YouCreativity!

Absolutely great stop-motion clip unearthed on YouTube! (link from BoingBoing):



Tags: humour, richmondtransit.blog

How to send large files through the internet?

Internet is great. You can exchange with folks elsewhere in Europe... or in Guatemala.

The only snag is that receiving mp3 or joke mails quickly fills in your inbox.

I came across this very useful web site today: SendThisFile.com allows to send files without size limit!

Tags: richmondtransit.blog, internet, trick

Transported logic

The government is talking about expanding Heathrow -if the airport meets its pollution targets. To achieve this, they've started leaking the idea of creating a congestion charge around the airport... to remove some ground transportation CO2 (powered by taxed petrol/diesel).

The alternative of taxing aviation fuel (kerosene) and invest in new high-speed rail has not been investigated by the Edington report: the ex-BA boss who was asked to work on the "future of transportation", which he did by totally ignoring indirect costs such as environment, health, etc...

For instance, it is claimed that delaying the airport expansion could cost £5bn. The flight path to Heathrow alone is impacting over 1 million Londoners. Who has factored in those costs in the equation?

Tags: transportation airlines Heathrow politics richmondtransits.blog

mBlogging

I am "mblogging" (blogging on the move) in the Eurostar back from Paris today. And I can't help that thinking that it's a very civilised way of travelling, yet light on "indirect costs".

• The journey is 2h55 or something like this, my outbound train was on time and the return is predicted to arrive 15 mn late. If I was to fly they would not even apologise for 15 mn -actually, given the terrible weather today and yesterday (check those tornado images), I would expect flights to be rather 1h late.
• Door to door, Richmond to Colombes, I guesstimated that taking the train makes my journey about 30 mn longer. That's if planes are on time. But I can work, sleep, eat or read for about 3 hours -uninterrupted. So it's much more productive than having to check-in, queue for security, having your deodorant taken away (they don't seem to make 100ml sprays), walk, lounge, lurk, walk, wait, second secutiry check, wait, walk, fly, walk, wait, show your passport, get your luggage back and then travel from CDG to Paris...
• Costwise, it's probably similar if you book you air ticket in advance but for an extra TEN POUNDS you can travel Eurostar Business Premier. Which means you're comfortably installed in wide reclinable seats and today the menus was as follows: selection of French wines (inc. some Champagne), selection of a cold morteau sausage with potato salad or some hake and prawn pie, with a tartlet to finish. It's almost a shame my French colleagues kindly bought me lunch :-) Plus you have power for your laptop... BTW, the difference in price was easily recouped by not having to buy breakfast on the outbound and saving on taxi fares to/from the airport as you "land" in the middle of the town. Oh, and free magasines and airline-style departure lounges.

So, it's not a coincidence that the Eurostar took over 70% share on journeys between London and Paris. And I guess that's quite a few planes that won't be buzzing over Richmond and sending CO2, CO, NO2, etc, into the Ozone Layer. Shame those yellow trains are moving away from Waterloo.

Which brings me to my favourite topic: all that was possible thanks to public investment in transport infrastructure. From the French governement and as long as 25 years ago when they initiated the TGV. Oh, and that tunnel. Rod Eddington's report is thus very disappointing: why do we still have to fly to Edinburgh or even Manchester then?

This week's Economist lead was on gridlock campaing and the article was supporting road charging. Excuse me but pricing poor people out of the roads is not the solution. We should think about using transport real-estate more effectively (I am one in favour of bus lanes, non-share cycling paths) and easing journeys with "intermodal hubs" (like the Hammersmith bus-tube station, but much better designed please).

Tags: travel richmondtransits.blog transportation eurostar trains

Excessive excuse!

Today, we learn that the WATERLOO & CITY LINE is "Suspended due to excessive dust on platforms". Must be the daftest excuse we've heard for a long time...

The Drain has just been shut for 6 months for a complete refurbishment but broke down the next day after service had resummed...

Excessive incompetence?

Tags: tube richmondtransits.blog transportation TfL London

Free WiFi in Leicester square

Apparently there's now free Wifi in Leicester Square. I maybe paranoid but it looks like a good way to get your laptop nicked while moblogging? I'll stick with Starbucks...



Tags: starbucks London Wifi richmondtransits.blog Leiceseter square

Borough Tony

Check Artist Tony's blog for daily pictures of Richmond -he's got a great eye (and maybe a better camera than mine?). Let's just hope he continues posting....

In this post he brings nice pics of Borough market -which apparently is under threat (see link for the campaign)

Tags: Richmond richmondtransits.blog BoroughMarket London

Perfect timing: 40% off wines?

According to this blog (thanks for the pointer James), Thresher is running a promotion on wines between the 30/11 and the 10/12: they're discounting their whole range by 40%.

