#SouthWesternRailway (SWR) has been renationalised, making it the first train company to transfer to public ownership under Labour. The first nationalised service, from #Woking to #Surbiton, departed [today ...] at 05:36.
[...]
Seven more companies will be renationalised by 2027 as each of their contracts end – or sooner if their performance is judged to be unacceptable.
#RailwaySunday #UnitedKingdom #UK #SWR #transport #PublicTransport #railway #trains #politics #labour
German troops start first permanent foreign deployment since second world war
Heavy combat unit of 4,800 soldiers and 200 civilian staff inaugurated in Lithuania on Nato’s eastern flank
⚡️Romania's top court rejects far-right candidate Simion's bid to annul presidential election results.
Days before, George Simion, leader of Romania's far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), appealed the results despite conceding defeat to pro-EU candidate Nicusor Dan on May 18.
74% of Ukrainians trust President Zelensky — the highest trust level among all Ukrainian politicians, according to a May 2025 KIIS poll. His trust rating has increased since February. Notably, 73% of those who trust Poroshenko also trust Zelensky, showing strong overlap even across political divides.
Centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal #Trzaskowski [31.36%] and nationalist Karol #Nawrocki [29.54%] will compete in a second round of the presidential election in #Poland on June 1, the electoral commission said based on votes from 100% of electoral districts.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/19/europe/poland-election-trzaskowski-second-round-intl
#Europe #politics #PresidentialElection #presidency #democracy
#Portugal’s ruling center-right #DemocraticAlliance (#AD) won a snap parliamentary #election on Sunday but again fell short of the majority needed to end a long period of instability as the far-right #Chega gained a record share of the vote.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/19/europe/portugals-ruling-center-right-alliance-wins-election-intl
#elections #parliament #ParliamentaryElection #Europe #democracy #politics
Pro-European Union candidate Nicusor #Dan has won #Romania's closely watched presidential runoff against [...] hard-right nationalist [George #Simion], nearly complete electoral data shows. A huge turnout Sunday played a key role in the tense election that many viewed as a geopolitical choice between #East or #West.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/18/nx-s1-5402901/romania-election-nicusor-dan-president
#Europe #PresidentialElections #presidency #elections #politics #democracy
Last week I got a new GPU and was finally able to play #Stalker2. I have been excited since the #game was announced.
About 2 hours in, I'm thrilled with the atmosphere of the #zone. It feels much like the old games (in a good way), but with way better graphics. I can't wait to be back in the zone.
#GSCGameWorld #Ukraine #PC #Stalker #Chornobyl #Chernobyl #FPS
A #PKP class #SM15. Photo taken at the #TrainMuseum in #Warsaw.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PKP_class_SM15
#RailwaySunday #railway #trains #locomotive #Europe #Poland #Polska #Warszawa #technology #transport #StacjaMuzeum
The #SwissNorthernRailway, also known as Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn (lit. Spanish bun railway, named after a local #pastery) was the first railway line in #Switzerland. It opened in 1847 and connected the cities #Zurich and #Baden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Northern_Railway
Photo credit: Locomotive of the Swiss Northern Railway. Unknown photographer/Public Domain. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lokomotive_Rhein_1867.jpg
#RailwaySunday #railway #economy #history #Europe #food #transport
#Russia railways loading has been dropping since 2022 but this years - the black line at the bottom - has been the worst for years. Railway loading is one of the proxies for general state of economy, especially in Russia whose industry heavily depends on railways. This chart comes from a video[^1] by a Polish railways expert Ryszard Piech.
But then pretty much the same thing is reported by a Russian VChK-OGPU channel which reports 8.6% cargo volumes in April against the last year. The channel report that RZhD (Russian Railways) are going through severe financial problems due to dropping cargo traffic and the short-term perspective is grim, as the company faces massive layoffs.
Marketplace of Brühl with steam train of the Cologne-Bonn RR, about 1900.
Photo credit: unknown photographer/Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bruehl_Feuriger_Elias.jpg
#RailwaySunday #steam #tram #train #railway #Cologne #Bonn #Germany #urban #transport
#OpenRailRouting is a neat tool that allows you to find a #route by #rail: https://routing.openrailrouting.org/maps/
It does not, however, access schedules to give you actual, real-world connections, but simply finds a route on rail between two ore more points, and lets you download it as a GPX file or share it as a link. It can be useful to visualise your holiday travel plans, or simply to play around.
#RailwaySunday #OpenStreetMap #OpenData #FreeSoftware #railways #maps #routing #travel
An interesting paper on #Ukraine #migration into #Poland with very interesting findings:
We examine the impact of two massive and unexpected inflows of Ukrainians on voting behavior in Poland. The two migration shocks, caused by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, allow us to disentangle the effects of conflict induced labor migration from those of refugee inflows. Using an instrumental variable approach, we find that greater exposure to labor migrants reduces support for conservative parties in the short run and subsequently shifts voter preferences toward pro-redistribution parties. We do not find similar effects for refugees, who, unlike temporary labor migrants, had access to social benefits. However, exposure to both types of Ukrainian migration leads to a decrease in far-right voting. This effect emerges only after the salience of Ukrainian migrants increases due to the escalation of Russia’s aggression and the rise of anti-Ukrainian rhetoric from the Polish far-right. The backlash from Polish voters against the far-right rhetoric is ten times stronger in areas exposed to refugees than to labor migrants. Our results are robust to the use of a number of instruments and several sensitivity checks.
The longest #rail #transport network in the #world is found in the #US with a total length of 220,044 km (2019). Less than 1% is electrified.
At its peak in 1917 it used to be 428,180 km long. In a century, it shrank to half of its former size, but still remains the largest of its kind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size
#RailwaySunday #USA #America #NorthAmerica #infrastructure #railway #train
⚡️Ukraine proposes extending truce beyond Easter Sunday.
"Thirty hours is enough for headlines, but not for real confidence-building measures," President Volodymyr Zelensky said. "Thirty days can give peace a chance."
🔗 https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-proposes-extending-truce-beyond-easter-sunday/
❗️🇲🇩 Russia wants to replace Moldova’s leadership with pro-Kremlin puppets and use the country against Ukraine, warns President Maia Sandu. She emphasized that Ukraine remains Moldova’s shield — and Chișinău has a moral duty to stay out of Putin’s war.
Here should be a list of nouns and adjectives that describes my personality and what I stand for.