• Eurostar announces October direct Amsterdam – London service (GlobalRail)
• The hustle and bustle sound of London, from 1928 (MuseumOfLondon)
• Brunel’s little known Windmill Bridge (Three Bridges) in photos (TalesBraziersGrotto)
• The hospital with a tramway inside (Achievable)
• 85th percentile: the speed at which drivers feel it’s safe to drive (StrongTowns)
• Ever wondered which cities’ Metro chimes have the same chord intervals? (DeniseLu)
• Departure jingles’ contribution to the rail experience in Japan (JapanTimes)
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The JR East (and now others) departure melodies have a number of useful attributes. With all of the announcements on Japanese railways, both on and off the train, they are helpful when making a journey as the melodies stand out against speech. It is possible to know the progress of your journey without needing to look up to see which station you are at. They were useful when travelling with my (then) small children when visiting Tokyo to see family as they could absorb the sounds easily and learn the order of the stations.
For those seriously into the music they have been “performed” by a pianist on television, with subsequent YouTube -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_0zOR_bdM&feature=player_embedded – and the music published for playing at home, as my daughter has did.
A geriatric hospital in Vienna used a narrow gauge railroad serving most supplies and food until 2011. Two links below, German language but with pictures and track layout:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldbahn_Geriatriezentrum_Am_Wienerwald
http://www.schmalspur-europa.at/schmalsp_50.htm
The strong towns article about 85% percentile speed highlights exactly what is wrong with the mass reduction of urban speed limits to 20mph..which, due to time and budget limitations, only results in 20mph “decorations” and the ability to apply stiffer penalties after an injury or fatality accident (and an excuse to generate more police traffic stops, some of which can be discriminatory).
Two examples in North London: Fitzjohn’s Ave (a broad internal distributor road and frequent bus route) achieves an risk inappropriate 20mph compliance only by deployment of “revenue” speed cameras, but Ordnance Hill in St. John’s Wood (also broad, passes a primary school, and a secondary rat run) has poor compliance in an place where there is a significant risk of injury accident to pedestrians young and old due to no change to road design or traffic flow (discouraging the rat run). This is a 20mph experimental area too, so should have been a place to demonstrate town speed realignment at its most effective, rather than “safety theatre”