Bombardier
The rail construction group Bombardier is running adverts in The Economist at the moment promoting the idea (a fabulous one) that rail is the future of all transport solutions with the addition of addressing environmental issues. I must admit this is the first advert I have seen for some time from an equipment manufacturer, usually you will only see operators. Their new website sums it all up…
Michael Palin’s trip round Europe
If you can watch BBC TV, unlike me, then you can watch another of Palin’s journeys round somewhere. The trip to Poland looks good…
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You can find more information about the ‘Wolsztyn Experience’ via an interesting article on Railroad.net
Night Trains in Europe
Thinking of taking the night train? Ever thought about taking the night train? On many occasions, traveling to the Eastern part of Slovakia, I have taken the sleeper. Most of the time you can get some rest, and if you’re lucky the sleeping carriages are less than 30 years old. But the concept is a good one. The linked site covers a lot of the routes around Europe. If only Czech/Slovak railways invested in the rolling stock, then maybe it wouldn’t feel like being in a working museum. Germany and Netherlands are more like hotels on rails.
Railway Mags
Over at TrainBlog, it has been discovered that two UK rail journals have been set free in PDF versions. All we need now is colour eBook readers to enjoy during the commute.
Wine Station
Going to Italy, do what the Italians do and take the "wine train". Leaving from Siena on Saturday or Sunday, heading out to Montalcino and as the name suggest, you sip vintage wines along the way. If this isn’t a good enough reason to visit Italy then consider the High-speed Pendolinos…
Fabulous Sites
I have found two, fabulous Czech sites covering the Prague Metro and Prague Tram systems. A lot of time and effort has gone into the sites and even if the language is totally unreadable for most people, they are worth a visit if just to flick through the pages and pages of information. The Prague Metro site does have an English section, but the Czech language site has a huge wealth of information including station announcements:
- Prague Tramway | Prague Tramway Photo section
- Metroweb(English version)
- Bonus -Tram Photo essays
Czech Railways - JMHD
The website, intriguingly, reads as follows…
JHMD inc. is the first Czech private railroad operator and owner. We carry on public scheduled passenger and freight diesel trains, steam trains with vintage consist during the summer season and we can set out a special steam or diesel train just for You on our narrow-gauge routes from Jindrichuv Hradec to Nova Bystrice and from Jindrichuv Hradec to Obratan
We found this site whilst looking for something else, in fact at a region we are looking to visit on holidays. The gauge is 760mm - narrow gauge, with 30 stops, max operating speed of 50km/h, and just begs to be visited - the website even has live travel information.
