need for heavy metro), an eye-catching, new viaduct has been built just two stops from the central station, while the trams run underground on the other side of the city. In the suburbs, the Alstom RegioCitadis tram-trains run on street level, but still protected from individual traffic.

In the near future, further the Hague tram lines are planned to be converted to a RandstadRail line, and in 2010, 100 of the current 147 trams will be replaced by this low-floor, somewhat wider design.

Citadis tram-train in the new the Hague viaduct

In contrast, the Erasmus line from the Hague to Rotterdam has a high-floor standard, because – although the current Rotterdam terminus location is not optimal – as soon as the short tunnel section under the central station is finished, this service will be merged with the Rotterdam heavy metro line of the same name. The rolling stock is already operated by the Rotterdam transit authority, recently the RSG3 trains manufactured at the Dutch factory of Bombardier.

RSG3 rolling stock of the Erasmus line on Rotterdam terminus

RSG3 interior

Due to unified branding and livery, the differences in the two systems above might only be apperent to us train buffs, but the five shared stations had to be designed for mixed floor-level use. As stairs are not acceptable anymore in local transport, these stops simply have platforms of both heights connected with ramps.

Low-floor RegioCitadis arrives, the departing RSG3 metro car has stopped at the high-floor section in the foreground.

The three lines once again meet at Den Haag Centraal, where the Erasmuslijn arrives on the heavy rail platforms, while the 3-4 light rail line stops are elevated inside the rail station.

RSG3 at the Hague central station

Hague-operated RandstadRail over mainline trains

The photos are from my trip on April 12th, more pics here!

(go to flickr if you can’t see the embedded flash)

This year, unfortunately, the royal celebration in Apeldoorn ended in a tragedy when someone killed 5 people with a car trying to attack the Queen, so the official events had been cancelled there.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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In addition to wind and rain, the new glass roof shelters at Astoria are defenseless against summer sun heat, too. On the bright side, it can handle two billboards.
 
 
—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

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A Stadionokon lattam el?ször ezeket a láthatóan vadiúj elektronikus jeladókat a vágányban. Tudja valaki, mik ezek? Az uj Alstom kocsik automata vonatbefolyásoló rendszere? Update: igen.

The single thing the CEOs of Budapest budget airlines agreed on (according to a story in zine Figyelo a while ago) is that it is a waste of money and energy to take people to planes some 50 m away by buses. Now there are 3 new walkways to fix this, although we didn’t use them yet.

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Namost egy dolog a noreply@cég email cím, bár Guy Kawasaki ezt is rossz dolognak tartja:

“On a corporate level, communication would be so much easier if companies stop sending emails with a warning not to respond because the sender’s address is not monitored. I don’t mean they should not include the warning. I mean they should monitor the address.”

de a nevalaszolj azért durva.

1. Nem tegeződtünk össze, és nem kell ahhoz geeknek lennem, hogy lássam a címet.
2. A noreply eredeti inkább azt jelenti hogy nincs válasz, nem fognak tudni válaszolni, és nem azt hogy meg se próbálj válaszolni te kis pont.
3. Valószínűleg valóban nincs nagy szükség vagy kapacitás arra, hogy tömeges jegyfoglalós emaileket válaszoljanak meg, de egy vasúti cég nincs abban a helyzetben, hogy megengedhesse magának, hogy fizető ügyfelet riasszon el. (Breaking News: általánosságban is rossz ötlet). Egy automatikus válasz a MÁV Csoport valódi elérhetőségeivel viszont megfelelő lenne mondjuk egy foglalas@mav-start.hu címmel.
4. Kicsit eufemizmusnak tartom utazás adatainak hívni csupán egy dátumot és két városnevet, amikor most foglaltam egy retúr helyjegyet két konkrét vonatra.

Bónusz: Ezt a jegyet egy olyan kék-szürke dobozból fogom átvenni, amiben van egy teljes számítógép érintőképernyővel és hálózati kapcsolattal, és egy jegynyomtató. Pár méterrel odébb lesz egy sárga doboz, amelyen van bankkártya- és pénzbefogadó nyílás, néhány gomb (kevesebb, mint ahány célállomás van), és ismét egy jegynyomtató. Ha jól számolom, ez pontosan néhány gombbal és egy jegynyomtatóval több annál, mint ami ahhoz lenne szükséges, hogy tetszőleges úticélra lehessen jegyet venni automatából.

Azért ez vicces:

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The picture on the left (click for large versions) is Lausanne Main Station in Switzerland, with the Swiss Alps in the background. I have spent half a year here as an exchange student and sometimes I feel like going back again to study, windsurf, ski, and, as you might have guessed, to take a train to the alps to go cycling.

The picture on the right, however, is the Budapest Déli railway station, from where I live now.

At first sight, it feels great to see such similarity in two places where I love to live, but I can’t ignore the striking difference in the quality of the rail infrastructure. I wish it wasn’t a good metaphor for the “State of the Nation” too.

