And We Think We’ve Got Nimbys!
This article on the BBC’s web site shows that nimbys get everywhere, even in Italy. But it is a fascinating article about a rail tunnel between Italy and France. Christian Fraser, the author, puts this case in favour of the tunnel.
The pro-tunnellers employ a mixture of hyperbole and hard-nosed economic home truths as they argue for the project. The Atlantic will reach out to the Urals via this new link, they cry. Freight trains will zoom to and fro, boosting the shambling economies of southern Europe. Of greater interest to British tourists – skiers like me – is that the journey time from London to Milan will be cut to just six hours.
With those against as follow.
The naysayers insist that the tunnel will be an ugly, expensive white elephant. They point out that the existing trans-Alpine road and rail routes seem to cope very nicely, thank you. They claim that projections of traffic were drawn up 20 years ago and are hopelessly out-of-date. And they are worried about potentially dangerous minerals that are buried underneath the mountains being released into the air and water.
Hand on heart, even the keenest of protesters would struggle to claim the Susa Valley was an area of outstanding beauty. A narrow pass, it is already crammed with the clutter of human development – a motorway stalks across the valley floor on gigantic stilts, elevated above railway lines, quarries and factories.
But he also describes the action taking place.
In Italy, they have lobbied tenaciously – and at times violently – in their fight against the rail link between Lyon and Turin. Some 400 people were injured in clashes with the police last year when the tunnel site was first fenced off.
I know that area reasonably well, as I’ve driven through it and flown over it in a light aircraft several times. It is one of those areas, where if asked to dig a tunnel, your first action would be to ask if there was an easier route.
I don’t know the economics of this rail route, but I suspect that in the future some route will be completed to allow passengers to take the train from London and Paris to Rome or Milan.
And Now The McCamembert!
This product (?) is being launched in McDonalds in France and the row is reported here in The Australian, although I first saw the story in The Times.
It’s certainly one, I won’t be buying as camembert is not one of the cheeses I like. But I haven’t been into a McDonalds except for a Coke or some fries for about fifteen years.
The Other Side Of French Horsemeat
We may get worried about horsemeat appearing in burgers and lasagne, but I don’t think that those like me, who choose their food with care, have much to worry about, as I said here.
But one point about the French and horsemeat has been quietly forgotten. The French, like we do, love their heavy horses. And coming from Suffolk, you don’t forget that horses like the Suffolk Horse are on the endangered list. Quite frankly, they are just so expensive to keep!
The French have a pragmatic solution to keeping their heavy horses alive.
They eat them!
I remember an article in the equine press some years ago, which said that the French heavy horses, were in much better health than the British ones, precisely because of their role in the meat trade.
High Speed Trains Compared
out of curiosity, I thought I put the various speeds and size of some of the high-speed trains in Europe.
Fyra – V250 – 8 car trains seating 546, running at a maximum speed of 250 km/hr.
UK – IC 225 – 9 car trains running at a maximum speed of 225 km/hr. Although they are limited to 201 km/hr. because of signalling.
Eurostar – 373 – 20 car trains seating 750, running at a maximum speed of 300 km/hr.
ICE 1 – 12 car trains seating 743, running at a maximum speed of 280 km/hr.
ICE 2 – 8 car trains seating 391, running at a maximum speed of 280 km/hr.
ICE 3 – 8 car trains seating 441, running at a maximum speed of 320 km/hr.
Although, they are all different, it’s surprising how with the exception of Eurostar, they are all fairly shortish trains.
The IC 225 is slower, but also as they run on normal lines with other traffic, and generally stop a few times on their journeys out of London, their performance isn’t as slow as you would think.
It may lead you to the conclusion, that on shorter high-speed services with stops, 200 km/hr may well be fast enough.
But as the French like to show, there is quite a lot of pride, that your trains run very fast. But then France and Spain are probably the only countries in Western Europe, that have the space for long high speed lines.
We have had only a few details about HS2, the line from London to the Midlands, North and eventually to Scotland. They seem to be planning for speeds of up to 400 km/hr., but how much is that to just prove they can do what the French do?
Putting an engineering hat on, it’s well known that the faster you go, the more energy you need and the more noise and damage to the track you make. And if you go at 400 km/hr instead of 200 km/hr, you don’t do the journey in half the time, as you have to accelerate and brake for longer.
We also get the old chestnut, of why don’t we have double-deck trains like they do in many places on the continent. Having travelled on a TGV Duplex to the South of France, I am very sceptical about them on short high speed distances, as loading and unloading can be a nightmare, given the excess baggage people take with them these days.
So I am veering towards shorter nimble trains with superb acceleration. Taking the HS2 route to Birmingham, which has two stops between Euston and Birmingham, they might even be as quick as a faster heavier train.
But then the trouble with a slightly slower service, is that it doesn’t polish the egos of politicians, who love to say they have things like the fastest or biggest in the world.
Obviously, past Birmingham, where there is more space, the service could go faster towards the North and Scotland.
