NO TECH MAGAZINE

Slow Travel: Crossing Europe with a Giant Land Ship

kris de decker — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 16:53:06 +0000

Belgian art collective Time Circus built their first prototype of a giant Land Ship that will travel through Europe. Like a modern-day galley, the land ship will be propelled by the muscle power of the participating travelers. The journey is understood as a 21st century pilgrimage and will take an estimated 10 years.

The Journey

Along the journey, people can board the land ship and travel along for as long as they want to. Longer stops will be made in Marseille (France), Novisad (Serbia), Timisoara (Romania) and Elefsina (Greece).

In 2018, land ship terminals will be built in these cities. Like bus stops, these will show how long it takes before the vehicle arrives. The start of the journey is planned for 2020.

The Ship

When we talked to one of the makers earlier this month in Antwerp, he said it was not yet clear whether the final vehicle would be a single monstrous land ship of 50 metres long, or a caravan of ‘small’ ones the size of the first prototype, which is 13 metres long.

He said they were also contemplating the use of draft animals or sails — reminiscent of the ancient Chinese wheelbarrow. The vehicle or vehicles will be equipped with sleeping accommodation for at least 50 people.

Confronting Bureaucracy

Either way, the trip will be challenging, not only because of the physical effort involved, but also because of many other obstacles, from bridges over telephone lines to rules and regulations. Time Circus wants to “obtain freedom of movement by gently opposing regulations with inventiveness and the use of the grey areas of the law, confronting the bureaucracy in a playful and witty way.”

The slowness of the journey gives ample space for meetings and interaction along the road. The main message of the project is to demonstrate that “unexpected forces can develop through cooperation”. It also wants to “encourage the imaginative forces in the world, introducing alternatives that lie dormant”.

More info: Time Circus. There’s also a video (in Dutch).

Buses instead of Trains

kris de decker — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 22:45:21 +0000

The latest issue (PDF, page 4/5) of California Rail News talks about our article on high-speed trains, and adds some interesting information:

The French National Railway (SNCF) has started a fleet of buses to replace international express trains. iDBUS, a brand allied with its low-cost iDTGV now occupies the Paris-Amsterdam, Paris-Brussels, Paris-London, Lyon-Milano and Lyon-Barcelona routes, offering 9 to 45 euro trips to those who have been priced off Thalys, Eurostar and trains now selling for up to 180 euro.

About 25 percent of the traffic is former overnight train trips, and the rest daytime runs with fares only a few euros cheaper than trains. Concurrently, the international expresses that used to serve Prague from Zurich, München, Frankfurt and Stuttgart also vanished, replaced by Nürnberg-Prague buses in Deutsche Bahn colors labeled IC Bus.

California Rail News editor Richard Tolmach also sent us a news article that does not bode well for the future of high speed rail travel in France:

France’s economic conditions mean passengers aren’t willing to pay up the money for the most expensive high speed rail routes.

Recording a net loss of 180 million euros in 2013 and effectively reversing the 376 million euro profit of the previous year is down to the 1.4 billion euro writedown of the high speed long distance train network value.

SNCF said that TGV “is not sufficiently profitable to cover the carrying amount of its fleet and its renewal.”

– See more at: http://www.totalrail.org/2014/02/17/frances-high-speed-rail-network-loses-2-billion-value/#sthash.IjguUGdE.dpuf

France’s economic conditions mean passengers aren’t willing to pay up the money for the most expensive high speed rail routes. Recording a net loss of 180 million euros in 2013 and effectively reversing the 376 million euro profit of the previous year is down to the 1.4 billion euro writedown of the high speed long distance train network value. SNCF said that TGV “is not sufficiently profitable to cover the carrying amount of its fleet and its renewal”.

Previously: High Speed Trains are Killing the European Railway Network.

The Private Bus System that Works

kris de decker — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:21:33 +0000

“America’s 20th largest bus service — hauling 120,000 riders a day — is profitable and also illegal. It’s not really a bus service at all, but a willy-nilly aggregation of 350 licensed and 500 unlicensed privately-owned ‘dollar vans’ that roam the streets of Brooklyn and Queens, picking up passengers from street corners where city buses are either missing or inconvenient.” Read more. Via Makeshift.

