yu2fa3
- 2015-03-25
Problem is is that the right kind of foreigner so often breeds the wrong kind of kid with a hatred against the country.
San Migs
- 2015-03-25
Well, no problem with attracting the right kind of foreigners who will contribute to the economy, but the freeloaders can get stuffed.
I think that is what China and Dubai want to do, although of course if you can get a effing visa for China that is!!!!
yu2fa3 - tuscan
- 2015-03-24
Same problem with the airports in the UK...they are glorified shopping malls, nothing more, nothing less.Zhengzhou or Dubai will overtake heathrow for cargo and passenger throughput sooner or later, and then it will be too late.
On the other hand we don't want to make it too easy for foreigners to arrive in Britain. If we had bods with whips and burning oil tipped from the ramparts at every port of entry it might put off undesirables. hahaha.
San Migs
- 2015-03-24
- the share-holders and management are too greedy.
Same problem with the airports in the UK...they are glorified shopping malls, nothing more, nothing less.Zhengzhou or Dubai will overtake heathrow for cargo and passenger throughput sooner or later, and then it will be too late.
yu2fa3 - tuscan
- 2015-03-23
I can take the train to a tutoring job on the other side of HK for no more than 1 pound and thirty pence....that would get you nowhere in the UK, the chuffing ticket from Manchester Airport to my hometown was around a fiver, a bloody diesel train and not direct!!!
I somehow got renamed as tuscan!! so may as well include it. I think tuscan is some sort of bean ,isn't it?
As for privatisation in UK- the share-holders and management are too greedy.
San Migs
- 2015-03-23
Very sad really, I enjoyed trainspotting as a boy, and watching all the diesel locos come and go. Privatization of the rail system was one of the worst things to happen to the UK, call me a communist if you like, but some things run better being nationalized and state owned, with the workers having a say in the running of the company.While I admire Branson for wanting to keep concorde running, I'm not sure if his train services are any better, not when it costs you the equivalent of a flight ticket to Spain to get from say London to Leeds, kudos to China, Hong Kong,Taiwan....the railway services are far more efficient and much fairer priced, I can take the train to a tutoring job on the other side of HK for no more than 1 pound and thirty pence....that would get you nowhere in the UK, the chuffing ticket from Manchester Airport to my hometown was around a fiver, a bloody diesel train and not direct!!!
Something has got broken somewhere, my hometown now doesn't have rail service at weekends because of the electrification of the line, meanwhile in East Asia, massive rail stations and high speed rail linking everywhere. Then let's not even go into the appalling airports, with the exception of Heathrow T5 which is overpriced imho, the rest are just crap in the UK.
yu2fa3
- 2015-03-22
I'll pick-up on a couple of your points. You may remember that the first attempt for 'higher' speed rail was the idea of tilting trains. Using existing rail lines the train would tilt - a bit like a motorcyclist leaning into the bends- and consequently greater speed could be attained. Problem was that it made people feel sick and the tilt mechanism did not return to the horizontal in a few of the trials. The idea was an example of the innovation I mentioned in other posts. A case of what can we do with what we've got already.
Well, I's been doing my research. Tilting trains is far from dead http://www.machinery-market.co.uk/news/9256 But what is dead is Britain's ability to make them or any other train. Although I do believe we still have some ancient goods rolling stock manufacturer...on the brink of collapse the last I heard.