Can you guess now, how many pages long the Swiss rail timetable book is for the new season just started? One last help is that the Hungarian timetable book is 815 pages long, and as such a heavy product, is only scarcely available, as described here (in Hungarian).

Well, as you can see from the picture, the swiss timetable is a stunning 1 page, which is some 99.98% less.

from sma-partner.ch, click here for large version (PDF)

I am exaggerating, yes; of course it is also available in book-like formats, and it is in fact an A3 page (so be it 8 regular pages), and there are a couple of exceptions for which you have to refer to a slightly longer document.

Switzerland, of course, has a denser network and more frequent departures than Hungary and most other countries in the World. The reason it is still possible to describe all national departure times on one single network map is because virtually all trains follow a repetitive schedule of 60 or sometime 120 minutes. This is called Integraler Taktfahrplan (ITF) and the non-integrated (i.e. with bus services) version were even tested on some lines of Hungary until December 2008.

Did I mention that less is more?

ITF is not only easy to map and hence easy to remember, but its additional cost over traditional timetables is surprisingly small, due to its high efficiency. But more on that later, now please just have a look at the Swiss map (PDF) and enjoy.

Eredetileg megjelent a BKV-figyelőn (a címet nem én adtam .

Az a tény már önmagában mulatságos, de nem meglepő, hogy dec 28-án nem lehet januári bérletet kapni. Batthyány-n pénztáros korrekten tájékoztat, hogy másnaptól, és segítőkészen felajánlja, hogy dec. 31-től tud adni (ezt kellett volna).

Dec 29-én több pénztárnál nagy sor, többen ingerülten távoznak (ez még – sajnos – nem gyanús). Sorra kerülve “csak 31-én tudok adni.” “és miért nincs ez kiírva?” “megtiltották”. – Vagyis valamely épelméjű “menedzser” kitalálta, kisebb presztízsveszteséget okoz a cégnek kitolni a fizető törzsutassal, mintha mittudomén a hitelező az igazgató úr audija után meglátja, hogy egy veszteséges állami cég visszautasítja az utasok pénzét.

Epilógus: következő pénztárnál már ki van írva, meglepődve kérdezzük, “önnek nem tiltották meg?” “de, csak látja milyen sokan várnak” – tehát tényleg igaz a tiltás, de van akinek fontosabb az utas.

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—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Posted via email from Daniel’s posterous

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Posted via email from Daniel’s posterous

Posted by email from Daniel’s posterous

(image from time.com)

Vasárnap (április 20-án) ismét Critical Mass Budapest kerékpáros felvonulás a környezetkímélő városi közlekedési módok népszerűsítéséért, egy egészségesebb levegőért és egy kellemesebb városért.
Minden információt megtalálsz itt: http://criticalmass.hu

Hogyan tudok részt venni? A felvonulás 16.30-kor indul a Deák térről, de érdemes már előbb 15 órára kilátogatni, akár gyalog is, mert a Brit Nagykövetség látványos gyalogos demonstrációt szervez. Ha messze laksz, csatlakozz valamelyik csillagtúrához, hogy kényelmesen és vidáman juthass el a felvonulásra! Ugyanakkor a zuglói Millenáris kerékpáros versenypályán már reggel 8 órától programok lesznek, többek között Hajós Andrással és Bodrogi Lászlóval. Részletek és további programok itt.

Hogyan kerülhetem el a kellemetlenségeket? Reméljük, a Critical Mass felvonulások hosszú távon éppen hogy kellemesebbé tehetik a várost. Ugyanakkor ha aznap a belvárosban akad dolgod, javasoljuk, hogy kerékpárral, gyalog vagy metróval közlekedj, így kerülheted el a torlódásokat. A felvonulás útvonalát rendőrök biztosítják, és várhatóan 18.30 körül ér véget a Városligetben.

Hogyan segíthetek a felvonulás sikerében? Akár el tudsz jönni vasárnap, akár más dolgod van, más módon is segíthetsz, ha egyetértesz a céljainkkal. A következÅ‘ pár napban felhívhatod ismerÅ‘seid figyelmét a felvonulásra, ehhez a fentieken kívül minden információt online és offline szóróanyagot megtalálsz a http://criticalmass.hu weboldalon. Itt a felvonulásokon túl egész évben lehetÅ‘séged van kis és nagy dolgokban segíteni, hogy Budapest – nyugati testvéreihez hasonlóan – a kerékpározás és a közösségi közlekedés támogatásán keresztül egy jobb város lehessen.

A legfontosabb viszont, hogy kerékpározz Te is minél több hétköznap! Az elinduláshoz rengeteg segítséget találhatsz az interneten, legyen szó térképről, lakatolásról, biztonságos közlekedésről vagy karban-tartásról.

találkozzunk vasárnap!

update: pénteken minden bizonnyal BKV sztrájk lesz, a város jövőjét veszélyeztető járatritkítások ellen. Ha úgy döntesz, hogy nem szeretnéd a dugót és a légszennyezést tovább növelni autózással vagy taxizással és/vagy nem szeretnél elkésni, és a dugókra immunis kerékpárt választod, itt találhatsz magadnak társaságot.