When in Newcastle last Wednesday (1st October), I went on the Metro underground. I noticed that all speed limit signs right across the Metro network were in km/h. Is this the same for the London underground and other tube networks in the UK?

The Newcastle Metro was opened in about 1980 before Mrs T wound up the Metrication Board and has always been metric. I believe that part of the London underground are in the process of being metricated (the public should not notice any difference in the service that is offered, but it will make the lives of the engineers, planners and other service personnel easier because all other information that they use such as survey information is already metric.

Fabby.

I poked me 'ed into the driver cabin of one of the new trains at marylebone station to find it in MPH.

Are network rail or whatever they're called ditching the unpopular metric system now?

Steve, The railways are being converted to metric on a line by line basis, not a train by train basis. The new Channel Tunnel Rail Link for example is all metric. I know that the tabloids quoted the design speed of the line as being 186 , but think carefully - what is the metric eqivalent of 186mph - it is 300 km/h. So who are the tabloids fooling?

That is an example of the sort of pedantic and silly nonsense which SteveH usually condemns.

Hehe...

Indeed when you are on the eurotrainthing they actually announce the speed in mph in english and then in kph for the french (and other europeans presumably).

That's because we use mph in the UK.

The train I was talking about is a brand spanking new one that will be used up and down the land - it's speedo was in mph.

Tell me - what would the benefit be in it being in kph? Will we be able to seel more loose apples to Germans?

Nice insight (again)

"Indeed when you are on the eurotrainthing they actually announce the speed in mph in english and then in kph for the french (and other europeans presumably)."

Perhaps they employ a tabloid journalist to sit in the cockpit to annouce the speed to us dumb brits in mph! er "think about it"!!!

LOL!

It's km/h not kph, by the way.

I know it's nit picking, but there you go.

I think Steve knows very well its km/h - he's just trying to demonstrate the average Brit's ignorance of the metric system

"It's km/h not kph, by the way."

Yes indeed it is

"I know it's nit picking, but there you go."

I know it was baiting, but there you go.


(however I did detect that he didn't quote "kilometres forward slash hour")