The UK Department for Transport is proposing that a break in railway gauge should be introduced at the UK-French border. Britain’s main line railways will adopt the Irish track gauge of 1600 mm (5’– 3”).
Category: Transport
Signs of the times
We compare the Government’s different approaches to two separate proposals for new road signs.
Traffic signs and speed limits to be devolved to Scotland
The Smith Commission on further devolution to Scotland has recommended that speed limits and traffic signs should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament.
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Minor success for UKMA – imperial-only height and width signs to be discontinued
The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced a tiny but significant piece of progress on the long road to completing metrication in the UK.
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Metrication of the rail network
Last October Network Rail announced that they will be phasing out miles, chains and yards on the British Rail network in favour of metric units. This has already been done on most, if not all Britain’s metro and tram systems while the dimensions of railway vehicles have been measured in metric units since the 1970s. Why this change of heart?
(Article contributed by Martin Vlietstra)
“No more imperial-only vehicle signs” says UKMA
In its response to a Department for Transport consultation the UK Metric Association has recommended that the erection of new vehicle height, width and length restriction signs that display only feet and inches should no longer be permitted.
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From 1520 to 3 – metric still rules (mostly)
A first for Metric Views – an article on model railways. John Frewen-Lord takes us to an area that many of us last visited in our childhood.
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‘Area 1520’ – not about aliens or UFOs
With Easter approaching, thoughts turn to the holiday. One of our frequent contributors, John Frewen-Lord, has written an article about travel, or rather about a means of travel, which may help to get us in the mood, and which, moreover, deals with a topic not previously visited by Metric Views.
Government decision contradicts road safety initiatives
The Government has been accused of failing to implement the strategies necessary to achieve goals agreed as part of two major international road safety initiatives. Furthermore, its decision on width and height restriction sign regulations, made shortly after taking office in 2010, directly contradicts one of the aims stated by the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.
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Scrap optimism bias say public sector clients
This was the heading of an article in the magazine “New Civil Engineer”, published on 14 November. Metric Views looks at the effect of removing optimism bias on the estimate of the cost of road traffic sign conversion prepared by the UK Department for Transport in 2005.
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