There are plenty of occasions to witness society’s gradual decay. Prime among these is when travelling on our nation’s trains. As is the same with many technologies, railways are something that we pioneered once upon a time but have now left to Johnny Foreigner to excel in. Take the jet engine – in 1944 the Messerschmitt Me-262 was the first operational fighter jet despite the technology being invented by Frank Whittle in 1930.
Some very accurate and perceptive comments. That picture of the former Euston station is (along with another of the famous forecourt Doric arch) so sadly evocative of a past era of architectural style and expression that has been lost to dull and lifeless modernism and rationalisation; it is purely functional and bereft of feeling. See 'Humanise' by Thomas Heatherwick to understand the warped rationale behind this trend.
Well, so that'll be Heatherwick St-st-st-stooodio, designer of the 'BoJo bus' with no previous automotive design commissions at all. Indeed. Whatever their activity, it isn't design.
I'm a big fan of train travel in principle. But yesterday I priced a return ticket from Birmingham International to Oxford. Prices started around £90 for the day in question. Which, it turns out, is just slightly above the quoted price of a taxi.
You don't have to visit China or Japan to experience what train travel should be like. There are some excellent train travel videos, especially from Japan, on utube. Watching them is deeply shaming. There are not only the outstanding connections, nor the Shinkansen trains - there's the gleaming cleanliness everywhere, from stations to platforms to trains which are cleaned while passengers wait.
But then again, giving our 'culture', do we really deserve to have 'nice things' such as a fully functioning, clean rail service?
All very true. That said, I went to Copenhagen not long ago and I was horrified by how pleasant the place was. This includes its modern and clean underground system, which stands in stark comparison to the juddering, rat-infested Tube.
The UK can’t afford to provide high quality transport whilst it wastes our money on arms.
Or putting illegal immos into hotels with all the services regular citizens find much, much harder to obtain. Two Tier UK.
And not just arms!
Some very accurate and perceptive comments. That picture of the former Euston station is (along with another of the famous forecourt Doric arch) so sadly evocative of a past era of architectural style and expression that has been lost to dull and lifeless modernism and rationalisation; it is purely functional and bereft of feeling. See 'Humanise' by Thomas Heatherwick to understand the warped rationale behind this trend.
Thanks for the recommendation, it's on my to-read list. Alarmed by reviews by the likes of Sadiq Khan on the Amazon page but I trust a subscriber!
Well, so that'll be Heatherwick St-st-st-stooodio, designer of the 'BoJo bus' with no previous automotive design commissions at all. Indeed. Whatever their activity, it isn't design.
I'm a big fan of train travel in principle. But yesterday I priced a return ticket from Birmingham International to Oxford. Prices started around £90 for the day in question. Which, it turns out, is just slightly above the quoted price of a taxi.
Precisely. Taking the family out on a spontaneous trip by rail somewhere would require taking out a small bank loan to fund the adventure.
You don't have to visit China or Japan to experience what train travel should be like. There are some excellent train travel videos, especially from Japan, on utube. Watching them is deeply shaming. There are not only the outstanding connections, nor the Shinkansen trains - there's the gleaming cleanliness everywhere, from stations to platforms to trains which are cleaned while passengers wait.
But then again, giving our 'culture', do we really deserve to have 'nice things' such as a fully functioning, clean rail service?
All very true. That said, I went to Copenhagen not long ago and I was horrified by how pleasant the place was. This includes its modern and clean underground system, which stands in stark comparison to the juddering, rat-infested Tube.
Yes. If we don't set the cultural standard, we slide. Just look at South Africa after a mere 3 decades of 'freedom'.