You have to remember that most of the saving in journey times from high speed trains come from taking a direct flat route. Brunel and those that built the East Coast Main Line, knew that and were able to create tracks that now allow trains to run at 200 km/hr. The West Coast Main Line had to be threaded through country estates of the landed gentry and over quite a few hills, so it is much slower.
Looking at my target of Fyra, the Dutch don’t really need a 400 km/hr. line and in fact, limit the speed of trains to 300 km/hr., although they’re not going as fast as that yet.
So there would appear to be good reasons for not building short high-speed lines capable of 400 km/hr. But by all means build them capable of 200 km/hr.
Le Pong Invades England
The whole of the south of England has been invaded by Le Pong, which originates in a plant in Rouen. Reports of the smell have been received by the BBC from people as far north as Daventry. The story is here on the BBC web site.
Not So Gay Paris!
This story is the most shared this morning on the BBC’s web site. here’s the first paragraph.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Paris over plans to give gay couples in France the right to marry and adopt children.
France seems to be getting in more and more messes, what with the taxes, jobs and the economy in general. Will they come to regret their incursion into Mali.
Hollande Scraps New History Museum
I also wondered why you see so many French kids and their teachers in the Imperial War Museum. The answers are here in this article in the Daily Mail about the scrapping of France’s new historical museum by President Hollande.
Basically, they don’t have one, and as our museums are free to entry, they just get on the Eurostar and go visit.
As someone of part-Huguenot descent, I would like to learn more about why my ancestors came to London in the mid-eighteenth century. Typical of most in the UK and even those with Huguenot descent, I know little of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
But that seems to be just one of the arguments that have scuppered the project.
But as the Mail says, other countries with chequered history including ourselves have museums that tell of that past. We have a Museum of Slavery in Liverpool. Do the French have one? I don’t think so, but they are trying to set one up in Nantes.
Gerard Depardieu May Become Russian
Who’d have thought Russia would be a tax haven, but this story says that it only has a personal income tax of 13%.
Putin seems to be welcoming Gerard Depardieu with open arms, but then I don’t think the French actor is a man, to whom a lot of the principles that guide most of us apply. He certainly seems very selfish and looking at his personal life, women are just toys in his life.
Incidentally, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a film.
Europe’s Most Stupid Politician
I’ve just read two articles about President Hollande’s tax ideas in the Times and The Telegraph. He wants everyone who earns over a million euros to pay a 75% tax rate. the constitutional Council has turned his idea down, so he doesn’t even know French law.
Forty or so years ago, such a policy could have been enforced and in those days in the UK, anybody earning over about £40,000, used to pay an income tax of over 70%. But all that did was create schemes to avoid paying tax and the best brains of the country became accountants and tax lawyers, rather than scientists and engineers to create wealth by creating companies and jobs.
But Hollande thinks he can turn the clock back!
He must be so stupid to not see that he’s being counter-productive, by giving the brilliant, reasons to leave France. Il est un imbecile.
How Can Governments Be So Stupid?
This story of how the French government has forced Gerard Depardieu to become a tax exile has been repeated through the years in many countries and it always ends up with less money being collected, the brightest and the best leaving and job losses. Usually too, you find out later that those politicians behind it, have made provisions to hide their income.
Every country needs to find ways of keeping all of their best people at home. But of course only by using totally fair and humane methods.
So how can they do this?
Obviously low personal taxes do help. And I don’t just mean income taxes, but capital gains ones as well. After all, many people who create one fortune, have a record of going on to create another, which means further employment and tax revenues from all places. But then there are people who don’t believe that if you lower taxes you raise more money! You may not, but if you frame the rules right and cut down on tax avoidance, you should get an increase.
Quality of life is also important. I live in London and I have a very good quality of life. I live fairly cheaply and get all my healthcare free. I even get all of my local public transport free. Obviously, others have other priorities, but as in France, most people can find a good lifestyle to suit their pocket.
So I think, that governments should probably concentrate on getting the basics of life right for its inhabitants. That means a good basic services, like education, police, fire and refuse collection and a health service that works for all.
Governments must also create opportunities for all levels. At the bottom, they put all sorts of administrative barriers in the way of the unemployed in getting well-paid work. If say I wanted to employ an eighteen-year-old to help me sort out this house, the barriers would be immense. So consequently, when I do, it’ll probably be a friend’s son and cash-in-hand. At the top level, governments always give out contracts to their friends. How many computer contracts have been let to companies, who’ve failed before?
Napoleon once said that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers. He was wrong in that, we’re probably a nation of entrepreneurs. We all seem to want to be our own boss. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing in the eye of most of us, but to some politicians it’s anathema.
I don’t believe the French are any different, as probably are the much-maligned Pakistanis and Somalis.
So governments should just create an environment that makes us all want to stay here and create employment, which hopefully pays enough taxes to keep the process continuing.
France has done everyone a favour, by conducting an experiment that belongs to the past. It failed then and it will fail now.
The Anonymous Widower 