Andy Roberts

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  Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/23/ash-cloud-moves-towards-uk-airspace

  Ash from Iceland’s Grimsvötn volcano could affect Heathrow by the end of the weekThis article titled “Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace” was written by Dan Milmo and Adam Gabbatt, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 23rd May 2011 10.04 UTCAirlines and airports have been warned to expect ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano to arrive in UK airspace by Tuesday, with the possibility that it could affect Heathrow airport by the end of the week.The safety watchdog for British airlines and airports, the Civil Aviation Authority, said today that particles from the Grimsvötn volcano could reach Scotland by midnight tonight and western England by Thursday or Friday, depending on wind direction.If airspace in western England, Ireland and the Atlantic is affected by the smoke plume transatlantic flights in and out of Heathrow could suffer delays later this week as planes are diverted around the most dense parts of the cloud.However, the Civil Aviation Authority said it was confident that a new Europe-wide safety regime introduced after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption last year would reduce disruption significantly and avoid the continental shutdown that stranded millions. Under the new operating procedures, it is understood that the effect of last year’s plume on commercial routes would have been 75% smaller.Nonetheless, some disruption is expected as airplanes divert around the heaviest parts of the cloud. According to the latest forecasts, Inverness and Aberdeen are the most likely airports to suffer disruption tomorrow, although the most accurate estimates can only predict six hours ahead.“Our number one priority is to ensure the safety of people both on board aircraft and on the ground. We can’t rule out disruption, but the new arrangements that have been put in place since last year’s ash cloud mean the aviation sector is better prepared and will help to reduce any disruption in the event that volcanic ash affects UK airspace,” said Andrew Haines, CAA chief executive.Under previous guidelines, aircraft were summarily grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air. Now, airlines can fly through ash plumes if they can demonstrate that their fleets can handle medium or high-level densities of ash.The Met Office’s volcanic ash advisory centre will identify the density and location of the cloud, aided by satellite images, weather balloons and a radar specially installed for monitoring purposes in Iceland last year. Once those zones are relayed to airlines, they will need to prove that they can fly through them by producing “safety cases” that will include information from aircraft and engine manufacturers on the airline’s tolerance to volcanic ash.A CAA spokesman said all major UK airlines already had safety preparations for medium-density ash clouds.“We are in a much better position than last time,” he said. “Safety will still be paramount but we will be able to drastically reduce disruption compared to last time, provided there is not a huge amount of high-density ash.” The spokesman said a similar level of ash to the Eyjafjallajökull incident would not result in a mass-grounding. “It will be a different picture.” However, jets will have to divert around high-density clouds, causing delays on some routes, because no UK airline has submitted a safety case for flying through heavy ash plumes.BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, has convened a crisis support team to prepare for a reduction in flights, as airlines and airports await a further briefing from Eurocontrol and the UK air traffic controller, Nats. “We are working closely with the CAA and Nats in preparing contingency plans if ash enters UK airspace,” it said.Under the new ash guidelines, cloud densities are split into three levels: low, medium and high. Once the Met Office assigns a particular density of ash to a section of airspace, airlines must prove they have the safety case to fly through it. A low density cloud is 2g of ash per 10 cubic metres of air, with medium being 2g to 4g of ash per 10 cubic metres. Anything above 4g is deemed high density.The Grimsvötn volcano began erupting on Sunday, causing flights to be cancelled at Iceland’s main Keflavik airport after it sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles into the air. Experts have said the eruption was unlikely to have the dramatic impact that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano had in April 2010.“At the moment if the volcano continues to erupt to the same level it has been, and is now, the UK could be at risk of seeing volcanic ash later this week,” said Helen Chivers, a Met Office spokeswoman. “Quite when and how much we can’t really define at the moment.”She said the weather situation was likely to be different from last year, with the wind direction set to change continuously. She added: “If it moves in the way that we’re currently looking, with the eruption continuing the way it is, then if the UK is at risk later this week, then France and Spain could be as well.”While the ash has grounded aircraft in Iceland, it is not anticipated that it will have a similar impact in the rest of Europe.Dr Dave McGarvie, volcanologist at the Open University, said the amount of ash reaching the UK was “likely to be less than in the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption”, and the last two times Grimsvötn erupted it had not affected UK air travel.“In addition, the experience gained from the 2010 eruption, especially by the Met Office, the airline industry, and the engine manufacturers, should mean less disruption to travellers,” he said.The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in south-east Iceland in April 2010 caused the worst disruption to international air travel since 9/11. Flights across Europe were cancelled for six days, stranding tens of thousands of people, and the eruption was estimated to have cost airlines £130m a day.Eurocontrol said in a statement: “There is currently no impact on European or transatlantic flights and the situation is expected to remain so for the next 24 hours. Aircraft operators are constantly being kept informed of the evolving situation.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogAsh cloud moves towards UK airspaceRelated posts:How to pronounce EyjafjallajoekullAsh Grounds Planes, Rest Of World Cut OffTag Cloud

  

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  May 23 2011, 4:09pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Health agency issues Olympics emergency warning

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/05/health-agency-issues-olympics-emergency-warning

  Health Protection Agency says upheaval caused by its abolition could pose ‘extreme risks’ during the London 2012 Olympic Games

  This article titled “Health agency issues Olympics emergency warning” was written by James Meikle and Owen Gibson, for The Guardian on Thursday 5th May 2011 16.30 UTC The NHS’s main public health body says its planned abolition weeks before the 2012 Olympics could compromise emergency responses if there are serious incidents at the games. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) warns the upheaval generated by huge organisational changes across the health service could pose extreme risks when Britain hosts the world’s biggest sporting event next summer. There is “high potential” for funds aimed at protecting the public at the event to be cut, it says. In the past, the risk to public health at the Olympics has come from incidents as diverse as food poisoning and terrorism. The agency is responsible for disease control and monitoring as well as scientific and public health advice during emergencies. Its responsibilities are to be absorbed within the Department of Health. Other authorities which tackle such crises are also in turmoil, with staff leaving primary care trusts well before they are abolished in 2013, while local councils are being hit by spending cuts. Labour has demanded the shakeup should “at the very least” be put on hold until after the London Olympics. Diane Abbott, the shadow health minister, said: “David Cameron seems to be prioritising driving through his NHS reorganisation above public safety during the Olympics. “For this Tory-led government to push our public health services into a state of chaos and abolish the current agency right before London 2012, with people from all over the world arriving in London, and the eyes of the entire world on Britain, is nothing short of a disgrace.” The revelation of the HPA’s concern over the Tories’ NHS plans comes as public health professionals fear their voice is being ignored, even during the government’s two-month listening exercise. They have no members on the Future Forum group overseeing the exercise, headed by GP Steve Field. The timetable for the shakeup has already been hit by the break in the progress of legislation – meaning the first changes are now scheduled for July 2012, the month in which the games begin, instead of April. That shift has led the HPA to say the risk of “compromising” national emergency responses during the Olympics is now even higher than when it first raised the issue in its official response to the shakeup in March. It warned then that there might be “considerable risks to the national capability to launch multi-agency responses to incidents and emergencies”. The agency said the planned changes would create “considerable uncertainty” and “preparation for, and response to, incidents arising in association with the Olympic and Paralypmic Games will be compromised” unless an appropriate structure replaced the current one. In a statement to the Guardian, the agency said: “Deferring the changes to July 2012 would increase the risk. We have made the Department of Health aware of our views concerning the risks in delaying.” It said a small number of its 3,850 staff had already left, citing concerns about the independence of their work and advice if they were moved to the health department. The HPA’s March document states that the move could also undermine wider public and professional confidence. Abbott said: “It is time that this government listened to public health professionals. Alarm bells are now ringing within the Health Protection Agency, local authorities and also local primary care trusts, and increasingly there will also be concern amongst the public. “We have worked hard to bring the Olympic Games to Britain. It should be a time in which we showcase what Britain is about to the rest of the world. The priority should be public safety and ensuring that we are prepared to respond robustly to major incidents and emergencies.” Lindsey Davies, former national director of pandemic influenza preparedness at the Department of Health who is president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: “The entire public health community has grave concerns about the potential risks from the timing of the changes.” Although there have been few major health scares linked to past Olympics, there was a terror attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics and a bombing which killed two people in Atlanta in 1996. A stomach bug struck competitors at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi last year. The agency says the games will raise the risk of diseases spreading due to the influx of international visitors and from mass gatherings in restricted spaces during the games. Early identification will help reduce the risk of widespread exposure and minimise the impact on visitors as well as local communities. Other concerns include heatstroke among crowds. About 300,000 people a day are expected to be in the Olympic Park during the height of the games. The Department of Health said it was working to ensure “business continuity” was maintained during the transition. A team had been established to ensure the the ministry and the NHS is able “to respond to major emergencies continues to be robust and to ensure the requirements of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are met. Work is under way to test how the proposed new systems would function during the 2012 Games. This work will focus and strengthen safety at the 2012 Games”. It is understood Olympics organisers are aware of the concerns but have not been directly involved in discussions. Thousands of athletes begin arriving in Britain for training camps in the UK in June 2012. The Olympic village opens in mid-July and the games run from 27 July to 12 August 2012. The Paralympics run from the end of August into September. A total of 17,000 athletes and officials from about 200 countries will stay in the village on the Olympic Park, in east London. In total, more than 10,500 athletes will compete in 26 sports based in various venues around the capital and beyond. Sailing will be based in Weymouth and the Olympic football tournament will be played in various grounds around the country. According to the detailed transport plan released last month, the busiest day of the games – Saturday 4 August – will see 700,000 ticket holders moving around London to watch sessions at 11 venues. In all, 8.8m tickets are available for the Games, with 6.6m on sale to the general public. About 20,000 broadcast and print journalists will also descend on London.

