ZM's Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley - Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley's Fact of the Day (of the Week!) - Public Transport!

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

On This FOTD(OTW); Vaughan pesters the driver with a week of Public Transport Facts!It's Time For...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ZM Podcast Network. Play ZM's Fletch, Vaughn and Hayley. On today's Fact of the Day of the Week, Vaughn thanks the driver and delivers a week of public transport facts. It's time for... Fact of the Day is public transport Okay Interesting public transport around the world Oh cool

And we're going to start today No sorry that was genuine It just sounded like I was being sarcastic Insincere Yeah it did I meant it No Vaughan I'm excited genuine. It just sounded like I was being sarcastic. I meant it. No, Vaughan, I'm excited. Tell me about the trains and stuff. Tell me.

Here it comes then. You've won me back over. We go to the Philippines today. Okay. Because we were actually talking yesterday. You know, you did your five year plan. Yes. And did that include some travel? Yes. Yeah, so we didn't have that much of a serious, but then we talked about where we'd like to go next.

Right. Sade and I. I want to go to the Philippines. I want to go to the Philippines. Beautiful. Yeah, I'd love to go to the Philippines. I've not been. I've had a few friends go lately, and the stories look insane. Yeah, they look amazing. So, I want to go to the Philippines.

And then this popped up and I was like, okay, this is the inn. Because we go to the Philippines for today's fact of the day as well. Okay. This saves me so much money on air fees because technically I'm going to be like, where have we been? Yeah. Oh, it's just as good. Just to hear a story about their public transport. Have you ever heard of the jeepney?

The jeepney? Like the chimney. The jeepney. Kind of, but this well predates the Suzuki Jimny. Okay. And in World War II, the Americans had quite a few bases around the Philippines. And of course, the American World War II vehicle of choice was the Willys Jeep. Yep. I'd love one.

You know I'd love one. I know you do. I know you'd love one. You know I'd love one. Get a uniform, fang around the sand, pretending I'm in North Africa without any of the associated danger. Yeah. Of being in North Africa in World War II. Yeah.

Because they're such a cool car. Well, after the war, a lot of the stuff was too expensive to ship home, so it just got left behind. Ask any island in the Pacific that had docks and stuff built. In Auckland, our very own Shed 10 was built by the Americans, wasn't it, for World War II? Thank you. I didn't know that. Yeah, they did.

They built that. Yeah, well, thank you. Say thanks. Do they get a cut of the venue hire now? Oh, they do, yes, the American Army. That's how they were affording all the bombs and such. Okay. And, of course, American soldiers also impregnated a lot of Wellington women,

but we'll talk about that later. Now, in the Philippines. Yeah, but hot though, eh? Thank you. It was really hot. They had a sexy uniform in World War II. Ask the ladies of Wellington. If Grandma goes,

every time, I'd probably be great grandma by now, every time the American National Anthem plays, there's a 95% chance she's left with the serviceman. She was serviced by a serviceman. Anyway, we digress. There's a 95% chance she slept with the serviceman. She's getting a bit of a flusher. She was serviced by a serviceman. And anyway, we digress. We do. Hot soldiers.

Americans just left behind the Jeeps because the cost of getting them home wasn't worth it. They just left them behind. Now, the Filipino people were like, we're not going to let these get a waste. Well, would you? Eat every part of the chicken, as the old saying goes. Yeah.

And so they turned them into public transport. But the problem is they're only a two-seater. Yeah. So they would get two of them and cut them in half, join them together, and then weld in some more bits and pieces. And ladies and gentlemen, they were left with what has become, and I'm sorry, I'm still listening to Andre Abichelli from before we run out of time.

An iconic mode of public transport in the Philippines called a jeepney oh wow a jeep from jeep and I believe chitney was a horse

drawn carriage that was kind of like a stretched jeep a public transport yeah a stretched out looks like a bit looks like a bit

like the South American buses it looks a bit like a Disney park you know when you go to like a a comical yeah

small little bus so yeah that's stretched out I love It looks a bit like a Disney park, you know, when you go to like a- A comical, small- Little bus. So yeah, they're stretched out. They predate, also they predate, you know, if you go to a lot of other Southeast Asian countries, I can speak to Thailand and Cambodia, there's the little trucks, the K-class trucks with just the row of seats in the back,

and you just jump on and away you go. But they're hired and you pay the driver. This is actual public transport. But the drivers take such pride in them that they decorate them and paint them. Oh my God, I love that. I absolutely love them. I simply must now go to the Philippines.

