Galeria Caspar

Today the weather was very good, about 30 degrees, so I went out cycling, I made a tour of 84 kilometers in the sun.


I was not the only one at the beach. Lot of German tourists.


The North Sea.


The Dutch goverment says that this place isn't safe enough, in cases of extreme weather with storms, there is a risk that the North Sea will brake this dyke, and the land behind will flood. So there is a enormous plan; in front of the dyke must come a beach of several hundreds meters, and 10 meters high above sea level. To realise this, a pair of ships is continually pumping up sand in deeper parts of the sea, and they blow the sand in front of the dam, to create a wide beach. This ships are just started, and will continue one year non-stop, day and night.

I'm quite curious what the results will look, so I have a plan to take a look every month here.




This is the dyke/dam. The land behind it, is a few meters below sea level.

Now it looks really calm and peacefull but in the winter I made this short clip here:

at 0.50 i got some wet shoes   


A common Dutch public transport bus.


Another one, in the left my black Batavus bike. Bus 851 is a summerbus, it runs along the coastline during holidays.


This bridge is quite unique here, there are 5 of them in Neterlands. They are called "vlotbrug" which means "pod plutitor" in Romanian if i'm correct. Those bridges aren't built for heavy traffic. Years ago, I've seen one sinking while there was a truck which was to heavy loaded for the poor bridge.


And a train, the Intercity from Amsterdam to Den Helder.

Cycling to Amsterdam and back, 11 june 2014:


Windmill Volendam.




The regio around Amsterdam has a lot of nice little towns, like Monnickendam.


As you can see, it's very rural around Amsterdam. You can enjoy absolute silence a few kilometers away from the busy city.


My bike.


New GVB VDL articulated bus, called Citea. These ones are replacing older busses, which are now in service in Iași.
The north part of Amsterdam has only busses, but a metroline is under construction.


Siemens Combino tram line 26, at halta "Zuiderzeeweg".




An old windmill, in the eastpart of the center of Amsterdam. Whem you enter Amsterdam by train you can see this one also. I think this is the only one in Amsterdam.


Windmill + tram. GVB tram 10, halta "Hoogte Kadijk"


Highspeed trains (250km/h) called Fyra/V250, build in Italia (AnsaldoBreda) for Amsterdam- Brussels services. Due to diverse failures, these trains were only in service for 5 weeks, and are going back to Italy. Dutch Railways hopes to find a new buyer for this trains. It's a enormous financial fiasco.


GVB tram at halta "Dam".


GVB tram type 11G build in Belgium at BN.BN


Westerkerk, the highest church in Amsterdam, the canal is called Prinsengracht.


Tram + Church, halta "Westermarkt"


Man lion's city, line 170.


Entrance to Central Station. It's under construction, because of the construction of the new metroline.


Some trams at the Central Station.


I left Amsterdam, and took a ferry, between Amsterdam and Zaandam.


It was 17.00h so it was peak-hour. These ferries are free for cyclists or pedestrians, normally there are far less people on it. It goes every 20 minutes, 24h a day, because there are not bridges here. There is a tunnel for trains with 3 tracks, and there are several tunnels for cars.


Amsterdam harbour.


IC to my hometown (but i have to cycle) at 140km/h near Zaandam.


A small windmill.

What are the differences in Holland between train ranks? I'm asking about speed, prices, confort.

Prices are the same, comfort wil differ, a few examples:

Regional train/Sprinter:

These trains don't even have a toilet. But, due to lot of complains, toilets have to be installed by the railways next years.

Intercity:

This is the interior of the train, shown in my last picture, an IC.

I like especially the first class:


The double deck IC's are compareble (2nd class):


IC's do mosty have WIFI.

Speeds; Highest speed in Netherlands is 140km/h, but some older type of regional trains can run only 120km/h.
There is one Highspeed line for 300km/h and there are some lines for 200km/h or 160km/h like Amsterdam - Utrecht, Amsterdam - The Hague, Amsterdam -Almere- Zwolle. But the ATB system which is our safety system doesn't allow speeds higher than 140km/h. It's a bit like București - Constanța/Ploiești   Between Amsterdam and Utrecht, there are testtrains for ERMTS but I don't know when a train will drive 200km/h there... Our Doubledeck trains are built between 1995 and 2009 and are prepared for 200km/h under 25kV (like Romania) we have now 1800V, but our rebuild lines and new lines are prepared for 25kV.