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  May 5 2011, 12:51pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Flybe profit warning sends share price crashing down

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/05/flybe-profit-warning-sends-share-price-crashing-down

  Flybe shares drop 25% as airline admits cash-strapped consumers are cutting back on air travel

  This article titled “Flybe profit warning sends share price crashing down” was written by Dan Milmo, for The Guardian on Thursday 5th May 2011 16.42 UTC Flybe’s £215m flotation has come crashing down as the carrier’s shares shed 25% of their value in the wake of a profit warning over waning consumer appetite for air travel. The Exeter-based regional carrier bases its appeal on “affordable travel from the most convenient airport” but admitted that lower high street spending in the UK had affected demand for cheap flights since the new year, with domestic routes among the hardest hit. Despite warning of cash-strapped customers, Flybe also announced a £3 fuel surcharge on all flights from September. Flybe said the slowdown in consumer outlay, already indicated by trading woes at high street names such as HMV and Mothercare, had affected “discretionary spend” on air travel and triggered significant analysts’ downgrades. Flybe said it expected pre-tax profits for this year to be broadly in line with the 2010/11 figures, which put it heavily out of kilter with analysts’ expectations. Investors ignored Flybe’s defence of its “resilient and flexible” business model of flying from small airports such as Southampton and Norwich, and sold the shares heavily. Shareholders had expected a pre-tax profit of about £36m, not the £22m indicated in the trading update, and Flybe’s shares slumped 25% to 172.50p, far below the flotation price of 295p last December. Flybe’s new investors included George Soros, the hedge fund tycoon, who acquired a 3.4% stake on flotation and whose more assured bets included starting a run on the pound in 1992. British Airways owns a further 15% of the business. One of the pioneers of add-on charges including baggage fees when it rebranded from British European in 2002, Flybe said the £3 fuel surcharge would be dropped if the price of Brent crude fell below $75 (£45.60) per barrel for 28 consecutive days; its current price is $117 per barrel. Flybe also indicated cutbacks on its domestic routes as it flagged the possible disposal of surplus aircraft, believed to include the Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes that are used on its UK services. In its trading update the company did not expand on its strategy of building its presence in continental Europe but it is understood that Flybe is standing by plans to add 35 Embraer aircraft to its 68-strong fleet, with the option of buying 105 more. The £66m float proceeds have been earmarked for the expansion, which includes codeshare deals where it operates flights on another carrier’s behalf. Iata warning The International Air Transport Association (Iata) warned that the financial markets have taken a bearish stance on airlines. Airline share prices have underperformed stock markets by 17% this year, Iata said, and investors now fear that carriers will be hard hit by higher fuel costs – about a quarter of the industry’s cost base – and the consequent effect on demand as higher prices hit sales. “Financial markets, bullish over airlines through 2010, now believe the industry will suffer more than most in this high fuel cost and demand-shock environment,” said Iata. Flybe said demand from business travellers, who account for 45% of its customers, remained strong. “This sector has proved very resilient,” said Flybe, echoing recent comments by Iata, which said demand for business class travel was holding up more strongly than in the back of the cabin. The premium airline market grew 7.7% in February, compared with a 3.3% improvement in economy class traffic.

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  May 5 2011, 12:46pm | Comments »

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  The Kindle and the Tube

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/13/the-kindle-and-the-tube

  London’s top Underground blogger Annie Mole of Going Underground has noticed a surge in the use of e-readers in the capital’s crowded Tube carriages

  This article titled “The Kindle and the Tube” was written by Dave Hill, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 13th April 2011 11.09 UTC This year’s London Book Fair, which ends today, held a session on Sunday called the Digital Future Is Now. A UK publishing executive spoke of the surging US e-book market and how the market had been jump-started by the Amazon Kindle. I don’t have a Kindle yet, but must get round to it. Annie Mole has noticed that there’s one in every Underground carriage these days, and who wants to be left out? Annie observes: It’ll be interesting to see how this picture will change in five years time. How long will it be before we see more people reading from iPads, Kindles or other e-readers than people reading printed books and papers on the Tube?

  Not long at all, I’d say. The Tube experience is quite conducive to nourishing Kindle-use. After all, you need elbow room to turn a page. Now read on.

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  April 13 2011, 6:18am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Sleep in or work from home: minister’s plans to ease rush hour

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/08/sleep-in-or-work-from-home-ministers-plans-to-ease-rush-hour

  I’ve been doing this for 3 or 4 years now. Transport minister says ‘it is crazy these days for people to go to work when work can come to people’  But once people get the taste for working from home, they may well also realise that it isn’t necessary to work for corporations any more either, and so the pyjama nation disruption of old work patterns continues apace.

  This article titled “Sleep in or work from home: minister’s plans to ease rush hour” was written by Polly Curtis, Whitehall correspondent, for The Guardian on Wednesday 6th April 2011 23.07 UTC The transport minister, Norman Baker, wants to dramatically reduce rush hour in the capital and across the country by convincing companies to let people work from home, come in late, or set up satellite offices that will create commuting routes which go against existing traffic. Ministers are investigating tactics to “nudge” people into abandoning the rush hour, such as convincing train, tube and bus companies to offer bigger discounts for travelling outside the busiest hours. Instead of just peak and off-peak fares, the price of a journey could be staggered incrementally, with the most expensive fares around the times of 9am and 5pm. The system could be organised so that a 6.30am fare is cheaper than a 7.30am fare, for instance. “It is crazy these days for people to go to work when work can come to people. It is even crazier that we all travel on the same train on the same day at the same time. We should be able to spread the peak across different times,” Baker said. The plan would reduce carbon emissions, but ministers are also warning that there is urgency to fast-track changes to the rush hour because of the Olympics, warning that it would be “impossible” for the capital to accommodate the visitors anticipated for the games as well as going about its business as usual. Baker said: “We are going to have a gigantic influx of people all wanting to travel to see their events and it is simply not possible for everything to keep running if every one carries on as normal, so you have got to work differently to do this.” “This is not just the Olympics. It is winter too. Should business shut down when it snows? No. Should government spend taxpayers’ money investing in hundreds of snow ploughs? No. We should make sure we can carry on in business and government without everyone needing to travel in that period.” Options being considered include new “office hubs” in rural areas which would allow people to hotdesk closer to home. Some might have childcare facilities attached in “co-working” zones. Flexi-working, late or early starts, could stagger the rush hour and give people a greater work-life balance. More video-conferencing might mean people don’t have to leave home at all. The Trades Union Congress is backing the consultation. A TUC spokesman said they were pleased the minister was taking an interest. Staggering payments to encourage people to travel outside rush hour have been most stringently applied in Singapore, which also began the first road-pricing scheme in 1975. The system adjusts the price according to how busy the roads are at the time of driving. Singapore also has some of the world’s highest car taxes, and new cars are rationed in a bid to keep the state, the size of the Isle of Wight and having 4 million residents, congestion free.

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  April 8 2011, 6:07am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  UK nominates 11 sites for Unesco world heritage status

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/22/uk-nominates-11-sites-for-unesco-world-heritage-status

  The Forth bridge, St Helena and Lake District have been put forward for consideration as worthy sites alongside Stonehenge for Unesco world heritage status. The decision will be made in June not in Bahrain, as originally planned but in Paris.

