  |
 Train Thoughts., *shakes fist* Beeching... |
| Track this thread - Email this thread - Print this thread - Download this thread - Subscribe to this forum |
 11th May 2023, 11:21 AM
Post
#61
|
|
 BuzzJack Gold Member
Joined: 21 February 2021
Posts: 3,557 User: 124,514 
  |
Rail privatisation a rounding success isn't it - why the hell can't Labour back nationalisation?
|
 |
 
|
|
11th May 2023, 02:58 PM
Post
#62
|
|
 Queen of Soon
Joined: 24 May 2007
Posts: 74,082 User: 3,474
      |
TPE has long been one of the worst services in the UK. Second only to Northern
|
|
|
|
|
11th May 2023, 06:10 PM
Post
#63
|
|
 Mansonette
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 35,304 User: 54
             |
One of the few times I've tried to use the TPE I was in Manchester waiting to catch it across to Leeds when it was announced that it wouldn't be arriving due to the train accidentally going to the wrong station in Manchester.
|
|
|
|
|
11th May 2023, 07:08 PM
Post
#64
|
|
|
WINTER IS COMING
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 45,599 User: 88
   |
QUOTE(Silas @ May 11 2023, 03:58 PM)  TPE has long been one of the worst services in the UK. Second only to Northern Northern has got a lot better. Transpennine is absolutely shocking though, their fleet of trains are shocking and the trains are always way over crowded. Scrapping HS3 was a massive joke as the whole service between Manchester-Leeds should be way more quicker and efficent than it is. It's a joke that it's actually quicker to drive that route than get the train. |
|
|
|
|
11th May 2023, 07:28 PM
Post
#65
|
|
|
BuzzJack Gold Member
Joined: 21 February 2021
Posts: 3,557 User: 124,514
|
I feel sorry for the Northerners as living in London transport is excellent (albeit pricey but that's Tory Britain for you) - moving further afield I regularly get the train down to Surrey, Bristol, Brighton etc too and never really have trouble (apart from the strikes). Real North/South divide there.
|
|
|
|
|
11th May 2023, 07:34 PM
Post
#66
|
|
|
Shakin Stevens
Joined: 29 December 2007
Posts: 46,151 User: 5,138
  |
Does the London mayor not affect train prices in London though?
|
|
|
|
|
11th May 2023, 07:41 PM
Post
#67
|
|
|
BuzzJack Gold Member
Joined: 21 February 2021
Posts: 3,557 User: 124,514
|
QUOTE(steve201 @ May 11 2023, 08:34 PM) Does the London mayor not affect train prices in London though? He does the best he can with the budget he can. Sadiq Khan has tried to keep prices down and there has been some good holds but at the end of the day if the Government grants are low then it will have to come from fares. Covid would have decimated those from 2020 onwards and still not back to full capacity nowadays with the hybrid/Work from Home arrangements. |
|
|
|
|
11th May 2023, 09:37 PM
Post
#68
|
|
|
Mansonette
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 35,304 User: 54
|
Travel in general has become so much more difficult since COVID. Before the pandemic I used to get a bus to Nottingham that ran hourly and took about 40 minutes.
