The BBC website business section today contained an article regarding some new high speed trains, produced by Siemens, for the Eurostar services between London and Paris and London and Brussels. The article was mostly metric, although it showed the speed as "320 km per hour (200 mph)", and that the trains consumed energy equivalent to "0.33 litres of petrol [gasoline] per 100 km" (no imperial mpg equivalents shown - hooray!). For comparison purposes, a reasonably economical mid-size car will use between say 7.0 and 10.0 L/100 km, a small car between 5.0 and 7.0 L/100 km.
There were also links to other publications regarding the same news: The Independent (British newspaper, politically reasonably neutral) - metric only. The Telegraph (British newspaper, Murdoch group, right wing, staunchly anti-metric) - imperial only, to be expected. This paper is a disgrace. Computing.co.uk (not sure why this publication is reporting this news) - mostly metric, with imperial in parentheses. Curious mixture of both kph and km/h. Yahoo!-Britain and Ireland - metric with USC in parentheses. Incorrect reporting of "320 kilometers (200 mph)", and fuel consumption of "0.33 liters (0.7 US pint) per 100 km (62.5 miles)". Why something directed at UK and Ireland market would use US pints is bizarre. Considering that the orginal news feed was likely all metric, and that all the publications shown (including the BBC) are all British/European to one degree or another, this is still quite disappointing that all felt the need to include imperial/USC equivalents. Still a long way to go. John F-L