General speed from Hoorn to Amsterdam:
Distance, 46 km.
IC 33 minutes, 83,6 km/h average.
Regional train: 42 minutes, 65,7km/h average, 5 extra stops.

When you travel on a longer distance, like Groningen- Amsterdam, 210 kilometers, the IC takes 2h07 or 99,2 km/h.

Crystal clear, Caspar. Thank you!   

Still, one thing: how come those trains have no toilet?  :shock: 

NS (our railways) says that nobody will use the toilet on trains with a short distance. But in general, everybody knows that it's a simple form of money saving. A toilet costs money to clean and costs some place where between 4 of 8 seats can be.

But sometimes the distance in a toilet-free train can bee 100km... And with some huge disruptions when the trains were standing for a few hours in the middle of nowhere, a toilet free train seems to be a big problem...
So every new train or renovated train sinds 2013 has to have a toilet. And the trains without a toilet will be provided the next years with one.

But that's how things are going here; first the railways are doing some impopulair things, then the whole country is angry about it, than the politics is seeing the angry people, then there are elections and every party promise better trains/toilets, and finaly there is happening nothing for years...

...and so, the word of the people is taken in acount.   How can someone not love democracy? )

In a way I can see the ideea. You don't have a toilet on the subway trains or inside buses or trams. But still, it's... unhuman, given the time spent in those trains.

The urban trains in Viena and Paris have toilets. And in Viena they had old-style toilets, that "unloads" between the tracks.

At least the toilets in the stations are free of charge for those who have a train ticket?
If the train is broken and it stays in the middle of nowhere, you can go at one end, position yourself between the tracks (so nobody in the train see you) and do you thing... this is how Romanian train drivers do if necessary. If there is someone else in the locomotive (assistant-driver or just a friend), that person will use the dead man pedal, while the driver will open the locomotive door and proceed to his needs   

Only bigger stations have toilets here. Sometimes when I travel with a train without toilet, I go to the toilet in another train which is waiting a few minutes in a station. The modern toilets with a collection tank under it, are sometimes full and then the toilet can not be used. I think that they aren't frequently enough emptied. Especially at the end of the day, you can find a lot of un-useable toilets.
Older toilets which are 75% (I guess) of all toilets in Dutch trains do unload between tracks, but they are always in function, never full   

Another time, when I was driving a shift with a traindriver we had a toilet-free train and due a lot of coffee, I urgently needed to go to the toilet, so we decided that I go at the end of the platform. But just at that moment, the chef-train, a women, came to us for a little talk. It was a bit embarrassing.

Traindrivers and chef-trains will make also a point towards the direction, if they need to go to the toilet, and the have no toilet in the train, they walk to the toilet in the station, and let the train wait for several minutes...

Is there any locomotive that has toilets inside for the drivers?

I believe that there is/was a little hole in the wall, but I never seen it myself. I have only seen once a locomotive from the inside. When I had a drive inside a cabin with a traindriver (for my work) it was always a trainset without locomotive or it was a Bds.

Na ... sa se mai planga careva ca la IR e obligat sa mearga in compartiment de 8 locuri cu nu stiu ce scaune de isi rupe coloana si alte exagerari de genu` asta. Dupa cum se vede si la ei chiar trenurile IC au tot cate 8 scaune, sunt salon. Aceeasi situatie si in Germania la ICE, in Austria la RailJet etc.   . La olandezi din cate spune colegu` nu e diferenta de pret intre Regio si IC, dar in Germania e diferenta intre Regio, IC si ICE .

Pai romanu se crede boier...

Refuz sa imi imaginez ce ar insemna un tren fara veceuri in Romania.  

A fost la Timisoara si la Arad cate un AM 900 fara wc