Life on the Rails

[Savonarola]

You link doesn't lead to the article, Sav, but rather to this thread...

Does Hitler lead to Languish, or does Languish lead to Hitler?   

Thanks, I've fixed the link.

[Duque de Bragança]

Austrian train plays Hitler speech over loudspeaker



I can't imagine anyone thinking that they'd get away with this; there's only so many people who have access to public address messaging.  Furthermore, even if it was something much more banal ("Issue order 66") you'd still be fired (at least in North America,) since the PA system is critical for passenger safety in emergency.

Reminds me of this incident:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/nazi-no-no-vienna-tram-driver-sacked-for-sieg-heil-greeting-a-586966.html

Reported by Syt, 15 years ago. Tempus fugit!

Vienna Tram Driver Sacked For 'Sieg Heil' Greeting

A tram driver in Vienna who welcomed passengers with the Nazi greeting "Sieg Heil" has been sacked. He said he was only joking, but passengers and the Vienna transport company didn't see the joke.

[mongers]

Significant trackside fire at Newport,Wales means my travel to Cardiff and beyond over the next week or so may be scuppered. 

[Savonarola]

My current project has headquarters on three continents and in five countries (Canada, The United States, Belgium, France and India.)  In addition most of the core team in Toronto are immigrants.  Our project manager is big into cross-cultural cooperation and differences; at our bid to project transition meeting he shared this graphic:



(He also gave us a more informative/less stereotypical book on cross-cultural business relations to read.)

The ongoing unrest in France made me think of this; although the Belgians seemed to enjoy the graphic the most.

[Josquius]

I am really interested in this stuff. I was at an interesting talk about it the other month.

One thing that stood out to me was the approach to conflict - north Europeans have something in common with Japanese in prizing relations and harmony whilst Latin folk will think nothing of a big argument. I think this informed me on  my personal relationship more than business.

The stuff on perception of time and how it leaks into business was good too.

https://ibb.co/yQs7hDt
https://ibb.co/g7zB8gg

[crazy canuck]

You link doesn't lead to the article, Sav, but rather to this thread...

Does Hitler lead to Languish, or does Languish lead to Hitler?   

Languish has reached the maximal point of self reference.  We can all go home now. 

[Savonarola]

I am really interested in this stuff. I was at an interesting talk about it the other month.

One thing that stood out to me was the approach to conflict - north Europeans have something in common with Japanese in prizing relations and harmony whilst Latin folk will think nothing of a big argument. I think this informed me on  my personal relationship more than business.

The stuff on perception of time and how it leaks into business was good too.

https://ibb.co/yQs7hDt
https://ibb.co/g7zB8gg

The book that our project manager gave us ("When Cultures Collide" by Richard Lewis) goes into that.  His thesis is that cultures can be divided into three categories:



and then he breaks down these traits further into things like perception of time or planning or hierarchy.  The book is a little dated (I think we have the 2001 revision), but it's interesting.  I like that he doesn't push his thesis too far and allows differences between two cultures of almost identical flavor (and even some for differences within a culture, though not too much  .)

[Tonitrus]

Everyone always sucks up to Canada. 

[HVC]

Everyone always sucks up to Canada. 

I just figured we had a lot of asians

[crazy canuck]

Everyone always sucks up to Canada. 

I'm sorry

[Gups]

I spent some time at the International Rights of Way conference in Denver last month - speaking on UK projects and listening to presentations (I specialise in compulsory purchase in the UK - eminent domain/condemnation/rights of way in US terminology). I susbsequently wrote an article about the cultural differences between the UK and American systems with the help of a Californian attorney.

Very surprisingly, the Americans are far less adverserial and litigous when it comes to eminent domain than the Brits.

The Lewis model definately isn't accurate for the UK. We are not cool, factual, decisive planners. The HS2 fiasco demonstrates this all too clearly.

[Admiral Yi]

I spent some time at the International Rights of Way conference in Denver last month - speaking on UK projects and listening to presentations (I specialise in compulsory purchase in the UK - eminent domain/condemnation/rights of way in US terminology). I susbsequently wrote an article about the cultural differences between the UK and American systems with the help of a Californian attorney.

Very surprisingly, the Americans are far less adverserial and litigous when it comes to eminent domain than the Brits.

The Lewis model definately isn't accurate for the UK. We are not cool, factual, decisive planners. The HS2 fiasco demonstrates this all too clearly.

Published?  Would be interested to read it.

[Gups]

PMed you a link. Hope its not too dull...

[viper37]

Montreal's new automated train's system, the REM has begun transporting it's first passengers over the weekend.

It went well.  Up 'til Monday.

When passengers arrived for their regular runs, the trains started having problems with shifting rails.  Twice in the same day the train stopped working for over an hour, and once more yesterday when it was sent into maintenance instead of another direction.

These trains spent two years in testing and the last 6 months making dry runs to evaluate the problems.

I don't understand the problem they're facing now. It's as if they didn't check the automatic lane change properly?

And they canceled the parallel bus lines on day 1 of they train coming into function, so people had no alternatives.

Not a good publicity.

[Barrister]

Edmonton started planning an expansion of the LRT to south-east Edmonton in 2011.  It was supposed to commence operations in 2020.

In 2023 it's still not operating.  No announced opening date yet.


They've also announced an extension of an existing line which will bring the lRT right past my neighbourhood.  They've started construction (well, relocating utilities in preparation of construction) this summer.  It has an announced opening date of 2028.  I remain doubtful.