Making train tunnels cheaper by making them smaller is not a new idea. it is a very old idea. Have a look at the deep level tube lines of the London underground. In some ways, we regret having trains that small since it reduces capacity and makes it nigh impossible to air condition.
It's possible to make normal trains go over existing roads, elevated rail is also a very old thing, a lot of it did get taken down though.
Normal trains are designed to support very high loads, as they are using tracks suitable for cargo transport. For urben people transport, you don't need that carrying capacity, so the rails as well as the trains are unnecessarily heavy. Also, the wagons are larger than needed. It absolutely makes sense to rethink the whole system.
There is such a thing as "light rail" though. Lighter tracks, lighter trains, and cheaper construction.
Also if you want small trains, just look at the UK. Normal trains here are much narrower than normal US trains, they are about as wide as modern trams! And the London underground has trains that are tiny and shaped to make the most out of circular tunnels.
You don't need to rethink the entire system for the points you've raised there...
For some lines that go above ground (Northern, Jubilee, Central), the driver sometimes had to put it into manual mode to compensate for the worse breaking when it's raining outside.
Well in the UK the subjects you select is very closely tied to which University you can go to. Some universities require maths and will not accept people who haven't done it (sometimes even more advanced maths is required).
Some universities don't require maths and so will teach it to everyone who's applied. Some don't require it but force you to take a year of it if you haven't done it. and others require it and reject you if you haven't done it.
In the UK the details needed to transfer money into an account are on most bank cards (Account Number and Sort Code), so that's enough identifying info.
That would also mean someone can send you money if your card is blocked or cancelled. Account number and sort code don't change when you get a new card.
Also, "Faster Payments" is the name of the normal system to transfer money between accounts in the UK. It doesn't cost the sender anything other than the money they send. It's called "faster" because the old system was a lot slower (because it was based on paper I think?).
The old system (BACS) has been electronic since 1983, or possibly even 1968 when it was introduced. (Wikipedia is unclear, it seems transactions were recorded on magnetic tape for the first 15 years, before using phone lines.) It slowly replaces the paper based system: cheques.
The 2-3 days got the old system will have been a limitation of batch based computer processing from that time, and maybe moving the magnetic tapes around.
I'm curious about this. I've always banked with NatWest so I'm only really familiar with their cards, but my bank account number is definitely not printed on the card (the sort code is).
Do some other UK banks really print the account numbers on their cards? Or is there some way to send a Faster payment to a debit card number?
I'm with Starling Bank, and along with the usual Mastercard numbers (card number, expiry, CVV etc.) it has the account number... though not the sort code, strangely. I guess you could look it up if you wanted to, but you'd need to know this 8-digit number with no label was the account number. Weird.
I think Natwest is the outlier in this case. I've always had my account number and sort code on all my cards with other banks (Barclays, Lloyds, Halifax).
Edit: Maybe also Monzo, no account number on that one.
This font reminds me a lot of "Rail Alphabet" which is a font designed by British Rail in the 60s which was used to railway signs and also in hospitals. Newer fonts are starting to replace it, but there is still a lot of it around if you know where to look.
This concept is not new at all, From what I understand the tunnel sizes proposed are barely bigger than the London Underground "tube" tunnels. (Glasgow's subway has even smaller tunnels too). Now, don't get me wrong, it worked quite well for London, but it's not exactly innovative.
It should also be noted that london's postal service also deployed 2ft-wide tunnels to cart mail through the city, which was launched in the late 1920s.
In the UK, ballots are still done with pen and paper. You put a cross in one of the labelled squares and fold the paper, then drop it into the ballot box.
Also, while the guidelines say it has to be a cross, it could be any clear mark (though best not to risk it), as soneone drew a rude symbol in a square and it was counted as a vote! (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32693485)