And have one. And buy one and bring back the jeepney. Well, you love a stretched hummusine. I don't. I just love a hummusine. I went in a hummusine once. And you loved it. You got the t-shirt.

I'm a hummusine girl, it says. Yeah loved it. You got the t-shirt. I'm a Hummerzine girl, it says. Yeah, yeah. Hummers and Hummerzines. That's what his t-shirt says. That's exactly what it says. So this will be right up your alley too,

I think, and then I'll take you through right in my jeepney when I bring it back. So today's fact of the day and the first of public transport week is in the Philippines,

old World War II jeeps that were left behind by American soldiers have been turned into public transport called Jeepneys. It's public transport, interesting public transport week here. Okay. At the end of the day. Are you going to do any funiculars or cable cars?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, funiculi. Yes, yes, yes. Funiculars. But yesterday, perhaps coincidentally, I finally watched the Brad Pitt movie Bullet Train, released in 2022, one of the first movies to go back into production after COVID.

Is that good? Dude, it ruled. Did you like it? Loved it. Okay. I'm a big fan. Yeah. Lately, I've really appreciated a good stunt film.

You know, we went and watched The Fall Guy. Oh, that's such a great movie. Go see that. Yeah, this is a great film. I very much enjoyed it. I feel it didn't get its props. Yeah.

And it's leaving Amazon Prime soon. Okay. That's the category I'm under. Leaving soon. Alright. And that was about

the bullet train in Japan. Yeah. That's set on the bullet train in Japan. So I thought, what about the fastest public transport? It'll be Japan or China,

won't it? China. China. Shanghai Maglev is a bullet train, also known as the Shanghai Transrapid. It tops the list of the fastest public transport in the world. It has an operating speed, a top operating speed of 460 kilometres an hour.

Is it faster than a plane? No. So a plane would be the fastest. Faster than a small plane? Right. So this would be the public transport on the ground. Because planes should say public transport, right? I would never think of a plane as being public transport. But it's public. You don't have to snap around or

fortune to get on it. It's not a private jet though, is it? But it's privately owned. Are we not including our private jets? No. Oh, okay. Sorry, I'm with you now. What about my public jet? You just let people go on. You charge so much for it. Yeah. Well, Taylor Swift's business model worked a treat.

Vaughan Star. Terrible on-time rating. Yeah, and rude stuff. Yeah, really rude. That's how we keep people, that's how we keep numbers down. It'll cost me a fortune otherwise. The average speed of the Shanghai Transrapid is 251 kilometres an hour. I feel like something like that in New Zealand wouldn't work because a cow would just wander onto the tracks.

It would be, it'd have to be raised. Disintegrate it. Yeah. It'd have to be raised tracks. Or some farmer's yoke conks out on the crossing. Oh. I don't know. You'd go on.

Terrible. No, well, that's where you'd have to do them raised. Yeah. So the fastest it's ever been, when they were like, let's see what this baby can do, 501 kilometres an hour. Oh, wow. I don't even know what that is. Do you know what I mean?

I don't even know what that looks like. When you're on a flight and you see that you're going like 500 or 600 kilometres an hour. I know, but it feels like you're going. Yeah. But then have you ever seen another plane pass under you? Yeah. That shows you how fast you're going. Yeah.

When you see that happen. I like them when one plane goes the other way, but it's real close. Yeah. And they have to go... I don't like that. Pull up. I don't like that.

That's fun. Adds a little bit of a thrill to an international flight. Yeah. So it uses electromagnetic force to levitate above the track, reducing friction. Is that like a theme park ride? That's electromagnetic, okay? Like a lot of roller coasters and stuff.

And it's smooth and it's quieter because it's not like rattling along like ordinary trains. Right. So yeah, that's today's fact of the day about public transport. The world's fastest public transport is the world's fastest public transport is a train in China that's top speed

ever recorded was 500 kilometres an hour. You've been to Ecuador? Si. Yeah, I've been to Quito. Quito? In Ecuador. Is that where the diet was invented? No, it's

Q-U-I-T-O. Something ain't right here. No potatoes here. Yeah, and I'd be eating so much meat and I'd be like, you know what would go well with this? Bread. And the whole town would scratch your heart. A tumbleweed would go through and they'd say Get him out of here. What did he see?

