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Trains are obviously a terrorist target worldwide, but the only one I know of in Europe with a security checkpoint is between London and Paris/Brussels (where there is a passport check anyway). If someone wants to crash a train, it's *far* easier to drive a road vehicle onto the tracks, and probably more deadly and disruptive to target a busy commuter train (example).

Trains should be something like every 30-60 minutes, if the service is to be useful. Compare http://traintimes.org.uk/londo... or (so I'm not picking such major cities) http://traintimes.org.uk/brist...

Seats have airline-style fold-down tables (but larger), except the facing ones that have real tables. It's generally possible to pre-book the type you prefer — 4 seats around a table is nice for a family, but on a peak-time train will be used by business travellers. There will be power sockets, WiFi, a drinks trolley.

Trains are obviously a terrorist target worldwide, but the only one I know of in Europe with a security checkpoint is between London and Paris/Brussels (where there is a passport check anyway). If someone wants to crash a train, it's *far* easier to drive a road vehicle onto the tracks, and probably more deadly and disruptive to target a busy commuter train (example).

Trains should be something like every 30-60 minutes, if the service is to be useful. Compare http://traintimes.org.uk/londo... or (so I'm not picking such major cities) http://traintimes.org.uk/brist...

Seats have airline-style fold-down tables (but larger), except the facing ones that have real tables. It's generally possible to pre-book the type you prefer — 4 seats around a table is nice for a family, but on a peak-time train will be used by business travellers. There will be power sockets, WiFi, a drinks trolley.

You might be interested in this: http://traintimes.org.uk/map/

(I think that's the same thing you're going to do, but for trains in the UK.)

The British government has funded http://www.transportdirect.info/ , which should have everything. It's very rare that I need to plan journeys outside London or a couple of other cities, so I've only used it a couple of times. I don't know if it really is complete.

(Also, I find http://traintimes.org.uk/ much nicer than the real National Rail site. URLs like http://traintimes.org.uk/WAT/Putney work (with the code or the full name), and you can add times, dates, etc.)

The British government has funded http://www.transportdirect.info/ , which should have everything. It's very rare that I need to plan journeys outside London or a couple of other cities, so I've only used it a couple of times. I don't know if it really is complete.

(Also, I find http://traintimes.org.uk/ much nicer than the real National Rail site. URLs like http://traintimes.org.uk/WAT/Putney work (with the code or the full name), and you can add times, dates, etc.)

Same in Germany. Booking ahead (and being fixed with the train) can bring a 50% reduction, usually 25%

No, it's much better in Germany.

Making up numbers to demonstrate:
A return journey in Germany costs 40, or 30 if booked in advance, or 20 if booked way in advance. Going just one way costs 20, 15 and 10.
A return journey in England costs 100, or 20 if booked in advance, or 12 if booked way in advance. Going just one way costs 95, 10 and 6.

Yes, the English tickets are sometimes cheaper, but the cost is a huge inconvenience (booking way in advance, probably at inconvenient times), and the penalty (missing the booked train) is a way overpriced fare.

Look at this example (click "Fares" at the top, and "Show single fares"). Why is a return journey only 10p more than a one-way journey (off peak)?

I just looked it up. $44 -- sounds like good value for the 12-hour trip ;-).

London to Sheffield is 166 miles by road. By train (2 hours 8 minutes) if you book in advance with a non-flexible miss-it-you're-screwed ticket it's as little as £12 each way (you can get that fare tomorrow very late at night, or at a convenient time in a couple of weeks. The price gradually increases as the train is booked up). One-way tickets valid on any train without booking are roughly £60 off-peak, £100 peak-time, with returns costing the same amount -- British rail ticket pricing makes no sense whatsoever, and can be moaned about if you're bored of moaning about the weather/football. There are various offers and deals, especially when travelling off-peak. Continental Europe generally has cheaper fares, but less-frequent service. Trains to Sheffield are every 20-30 minutes: http://traintimes.org.uk/stp/shf/1200/monday The trains have WiFi, power points, a snack bar, drinks trolley, wheels, windows etc.