  This article titled “UK nominates 11 sites for Unesco world heritage status” was written by Maev Kennedy, for The Guardian on Tuesday 22nd March 2011 01.00 UTC

  The Forth bridge, the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic where Napoleon died in 1821, and the Lake District are among 11 places the government will nominate today as worthy of becoming world heritage sites to be ranked alongside the Pyramids and Stonehenge. The government will also make a third attempt to have the corner of Kent where Charles Darwin wrote the book that changed the history of science recognised as a world treasure. John Penrose, the tourism and heritage minister, said: “Few places in the world can match the wealth of wonderful heritage we have available in the UK. The 11 places that make up the new ‘UK tentative list’ are fantastic examples of our cultural and natural heritage, and I believe they have every chance of joining famous names like the Sydney Opera House and the Canadian Rockies to become world heritage sites.” Places that failed to make the ‘tentative’ list include Blackpool, the former RAF airfield at Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire, the Rows shops and half-timbered houses in Chester, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway. The government has been consulting on the type of sites which Britain should put forward after concern from Unesco, which has maintained the list since 1972, that it was increasingly dominated by castles and cathedrals in western Europe. There has been a conscious determination to broaden the geographical spread of the list and the types of sites nominated, leading to the inclusion of penal sites for transported convicts in Australia, four hydraulic boat lifts on a Belgian canal and the wonderfully named Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump prehistoric butchery site in Canada. Britain is nominating a judicious mixture of natural, built and industrial sites, including the slate industry of north Wales with its spectacular shale heaps still bearing witness to the days when Welsh slate roofed half the world, the Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire, Scotland’s beautiful Flow Country, the endlessly repainted Forth railway bridge which had the longest single cantilever span in the world when built in 1890, Gorham’s cave complex in Gibraltar, and Cresswell Crags, the limestone gorge honeycombed with caves which has some of the earliest evidence of human habitation in Britain and the country’s only known Ice Age rock art. The list is completed by two leftover scraps of the British Empire: St Helena and the Turks and Caicos. The government has still not given up on Darwin’s home, now in the care of English Heritage, where he wrote On The Origin of Species. Once the scientist found Down House in 1842 he left as rarely as possible for the rest of his life. He wrote the Origin and all his later work there and conscripted his children as assistants in taking observations on the fauna and flora in his own garden and the surrounding fields, which are remarkably unchanged. The government first nominated it in 2007 but withdrew on being warned the Unesco advisers were not convinced of its genuine scientific importance. It was resubmitted, with the ingeniously coined description “landscape laboratory” in 2009 to mark the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth, but still failed to make the cut. The government, undaunted, will again add it to the list of proposed sites. The list of sites judged among the world’s most precious now runs to 911 in 151 countries: 704 cultural, 180 natural and 27 mixed. The new nominations were due to be considered by the world heritage committee in June in Bahrain but, due to the turbulent state of politics across the Arab world, the meeting has been switched to the Unesco headquarters in Paris.

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  March 22 2011, 10:31am | Comments »

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  French high-speed rail on track but progress too slow on commuter lines

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/22/french-high-speed-rail-on-track-but-progress-too-slow-on-commuter-lines

  France’s TGV connecting with Eurostar is the envy of Europe, but the country’s commuter train services are creaking after years of under-investment

  This article titled “French high-speed rail on track but progress too slow on commuter lines” was written by Dan Milmo, for The Guardian on Monday 21st March 2011 18.22 UTC If you want evidence that the French rail network isn’t all high-speed brilliance and world-class service, then pay a visit to the platforms in the bowels of Gare du Nord on a weekday morning. At only 7am commuters are vacuum-packed into carriages – it’s just like home. The most powerful person on the French railways, Guillaume Pepy, admits the system has unwanted similarities with Britain’s. Describing some of the worst pinch points around Paris, he says: “It is like Clapham Junction.” For decades France’s national rail operator, SNCF, has invested billions of euros into making its high-speed network the envy of Europe. France has 2,000km of ultra-fast track, compared with our tokenistic-looking 109km. But until recently, the country’s regional services have been neglected at the expense of their speedier cousins. Pepy, SNCF’s 52-year-old chief executive, who describes himself as an “old railway worker”, says commuters have been overlooked as a huge effort was launched to lure the long-distance traveller out of planes and cars and on to trains. “There are passenger protests every day and they are right. I would like to have mass-transit services with the same quality of service as the TGV [high-speed rail]. Let’s put all the mass transit services to the same level. If we can run 850 TGV services per day, why can we not serve millions of people at 120km per hour every day? We need more innovation, money, the best engineers. It will take five, 10 years – I don’t know. But there is no reason why we should have poor mass-transit services and brilliant TGV services.” Jean-Paul Jacquot, a vice-president at France’s rail passenger watchdog, FNAUT, tells a tale of historic under-investment that will be familiar to UK commuters. “The rail network has been neglected during the past 10 to 20 years and therefore it breaks down quite often.” Pepy talks of at least 15 “traffic jam” points around Paris – both the French and British rail networks carry more than one billion passenger journeys a year. While Pepy is turning round SNCF’s commuter arm, construction is drawing to a close on the seventh TGV line, between the eastern town of Belfort and Dijon in the centre. Despite the successful opening of the modern channel tunnel link, most of the UK’s network dates from the Victorian era. But Pepy, an alumnus of the elite École Nationale d’Administration, is too diplomatic to compare Britain’s rail network unfavourably with its continental rival. “Personally I think that sometimes you are over-criticising your own railways. You have done a lot of things. Look at what you have done in terms of rolling stock; High Speed One. It is the best [high-speed line] in terms of reliability in Europe. I have to say that it works better than in France.” Given that France and the UK are learning the same painful lesson on commuter routes – under-invest at your peril – its extensive high-speed network still makes France the example to follow in rail. Pepy takes out a “crazy but fun” map that shrinks the distance between French cities according to the speed of their TGV links. Under this form of cartography, the sprawling country resembles a clenched fist as major cities like Marseille and Strasbourg are brought within hours of the capital. “You can see that France has shrunk dramatically,” he says. “It means that the communities, business, culture, intellect, health, everything is closer than it was.” In the UK, the high-speed London-to-Birmingham route is earmarked to open in 2026 but the £17bn project has been criticised by environmentalists and business leaders as a waste of money. Pepy is sympathetic – he says France has been through the same debate “seven times” – but he is adamant that the UK will benefit from high-speed. “Everything about high-speed is related to the long-term. We build the line for 50, 70 years and the system is a long-term answer to the community’s needs. If you just consider it on a short-term basis you would not be able to find a good business case.” Looking further afield, he adds: “I am very impressed that China has the same problem. It said ten years ago are we going to develop air transportation or have a high-speed rail system? And China made the choice in favour of high-speed rail.” As agreeable as he is, surely Pepy will be drawn into a testier state by a question on fares, the great bugbear of the British rail passenger. Instead, he is sanguine. TGV fares compare favourably with airlines and up to 65% of the price of commuter fares is subsidised by local authorities. Jacquot agrees: for all the problems with non-TGV services, exorbitant cost is not one of them. Pepy adds: “It is a decision to subsidise fares instead of building new roads, which is an historical choice in France.” Recent investment in transport indicates that the UK has made the same choice, but we’re a long way from catching up with le TGV.

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  March 22 2011, 8:04am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Divine decadence

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/21/divine-decadence

  Glass of absinthe in hand,  Jonathan Glancey takes the Eurostar to Paris to explore the art nouveau movement’s sinuous roots.

