Trains, Banks and Public/Private Ownership - Prev.Predict UK Gen.Election Result

[Gups]

Is this the general UK thread now?

That apartment fire looked horrific. Do they have any idea what caused it?

A fridge apparently.

[Richard Hakluyt]

There also seems to have been a problem with the cladding.

Like many older tower blocks the building had been tarted-up with some cladding that also served as additional insulation. That cladding appears to have been at least partly flammable and may also have acted as a form of chimney, enabling the fire to spread quicker.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40283980

[CountDeMoney]

The federal building I work in is relatively new;  I had never seen sprinkler systems running sideways along the window line, near the ceiling--apparently they're to keep these massive window panes from becoming too hot in the event of a fire, so they don't blow out and turn into chunks of razors and guillotines for first responders and evacuated people below.

[Josquius]

What, exactly, is integrated ticketing and why is a lack of it a problem?

You want to go from a point in the west of town to a point in the north of town.
There is no direct bus between the two.
What you have to do is take a bus to the centre and then catch another bus to the north.
Under the current system this might require buying two separate tickets for two separate companies. It might require walking to a totally different bus station operated by the other company.
With integrated systems you generally just get your ticket that lasts for a certain amount of time/zones and off you go.

In Newcastle this is a particularly galling problem as the Metro was designed to be the centre of an integrated transport system. Many stations around the edge of the central urban area are at bus stations. The design was you'd take your bus from the rural towns to these edge stations and then jump on a metro to go to where you want to go in the centre, thus reducing traffic in the centre and avoiding duplication of routes.
...but then things were deregulated.

Work is under way to try and sort this a little it seems.
http://www.citymetric.com/transport/bus-services-bill-could-help-transform-transport-through-better-data-2595

Do you actually have to buy a physical ticket and then hand it to the driver?  In my experience, with most local buses you just give the driver cash (and you better have exact change, 'cause they don't give change) though if you ride regularly you can get a monthly pass or the like.

Yes. Usually you pay the driver or show your pass (old people go free, one company busses monthly pass, etc...)
Which also has the effect of slowing things down.

[The Larch]

Got this from the Independent, don't know if beliveable or not:

Grenfell Tower cladding that may have led to fire was chosen to improve appearance of Kensington block of flats
Material would help make the flats look better from outside, planners noted

The cladding that might have led to the horrifying blaze at Grenfell Tower was added partly to improve its appearance.

During a refurbishment aimed at regeneration last year, cladding was added to the sides of the building to update its look. The cladding then seems to have helped the fire spread around the building, allowing it to destroy almost the entirety of the structure and kill people inside.

And that cladding – a low-cost way of improving the front of the building – was chosen in part so that the tower would look better when seen from the conservation areas and luxury flats that surround north Kensington, according to planning documents, as well as to insulate it.

So, the flammable cladding was adding to make the block look better for the people living in the posher areas around it? 

[CountDeMoney]

So, the flammable cladding was adding to make the block look better for the people living in the posher areas around it? 

As I was telling my man Buskers just this very morn, if you can't keep the poor out of sight at least make them look presentable, what what.

[Tamas]

Got this from the Independent, don't know if beliveable or not:

Grenfell Tower cladding that may have led to fire was chosen to improve appearance of Kensington block of flats
Material would help make the flats look better from outside, planners noted

The cladding that might have led to the horrifying blaze at Grenfell Tower was added partly to improve its appearance.

During a refurbishment aimed at regeneration last year, cladding was added to the sides of the building to update its look. The cladding then seems to have helped the fire spread around the building, allowing it to destroy almost the entirety of the structure and kill people inside.

And that cladding – a low-cost way of improving the front of the building – was chosen in part so that the tower would look better when seen from the conservation areas and luxury flats that surround north Kensington, according to planning documents, as well as to insulate it.

So, the flammable cladding was adding to make the block look better for the people living in the posher areas around it? 

To me it'd seem, the part where you can really save money to steal the rest of the taxpayer's money allocated to this, is the materials and methods used in fitting the insulation. What kind of paint you put on it all surely matters little.

[derspiess]

So, the flammable cladding was adding to make the block look better for the people living in the posher areas around it? 

As I was telling my man Buskers just this very morn, if you can't keep the poor out of sight at least make them look presentable, what what.

Buskers is your cat, right?

[CountDeMoney]

No, that would be Mr. Buskers.

[Ed Anger]

I didn't know Great White was in London.

[Josquius]

The fire is getting very political.
Have to wonder what effect it would have had if it were pre-election.
Big bonus for Corbyn I suspect.

[Savonarola]

Amtrak has two main problems.  One is that they are forced to keep sparsely used, uneconomical lines open because of Congressional pressure.  If it were operating as a private company it would shut down everything outside the NE corridor. The other is that it doesn't own most (all?) of the tracks it runs on.  So it's hard to upgrade to the level to reach Accela's maximum speed.

Amtrak owns a lot of the track in the North East Corridor.  It also maintains track owned by states in some circumstance (the line that I work on, for instance, between Detroit and Chicago is owned by the State of Michigan and State of Indiana, but those states contract maintenance to Amtrak.) 

Amtrak also is caught up in the politics of the transportation industry.  For example, due to the political power of the class one freight carriers and their unions Amtrak is not allowed to carry any sort of freight.  Historically mail carriage was the primary driver of profit in the passenger rail industry; and in almost every city the main post office is right by the train depot, but since that's freight Amtrak can't carry it.  I've seen the mail facility at Union Station in Chicago; it's enormous and it's deserted.

Upgrading track to go at bullet train speeds would require an enormous public investment; especially in the North East Corridor where land is so expensive.  That would put them in direct competition with airlines; another politically powerful industry so, even if there was a demand to upgrade to bullet trains, I doubt it would be done.

[CountDeMoney]

There would be so much less bullshit if entities like Amtrak, NASA and USPS were run like the government institutions they are supposed to be, and less like for-profit businesses.  Well, perhaps not like Amtrak, but the  "half and half" approach is simply a mess.a

[mongers]

Up to 150 feared dead in the Greenfell tower block disaster.

Some people are alleging the news is being managed, so the full death toll won't become know until weeks have passed. No sure if I believe that.

[CountDeMoney]

The Russians want you to believe it.