A bus (we call a long-distance bus a coach) is £10-20 non-flexible, I can't see flexible fares. It takes 4h20m. According to adverts I see everywhere these tickets start at £1 or £2.

267km @ 6L/100km (40 mi/US-gal) is 16L of petrol, costing £22 (plus wear and tear, parking, congestion charge during a weekday). Google says the journey takes 3 hours, it will be significantly more at busy times (especially the London end).

There are no scheduled flights for such a short distance.

I remember when I was a child going into an Amtrak station with my parents, who asked how much a train journey cost (I think to New York -- my dad didn't want to drive there). It was ridiculous, so my parents asked how much the bus cost. The ticket seller said she wouldn't sell a family with nice children tickets... in the end we drove to a station at the end of a subway line, and took the subway in.

You have republicans that will block any sort of infrastructure spending. I for one welcome high speed rail so traveling from a suburb 40 miles away into downtown Chicago will take 20 minutes.

So, the commuter train you're dreaming of will average 120mph, including stops?

That's just about possible, so long as there aren't many stops. On this line trains travel 60 miles in 38 minutes, stopping twice (times). It's probably not something you could justify for most suburbs though, just the ones that happen to have a long-distance railway passing through (in this case, the line from London to Paris/Brussels).

But computer science graduates don't go into IT. Thats a blue collar profession now.

Well, that depends what the survey means by "computer science".

Here's the link to the report. Find the link "Table 3" within it for a PDF of the broken down results. Note that the only IT/Computing subject is Computer Science, and it has almost as many graduates as all of the physical sciences. I think it includes IT degrees too.

In the UK I would expect that rail and sea transport would be more important too.

Yes -- and I would think rail transport has even more CS areas than road transport. As well as usage/capacity measurement/predictions and logistics, there's complicated timetables, electronic signalling, electronic ticketing, service information (on platforms, on trains, online, by text, printed)... Recently some rail-related APIs have been opened up, leading to this live train map mashup (also the London Underground). Someone from my class at university works for the company that makes the London Journey Planner, which is excellent. Another works for Network Rail on signalling systems, another for rail freight logistics.

But computer science graduates don't go into IT. Thats a blue collar profession now.

Well, that depends what the survey means by "computer science".

Here's the link to the report. Find the link "Table 3" within it for a PDF of the broken down results. Note that the only IT/Computing subject is Computer Science, and it has almost as many graduates as all of the physical sciences. I think it includes IT degrees too.

In the UK I would expect that rail and sea transport would be more important too.

Yes -- and I would think rail transport has even more CS areas than road transport. As well as usage/capacity measurement/predictions and logistics, there's complicated timetables, electronic signalling, electronic ticketing, service information (on platforms, on trains, online, by text, printed)... Recently some rail-related APIs have been opened up, leading to this live train map mashup (also the London Underground). Someone from my class at university works for the company that makes the London Journey Planner, which is excellent. Another works for Network Rail on signalling systems, another for rail freight logistics.

• London Underground Journey Planner
• Accessible overland train timetables
• Accessible overland train timetables (mobile version)
• Crowd sourced *nice* things in London
• UK journey planner by every means available

It's also useful to know that each post code (zip code) is allocated to a small group of houses (say ten-ish) within the same street.
That's accurate enough to navigate using just the house number and post code. So if you wanted directions from, say, the British Museum (WC1B 3DG) to Buckingham Palace (SW1A 1AA) you'd google this: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=WC1B 3DG to SW1A 1AA

Get yourself a London A-Z (Zed ;) - most of the time dead tree maps still beat electronic (and there's no cellphone reception on the Underground).

Get yourself an Oyster Card. It's a significantly cheaper way to travel.
You don't have to register it if perhaps you're sensitive about personal privacy (just remember you're constantly under CCTV surveillance).

CCTV cameras will watch you everywhere Unless you happen to be the victim of a crime, in which case the cameras will be "switched off" or "pointing the other way".