  This article titled “Divine decadence” was written by Jonathan Glancey, for The Guardian on Saturday 11th March 2000 17.51 UTC In 1900, curators from the Victoria & Albert Museum took themselves to Paris to shop at the great Exposition Universelle held that year in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and along the banks of the Seine. The V&A team was not alone. More than 48m came to see the show that year. It was a marvel, featuring dual-speed travelators to take the millions around the expansive site and the African villages that with their exotic peoples and artworks inspired the young Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques. Cubism was on the way. But, what the V&A team came to see and collect for their grand pantechnicon of the decorative arts back in South Kensington, that most Frenchified part of London, were examples of art nouveau design. As a result of their trip, the V&A boasts one of the finest collections of art nouveau. This, and much more drawn from other collections, is about to go on show in what promises to be a superb blockbuster, Art Nouveau 1890-1914, curated by the V&A’s Paul Greenhalgh on its own highly decorative turf from April 6. The V&A’s role was important in the development of this florid, serpentine, self-consciously “aesthetic” style. We know that, among art nouveau designers, Emile Galle, Victor Horta and Odon Lechner visited the museum in search of inspiration. Art nouveau is loosely associated in British minds with Paris Metro entrances, the Biba fashion stores of 1970s London, and perhaps something to do with Oscar Wilde, absinthe, Aubrey Beardsley, lilies, sexy ladies writhing around lampstands and poor Ernest Dowson, the “decadent” poet whom everyone loved but of whom W B Yeats said he could imagine no world at any time in history in which Dowson would have been a success. In fact, art nouveau was an international phenomenon that raised its serpentine head in many of the great and, if not great, then industrious towns and cities of Europe, from Paris and Brussels, via Lille and Nancy, to Barcelona and then across to Turin, Venice and Vienna, back up through the Low Countries to Scandinavia and Finland. In Italy, the style was known as Stilo Liberty, in Austria and Germany as Jugendstijl, in Barcelona as Modernista. We can also include the styles known variously as National Romanticism in Scandinavia and, to a limited extent, Arts & Crafts in Britain. There is, though, very little full-blooded indigenous art nouveau in Britain. Did I hear you sigh with relief? But, if you are inspired by the V&A exhibition, where might you travel to see more? How can you pick from such a wide range of places? Let’s make it easy(ish). Sit down for a glass of absinthe or ask for a weak hock and seltzer at the Black Friar, the delightfully unspoilt art & crafts pub (H Fuller Clark, 1905) at 174 Queen Victoria Street near Blackfriars Station in the City of London. Suitably fortified, a bracing walk across the Thames will have you on board a Eurostar train bound for Paris and Brussels (and Nancy too) and on a long weekend’s tour of art nouveau architecture. You will have seen the objets d’art at the V&A. Now for the buildings. Don’t worry. This tour doesn’t have to be a marathon. It can be gently decadent. There is not a building coming up in the next few paragraphs that isn’t within a louche slouch from a café or bar. In fact you couldn’t do better than taking coffee at the Café Falstaff (E Houbion, 1903), 17-19 rue Henri Maus. Now you are within reasonably easy reach (no problems with public transport in Brussels) of some of the finest art nouveau houses of all. There’s the Solvay House, 224 Avenue Louise, built between 1895 and 1900 to the design of Victor Horta. This is the art nouveau master’s best house. Carriages once drove through the sinuous doors into the grand lobby where a top-lit stair ushered family and guests up into a suite of highly-decorated rooms, each last square millimetre worked over by the architect. A strange and impressive interior with its vegetable-like ironwork, pale orange and green paintwork, its swirling organic forms framed with a disciplined plan, the Solvay House is at the heart of art nouveau consciousness. Nearby, you’ll find the more restrained, though equally impressive, Horta House, 23-25 rue Americaine (1898-1911), designed by the architect as his own home and studio. The dining room with its shiny white-glazed tiles (the sort we associate with Victorian public lavatories) and snaking ironwork is a very strange place to sit, more like a station waiting room than a place to eat en famille. Other Horta buildings are the Waucquez department store (1906) and the Van Eetvelde House (1895-97). Back to the station. But before boarding the Paris train, pass by the nutty Saint-Cyr House, 11 square Ambiorix (Gustave Strauven, 1900). Children like this one. It is four storeys high but just one bay wide, in other words very thin, and quite bonkers. Each floor is a visual riot of swirly-whirly ironwork and gloriously over the top detailing. Richer than a Belgian chocolate. Paris. Take the Metro to Porte Dauphine (1898-1901). This station has the best of the surviving art nouveau Metro entrances that were for many years taken for granted and have now all but disappeared. They were commissioned in 1896 from Hector Guimard, a disciple of Victor Horta. Each boasts snaky graphics, The Day the Earth Stood Still ironwork and glazed canopies that resemble butterfly wings. They are painted an if-you-go-down-to-the-woods-today green. Odd but utterly, ‘ow you say, charming. Into town now for le shopping at, well, how about La Samaritaine, rue de la Monnaie, the great department store designed originally by Frantz Jourdain in art nouveau style in 1891-1907? This delightful courtyard building remains a pleasure to shop in, and you can climb to the roof for a view of tout Paris. Lots of twiddly ironwork. Yet, if it’s importantly-earnest ironwork you seek after lunch, let me recommend you the superb offices of Le Parisien Libéré, 124 rue Reamur, (Georges Chedanne, 1903-4), a handsome pile of iron and glass with flourishes of art nouveau decadence in the upper floors. Pevsner would have said that this is a precursor of the Modern Movement. As for you, you shrug your shoulders, take a pastis and carry on unconcerned. Aux Parisiennes. If you had a spare couple of days, a serpentine TGV would speed you due east to Nancy and back. Here, there are many art nouveau villas, but these have the look of Gaudi more than Horta about them, and so are well worth the trip. Antoni Gaudi, secular patron saint of Barcelona, was one of the most original architects of all time. He was certainly no decadent and is rather a different decorative kettle of fish from the “aesthetic” art nouveau designers of France and Belgium. His influence in Nancy can be seen in the wonderful, Hansel-and-Gretel Villa Marjorelle, 1 rue Louis Marjorelle (Henri Sauvage, 1901-2). The Addams family would have loved it. The weird balconies waving from the body of the house, the witch’s hat roofs, the tall, vegetable-like chimneys. The craftsmanship is superb. If you like houses with fairytale looks, don’t fail to pass along rue des Brices. This is the Villa des Glycines (Emile Andre, 1902). Underneath the beetling brow of its deep eaves, it has eyes, a nose and a big nord-et-sud. The “glycines” or wisteria, by the way, grows up around either side of the big mouthed window like a pair of sweet-smelling moustaches. There are plenty more art nouveau houses in Nancy, and anyway it’s good to have the excuse to stroll around a city that few tourists bother with. Just before we return to Paris, remember to pass by the Hermant House, 25 rue de Malzeville (Jacques-René Hermant, 1904) and the Villa Marguerite, 3 rue du Colonel-Renard (Gutton and Hornecker, 1905). Back in Britain, there just isn’t much art nouveau to see. Architecture, I mean. There are a few oddities such as the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1899-1901), east London and the Horniman Museum (1896-1900), south-east London, both by Charles Harrison Townsend, but the interiors are muted even though what you’ll see on show at both is never a disappointment. Back to the grand corridors and galleries of the V&A. And dreams of future trips planned to perhaps Vienna (the works of Klimt, Olbrich, Hoffmann), Barcelona (Gaudi), Prague, Budapest, Moscow… The tentacles of art nouveau spread far and wide. Enough to keep those with a taste for Lalique, Daum Frères and Tiffany glass, Mucha posters, Hoffmann cutlery and chairs by the decidedly decadent Rupert Carabin deep in timetables and maps for the next few years. And should you, like so many Brits, find art nouveau a little hard on the eyes, a small tincture of the right stuff might help you to see its fronds and curls more kindly. Absinthe, after all, makes the heart grow fonder. The practicals Magic Cities (020 8728 7575) offers city breaks travelling on Eurostar. One night in Paris at the 3 star Hotel Veronese from £99 (extra night £20). One night in Brussels at the 3 star Van Belle from £115 (extra night £25).

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  March 21 2011, 4:40pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  London to Frankfurt high-speed rail link back on track for Eurostar Deals to Germany

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/20/londontofrankfurt-highspeedrail-germaneurostardeals

  Deutsche Bahn plans to run 200mph trains from London to Frankfurt, Cologne, Amsterdam and Rotterdam from 2013 for German Eurostar Deals. Safety concern about having an electric motor engine underneath every carriage as the trains travels through the Channel tunnel are to be swept aside in a rush for truly pan-european high speed rail travel, more than just Paris breaks.

  This article titled “London to Frankfurt high-speed rail link back on track” was written by Dan Milmo, for The Guardian on Sunday 20th March 2011 17.45 UTC Plans to transport 1 million rail passengers a year between Frankfurt and London are back on track as an independent report prepares to back German rail operator Deutsche Bahn in a row over Channel tunnel safety. DB’s ambition to launch a Teutonic Eurostar has been threatened by French objections to the state-of-the-art rolling stock it plans to use in the tunnel. David Cameron and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, are believed to have raised their concerns about the row with the French government, amid fears that it will hinder the growth of pan-European high speed rail services. However, this week the European Railways Agency is expected to endorse new trains manufactured by Siemens, the German industrial group, which beat France’s Alstom to a coveted Eurostar rolling stock order. The order for inter-city express (ICE) trains, which will also be used by DB in its Frankfurt-to-London service, met with opposition on the other side of the tunnel. The French government supported Alstom’s argument that the Siemens trains are unsafe because their motors are distributed under each carriage. The row split the Anglo-French intergovernmental commission (IGC) on channel tunnel safety, which resulted in the ERA being asked for a second opinion. Sources close to the process said the ERA is likely to recommend that so-called “distributed power” trains can be used in the tunnel, clearing the way for the ICE carriages. It is also understood that the report will not raise objections to DB’s proposal to couple two separate trains – a proposal that raised safety concerns in some quarters. As a consequence, the IGC is expected to come under further pressure to allow the ICE trains to operate through the tunnel. DB plans to run 200mph trains from London to Frankfurt, Cologne, Amsterdam and Rotterdam from December 2013, expanding the rail market between Britain and the continent by 10% by carrying 1 million passengers a year.

