# Only an excuse...??



## Glaswegian (Aug 25, 2005)

I travel to work by train every day.  The journey only takes 20 minutes and my regular train is an express - it stops at one station after mine then does not stop at any other stations until it reaches Glasgow Central station.  This morning it was all stop and go - sit at a signal for a few minutes then move on to the next one, and so on.  Normally, any delays are completely ignored by rail staff - no explanations, apologies, nothing.  Not so today - the driver decided to let his passengers know what was happening as we finally arrived at Central station.  Apparently the delay was caused by - wait for it - *additional traffic!*

What "additional traffic"?  Had some car drivers got fed up with the queues on the roads and decided to drive on the rail tracks?  Had other trains sneaked onto our line without anyone knowing?  I thought the rail company had things like timetables and signals to prevent this sort of thing from happening.  Perhaps Thomas the Tank Engine and friends had nipped out for any early morning stroll and forgot to tell the Fat Controller where they were going.

I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's journey now...


----------



## Felix Atagong (Aug 25, 2005)

Trains... I can go on for hours about trains...

Waiting at the station on platform 5 for the train of 18h45 to come. 
Nothing happens.
19h00, still no train and no explanations either, and we all wait in silence.
At 19h05 we see a railroad bloke: "Do you know when the train from 18h45 is going to come?"
Bloke from the railroad: "Huh, that train left already 20 minutes ago, on platform 1..."


----------



## Felix Atagong (Aug 25, 2005)

... and one day... train (that is already 15 minutes late) leaves Brussels North... ...well not exactly leaves, because at about 10 meters outside the station the train stops... ...and waits... ...10 minutes... ....15 minutes... ...20 minutes... ...25 minutes... ...30 minutes... as usual no news whatsoever, not on the intercom and the train bloke apparently hiding himself somewhere...

So we used the emergency handle to open the doors, walked the 10 meters back to the platform and took another train...

(lucky nobody caught us (or bothered about it) as it is a big offense opening the doors of a train while driving...)


----------



## Glaswegian (Aug 25, 2005)

Felix

I think you've just destroyed the British view of continental train systems.  I've always thought that train systems in Europe were clean, efficient and ran on time - maybe we're not so bad after all...


----------



## Felix Atagong (Aug 25, 2005)

As trains were invented in England and Belgium was the second country in the world to implement this system (otherwise we are never that fast    ) we have also imported the British efficiency regarding train schedules...


----------



## TrippyTom (Aug 25, 2005)

I guess I should consider myself lucky, living in chicago where the train is Elevated above traffic.  It runs pretty smoothly.


----------



## Mark O'Brien (Aug 25, 2005)

Glaswegian said:
			
		

> I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's journey now...



Just use the "Overground" instead.


----------



## Glaswegian (Aug 25, 2005)

Mark O'Brien said:
			
		

> Just use the "Overground" instead.


Mark - if you mean the bus, no thanks.  I've got a 20 minute walk to the nearest bus stop for a bus that goes near the office.  the train station is just 5 minutes away.  Perhaps I should look out my bicycle clips...


----------



## Mark O'Brien (Aug 25, 2005)

Yes, I'm referring to the bus.  I just remember about 6 years ago that FirstBus had their "Overground" marketing scheme going.  A kind of pretendy attempt to say that buses are as good as an underground system.


----------



## PaddyD (Aug 26, 2005)

My favourite - whilst waiting for a train at Waterloo station, tannoy announcement that a service was being cancelled because they couldn't find a driver who knew the way.


----------



## Felix Atagong (Aug 26, 2005)

*This is not a funny one.* In Belgium we have 2 'large' communities, a Dutch one (Flanders) and a French one (Wallonia). Due to federalist laws the official language in W is French and in F it is Dutch (the system is more complicated like that, there is also a Brussels region and a German region, but lets keep it simple).

