🇪🇸 Madrid Atocha - one of Europe's beautiful railway cathedrals. But the classic old trainshed, normally a tropical garden, is a building site today.
I'm on the 11:35 Malaga AVE, change Antequera for Algeciras.
Pity the Malaga passengers, on a bus half the trip.
The fun begins in Algeciras... 🚢..
Cubicle with both at the end of the corridor!
All quite basic. But clean, comfortable & handy for one night.
Arrivederci Italia, hola España.
Early start for a Naples-Madrid flight. Fortunately Business class on Iberia takes the edge off.
🛜 50Mb Inflight WiFi, but not over the sea, most of trip over Med. Wonder how that works??
Ah, airport hotels. One thing all major airports have for that early flight?
Of course Naples is different. No hotel, but they improvised & converted an old hanger & with bed pods inside.
Smaller than a police cell, but €35 & a 0400 alarm it’s just the job!
Never missed a broadcast of the Lincolnshire Poacher.
Still got my one time pad.
It's now blatant and open. A wannabe theocracy trying to topple an actual theocracy.
🚅 The Times: "#HS2 trains could be downgraded for use elsewhere.
A £2 billion order may be rewritten so UK factories can start work sooner - but stock would have to go 100mph slower to replace Pendolino." ⬇️ 🆓
www.thetimes.com/article/5a28...
The Times: "#HS2 to rewrite £2bn contract for trains that are now too long.
The government are in talks with Hitachi and Alstom as the cancellation of the line beyond Birmingham means trains are now too long and too many are on order.” 🆓 ⬇️
www.thetimes.com/article/95a1...
Publicly owned railway latest:
The Times: "The rail industry’s odd couple: why two bosses can work.
Leading Siemens Mobility together, Rob Morris and Aglaja Schneider see many benefits in close collaboration with government on Great British Railways." 🆓 ⬇️
www.thetimes.com/article/666d...
That's right, 3 Oct 1839 to be precise.
A French engineer Bayard bought in an English locomotive from Newcastle.
It's remembered in Naples National Railway Museum.
And much British railway practice continues in Italy, like left track running.
A look along the line...
- Electrification poles, must have cost €€€, but abandoned when money ran out.
- Ticket office & cafe. Bring your own coffee pods.
- Depot at Piedimonte, classic 50s diesel trains waiting the cutting torch.
- New Stadler diesel train
Today a trip on one of Italy's bizzare local authority operated railways.
EAV's (Circumvesuviana) Naples-Piedimonte Matese, 80km Line. Half electrified (poles, no wires then abandoned) now new Stadler diesel trains.
The 1950s trains abandoned in depot since 80s now being cut up.
Minor train collision on Rome's odd narrow gauge Giardinetti railway today.
Two metre guage trains collided at a junction.
The line is due to close & converted to a tram this year.
Here's a look at the heritage train in the stunning Abruzzo countryside - with closeup lineside thrash!
Looks like it's just running the full length this one weekend.
The regular train is 2 - 3 hour day trip, I think this 5 hour trip might be a bit much for families. And on the wooden seats!
🚞🚞🚞 Italy's 25km Sulmona-Roccaraso is the only historic railway to run every weekend.
On 25/26 April it's reopening the full length of line 128km to Isernia.
It's a stunning journey through mountains of Abruzzo's bear & wolf country.
ℹ️: ferroviadeiparchi.it
🇮🇹 Balvano, 3 March 1944.
Italy’s & one of the world’s worst train disasters.
517 die as a Naples-Potenza steam train stalls in remote tunnel suffocating most onboard.
🚁 Today, with a drone, I followed the route of the train through the mountains.
📍 maps.app.goo.gl/6FCPwQzua4oC...
Nationalisation latest...
- No refunds!!
Earlier Labour cut;
- all electrification
- Re opening Your Railway
- Oxford-MK line blocked from opening to force driver only operation
bsky.app/profile/seat...
Is this for just GBR or open access operators too?
Surely Grand Central/Hull Trains/Lumo can do their own thing?
DON'T BUY TRAIN TICKETS IN ADVANCE!
On 1 April, the government is quietly changing the rules.
Off-Peak & Anytime tickets become non-refundable after 23:59 the day BEFORE you travel.
If you wake up & find your event cancelled, NO REFUNDS, even on £100+ tickets.
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/far...
Paid off the £450m build cost?
🟣 Heathrow Express profits derailed by Elizabeth Line.
Heathrow Express, owned and operated by Heathrow Airport, made £38 million from revenues of £93 million, carrying 4.5 million passengers. Profits down by 7% from 2024.
www.thetimes.com/article/b672...
🚇 Nice to see London’s Tube No1.
Telegraph: "The 10 metros you must ride in your lifetime.
From Beijing to Buenos Aires, these subways are both incredible feats of engineering and magnificent urban art galleries." ⏬️ 🆓
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/2bbd900...
Another audacious crime in Italy.
Thieves syphoned off €100,000 of aviation fuel by intercepting a fuel pipeline between Rome's Fiumicino airport & port of Civitavecchia.
2 arrests by Cariabinieri.
The Times: "Golden Eagle: Is this luxury 13 day, Silk Road train through Kazakhstan🇰🇿, Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬, Tajikistan 🇹🇯and Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 worth £20,000?
The food is first-class but excursions gloss over the region’s history." 🆓⬇️
www.thetimes.com/article/c11b...
Milan: shocking accident tonight on the city's tram network, 2 deaths and many injuries.
A modern tram overshot a stop, then derailed as it encountered a junction, hitting a building wall.
Possible medical episode of the driver ....
🇮🇹 The trouble with the Italian language is you often see words that aren't there.
It means "illiterate" - and I think I prefer it to the English.
Yes, odd how public transport and infrastructure is right wing in Italy, unlike UK.
I'd heard the bridge was paused last year, hope it starts soon.