The Flying Men of Yungas Valley

kris de decker — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:04:36 +0000

“In Bolivia’s jungles and steep cliffs the Yungas people do not walk. They fly. On ropes. Like birds. Faster than astronauts. These ‘birds’ are known as cocaleros, or coca harvesters. They use ropes to swing across the narrow valleys, suspended from ancient rusting pulleys.” Watch the video. Jerry, thanks for the link. Previously: Aerial ropeways: automatic cargo transport for a bargain.

Horse-Drawn Public Transportation

kris de decker — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:24:51 +0000

“For a hundred years, from the early 1800s to the early 1900s, Europe and America had cities of at least a million people that ran on a massive, sophisticated network of carriages and streetcars. By 1880, according to historian John H. White, Jr., US cities had 415 horse-drawn railways running, with 18,000 cars on 3,000 miles of track, carrying 1.2 billion passengers a year. Most of these lines continued decades into the age of electricity and coal, simply because the horses worked better than any other option.” Read: Horse-drawn public tranportation. Thanks, Johan. Previously: Bring back the horses.

The Blackpool Tramway

kris de decker — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:27:39 +0000

They have the worst weather in the world, but they also have the hottest looking open top trams (streetcars). Welcome onboard the 1930s Blackpool Balloon cars in the UK. Alan Robson has around 1,300 pictures of the vehicles, some of them below. Text and first picture from Wikipedia.

Double-deck tram systems

“The Blackpool tramway runs from Blackpool to Fleetwood on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, England, and is the only surviving first-generation tramway in the United Kingdom. The tramway dates back to 1885 and is one of the oldest electric tramways in the world. It is run by Blackpool Transport (BTS) as part of the Metro Coastlines, owned by Blackpool Borough Council. The tramway runs for 11 miles (17.7 km) and carries 6,500,000 passengers each year. It is also one of only three operational tramways in the world that operates using double-deck tram systems, the other two places being Hong Kong and Alexandria in Egypt.”

All Blackpool trams pictured here are balloon cars:

“Commissioned in 1933 by Walter Luff, the controller of the network, in a bid to modernise the tramway’s fleet, they were intended to replace the Dreadnought cars that had been in service since the opening of the tramway. They were built by English Electric during 1934 and 1935, the first being presented to Blackpool on 10 December 1934. 27 were delivered, of which thirteen were open-topped. Numbered 237-263 and used on both summer and winter services. They had central doors and stairs, with a capacity of 84-94. Half-drop windows provided ventilation and art deco curved glass lights provided electric lighting.”

Open-top cars

“The enclosed-top trams had sliding roof windows and thermostatic-controlled radiators. The closed top cars originally worked on the Squires Gate service, and it was during this time that they became known as Balloon Cars because of their rounded streamlined appearance.”

“During World War II the need for the open-top cars fell significantly and cars 237-249 had their tops enclosed to look almost like 250-263. Also during this period the fleet was painted in a dark green and cream livery in order to conserve paint and time, as well as to reduce the chances of their being spotted from the air.”

Another remarkably vehicle on the Blackpool Tramway is the boat car (also to be found in San Franscisco).

“Built by English Electric in 1934, these cars are single deck open-topped models with central doors and gangway. They are numbered 600-607 and have a passenger capacity of between 52 and 56. These cars are known as ‘the boats’ due to their ship-like streamlined appearance and are one of the most iconic Blackpool trams. All cars are virtually identical, except for 600, which has shorter body panels.”

“The boats were first commissioned by Walter Luff in 1933, in accordance with his five year plan. The first prototype boat arrived in Blackpool during early spring in 1934 along with four other designs. After an initial trial period, company directors approved an orders for eleven more production cars, which arrived in July and August 1934. These new boats were numbered 225-236.”

In June 2009, the government gave the go ahead for a tramway upgrade. Sigh.

More information on balloon cars and on boat cars.

Composition of the fleet.

More pictures here, here and here.