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  March 20 2011, 1:41pm | Comments »

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  Tsunami survivors in town that vanished search for hope and shelter

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/19/tsunami-survivors-in-town-that-vanished-search-for-hope-and-shelter

  On one of the most badly hit parts of Japan‘s coast, roads have been cleared and a supply chain is being rebuilt after the deadly earthquake and tsunami

  This article titled “Tsunami survivors in town that vanished search for hope and shelter” was written by Jonathan Watts in Minami Sanriku, for The Observer on Saturday 19th March 2011 19.43 UTC Yasuo Kono is digging. So are his daughter and two grandchildren. They scrape deep into the gravel beside a block of concrete that is all that remains of their former home. It is tough and, so far, unrewarding work. But just over a week after their world was turned upside down by the tsunami, Kono is pinning his hopes for the family’s recovery on what they might find in the rubble. “We’re looking for our safe. It’s got everything in it that we need to start again – a million yen, our seal, our family registration documents and our bank books,” he says. “It was very heavy, so I don’t think the tsunami can have taken it very far.” This is optimistic, given the elemental force that tossed cars and trucks around like children’s toys and ripped up the massive concrete sea wall that was supposed to protect Minami Sanriku. But Kono – a widower for two years – half-jokingly believes the spirits in the family shrine will aid his mission: “I think my old wife’s ashes are down there too. She was very careful about money and would never have let it get away from her.” It may seem premature to consider money. But for survivors of Japan’s deadliest postwar disaster, as much as for the government, there is a growing need to calculate the scale of their losses and how to fund a path to recovery. Kono and his family want to get out of the disaster zone of Minami Sanriku, which was pulverised by the tsunami. The roads are open and fuel supplies are starting to return to the area, but unless they can find money, they will be stuck at the shelters that have become home to almost half a million people. In this fishing community, the biggest shelter is the Ocean Plaza gymnasium, where more than 700 people are crammed into corridors, stairwells and offices. Some have made walls from cardboard boxes. Most mark out territory with layers of blankets and futons. It is an impressively functional instant community that appears well organised and polite. Dinner queues are scrupulously observed and people are as careful about taking their shoes off before stepping on cardboard as they are before entering a home. Doctors and nurses provide basic medical care at a makeshift clinic in the former training room. Weightlifting equipment and exercise bikes have been pushed into one corner to make space for the patients, pharmacy and office. Most of the sick are elderly patients with high blood pressure, at least one of whom has died from a combination of cold, poor nutrition and inadequate drug supplies. “We need more medicine, especially drugs to lower blood pressure and laxatives,” said Masafumi Nishizawa, a local doctor who has been running the clinic since his former hospital was destroyed. He was confident that the acute problems were over, but said the chronic problems were likely to get worse in the weeks ahead. “People here have no baths, no beds and no toilets. They will get tired and vulnerable to contagious diseases… It’s a real concern.”   But, after days of survivors having to cope on just one piece of bread or ball of rice, the food situation is improving. Saturday’s dinner in the Ocean Plaza disaster shelter is a boiled egg, a helping of rice and a scoop of seaweed and vegetables. It is the third meal of the day. Minami Sanriku’s mayor, Jin Sato, says he can see hope that the worst might be over. Two roads into the town have been cleared. More supplies are flowing in. The gymnasium is now stacked with hundreds of 50kg bags of rice, piles of donated clothes, giant bundles of blankets, countless boxes of toiletries, instant noodles and nappies. Sato has started to turn his mind from short-term survival to the construction of longer-term housing. “We have food now, but I cannot say it is enough. We have to provide so many meals. We really need more petrol. Without that, we cannot transport supplies and people.” Uncertainty plagues the communities almost as much as the instability of the ground beneath their feet. As in other evacuation centres, there is a noticeboard here, where people post requests for information about loved ones and scan through registers of survivors at other evacuation centres. NTT, Japan’s giant telecoms company, has restored mobile phone signals and organised a charging point outside the shelter. Other help appears to be on its way. Petrol tankers have become far more visible on the local roads and drivers are filling up again at the pumps – albeit often after waiting for several hours. On the road into Minami Sanriku, several shops outside the disaster zone have re-opened and are offering fresh stocks on the shelves for the first time in a week. The 24-hour convenience stores – one of the symbols of modern Japan – expect to follow suit soon. “In the five years I have worked here, we have never closed for even a second. But I had to shut up shop two days ago because we ran out of things to sell,” says Toshiro Abe, manager of a local FamilyMart. “My boss is coming over today to work out how we can start business again.” The economic impact of the earthquake and tsunami has been conservatively estimated at £120bn, but in a country that now faces rolling blackouts, dozens of wrecked ports along a large stretch of coastline and a nuclear industry in crisis mode, this looks like an underestimate. Japan is unsure how many of its people were taken by the sea. The confirmed fatalities are 7,348 – easily outstripping the 1995 Kobe earthquake as the deadliest disaster in the nation’s post-war history. But the number of missing is far from clear. It could be nearly 11,000 – which is the number of reports filed to Japan’s National Police Agency – or even double or triple that figure because many people have been without communications since the earthquake so have no way of reporting a person missing.   Minami Sanriku highlights the difficulties of making this grim calculation. In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, it was feared that the death toll might be higher here than anywhere else because the destruction was so widespread. Initial accounts suggested 10,000 of the 17,000 population were missing, presumed dead. Yet the official casualty count is just 214 bodies. When the Observer asked mayor Sato to account for the discrepancy, he said the problem lay in the manner of counting. “At first we assumed only the 7,000 at the public shelters had survived, but we realise now that many others sought refuge with friends or left the town. That was our mistake. I still can’t tell you how many are dead. We still don’t know how to make an accurate estimate.” Yoko Saito has come to her own conclusion. Crying in front of the debris that was once her childhood home, she believes her mother is dead, though her body has never been found and she is not included on any casualty list. “She was here when it hit. We have been to all the shelters and cannot find her. I came here to look for something to remember her by. But there is nothing. Nothing at all.” When Saito was a small child, her mother carried her to safety from a tsunami. Since then, the town has built a huge sea defence, run simulations on where the next wave might hit and drilled its citizens on where to evacuate. “I think my mother would have remembered what happened last time and assumed she was safe,” sobbed Saito. The same story can be heard at several points along the coastline. This part of Japan is prone to tsunamis and has some of the world’s best precautions against them. Concrete sea defences have been erected across the mouths of harbours. Residents are instructed each year about warnings and the evacuation plans for their area. But these preparations were based on the last tsunami, 1.5 metres high, which struck 50 years ago. The one that struck last Friday was 10 times higher. The sea walls did not stand a chance. Nor did many of the people who thought they were on safe ground. Takuma Abe, a 36-year-old chiropractor, had rushed his pregnant wife and mother into the hills. They were halfway up the slope when the first surge arrived. “I didn’t think the tsunami could ever get that high, but it caught us,” he says. “We got out and tried to climb on to a rail track, but my arm got trapped and I couldn’t help them up. They were washed away.” His wife’s body was found nearby. His mother, remarkably, survived and is now in hospital. Abe has volunteered to help in the shelter’s clinic. “I have to do something to stop myself going crazy. I still don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. I can’t think of the future. My wife is gone. My home is gone. All I have in the world is my driver’s licence and 2,000 yen. But that’s normal here. Everyone has lost so much.” Yet there is hope too in the refugee centre. Takako Abe is nine months pregnant, but was able to move rapidly to safety just before the tsunami struck. “I didn’t pay much attention to the warnings until people screamed at me to evacuate. I couldn’t run very fast, but luckily my home is close to a slope. I was too scared to look back, but I could hear the tsunami behind me. It destroyed my home,” she says. She is now safely ensconced in the Ocean Plaza evacuation centre, where she is close to doctors, medicine and ambulances. The noise and germs, and the lack of sanitation and nutrition, are far from ideal for a pregnant woman. Sometimes there are just two small meals a day. But Abe is just glad that she, her baby, her husband and her parents are still alive. “We’ve lost our home, but so has everyone here. We are luckier than most,” she says. “It’s no good dwelling on things that can’t be changed. We have to look forward and think positively. Things will work out.”

