Went on a wander today to see the progress on Bristolβs new cycle lane/pavement widening scheme between Temple Meads and the City Centre. Lots of work done, some sections are looking pretty finished! Plus, some Dutch kerbs - a first for Bristol? Never seen any here before myself.
www.equalityhumanrights.com/equality/equ...
The Equality & Human Rights commission is doing a consultation about how it interprets the Supreme Court ruling on Gender and Sex
So call to action for you all. Take a moment today and share experience, respect & love for people just living their lives
Incredible track maintenance/monitoring vehicle from 1944(!) in PlzeΕ this morning. Shame that 20th Century engineering works announced at short notice forced us onto a bus at this point! Still, a well-managed operation, so I canβt complain.
Exploring the gorgeous city of Regensburg today. This bridge is 12th Century, somehow! Interesting to note that the top set of stones on the parapet (plus the surface paving) have been newly replaced. Definitely wouldnβt fly in the U.K.!
I guess Central makes more sense, nothing east of Germany is Western Europe though imo. Either way, the point is the same.
Iβm not surprised, I guessβ¦ I knew in theory that it existed here. Itβs just a little weird to see something I associate strongly with Britain turning up several hundred miles away, especially when most of Eastern Europe doesnβt have many British brands.
A delightfully odd bit of Czech railway infrastructure - for some reason, the track has been plain-lined to take it further away from the platform. Also, the disconnected track has newish concrete sleepers while the extant track has older wooden ones!
Fascinating to see older Czech apartment blocks closer into the cities, and the clear lineage through to the later Soviet housing you see further out.
Olomouc is, it turns out, a gorgeous little city. With some crazy tram infrastructure, including a full grand union and multiple in-use tram/train flat crossings!
Presumably in a bid to out-woke the rest of Europeβs trams, Olomouc has tram tracks surrounded not by grass but by wildflowers. Also: bonus Actually Good cycle infrastructure.
Sadly they do not, from what Iβve heard.
Czech Tesco is such an uncanny valley⦠why does this exist??
Broke: putting grass around your tram tracks.
Woke: surrounding your tram line in a green tunnel of shady trees.
Ahhh, this must be where the Czechs practice the ancient sport of Tram Jumping.
I love concrete⦠here we have the Charleroi metro, over a main road, over a railway.
No prizes for guessing - itβs the weird tram system! The abandoned line actually seems to be getting revamped now!
Iβm sure nobody on this website of all places will know why Iβm here
It turns out Calatrava has done two Belgian stations (I get why this one isnβt as famous, itβs not quite as fancy)
They have bendy natural gas buses in France?? (And boulangeries, of course, but the bendy gas buses are cooler)
Got a tour of Parliament today - both chambers, select committee meetings and plenty of history. Definitely a perk of studying politics!
An old railway viaduct by a river
Same viaduct from a different angle
A railway bridge over a different section of river.
Exploring some relics of the Great Central Railway in Leicester today. A reminder of how short-sighted British transport policy often is⦠some extra capacity through here would be pretty useful these days.
Library sign saying βOversize Transport History Booksβ
Well weβve had a good run (debatable) but I think the time of productivity is over for today
Finally, the verdict on Bluesky? It seems okay, if a little clunky. The fact that I couldnβt get the hashtag to work is quite annoying, but oh well. I will try and use it more in future, but itβs currently not my preference.
Also, the level of car dependency and general car-brained design in smaller towns around here is shocking. Practically all of the nice squares and shopping streets I saw were used largely as through roads, often with few or no pedestrian crossings. We should do better!
Only one of the routes I used today runs more than every hour, and two were significantly less than that. Many were slower than they should be, and connections between routes were often subpar. But the network in Leicestershire is fairly well-used (while free anyway) and reliable.
As the early finish time implies, this went very well! No cancellations, no delays that affected my journey, and I made both of the >5 minute connections that Iβd refused to bank on. I suppose I have to conclude that British rural bus services areβ¦ not that bad? Well, not quiteβ¦
And with that, the 8 deposits me only a few minutes late back into Melton Mowbray. Just enough time to sprint to the station and catch a train 3(!) hours earlier than my estimate. Finished, in 10 hours and 8 minutes.
Very helpfully, this Centrebus 8 was pretty late arriving (for once, their unreliability is useful!) so I was able to catch it instead of waiting an hour. This means Iβm making my final bus journey to complete the loop two hours earlier than expected!
From Coalville, the 16 carries me and just one other passenger towards Loughborough.
I have been dropped off somewhat insalubriously by the head office of Poundstretcher, and a busy road. Not all connections on this trip are nice ones!