Yeah. Them's fine. What's what? And then guns would be drawn and I'd be like, I don't know what's wrong. It won't be guns, it'll be like avocados. Yeah, get your goddamn bread and your evil carbohydrates out of this town. No, it's spelled differently. And also a town at just over 2,800

metres. What? That's like the elevation of the city. Oh, I was like, we're measuring the city like that. So that's what led me to what we're about to talk about because I wanted to find the highest elevation public transport. I've been on this. Is it the gondola up the mountain? No, that's what, and then I was reading about the gondola.

Right. And it was the precursor to the gondola that I want to talk about. Okay. Because I was like, highest elevation public transport because I thought that's a cool fact. Right. And it was the precursor to the gondola that I want to talk about. Okay. Because I was like, highest elevation public transport. Because I thought, that's a cool fact. Yeah. Like it's public transport, but it's high. But it just kept telling me about what one

from the start to the end elevated the quickest. Right. And I was like, ah, that's not what I want! Don't be angry at yourself. That's not what I want! He snapped the laptop over his name. And then I got out my other laptop and began searching again. Okay.

And that's when I came across the Shiva Express. Okay. Who did the Shiva Express? The Shiva Express. It was the precursor to that gondola that you talked about. Okay. And unfortunately no longer runs the full track but is available for short trips basically

and you can kind of see why they're still doing it. They needed a way to get up this elevation. Yeah. And they had like a rail system on there, like a trammed rail system, but they couldn't afford the trams to go on there. So they converted a bus, chanted on the rails, and ladies and gentlemen,

the most rinky-dink looking thing you probably will ever see, the Sheva Express. Oh, no way. Wow, there's no way I'm going on that. It looks like a duck boat's on the train tracks. A duck boat's on the train tracks, but the duck boat is made out of a 1956 Bedford bus that you probably went on if you went to a rural school in the 90s.

I call it teetering. Teetering, because that's the thing. To make the old train track bottoms fit, they had to boost the bus up, making the bus the centre of gravity, like terrifyingly high. Okay. And you could sit on the roof because they wanted more people to be able to transport more people. Loose. Loose.

So you could go, it would go up, like, you've been on the gondola, how would you describe? I mean, anywhere there's a gondola, it's pretty drastic terrain, right? Like, you think of the gondola in Rotorua, it goes up pretty quick. Or the one in Queenstown, it's just like basically a sheer cliff that it manages to find its way out. Yeah, the Queenstown one is scary. Gondolas overseas, it's always over ravines and canyons, and that was the very same territory that this rinky-dink old bus sitting atop an old train base, an old tram base,

would navigate full of people sitting on the roof. So that would go right up to where the gondola goes now? Because the gondola that you take if you're in Quito in Ecuador goes from 3,100 metres to nearly 4,000 metres. Jeez. Not all the way up. Right. But as far up as the previous gondola.

New thanks. Could. It's wild. It's like seeing one of those things and in 2010 they, and you're thinking they demolished it and they're like, retired it. And it's still around, you can go on the rides and you're like, really? Don't want to.

Doesn't seem like it's a good idea. I don't want to at all. It looks horrible. So today's fact of the day is in Ecuador before the gondola that would take you to a beautiful, the view looks amazing, by the way. Yeah, it is. Gorgeous.

There was a bus. There was also a railway train that would climb a mountain. Today's Fact of the Day is Public Transport Week. It's the oldest continually running form of public transport in the world. On record. It never turns off. It's never not been a route for public transport. The Wilton 14 in Wellington.

What's the Wilton 14? It's a bus route. Is it a route or like a bus or a cable car or a tram or something? It's a ferry. A ferry. Oh. So the ferry itself has changed, but the- Staten Island.

No. Days Bay. Way before the US was- Oh. So to be- Is it in the US? No, it's not in the US. Is it in the-

China. It's not in China. Because that's what I was like, when I found this, I was like, there's got to be an older one in China, but I couldn't find like- Right. Yeah. Is it in Britain? They had not staked a claim one in China, but I couldn't find like... Right. Yeah. Is it in Britain? Not state to claim, it's in Britain.

It's in Britain. Right. It's in Britain. Is it a ship? It was established in 1150. Ooh. In 1150. What a silly year.

Is it in London? No, it's not. Is it in Liverpool? Yes, it is. Yeah. Oh, you got there. It's the Mersey Ferry. The Mersey.

It operates on the River Mersey. We've been on this ferry. We've been on this ferry. I looked it up. And it is the one we've been on. Paul and I go on holidays together sometimes. I can't wait to be invited. It's quite cute. Oh.

