Friday Reads – 9 May 2025

Elizabeth line giant digital advertising screen plans criticised (BBC)

Age of consent to be a train driver lowered to 18 years (Ian Visits)

Ikea Backs Traffic-Free Oxford Street to Serve New London Store (CityLab)

History of the The Highland Railway – Part 1 (Roger Farnworth)

India’s metro systems are world’s 3rd-longest, but needs better feeders to grow (Straits Times)

Alexandria, Egypt upgrading slow diesel line to electrified metro & 5 new stations (Ahram Online)

The User-Pay Myth: Everyone, Not Just Drivers, Pays for Roads (Streetsblog)

Safety Mudras – Air India’s Inflight Safety Short Film: Video (Air India)

One comment

  1. In Switzerland the West highland line to Oban and Fort William would be electrified. It passes within meters of 3 major hydroelectric power stations: Inveruglas on Loch Lomond; Ben Cruachan at Loch Awe on the Oban line; Lochaber Smelter in Fort William. With some track renewal to increase line speeds here and there, a better timetable and the acceleration of a modern 3 car EMU I’m sure they could get the journey time down under 2 hours for a semi fast train from Queen St Station to Oban compared to the current 3 hrs 20m and take some traffic off the A82. The ancient DMU sprinters struggle hard to get up the hills at any speed and a good 20-30 mins of the current timetable is spent waiting around for other trains to join or coming from another direction. You used to get 3 comfortable cigarette breaks when you were allowed to smoke on stations. When you include the catchment of all the ferries that come into Oban it’s probably a good 20,000 people that would be served. Likewise there’s a lot of outdoor adventure tourism in Fort William.

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