Options

EU says UK's railways must become metric.

1356789

Comments

  • Options
    VulpesVulpes Posts: 1,504
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    BanglaRoad wrote: »
    Where did you go to school? I am 40 and we were taught in metric with just a nod to imperial measurements as they were still used a lot at the time.
    I went to school in Scotland so perhaps the system is different to other parts of the country

    England, South East.
  • Options
    BanglaRoadBanglaRoad Posts: 57,681
    Forum Member
    Vulpes wrote: »
    England, South East.

    Well I am surprised to hear that they were not teaching metric in schools in the south east.
  • Options
    ba_baracusba_baracus Posts: 3,237
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    BanglaRoad wrote: »
    Well I am surprised to hear that they were not teaching metric in schools in the south east.

    I am assuming they possibly went to some sort of specialist schools, like an American school or something.

    I doubt it was any kind of regular state school.

    I am not sure why they are being so cryptic about it.
  • Options
    bluebladeblueblade Posts: 88,859
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    steveh31 wrote: »
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/554253/Safety-fears-EU-demands-rail-network-UK-go-metric

    Until the changeover drivers will have to use trains which have the new metric system and the old miles system which could cause confusion.

    More than ever I'm voting UKIP.

    No real issues with actually going metric, but pissed off with our country being dictated to by the EU.
  • Options
    VulpesVulpes Posts: 1,504
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    BanglaRoad wrote: »
    Well I am surprised to hear that they were not teaching metric in schools in the south east.

    I mean, we briefly covered the metric system. We were taught the conversions, but that's as far as it went. If there was a maths test and one of the questions was about, I don't know, combining and multiplying the heights of 10 giants, it would certainly be in foot & inches.
  • Options
    BlofeldBlofeld Posts: 8,233
    Forum Member
    I am quite surprised our trains aren't metric already.

    I would be all for going fully metric. Imperial makes no sense. I don't use it (i pretend the miles on the roads are really just kilometers anyway and usually work out what the signs would say if we were a modern country) and find it ridiculous to cling to something from the past like this. No one learns it at school anymore and the "oooh but the old dears will find it confusing" doesn't' wash with me at all. A change has to be made eventually and unless we start exterminating people at the age of 30 ala Logans Run then we will always have old people. We don't allow them being "confused" about various other things to hold us back so why should we over the way distances are measured?
  • Options
    VulpesVulpes Posts: 1,504
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    ba_baracus wrote: »
    I am assuming they possibly went to some sort of specialist schools, like an American school or something.

    I doubt it was any kind of regular state school.

    I am not sure why they are being so cryptic about it.

    I never went to any specialist school. One regular state primary and two regular state secondarys. I don't know what you think I'm being cryptic about? :S
  • Options
    BanglaRoadBanglaRoad Posts: 57,681
    Forum Member
    Metric is just so much easier to work with. Everything is 10s, 100,s or 1000s but imperial is just a mish mash of random numbers.
    Everybody can work out the money we use so there is no reason why anyone should struggle with metric weights or distances or whatever.
  • Options
    AndrueAndrue Posts: 23,389
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Vulpes wrote: »
    The schools I attended only taught us using the imperial system. Nothing more to it than that.
    I'm amazed that Ofsted allowed them to continue operating.
  • Options
    BlofeldBlofeld Posts: 8,233
    Forum Member
    BanglaRoad wrote: »
    Metric is just so much easier to work with. Everything is 10s, 100,s or 1000s but imperial is just a mish mash of random numbers.
    Everybody can work out the money we use so there is no reason why anyone should struggle with metric weights or distances or whatever.

    No one would struggle, it's a far more logical system. The only people who would pretend to struggle or get outaged are the ones who think the EU is a big scary monster.

    One day when I'm an old person and something new is possibly being introduced I'll get someone to pretend I won't understand it so that the whole country forever has to do what I find easier.

    See how ridiculous that sounds, why do people use that argument for Metrification?
  • Options
    hyperstarspongehyperstarsponge Posts: 16,782
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Good advert for UKIP.
  • Options
    VulpesVulpes Posts: 1,504
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Andrue wrote: »
    I'm amazed that Ofsted allowed them to continue operating.

    I don't think I know anyone in their early twenties who were primarily taught with the metric system. You ask them their height, they'd say 6ft 3inches. Ask them how much they weigh, they'd say 10 stone 7 pounds. Ask them how far from their house is the Dog & Duck pub, they'd say a couple of miles away...
  • Options
    phylo_roadkingphylo_roadking Posts: 21,339
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I fully believe we should comply with the EU, and our railway systems should become fully metric...

    But they should have a different metric gauge to European rail systems, so the bastards STILL can't run through-trains! :D
  • Options
    TheSilentFezTheSilentFez Posts: 11,104
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    As a science student, I solely use metric. Imperial has no place at all in science and metric works perfectly well in everyday life.

    I only use imperial for phrases and figures of speech such as "it's miles away!", but never to actually measure or quantify anything.
    Vulpes wrote: »
    I don't think I know anyone in their early twenties who were primarily taught with the metric system. You ask them their height, they'd say 6ft 3inches. Ask them how much they weigh, they'd say 10 stone 7 pounds. Ask them how far from their house is the Dog & Duck pub, they'd say a couple of miles away...