Mobile data is pretty cheap (assuming you have a compatible phone) - pick up a Three or T-Mobile sim at the airport.

Lastly, no geek can be without their coffee fix: try Monmouth Coffee, Flat White or Cafe Amato.

• London Underground Journey Planner
• Accessible overland train timetables
• Accessible overland train timetables (mobile version)
• Crowd sourced *nice* things in London
• UK journey planner by every means available

It's also useful to know that each post code (zip code) is allocated to a small group of houses (say ten-ish) within the same street.
That's accurate enough to navigate using just the house number and post code. So if you wanted directions from, say, the British Museum (WC1B 3DG) to Buckingham Palace (SW1A 1AA) you'd google this: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=WC1B 3DG to SW1A 1AA

Get yourself a London A-Z (Zed ;) - most of the time dead tree maps still beat electronic (and there's no cellphone reception on the Underground).

Get yourself an Oyster Card. It's a significantly cheaper way to travel.
You don't have to register it if perhaps you're sensitive about personal privacy (just remember you're constantly under CCTV surveillance).

CCTV cameras will watch you everywhere Unless you happen to be the victim of a crime, in which case the cameras will be "switched off" or "pointing the other way".

Mobile data is pretty cheap (assuming you have a compatible phone) - pick up a Three or T-Mobile sim at the airport.

Lastly, no geek can be without their coffee fix: try Monmouth Coffee, Flat White or Cafe Amato.

Yes, it's typical "argh! It's not happening!". Well, unless people take an interest and do something, of course it won't happen.

The adoption problem needn't be. If companies and organisations are unwilling to put data up semantically, someone else will. We see this already with accessibility - in the UK, a replacement train times website has been built to replace the crappy National Rail website. I wrote a MySpace screen scraper recently so I wouldn't have to visit the profiles of my friends, and instead I could subscribe to RSS feeds. Semantic data will be available either officially or unofficially quicker than you would think...

For example http://www.traintimes.org.uk/ (commonly known as the accessible train site) is a deeplink of the official UK timetable site. Most people I know use it. I guess they have no problem providing this this information because it is is public owned data. The 'official' site however does just about every trick possible to obfuscate and hide the data.

I vote with my clicks. Life is too short to waste on shitty websites. Here are the rules if you want to get my views and clicks on your website. I exercise a zero tolerance policy towards crappy websites, it's worked for me for over 2 years, there's nothing important or enriching I've missed by strictly adhering to this policy and I advise you all to do the same and show dumb website developers where to get off by mercilessly voting with your 'browsing behaviour'.

I tend to judge a website within about 500ms so you get exactly half a second to convince me you have real content sensibly presented in a format my browser will read.

Fontsize - if I cant read it immediately I won't waste my time straining my eyes, I go elsewhere. I won't even bother to press + to enlarge the font anymore because that also wastes my time.

Javascript - if your site needs to run Javascript forget it, you are obviously an idiot who neither understands web design nor wishes to have my viewing. Couldn't think of a way to make it work without script? Too bad you're too dumb.

Flash sites - If any part of your website has Flash components required to navigate it I won't get to see those parts since I don't allow Flash to run in my browser. If you have a 'Flash Only' site you're an idiot and I will pass by your site and onto the next one almost unconsciouly.

Cookies - there is no need for cookies whatsoever, site that don't function correctly without them will not be used by me.

Adverts - I couldn't care less about those since I block them all by default.

Automatic sounds and music - is the quickest way to get me to close the browser tab on your site.

Plugins - fuck your plugins, I don't care what they do or how they 'enhance my experience' I am browsing the web not looking for new software to download and run. If you dont supply simple links to files in common formats (.wav .mp3 .mpeg .jpeg etc...) then I will pass by your content.

Registration required - I don't register at web sites. Period. I'll use bugmenot if I'm really keen to see an article but otherwise you simply cause me to walk away and find content elsewhere by asking for registration.

Email required - I won't even be bothered to type in a fake nonsense address anymore. I visit sites to obtain information not the other way around. If you ask me questions above your station I will simply move along to the next site.