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  March 19 2011, 3:43pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Radiation fears prompt Tokyo exodus

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/15/radiation-fears-prompt-tokyo-exodus

  International companies are pulling staff out of Japan and airlines are cancelling flights after two more explosions at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant

  This article titled “Radiation fears prompt Tokyo exodus” was written by Justin McCurry in Osaka, for The Guardian on Tuesday 15th March 2011 19.39 UTC Airlines from Asia and Europe have halted flights into Tokyo, while multinational firms made plans to relocate employees as anxiety continued to grip Japan over the continuing nuclear crisis. Despite official reassurances that radiation levels in the capital posed no threat to health, a steady stream of tourists, residents and expatriates left the city by plane and bullet train. Austria said it was moving its embassy out of Tokyo to the western city of Osaka. Setbacks in the struggle to avert disaster at an atomic power plant in the north-east of the country also sparked a fresh round of panic buying in the Japanese capital, where tiny amounts of radioactivity registered for the first time since last Friday’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami. People in Tokyo endured another day of anxiety as they heard that the plant had been rocked by two more explosions and evidence emerged that water in a pool storing spent fuel rods may be boiling. Tokyo is already experiencing serious disruption to its transport network after the Tepco, the city’s electricity supplier, decided to implement rolling power cuts triggered by widespread disruption to power generation by the disaster. “I’m not that worried about another earthquake – it’s the radiation that scares me,” said Masashi Yoshida, who was waiting for a flight out of Haneda airport with his five-year-old daughter. Those among Tokyo’s 12 million people who decided to stay snapped up batteries, torches, candles and sleeping bags, and stripped shelves of bread, bottled water, instant noodles and canned food. The hoarding frenzy, partly prompted by the prospect of regular power cuts over the next six weeks, threatens to hamper efforts to divert supplies to the quake zone, where millions are suffering food and water shortages. Scientists said higher radiation levels near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where more than 200,000 people have been evacuated or told to stay inside, posed no immediate threat to the capital, which is 150 miles to the south. Naoto Kan, the prime minister, urged 140,00 people living within 19 miles of the plant to remain indoors. About 70,000 people living within 12 miles have already been evacuated. “I know that people are very worried, but I would like to ask you to stay calm,” Kan said. “Radioactive material will reach Tokyo but it is not harmful to humans, because it will be dissipated by the time it gets there,” said Koji Yamazaki, a professor of environmental science at Hokkaido University on Japan’s main north island. Prolonged fears of a serious accident could weaken Tokyo’s role as an international financial hub. Several firms said they were pulling staff out, including 350 Indian employees of the software services exporter Infosys Systems. But major financial firms in Japan were going about their “business as usual,” said the International Bankers Association, which represents firms such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. The French embassy advised its citizens to leave and the German embassy advised people with families to do the same. China is poised to evacuate its nationals from badly affected areas of north-east Japan. Several international airlines said they would avoid Tokyo until they were certain the danger had passed. Lufthansa became the first European airline to announce its daily flights to Tokyo would switch to Osaka and Nagoya at least until the weekend, and Air China cancelled flights from Beijing and Shanghai. Taiwan’s EVA Airways said it would not fly to Tokyo and Sapporo for the rest of the month. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic said services to Narita and Haneda, Tokyo’s main airports, were not affected.

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  March 15 2011, 3:22pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Architects worried by tower blocks and wind

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/14/architects-worried-by-tower-blocks-and-wind

  A Lorry tragedy in Yorkshire raises questions over tests for the ‘wind effect’ of skyscraper buildings.

  This article titled “Architects worried by tower blocks and wind” was written by Martin Wainwright, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 12th March 2011 12.59 UTC An interesting story coming out of Leeds is ruffling the architectural world: the tragic death of a man and serious injury of a woman when a lorry blew over in Neville Street by the river Aire. We’ve had news reports; now there’s likely to be analysis within the profession about the possible ‘wind tunnel’ effect of tall buildings in city centres. The accident happened right outside Bridgewater Place, the so-called ‘Dalek’ whose Dr Who-ish bulk is the tallest building in Leeds at 32 storeys (plus a New York spike on top which has yet to be added). People working nearby are well familiar with sudden gusts which didn’t seem as frequent when the tallest structures nearby were the wonderful Italianate chimneys at Colonel Harding’s old textile pin factory (they’re based respectively on Giotto’s campanile in Florence, the Lamberti tower in Verona and the towers of San Gimignano. The front doors leading to Bridgewater Place’s ground floor even have to be locked against the wind on occasions, and 13ft high windbreaks are being considered. Leeds’ windy-city reputation is a lot older than that, mind. I’ve played boules in Bond Court, surrounded by tower blocks, in conditions which made throwing the heavy metal balls a lottery. And I’m even old enough to remember being blown through the Merrion Centre as an excited teenager (“Our very first mall, wow”) before they roofed its passageway over. Architects subject these buildings to wind tests and Bridgewater Place passed the one it was given, along with all related planning conditions. But how do the tests work? And can a wind tunnel or model really check such massive developments effectively? Maybe one of our cities with a few empty blocks of flats could hire out an area as an actual, rather than theoretical, test bed. Meanwhle Leeds city council promises urgent further checks.

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  March 14 2011, 6:24am | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  A global industry: the big picture

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/12/a-global-industry-the-big-picture

  An in depth review of the world market for battery powered cars.

  This article titled “A global industry: the big picture” was written by Adam Vaughan, Ben Lane and Katy Stoddard, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 12th March 2011 00.07 UTC Over the next few years, more and more electric cars are expected to be seen on our roads as consumers take advantage of government grants to promote the vehicles and cheaper models being released by manufacturers. However, this is not just a UK initiative, countries all over the world are introducing infrastructure and subsidies to promote these environmentally friendly vehicles. But what is the current state of the electric car industry and how big is it actually going to become? Here, we take a comprehensive look at what is going on in the world of electric cars, from the models coming on to the market in 2011 to futuristic concept cars; from information about what countries taking a lead on battery-operated transport are doing, to sales targets, as predicted by the OECD and the International Energy Agency in a recent report. Available in the UK in 2011 and 2012 Reva G-Wiz i Electric Londoners will already be familiar with the G-Wiz, which is popular in the capital as it is exempt from the congestion charge. Its 13 kW motor gives a top speed of 50 mph and a 10 kWh battery provides a range of almost 50 miles. As a “quadricycle” it does not qualify for a government grant – but still gets the full congestion charge discount. Available now, price: from £9,995. Smart fortwo ed As a two-seater, the fortwo makes an ideal electric city-car. With a 30 kW motor, the fortwo is capable of 0-38 mph in 6.5 seconds and is speed limited to 62 mph. The 16 kWh lithium-ion battery takes 8 hours to slow-charge, which lasts for 80 miles. On limited lease in 2011, with full roll-out in 2012. Renault Twizy With its tandem-style seats and catchy looks, the two-seater Twizy “quadricycle” is something different. A 15 kW version with a top speed of 46 mph and a range of 60 miles is planned for release in the UK. Available for 2012 delivery – expected price: £7,000 plus £40 a month battery lease. Mitsubishi i-MiEV The i-MiEV’s 47 kW motor rear-wheel drive gives a top speed of 80 mph, and the 16 kWh lithium-ion battery provides a 90-mile range. Recharge times ranges from 7 hours using a normal domestic supply to 30 minutes to hit 80% capacity with a special rapid charging point. Price including grant: £23,990. Peugeot iOn Electric The iOn forms part of Peugeot’s innovative “Mu” mobility short-term rental service (membership required). While the iOn is an ideal city runabout, it can also keep up with the fastest motorway traffic. Available now on lease: £415+VAT/month including battery, servicing and warranty. Citroen C-Zero Electric You are likely to first experience the C-Zero in a rental setting as part of the Europcar fleet. On-board innovations include “regen braking”, which extends the drivable range. Available now on lease: £415/month including battery, servicing and warranty. Tata Indica Vista EV The Vista is the first EV from Indian car maker Tata – and will be built in the West Midlands. The 26 kWh of lithium-ion batteries provide a 100-plus mile range, and the 50 kW motor gives a top speed of 70mph. On trial in 2011, the Vista EV will be launched in 2012. Renault Zoe The Zoe is a Clio-sized car designed primarily for city use. Powered by a 60 kW (80 bhp) motor, range will be about 100 miles. Three charging options are planned: domestic charge using 13A socket (6-8 hours), rapid charge (80% in 30 minutes) or “quick-drop” (battery exchange). Available 2012 – £14,500 (after grant) plus £70 a month battery lease. Nissan Leaf Electric As European Car of the Year 2011, and oozing with quality, the Leaf is the first purpose-built, electric hatch. With 24 kWh of lithium-ion batteries, the Leaf has a range of about 100 miles. While most owners will charge at home overnight, a 30-minutes charge to 80% capacity is possible using a rapid charger. Tesla Roadster Electric With the Roadster, Tesla changed the game, and with it the fortunes for the electric car. Based on the Lotus Elise, the Roadster has the most impressive performance of any EV: 248 bhp (185 kW) motor; top speed 130 mph; 0-60 in 4 seconds; and a range of over 200 miles. Available now at £87,000. Renault Fluence ZE The Fluence ZE will be the largest car in Renault’s forthcoming EV range. The 70 kW motor will give an electronically-limited top speed of 84 mph, and the 22 kWh lithium-ion batteries will propel the vehicle for 100 miles. Available 2012. Expected price: £22,000, plus £70 a month battery lease. Renault Kangoo Van ZE The Kangoo Van ZE has the same carrying capacity and payload as the conventional Kangoo van. Its 44 kW motor and 22 kWh battery provide the ZE with a top speed of 80 mph and a 100 mile range. Available autumn 2011 – price: £16,990+VAT with £59 a month battery lease. Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid Following the success of the Prius hybrid, Toyota has developed a “plug-in” version, which can be recharged using electricity as well as refuelled conventionally. The 5.2 kWh lithium-ion battery provides an electric range of 12.5 miles, after which the car returns to hybrid mode. Vauxhall Ampera The Ampera is the first plug-in electric car of its kind – in addition to the 30-40 mile electric range provided by the 16 kWh lithium-ion battery, a small 1.4 litre petrol engine is used as an on-board generator to provide an additional 310 miles of use. Electric cars – what we could be driving in the future The latest concept cars are exploring the mobility needs of the future. With road space a premium, the car of the future may be smaller than you think. One such model is Kia’s city-car concept, the Pop. While similar in size to Toyota’s iQ, it seats two at the front with room for a third on the diagonal in the rear. Smaller still is the Peugeot BB1 and the Toyota FT-EV II, designed for urban use but with room for four. These concepts also experiment with “butterfly”, sliding or reverse opening doors to make access easier in a tight spot. More radical is Nissan’s Pivo 2. All four wheels are able to rotate allowing it to drive in any direction. Parking becomes a breeze as the wheels simply rotate through 90 degrees, enabling it to move sideways into the space. The cabin also rotates allowing the three passengers access from any direction through the Pivo’s single door. Smaller again is Nissan’s “Zero emission mobility concept”, a two-person, emission-free vehicle for urban journeys. Similarly, Honda has designed the 3R-C, a one-person, three-wheeled battery electric vehicle, which draws on their expertise in electric motors. As a vision of future urban transport, General Motors has developed the EV-N, a two-seater that uses Segway’s gyroscopic technology to enable the vehicle to stand on just two wheels, enabling it to complete a full circle on the spot. As part of this philosophy, expect to see more “thin cars”, which use a tandem-style seating pattern. The Renault Twizy, for example, which was featured at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, is an average 30cm thinner than the typical micro city car, with a turning circle of just 3.4 metres. Like the Lumeneo Smera it tilts like a motorcycle when cornering, and could do for traffic jams what the Smart Fortwo did for parking when launched in 1998 – less could certainly be more. Predicted global sales of electric vehicles To reach 2050 CO2 reduction targets, sales of electric vehicles must rise rapidly. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released figures that show how this growth can be realised when global sales spread to non-OECD regions. 2020 7m 2030 30m 2040 70m 2050 100m

