HURRAH! ICH BIN WIEDER DA. There have been no posts for the past two weeks as I have been on travel to London, Carlisle (where I made the emergency maintenance), Telford, Doncaster, Semmering, Vienna, back to London (with an unplanned stopover in Brussels), and back home. What time is it???

There will be more details of this trip as it includes observations on economics, the academy, and things that run on rails. Here is one teaser: the vaunted European passenger trains are not always as fast or punctual as many people believe (more details to come.) The unplanned stopover in Brussels arose owing to a gaffe worthy of Amtrak on the Deutsche Bahn's Inter City service. I was booked on the 8.45 Vienna to Frankfurt Flughafen, where the train sets down at 15.58 with a transfer to a 16.09 Inter City to Koln, arriving 17.06 with a transfer to the 17.12 Thalys train to Brussels, permitting a connection to the last Eurostar of the evening to London.

The 16.09 was listed as 10 minutes late at Frankfurt. During the ticket check, I inquired with the conductress about the tight connection in Koln. She noted, "Kein Problemm. Wir sagen Thalys." Alas, nobody saw fit to sagen der Bahnhoffuehrer in Koln, as our train was held twice on the approaches to the Hohenzollern Bridge, when we could have rolled in a minute late with a clear track, and the Thalys train rolled as advertised at 17.12.

The station staff at Koln and at Brussels were helpful, rebooking me on the 18.12 Koln-Brussels-Paris (which was held until 18.21 for passengers to make connections) and on the 8.13 Brussels-London nonstopper. The Eurostar agent was not pleased with travel agents relying on the Bundesbahn's six minute connection at Koln, because if the train is not placed on the normal track (which is shown in a print brochure, the Reiseplan, that each German train has), passengers will miss the connection even with the train on time.

More on the railroads of the UK and Mitteleuropa in the days to come.