One day a train running from Flanders to Wallonia takes the wrong track, literally, and is heading towards another train that is running, on the same track, from Wallonia to Flanders. Somewhere in the middle lies the 'language border' that legally decides what language to speak at what end.  

The controller in Flanders sees what will happen in 5 minutes and phones the guy in Wallonia in order to stop the train(s). The guy from Flanders says in Dutch that 2 trains are heading towards each other. The guy from Wallonia answers in French that he doesn't understand this. 

Several people die.


----------



## Glaswegian (Aug 26, 2005)

Felix

That is really shocking.

Can I ask - where does "Flemish" figure in Belgium?  Is it a language or a dialect?  I'm aware of Flanders and Wallonia but had no idea that they had different languages.


----------



## Felix Atagong (Aug 26, 2005)

Officially there is not such a thing as Flemish, the official language in Flanders is Dutch, the same language as in Holland, it is written exactly the same, pronounced exactly the same, it is the same. You will not find a Flemish dictionary opposed to a Dutch one, nor a Flemish grammar.

Now for reality: of course there are differences between the Dutch Dutch and the Flemish Dutch. 
Geographical differences: just like in England the sound of the language changes from location to location, in Flanders for instance we pronounce the r as RRR (like the Scots do), in Holland the r is far more soft (like in English). 
Political, Cultural, Social differences: there are official and/or regional words that exist in one country and not in the other or that have another official 'name' in the other country. And some 'dialect' words have of course been introduced in the 'official' language as well.

There was, about 30, 40 years ago, a kind of language-war to abolish the regional words from the South (Flanders) in favour for the words of the North (Holland). The biggest Dutch dictionary put the words that only existed in Flanders as South-Dutch, while it defined the words from Holland as Dutch, not as North-Dutch (although Flemish people never used those or had a Flemish synonym for that word).

But nowadays most scholars seem to accept that there is a Flemish and a Dutch 'variation' of the Dutch language, but it is still the same language!  

You put me on a very long train by asking that question!


----------



## Oorang (Aug 26, 2005)

I can't even imagine trying to operate without a Car. How do you get to the station from your house? How do you get FROM the station where you stop to where your going?


----------



## Glaswegian (Aug 26, 2005)

Felix Atagong said:
			
		

> You put me on a very long train by asking that question!


Sorry Felix - but thanks for the info - very interesting.

The destruction (or preservation) of regional languages/dialects seems to be "hot" again.  I think the devolved assemblies in Scotland and Wales have brought these issues to the fore.  The BBC are currently running a series devoted to regional dialects - can't remember the name though.


----------



## Glaswegian (Aug 26, 2005)

Oorang said:
			
		

> I can't even imagine trying to operate without a Car. How do you get to the station from your house? How do you get FROM the station where you stop to where your going?


It's a very sophisticated system of transportation that I appreciate many of our American friends may not be familiar with.  It goes something like this: lift your right foot about 2 inches from the ground.  Now force your brain to send a signal to the leg to stretch out and then lower the foot to ground level again.  This will have the effect of leaving the right foot and leg slightly ahead of the rest of the body.  Now try and repeat this for the left foot.  After a while you may find that you have moved several feet from your starting position.    

I beleive in many countries this system is known as "walking".    

Hope this helps.


----------



## Oorang (Aug 26, 2005)

*grins*
*raises finger in international salute* 

_("But how do you turn on the headlights??")_  

Seriously though, doesn't that take FOREVER? At one point I tried to work out a way to get to work on the bus just to save ga$ (forget about trains we don't have them), but it took like an hour and 1/2 one way. 
It was like a 2 mile (3K ish) walk to bus stop. A half hour ride to down town. A 10 minute walk to another station to pick up an express bus. And another wait whilst you got to where you were going. Then it dropped me off about 10 minute walk from work.
Now it would take even longer because I live 30 miles away from work (about 48 k).


----------



## Glaswegian (Aug 26, 2005)

Oorang said:
			
		

> *grins*
> 
> *raises finger in international salute*
> quote]
> ...


----------