    Well I'm 19 so a little younger than early twenties, but I was only taught metric in primary school. I'm pretty sure it was the same for the people slightly older than me too.

    Imperial is completely and utterly useless, IMO
  • Options
    jrajra Posts: 48,325
    Forum Member
    Andrue wrote: »
    I'd use millimetres for snow, metres for my height and kilogrammes for my weight.

    I honestly don't know what my height or weight is in traditional UK units. I could take a guess at my weight in pounds by assuming 1kg = 2 pounds but no idea how to get to stones without looking it up. Converting 1.81 metres to feet and inches is way more work than I could be bothered with. A metre is about 3 feet but 'a bit less than 6 ft' is as close as I could be bothered to come up with.

    6 feet is 2 yards. 1 foot is 12 inches. 1 stone is 14 pounds (there are roughly 2.2 pounds in a kilogram). 1 metre is about 39 inches. 6 feet is 1 fathom.
  • Options
    BanglaRoadBanglaRoad Posts: 57,681
    Forum Member
    I remember reading a post on here a few months ago and it was a funny little poem about just how crazy the old money system was. Would link it here but have forgotten what thread I saw it on.
  • Options
    AndrueAndrue Posts: 23,389
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    jra wrote: »
    6 feet is 2 yards. 1 foot is 12 inches. 1 stone is 14 pounds (there are roughly 2.2 pounds in a kilogram). 1 metre is about 39 inches. 6 feet is 1 fathom.
    Thanks for sharing that arcane and irrelevant information with me. But FYI, if it ever matters to me I'm quite capable of looking that up on the web. My point is that I don't need to know it and it never matters enough for me to bother committing it to memory. I will now try and ensure that it fades from my memory so that the storage space can be more gainfully utilised.
  • Options
    jrajra Posts: 48,325
    Forum Member
    jenzie wrote: »
    we're a bloody island
    START ACTING LIKE AN ISLAND

    and what's the point of this anyway, we have no real connection with european railway system, other than the eurotunnel!

    ERTMS is a European standard, so the UK has to conform, meaning speeds will be in kmh.

    The UK is not totally adverse to kmh instead of mph, when it comes to trains.

    Class 91s and rolling stock are also known as Intercity 225, the 225 referring to the kmh speed.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterCity_225
  • Options
    AndrueAndrue Posts: 23,389
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Vulpes wrote: »
    I don't think I know anyone in their early twenties who were primarily taught with the metric system.
    Oh, really?

    http://www.metric.org.uk/education-policy

    "Prior to 1974, although the teaching of the metric system was not compulsory, many schools did in fact teach it, and it was included in some examination syllabuses. However, since 1974 all state schools have been required to teach the metric system as the primary system of measurement."

    and:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Kingdom#Initiation_of_a_national_education_programme_in_schools

    "The biggest change in education in England since the 1970s was the introduction in 1988 of the National Curriculum, in which SI is the principal system of measurement and calculation."

    Did you and the young people you know play truant a lot? 'cos it seems like you must all have missed some important lessons.
  • Options
    jrajra Posts: 48,325
    Forum Member
    Andrue wrote: »
    Thanks for sharing that arcane and irrelevant information with me.

    You're welcome.
  • Options
    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 11,133
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    The older train drivers I work with, who spend all day reminiscing about British Rail, will still want their TOPS list in SLU lengths / FT.


    And it has to be faxed.

    There's a massive generation gap between the old guard and the IPad generation

    They've been given iPads cradled in the locos but consider it somekind of witchcraft :D
  • Options
    alan29alan29 Posts: 34,678
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Does this mean I can no longer pay for a ticket using florins and groats?
    Does the Daily Express know?
  • Options
    Dr. ClawDr. Claw Posts: 7,375
    Forum Member
    Frankly the ridiculous notion of the UK clinging to such an outdated imperial system makes us a laughing stock in the eyes of the rest of the world, and this steadfast refusal to come into alignment with most other countries actually does our reputation more harm than good.

    .

    so what? its not up to them what people do in this country. fck them
  • Options
    VulpesVulpes Posts: 1,504
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Andrue wrote: »
    Oh, really?

    http://www.metric.org.uk/education-policy

    "Prior to 1974, although the teaching of the metric system was not compulsory, many schools did in fact teach it, and it was included in some examination syllabuses. However, since 1974 all state schools have been required to teach the metric system as the primary system of measurement[bi]."

    and:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Kingdom#Initiation_of_a_national_education_programme_in_schools

    "The biggest change in education in England since the 1970s was the introduction in 1988 of the National Curriculum, in which SI is the principal system of measurement and calculation."

    Did you and the young people you know play truant a lot? 'cos it seems like you must all have missed some important lessons.

    Well, if you went to your local highstreet and went up to people in their twenties, told them you're doing a survey and asked their height - I'd bet my life that at least 90% will give their height in feet & inches. So if they were taught primarily the metric system (which I doubt), they don't bloody use it, so what's the point?
  • Options
    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,848
    Forum Member
    The rails are 4' 8 1/2" inches apart.

    Anyway imperial sizes are a lot easier for modelling, converting a dimension in feet to a modelable size is trival.

    2' wide door is 8mm in OO

    8' 6" wheelbase bogie is 34mm

    Absolute nightmare converting from metres to model sizes!
Sign In or Register to comment.