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  March 11 2011, 7:08pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Insurers fall after Japan quake, as FTSE suffers worst weekly drop for eight months

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/11/insurers-fall-after-japan-quake-as-ftse-suffers-worst-weekly-drop-for-eight-months

  Insurance and share prices are affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

  This article titled “Insurers fall after Japan quake, as FTSE suffers worst weekly drop for eight months” was written by Nick Fletcher, for guardian.co.uk on Friday 11th March 2011 17.25 UTC As leading shares suffered their worst week for more than eight months, insurers were among the biggest fallers on concerns about their exposure to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Analysts estimated the damage from the disaster could cost the sector at least $10bn, and that prompted investors to cash in some of their gains from recent share price rises. So RSA Insurance lost 3.5p to 133p, Prudential fell 14p to 721p, Lloyd’s of London company Amlin dropped 20.3p to 385.2p and rival Catlin closed 16.3p down at 349.8p. But analyst Christopher Hitchings at KBW said:   Share price falls on major claim events often prove buying opportunities and we would pick Catlin and Amlin as the most likely short-run beneficiaries.  Overall the FTSE 100 finished 16.62 points lower at 5828.67. Over the week it has lost 2.7%, marking its worst weekly performance since July 2010 when it fell 4.13%. As well as Japan, investors also had to contend with the continuing turmoil in Libya and the Middle East and growing concerns about Europe’s debt problems, following downgrades of Greek and Spanish debt. There were also mixed signals from the US economy, with consumer confidence at a five month low after the recent rise in oil prices, but reasonable retail sales figures for February and an upward revision to the January numbers. Angus Campbell, Head of Sales at Capital Spreads, said:   Stock markets across the globe saw selling and Nikkei futures continued to fall even after the close of their cash market. The last major earthquake to hit Japan in 1995 wiped twenty percent off the Nikkei in three months and so there’s plenty of reason to be nervous.  Crucially the FTSE has not closed below 5800 which is seen as a major support level and clients have been buying into the FTSE at these levels. We need a week end of calm and stability to give the markets a respite, otherwise it’s back to the battle field come Monday morning. Miners were among the main gainers, both on the prospect of demand for raw materials as Japan begins to rebuild and hopes that China would not hike interest rates following in line inflation figures. Antofagasta added 22p to £13.39 and Rio Tinto rose 32p to 3963.5p. Elsewhere Arm edged higher after recent losses, up 0.5p to 523p after analysts at RBS said the falls had been overdone:   Arm shares have come down by around 20% in the past months on concerns of an oversupply situation in the tablet market after it became clear that iPad competitors would be priced at a premium. We recommend buying Arm shares on weakness as we see no change to long-term fundamentals.  But Carnival dropped 72p to £26 after the cruise company cut its earnings forecasts for 2011 due to rising fuel costs and disruption to its Middle Eastern and North African routes. FirstGroup fell 12.8p to 347.4p after the transport group reported a disappointing performance from its American school bus business. The division has been hit by schools cutting their transport costs because of pressure on their budgets, as well as the severe winter weather. In a sell note Charles Stanley said:   Things are deteriorating in US school bus, and the statement gives no grounds for believing that the slow pace of debt reduction can be quickened.    Dixons Retail dipped 0.4p to 17.16p as joint broker Citigroup reduced its recommendation on the electrical goods retailer from buy to hold and cut its price target from 35p to 18p. The bank’s analyst Richard Edwards also reduced his earnings estimates in the wake of this week’s figures from Argos owner Home Retail Group and the latest British Retail Consortium numbers. He said the Argos numbers showed a 4.6% decline in sales of electrical products, while the BRC highlighted the sector as one of the weakest categories. He said:   We have reduced our second half 2010 and full year 2011 UK like for like sales forecasts by 200 basis points, to -5% and -3%, respectively.  Given that Dixons is the most operationally geared UK general retailer, the recent step-down in high-ticket consumer demand patterns has driven a sharp reduction in both our April 2011 and 2012 earnings per share forecasts. These still leave Dixons clear of its banking covenant test ratios, on our estimates. However, given that the bulk of the renewal roll-out plans are complete, and the deteriorating near-term consumer outlook, we argue that upside [from here] is unlikely. There have been recent suggestions of a possible link up with Comet owner Kesa Electricals, down 0.8p at 130p. According to analysts at RBS, Kesa commented on the possibility during a recent roadshow in the Nordic region. RBS said:   Management spoke of a potential fit between Dixons and Kesa. We think that this could have potential given the market leading positions of each respective business in different parts of continental Europe and the Nordic regions. We believe that one of the key issues would be with the UK Competition Commission. Comet (Kesa) and Currys/PC World (Dixons) have a combined UK market share of around 30%.    Housebuilders were undermined by Council of Mortgage Lenders’ figures showing a 29% fall in house sales in January, with Redrow down 5.9p at 119.7p, Taylor Wimpey 1.45p lower at 39.41p and Persimmon losing 14.5p to 440.6p.

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  March 11 2011, 12:09pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  Leeds to Paris in four hours – but high-speed rail plan faces protests

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/02/leeds-paris-eurostar-high-speed-rail-plan-protests

  Leeds to Paris by Eurostar in four hours when the high speed rail network is completed.

