Hydrogen-Powered Trains To Be Introduced In Northern Italy
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Fuel Cell Works.
These three paragraphs introduce the project.
Residents and visitors to Valcamonica, an Alpine region in northern Italy, will be able to ride hydrogen-powered trains from next year.
The pioneering project, the first of its kind in Italy and supported by an investment of 367 million euros ($396 million), marks a significant adoption of hydrogen fuel for a rail line, despite the high production and operational costs.
The region currently uses polluting diesel trains, which will be replaced by 14 zero-emission hydrogen-powered trains made in Italy by a unit of French group Alstom
The trains will run on the Brescia–Edolo railway, which has this Wikipedia entry.
This OpenRailwayMap shows the Northern part of the railway.
Note.
- Edolo station is indicated by the blue arrow at the top of the map.
- The Brescia–Edolo railway is indicated by the yellow line.
- Stations are indicated by blue lettering.
- Iseo is the station in the South-West corner of the map.
- Click the map to show it to a larger scale.
This second OpenRailwayMap shows the Southern part of the railway to the same scale.
Note.
- The Brescia–Edolo railway is indicated by the yellow line.
- The Venice-Milan railway is indiated by the orange line across the bottom of the map.
- Stations are indicated by blue lettering.
- Iseo station is in the South-West corner of the map.
- Brescia station is in the South-East corner of the map on the Venice-Milan railway.
- Click the map to show it to a larger scale.
It looks to me, that the Brescia–Edolo railway could be a day-out if you were having a holiday in Milan, Venice or Verona.
- The railway is a single track railway.
- It appears to go through the mountains.
- Currently, it is diesel powered, but I suspect running hydrogen trains on the route will turn it into a major tourist attraction.
Could other rail routes attract visitors, by going for zero-carbon traction using hydrogen?
In the UK, these are surely six of many possibilities.
- Settle and Carlisle
- Marshlink Line
- Mid-Cornwall Metro
- Norwich and Sheringham
- Sheffield and Huddersfield
- Mid-Cornwall Metro
- Uckfield Branch
Infrastructure costs would just need a hydrogen supply to be arranged.
Conclusion
You can always trust the Italians to use a stylish solution.
London Gatwick Implementing Time-Based Separation On Single Mixed-Mode Runway
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Flight Global.
These four paragraphs introduce the technique.
UK air navigation service NATS has applied its intelligent arrival separation system to a mixed-mode single runway for the first time, with implementation at London Gatwick.
The system uses dynamic time-based – rather than distance-based – approach spacing in order to maintain sufficient arrival rates in strong headwind conditions.
Headwinds reduce the groundspeed of inbound aircraft flying at a set airspeed. This means a longer interval between two arrivals spaced a fixed distance apart.
“Having to maintain set separation distances in those conditions reduces the landing rate and can have a significant knock-on effect to the airport operation,” says NATS.
I have flown light aircraft onto main runways at major airports several times, including Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Naples, Nice, Southend and Stansted.
In one approach I made to Dublin airport, this type of approach may well have been of assistance.
I was flying into Dublin in my Piper Arrow; G-JMTT.
- I had crossed over Anglesey to leave Wales and I was talking to RAF Valley, whilst I crossed the Irish Sea in more of a direct line for Dublin Airport.
- The RAF handed me over to Dublin Approach, who gave me a series of vectors to point me at the main runway at Dublin Airport.
- Dublin Tower, then gave me the instruction. “Tango-Tango Can you speed it up a bit! There’s a Jumbo on your tail!”
- I replied. “Affirmative! Tango-Tango!” I then lowered the nose and pointed it at the runway to speed things up a bit.
- Dublin Tower, then asked. “Tango-Tango On landing, can you expedite clearing the runway?”
- There was then a brief exchange, where I negotiated my route off the runway, by taking the first taxiway on the left and then stopping.
- After a safe landing and a stop on the taxiway, Dublin Tower called. “Tango-Tango! We’ll give you ten out of ten for that!”
- After which the Jumbo rushed past on the runway, with the pilot giving a quick laugh over the radio.
- Dublin Tower called. “Welcome to Dublin!”
The Irish have different ways of doing things!
But, seriously, NATS are probably just implimenting a computerised form of what good air traffic controllers have done for years.
In that arrival at Dublin, the controllers had stretched the time and distance between my small Piper and the Jumbo, so everything was safe.
There alternative would have been to delay one of the planes.
Conclusion
It looks to me that the application of a new algorithm by NATS, will squeeze a few more aircraft into Gatwick’s single runway.
How Jewish is Volodymyr Zelensky?
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Jewish Chronicle.
This is the sub-heading.
The Ukrainian President is hailed as one of the few Jewish world leaders not from Israel, but how Jewish is he
The article is a must read, as it gives a valuable insight into what drives Zelensky.
These two paragraphs describe his upbringing.
Zelensky grew up in the Russian-speaking city of Kryvyi Rih, in the eastern part of Ukraine. Like most Soviet Jews, his parents were highly educated but limited in where their careers could go. His father was a professor of mathematics and his mother studied engineering.
Zelensky said he grew up in an “ordinary Soviet Jewish family,” which was to say, not very religious, since “religion didn’t exist in the Soviet state as such.”
We could certainly do, with more world leaders, who understood science and had less religion.
It also publishes a story of four brothers that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
“Three of them, their parents and their families became victims of the Holocaust. All of them were shot by German occupiers who invaded Ukraine,” he said. “The fourth brother survived. … Two years after the war, he had a son, and in 31 years, he had a grandson. In 40 more years, that grandson became president, and he is standing before you today, Mr. Prime Minister.”
Zelensky has come one hell of a journey and it has been very much a Jewish journey.
In addition to all the pogroms, persecutions and the Holocaust, he would probably know all the various medical problems and diseases, that members of the Jewish faith seem to have suffered, in Eastern Europe.
Today, The Times published an article which is entitled Zelensky: Putin Will Die Soon And The Ukraine War Will End.
IThe article has this sub-heading.
The Ukrainian leader says after Nato summit that the Russian president is near death and fears losing his grip on his people.
I would believe, that the Ukrainian leader is talking from a position, where he is sure of his facts, because of his Jewish heritage and what he knows of Putin’s heritage, which is partly Jewish, and his life and medical history.
Consider.
- As a coeliac, who lost his son indirectly to coeliac disease, I believe that it is a dangerous disease to have, if it is undiagnosed and you are not on a gluten-free diet.
- From some of the stories, I’ve read about Putin, I wonder, if he could be an undiagnosed coeliac. As I spent fifty years of my life that way, I know what it’s like.
- According to the NHS, coeliac disease is much more common in women and backing this up, is the fact that I’ve only ever met two male adult coeliacs.
- Is coeliac disease in Russia, very much a girly disease, that action men, like Vlad the Butcher can’t get?
- If Vlad is an undiagnosed coeliac, there could be something nasty, like a stroke or cancer lurking in his genes.
Given his upbringing, Zelensky is probably giving us, a scientific analysis of the facts about his adversary.
The Anonymous Widower 