Read it here: word-of-mouth story in the making... [Gapingvoid]

We have yet to see if it works but if it does the timing is perfect... and I'll come back on this with my recommendations (Threshers has a fairly middle-of-the road assortment, Waitrose if often cheaper and has almost always a beeter selection).


Tags: wine UK marketing richmondtransits.blog

Why is air travel competitive against rail on short distances?

The quick answer is: because UK politicians have not invested in high-speed railways and keep subsidising air travel. For once, there's a lesson to be learnt from the French.

Read my comment here: Zut alors! Airport group demands end to Paris flights [Richmond and Twickenham Times]


Tags: train transportation richmondtransits.blog travel politics airlines heathrow

New Richmond blog

One blog to add to my links bar: The Richmond Blog, by Andrew Pilkinton -a sociology writer.

He has strange views on junk food having no links to obesity though...

Ads misunderstandings...

I finally found the artwork for the famous "Nothing suck like Electrolux" ad here.

Another one is there, probably also on a Swedish blog.

This perfect example of mistranslation is detailed on Snark Hunting (reading highly recommended) and more translation funnies can be found there and everywhere.

Sometimes it's just not funny: I don't envy the guys who got the brief for Hitachi and came up with this. Sometimes translating is just culturally impossible...

Stagecoack to replace SWT, introduce Oyster

This article details changes to come for the Richmond (mass) transit system:
World’s your Oyster, rail users are promised - Richmond and Twickenham Times

More on news.bbc.co.uk.

In a nutshell, South West Trains are to be replaced by Stagecoach who won the franchise. They also promised to improve the service and introduce Oyster ticketing. Better late than never, but that also means that North Sheen users won't be able to use the valid excuse of the unmanned ticket desk and changeless ticket machine to get a free ride :-)

Finally, our condolances to Susan Kramer who has lost her husband.

Trains fare robbery is not promoting sustability

Train fares are raising, much faster than inflation:
Commuters hit hard by Ken's latest fare hikes (Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Hardly a way to encourage commuting in crowded public transports, Ken?

I took the Waterloo and City line yesterday, after it's been shut for repairs for FIVE months. While I was contemplating a poster presenting the benefits of the refurbishment... while waiting for late trains (alledgedly due to hardware issues)...

Finally, I am reading this morning about Virgin Trains' attempt to break the Glasgow-London speed record by going at more than 100 mph (160 km/h). This record have been in place for 25 years. Cooincidentally, it's also the 25th birthday of the French TGV, which is now trialled for commercial speed at 360 km/h (the speed record is over 500 km/h!).

Speed alone is not what matters: high-speed trains has remapped France, relieving some of the pressure on the dense Paris area and stealing market share to air travel. This matters enormously: by gaining a 68% share on the London-Paris route, rail is proving a viable and sustainable alternative to polluting airliners.

Tags: train, transportation, richmondtransits.blog, tube, waterloocity, London

What to do with diet coke and menthos?

A geyser of course:
Coke and Mentos Fountain at EepyBird.com

Much healthier than drinking and eating them!



Tags: humor

PhotoFeed du jour

I've added this feed in my RSS reader:
[daily dose of imagery]

(RSS feed)

Tags: photo

A bad Indian

I usually don't write negative restaurant reviews, but this will be the exception. A few weeks back, Sharkels', our favourite Indian, was closed for refurbishment (although it opened in Sheen quite recently). So I set off in a mission to find a takeaway, where I could also park the car and found this Bengal Village, opposite the The Red Cow.

Don't even try it, it's probably the worst curry I had for a very long time...

Put the fun back into flying

Travelling by air is becoming even more a hassle than it was before after the recent events.

Fortunately, it seems like RyanAir has found the solution:
Boing Boing: RyanAir: Airport security is like a strip-search

Tags: richmondtransits.blog humor air travel

Swan in a pub...

One for Tony...A swan near the White Cross in Richmond, one of the few pubs on the rivers to sell real ales.

Tags: richmondtransits.blog Richmond pictures pubs beer

Richmond is the fittest!

This Richmond and Twickenham Times article, relates a poll (for what they're worth :-) citing Richmond residents as the most active in mainland UK!

Run Richmond, run!

Tags: richmondtransits.blog Richmond

Is Thames Water taking the piss?

Thames Water is thanking its customer for saving water...

In the meantime, it still loose 894 millions liters a day
or about FIVE TIMES the ammount saved by the drought order (equivalent to 255 litres/property/day) just reported a 31% rise in pre-tax profits to £346.5m and narrowly escaped a fine for missing leaking targets.

As for most national infrastructure issues (trains, roads, etc...) the source of the problem lies in a lack of public investment in the recent decades. There's indeed no shortage of water in the North nor there is a mean to bring it to the most populated area of the country.

What a legacy baby boomers leave us: accute environmental issues, pension funding shortfall, derelict infrastructures. Every day, it looks like this generation took it all for themselves...

Tags: richmondtransits.blog draught politics