  This article titled “Leeds to Paris in four hours – but high-speed rail plan faces protests” was written by Dan Milmo and Martin Wainwright, for The Guardian on Monday 28th February 2011 19.51 UTC The battleground over a £32bn high-speed rail network moved from the shires to the north after the government outlined the case for a second phase linking Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds. Undaunted by a backlash in Tory heartlands over plans for a 225mph London-to-Birmingham line, the transport secretary, Philip Hammond, backed plans for joining it to a Y-shaped national network. The proposals include a link to the Channel tunnel rail route that would transport passengers in Manchester and Leeds to Paris in less than four hours without a London stopover. However, the proposals for 200 miles of new track are likely to be of more immediate concern to the thousands of households that line the potential routes in Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire. The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said the economic arguments in favour of the northern extension of High Speed Two (HS2) could be drowned out by protests over blight. “As this proceeds, we are going to hear some very different voices from the north, arguing passionately about the beautiful local countryside,” said Ralph Smyth, CPRE’s senior transport campaigner. “Take the Cheshire area around Wilmslow, which lies right on the likely route of the Birmingham-to-Manchester line. You have got very wealthy, very influential people there, who are not going to take happily to HS2 driving through.” Launching a consultation on a national high-speed network, Hammond was confident that the economic case would prove more powerful with residents in the north than it has in the home counties, with the full route forecast to produce a £44bn boost to the UK. “Ironically the further north we get the easier it will get. Once you get further away from the south-east people seem to understand more clearly the argument on jobs and growth.” According to the Department for Transport, the first phase alone would help create 40,000 jobs. Hammond said the northern section could open in 2032, six years after the London-to-Birmingham route. A consultation on the specific route will start next year after detailed plans are published. It is understood that more than a dozen routes are under consideration for phase 2, which will be reduced to a shortlist by early 2012. If the proposals receive the green light, journey times to Manchester and Leeds from London will be reduced from more than two hours to 73 and 80 minutes respectively. Sources said planning for the Birmingham-to-Leeds section has proved particularly challenging, due to the hilly landscape and the number of small mining communities and former collieries dotted along the potential route. “It is a complicated landscape,” said one expert. Hammond said ramblers in the Peak District would not be disturbed by bullet trains tearing through an area of outstanding natural beauty, with the Birmingham-to-Leeds line likely to pass between Derby and Nottingham, and to the east of one of Britain’s most stunning national parks. However, the Chiltern Hills, another area of outstanding natural beauty, have been less fortunate and the first phase of the network will pass through the area when the line opens in 2026. Hammond said environmentally friendly amendments to the London-to-Birmingham route published in the consultation, such as deeper cuttings, would be repeated when the northern extension is drafted: “We will be doing exactly the same as we are doing in the Chilterns. We will work with communities and engineers to minimise the effect on sensitive landscapes.” The Department for Transport is confident the rail route will challenge one of the major bastions of domestic aviation – the London to Scotland route – with a forecast journey time of three-and-a-half hours. Rail would take half of the air-rail market, the consultation argued. The current figure stands at 20%. Under the proposals high-speed trains will leave the network at Manchester and Leeds and travel to Scotland on conventional lines. The consultation argues that high-speed rail is the obvious solution to a looming capacity shortage on England’s major rail routes, pointing out that passengers are already forced to stand up on peak-hour services on those lines. The document states: “Long-term forecasts have been developed on demand growth on these three main north-south lines out of London which connect the majority of Britain’s major cities. These forecasts look forward to the early 2040s and show that, even allowing for a range of enhancements to these lines, crowding levels on long-distance services will continue to rise.” However, the debates over blight and economics are likely to rumble on. Critics of the programme pounced on revised figures in the consultation, which showed that the economic benefit of the first phase would equate to £2 for every £1 spent, instead of the £2.70 that was forecast last year. “That is mediocre value for money by official Treasury standards,” said Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation. A government source said that earlier estimates had been based on “fantastical” forecasts by the Labour government.

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  March 2 2011, 12:44pm | Comments »

• I posted to distributedresearch.net

  David Cameron is uniting Britain. Against him

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/28/david-cameron-is-uniting-britain-against-him

  What’s happening on the 26th March?

  This article titled “David Cameron is uniting Britain. Against him” was written by Dan Hancox, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 28th February 2011 17.42 UTC The era of identity politics has brought us many great things, and it would be foolish to disparage the self-definition and empowerment achieved by minorities of all kinds. But if it has a failing, it is that it has atomised us, and made us lose sight of what once was called “the commonweal”. I miss the times when musket-carrying rebels would stand against tyrannical kings, unfurl a scroll and declaim a list of grievances that would take 17 hours to read – because they covered everything. Muskets aside, this time may be upon us again. Despite failing to win a majority when up against a desperately unpopular prime minister, in only 10 months, the coalition government has achieved what seemed impossible, amid the isolated melancholia of a late capitalist downturn, and brought Britain close to a point of genuine national unity. Against them. As their arbitrary, scatter-gun assault on the commonweal continues, they will push more and more groups into solidarity against them – for it is the transgressive word “solidarity” that has been 2011′s rallying cry, from Wisconsin to Tahrir Square to Westminster Bridge. Already, David Cameron’s government has managed to make us believe that it hates trees, children playing, children reading, poor children, vulnerable children, poor students, the poor in general, women, higher education, culture, young people, old people, poor people having somewhere to live, rich people having to pay fair taxes, the free assembly of peaceful protesters, the north, the environment, charities, disabled people, people having jobs, civic engagement, public safety, libraries, the National Health Service, public transport and all public services. The challenge is to make it clear that, to coin a phrase, we’re all in this together. UK Uncut has done brilliantly to get its message on corporate tax avoiders into the Daily Mail on an almost weekly basis, but why shouldn’t it? Mail readers may hate paying taxes, but that’s all the more reason why they should be angered by Barclays’ reluctance to do so. With the TUC rising like lions after an extraordinarily long slumber, the mega-demo against the cuts on 26 March has to draw people from all walks of life, like the Daily Telegraph readers at the Iraq war protests Mehdi Hasan refers to in his great speech on the cuts. Both the word and the Twitter hashtag “solidarity” have been scrawled across the map of the world in 2011. Failing to find any updates from the Wisconsin trade union protests on the BBC, Sky or CNN 24-hour news channels on Sunday, I went on Twitter and discovered @brandzel‘s extraordinary live web stream. When I tuned in, he was wandering around the occupied state capitol building, interviewing people and commenting on this extraordinary political moment. “It’s funny,” he said to himself, and to thousands of people watching around the world, “‘solidarity’ used to be a hard-left, old-fashioned word to me, but it’s completely changed now, it’s something universal.” Armchair cynics who gripe that there’s no point in protesting if you don’t have a unifying plan or ideology completely miss the point – no one ideology would ever unite groups as diverse as those who will suffer from the Tory cuts. What are we for? Everything they’re not – everything they’re destroying. New Labour failed to “make the case” for social justice and the welfare state, its hand-wringing advocates complained, as poll ratings plummeted in the 2000s – it’s a tragic way of bringing out everyone’s latent socialist, but making that case is exactly what this aggressively pro-market, dangerously unthinking Tory government is doing. With his cuts and public sector sell-offs, Cameron unites us all. On 26 March, and in the summer beyond, we will see what we can do with that unity.

  guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

  Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogDavid Cameron is uniting Britain. Against him

  Related posts:BBC News as delivered by PhotoPeach Feedshow April will indeed be cruel, but we don’t have to take it UK Uncut protesters target Barclays over tax avoidance

  

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  February 28 2011, 11:51am | Comments »

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  Arc Royal to extend London City Airport

  http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/02/22/arc-royal-to-extend-london-city-airport

  An article in the Daily Mail Online reports that the decommissioned air craft carrier Arc Royal could be ‘saved’ and used as a helipad in London. The intended location turns out to be right next to London City Airport, in effect providing an instant additional runway to the controversial inner city airfield within the London borough of Newham. Ark Royal could be saved from the scrapheap under plans to turn it into a heliport.

  The Royal Navy aircraft carrier, axed in last October’s defence cuts and due to be decommissioned next month, could be based on the Thames by May 2012. The 693ft vessel would be manned by around 150 former servicemen, for whom it would be both a home and a job, and would cater for City workers, police helicopters and London’s air ambulance. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the head of the Navy, said the move could safeguard the future of the carrier, and the Ministry of Defence  confirmed it was considering the plan. Currently in Portsmouth, the ship would be moored in the Royal Docks near City Airport to comply with noise-pollution rules. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358880/Ark-Royal-new-future–floating-helipad-Thames.html

  Photo: HMS Illustrious at Greenwich Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogArc Royal to extend London City Airport

  Related posts:Mercedes Marilyn and Ella at Theatre Royal Stratford To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the century

  

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  February 22 2011, 3:22am | Comments »

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