While cars cannot drive through the chunnel, is it the case that French and
other continental trains drive(?) on the right, while british trains drive
on the left? Certianly in NZ and Australia, trains drive on the left, as do
cars. This is obviously mostly important for double tracking, but suddenly
the location and facing of signals, semaphore, signs and lights becomes
important, and also for passengers: which side of the platform does one
wait for the train into town, as opposed to the train out? A Taiwanese
friend of mine got on the wrong train in Auckland a few years back, because
she was waiting on the RIGHT hand side platform, not the left. Naturally,
with more than double tracks, this becomes lass of an issue, but for
general safety, one would presume the trains travel on a similar handedness
to cars.
Is this the case in the UK, France, US etc?
This then raises the question, of where do the tracks for the Chunnel cross
over? (it is double tracked from memory), and as a secondary issue, where
is the border between France and the UK? Is it painted as a white line on
the iinside of the tunnels, midway in the Channel? Has as much legal time
and money gone into this as for a tunnel (I believe betwen France and
Spain?) that also had the exact border located within it?
By the way, can anyone in the UK or France update me on the Waterloo
Station spat that hit the papers here last year briefly. Will the English
change the station name, or will the French go through with their threat to
change the name of theirs to one of the (obscure and inconsequential :-) )
battles that we lost to them?
Brendan Whyte
University of Melbourne
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