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In the realms of utter fantasy here, but was an HS1 station at Rainham ever considered? (It would certainly help in this instance, but the downsides are obvious...)

I recently experienced the Tilbury-Gravesend ferry. It's definitely an experience in faded grandeur. You can peer into the derelict terminal at Tilbury - it's quite a sorry sight now. The landing at Gravesend does give the best possible approach to the town, though (even if the pier is mostly...

The road through the the industrial estate is indeed grim - and you're sharing it with mostly lorries. However, it is possible to ride along the sea wall (there are bridges, despite what Google Maps seems to indicate). It's hardly the Amalfi Coast, but it's an awful lot nicer than the Grande...

Oh goodness, no, I haven't had business class travel since the mid-00s. I can just about sneak in a premium economy sector if I'm creative with the online booking tool. I've had plenty days where I've come off long-haul flights into the office, and you're not at your peak, but you can work a...

Yup, particularly when you're expected to head straight into work after long haul + connection.

[devil's advocate] What about those connecting from a long-haul? There are plenty flights that have more transit than O&D passengers.

There probably is. There's demand for Harwich-Esbjerg too, and for Ramsgate-Oostende, although the business cases are borderline. There are primarily-freight services elsewhere that make themselves more available to your general punter (Finnlines, for example) but I do wonder about the general...

It's a very difficult comparison to make. Which class? Which aircraft type? Where am I trying to get to? Leisure or business? Casual or regular? VS has an extremely limited route network, really only making it useful if I'm headed from London to North America. For most aircraft types, if...

UKBF have stopped all private immigration clearance at Immingham now, so you'd basically need to be pre-declared as a haulier. You'd *really* have to want to do it...

Passenger ferries. There's still Ro-Ro traffic to other destinations (e.g. Immingham-Gothenburg)

The bike procedures at Dover are rather curious. You don't actually use the travel centre. Nor do you use that horrendous ramp up to the car check-in (thank goodness!) Instead, you follow a marked walkway under the flyover to a small gate in a wall, where you simply get buzzed through to...

Not quite, on the Harwich to Hoek van Holland. The bikes and cars go together (and there's a lot of bikes, perhaps unsurprisingly for the Netherlands, although a lot of motorbikes too). Both ships have sizeable bike racks, but these often overfill and crew will direct you to attach bikes to...

No, still in progress as of July when I was last on. From what I understand, "refurbishing" might be a kind way of putting what needed to be done to prevent something rather awful from happening...

Much as I love the Harwich to Hook of Holland crossing, Harwich terminal is awful (and the cracked A120 leading up to it isn't much better), and in stark contrast to the one at the Dutch end. I know the ferry services have severely dwindled, and foot/rail traffic in particular, but it's a...

I very narrowly missed not only getting stuck in a lift, but getting quite seriously injured by it in my old office building. This was early 00's in a building of 80's vintage in central London. We were on the 7th floor of 8, it was fairly small. Two of us were going down for a smoke (as was...

I haven't seen any for ages. I do miss the Tyne Bridge ones! You do get "operated" lifts, which I find quite unsettling. This is where you have no control over the lift, you have to rely on a remote operator. Some expensive hotels have these, as well as some hospitals.

Or indeed the rather cute little funicular metro of Laon: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/342/20237057869_5e222ddae8_b.jpg

That's not a patch on the Himachal Tourism Lift in Shimla (India): https://9968c6ef49dc043599a5-e151928c3d69a5a4a2d07a8bf3efa90a.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/715176-2.jpg At the other end of the scale is Lausanne. Take a funicular from Ouchy to the city, and turn it into one end of a metro system...

Oh, they're fun. I like that they're getting put in alongside escalators to give access to underground stations - the ones at Triangeln in Malmo and Nationaltheatret in Oslo are particularly fun.

I love the escalators in the Prague metro - some deep stations there, but they whizz up and down far faster than the ones in this country. Did anyone here ever get the chance to use the Montparnasse-Bienvenue fast travelator while it was up and running? Surreal experience, and I did...