Now we have a bus that takes about 75 minutes. I’m getting to the office about 3 hours after my alarm went off which is just ludicrous - but I do understand that it must be difficult to keep transport running at all now so many work from home, myself included part week. |
|
|
|
|
11th May 2023, 10:11 PM
Post
#69
|
|
 Break the tension
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 88,971 User: 51
  |
QUOTE(dandy* @ May 11 2023, 07:10 PM) One of the few times I've tried to use the TPE I was in Manchester waiting to catch it across to Leeds when it was announced that it wouldn't be arriving due to the train accidentally going to the wrong station in Manchester. This made me properly laugh (although I'm sure that wasn't the intention!) |
|
|
|
|
11th May 2023, 11:42 PM
Post
#70
|
|
|
Cœur poids plume
Joined: 3 November 2007
Posts: 18,129 User: 4,718
  |
QUOTE(dandy* @ May 11 2023, 11:37 PM) Travel in general has become so much more difficult since COVID. Before the pandemic I used to get a bus to Nottingham that ran hourly and took about 40 minutes. Now we have a bus that takes about 75 minutes. I’m getting to the office about 3 hours after my alarm went off which is just ludicrous - but I do understand that it must be difficult to keep transport running at all now so many work from home, myself included part week. I hate to gloat* from a different country but it's not doomed to be bad - despite so many strikes, I feel like it's improved where I am locally? My city's bus network has improved leaps and bounds in the 5 years since I was first here with better frequency (every 10 minutes on three lines so it's just a case of turning up and waiting), a useable app with GPS tracking, ease of buying tickets, buses from 6am-1am, €1.50 fares taking you an hour out around the lake and into the surrounding mountains. Oh and everything is free in July and August. The public cycle scheme is amazing too. We're talking about a city of 130,000 with 30+ lines for the surrounding agglomeration and I think a UK city of that size wouldn't have much, and you'd end up needing a car. It's quite depressing as people will build their lives around cars in the absence of good transport, so even if the will and resources to improve things is there, the demand might not be. Regional transport is still poor though. *(actually I like it a bit) This post has been edited by Harve: 11th May 2023, 11:46 PM |
|
|
|
|
12th May 2023, 11:41 AM
Post
#71
|
|
|
Mansonette
Joined: 7 March 2006
Posts: 35,304 User: 54
|
QUOTE(Jessie Where @ May 11 2023, 11:11 PM) This made me properly laugh (although I'm sure that wasn't the intention!) Oh no it totally was meant to - I think I even laughed at the time because of how ludicrous it was  And Harve - I suspect it's because I have to travel across the county. Things are generally okay in cities I feel, it's more when you have to travel to your nearest city for work but don't actually live there that the problems seem to start to have arisen again due to a lack of demand. The strikes haven't really impacted at all for me, it's just a change in culture since the pandemic with more people working from home and less people needing to use the public services. Private operators just can't make the routes pay sadly. |
|
|
|
|
12th May 2023, 11:53 AM
Post
#72
|
|
 there's nothing straight about plump Elvis
Pronouns: they/any
Joined: 21 January 2016 Posts: 13,144 User: 22,895 
   |
Tangentially, I'm on a 3h train ride today!
As for round my way, its the buses that have dropped off since lockdown. Now much pricier and reliably unreliable 🤡 |
|
|
|
|
16th May 2023, 04:44 PM
Post
#73
|
|
|
#38BBE0 otherwise known as 'sky blue'
Joined: 27 October 2008
Posts: 16,170 User: 7,561
  |
QUOTE(Rooney @ May 11 2023, 08:08 PM) Northern has got a lot better. Transpennine is absolutely shocking though, their fleet of trains are shocking and the trains are always way over crowded. Scrapping HS3 was a massive joke as the whole service between Manchester-Leeds should be way more quicker and efficent than it is. It's a joke that it's actually quicker to drive that route than get the train. Agreed that TPE is woeful, the one time I used it to get from Leeds to Manchester it was, like you say, horrendously overcrowded and incredibly slow. If the Tories and Johnson really were serious about 'levelling up' beyond the gimmicky soundbite that it was, then they would have prioritised HS3 and actually made the Manchester-Leeds high speed rail connection the one that was completed first, and also worked on the Manchester-Sheffield link. The economic benefits would be realised much sooner and I'd argue it would do a lot more for economic growth than the high speed link from London to Birmingham that might be completed by the end of the 2030s (if we're lucky..) QUOTE(dandy* @ May 12 2023, 12:41 PM) The strikes haven't really impacted at all for me, it's just a change in culture since the pandemic with more people working from home and less people needing to use the public services. Private operators just can't make the routes pay sadly. The UK railway network has always generally been unprofitable, there are routes that generate a profit but these are heavily subsidising the lesser used routes that can often be much more expensive to maintain but which you could argue are maybe even more vital to those that do use it- that's been true whether publicly owned or in this public/private franchise hybrid model that we currently have. I'd make the case that something that is a public good shouldn't be run on the basis that it must always make a profit. What is irritating is that a lot of the franchises that run our rail network are really just foreign state-owned companies that use our government subsidy to subsidise rail travel in their own countries and not to actually invest in our railways. This subsidy was given out throughout COVID - when running pretty much empty trains (I was the only passenger on the King's Cross to Cambridge train at lunch on 23 March 2020!) - and is continued to be given out on strike days so there is little to no incentive for these companies to improve the service nor improve the pay/wellbeing of their staff. They still get paid, on-time. 
|
|
|
|
|
| Time is now: 25th April 2024, 11:22 AM |
Copyright © 2006 - 2024 BuzzJack.com
About | Contact | Advertise | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