So it was started by the monks. They used to charge a small fare to row passengers across the river. Good old monks. From the Benedictine Priory. Good old monks. From the Benedictine Priory. Good old monks. Priory. Yeah. It was considerably wider than what it is now because of sand dunes and marshes and stuff

before it became like a full-blown city that is. But the route is the same. Okay. It's the same route since 1150 where it was rowboats. It's been steam ferries. It's been, I mean, before steam ferries, it was like larger rowboats and then it was rowboats. It's been steam ferries. It's been I mean before steam ferries it was like larger rowboats and then it was sail but the problem with the sail

was wouldn't always work because the wind would drastically change. Oh no. We're going back to the port. We're not going to make this work. Then of course it was steam ferries and then diesel and as it is at the moment, yeah, it's diesel,

but there are plans for it to become like an electric ferry service when they get to that. Yeah, right. And then no signs of stopping the route. No, apparently it's never stopped. Yeah. Amazing. It's always been going.

Even during the wars it would go. It's never stopped since 1150 apparently. So it's the oldest continually running public service, public transport service in the world is a ferry that goes across the Mersey. He drew a smiley face on a Mandarin. Oh, you silly boy You better eat that

We've got a clown in the mix We've got a class clown over here Drawing on his fruit You're showing off Well today He's wasting everyone Fact of the day The last fact of the day

About public transport Trying to find the weird I've enjoyed this Stories of public transport We go to Wisconsin Oh okay Wisconsin Okay why did everybody

Get a bit careful? Oh, we love Wisconsin. Why did you guys get... Are you kidding me? I'm so jazzed about Wisconsin. Is it about a boat? It is about a boat. Okay.

Do you know the Ice Angel of Wisconsin? No. Ice Angels in Wisconsin are a boat slash hovercraft. But it's not a hovercraft in a traditional manner of a hovercraft. It's a flat-bottomed boat that when the lakes aren't icy. Don't they make the rock and world go around? Flat-bottomed boat. No, that's flat-bottomed girls.

No, it's fat-bottomed girls. Fat-bottomed girls. Flat-bottomed girls don't do anything, you know. They can get through tiny. They are trying. They can get through little gaps. Not if they've got a set of boobies on them. It's real.

It's a hard world out there. You've got to get the ratios just right. I've lost my mind. You just suck on your peanut butter pouch, hon, and we'll take care of this. Need some oils. Essential oils. Not those sort of essential oils.

In the early 2000s, they were introduced, the Ice Angels. They come in public transport, so there's a ferry version of them. You've been on a swamp boat. Yeah. Massive fan on the back. That was so much fun. Massive fan on the back and a flat bottom so it doesn't have anything below the water so that it can just scoot right across

all the plants. If it's shallow enough, that can just skiddly daddly do. It's basically a flat bottomed boat with a massive fan on the back so that when the – Be like, I love your work. And the boat's like, it keeps me going. My ego drives us all.

Keep going, big fan. An actual fan. Oh, yeah, right. Huge, huge fan on the back. Now, when the lake is water, when the lake is not frozen ice, it just scoots across the top. When it's frozen, it just scoots across the top. It's a massive

fan-propelled boat on an ice lake. And they use them. There's emergency service ice angels and there is also public transport, like ferries. That are known as the Wisconsin Ice Angels. And they were first introduced in the early 2000s

by a congressman who conceptualised them after seeing the flat-bottomed swamp boats. Yeah. He was like, why don't we do this? We've got all these lakes and stuff that the getting around them, rather than just going through them when it's frozen over is chaotic.

I want to go on a hovercraft so bad. We nearly got to go on the hovercrafts at the airport. Remember that? Yeah. But it was too windy. So there's a big, at the Auckland airport, there's the plane body. Is the plane body still there?

Yeah, the wings have been taken off. Yeah, it's just the fuselage of the plane where they practice what it's like to be in a plane if there's an emergency. And over there, there's a big yellow hovercraft. Now, the big yellow hovercraft is for, and it won't happen if you're scared of flying and you're just about to go on a flight. It's not going to happen. But if a piece falls off the plane into the harbour, they can scoot out and get it.

Or a plane. I don't even know if it's ever really been used. Yeah, I don't know. But it's there. I think they've got a couple. Yeah. Yeah. Fun.

Hovercraft's a neat. think they've got a couple. Yeah. Yeah. Fun. Hovercraft's a neat. Cool. Swamp boat's a neat. And now you can add ice angels to cool forms of public transport because they are boats with massive fans on the back and when the ice is melted, it'll just scoot across the lake and when the ice is formed, it'll just scoot across the lake. Fact of the day, day, day, day, day.

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