Trainchat - The failure of privatisation in the British Railway

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TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

I know there was a Number Crunching in Private Eye a couple of years ago where the subsidies given to First Great Western in a period were �50million and the profit made in the same period was �50million.

Private Eye also made a point of noting that FGW's subsidy last year was less than their profit, and the subsidy really should've gone to Northern Rail instead, the ToC where the youngest trains are older than the Russian Federation.

(From a passenger perspective, I don't mind most Pacers, although that's partially because the train to Leeds is either a 40 minute Pacer or a 60 minute Sprinter)

# ¿ May 8, 2012 01:39

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 16:48

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Freezer posted:

I arrived to the UK just over 9 months ago, and this was one of my great surprises: flying from Edinburgh to London can cost up to a third of what a train ticket cost when buying tickets with a bit of anticipation. To this day, this stil boggles my mind.

So how come airlines (specially the budget ones) have manage to reduce their costs so much below Rail travel? Or is it just Rail's costs that are bloated?

When they offer you a flight from London to Birmingham, it's really Rugby to Coventry.

# ¿ May 8, 2012 03:01

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Hezzy posted:

I worked for a brief stint as a RO2S for TransPennine Express in the North of England. I had so much fun dealing with Northern Rail and their pieces of scrap with wheels that they call trains.

As much as it is to rag on Serco, that one isn't their fault. We'll perpetually have 20-year old trains because we're not London.

# ¿ May 11, 2012 22:25

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Mr Cuddles posted:

The private eye are always going on about how poo poo first group are. They call them "worst group"

I'm surprised no one's even given their Great Western franchise the full name "Worst Late Cistern". Only ever seen the first two words.

The way that TOCs can variate by 5%, does this mean what I think it does and allow them to raise fares on a barely used branch by 1.2% and slap major commuter routes with an 11.2% rise?

# ¿ Aug 15, 2012 00:15

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Iohannes posted:

But surely if one TOC put its prices up 11% then customers would just chose another TOC to use for their journey? Isn't that how competition works? For instance the fairs are going up 2% above inflation up here in Scotland and if I want to get from Glasgow to Edinburgh, I generally have a choice of two trains, one leaving Central, the other leaving Queen Street. The Central train is slower and run by Scotrail, which is First Group, the Queen Street train is faster and run by Scotrail. Oh, wait...

No, let me work this out...I know!

Privatisation is better because private companies will invest more because if a public company makes £1 profit then that is £1 reinvested into the business, but if a private company, with shareholders that demand dividends of say, 10%, make £1 profit then that's 90p reinvested...Erm...

So no choice, less reinvestment, more subsidy, worse service. Thank you Major and gently caress you very much Tony Blair.

I would love to see what actual choice in the railways would lead to just for the sheer curiousity. Queues upon queues of rolling stock as far as the eye can see, from ICEs to handcars... :allears:

(Though, admittedly, I do live in a part of Yorkshire where I do have the choice of two TOCs if I want to go to Leeds. However, I, like everyone, just gets on the TPE train because it's twice as fast as the Northern train and also isn't in danger of spontaneously transporting itself and its contents to another dimension)

# ¿ Aug 15, 2012 03:03

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Hezzy posted:

I think TPE do a really good job of training their staff and they've got a corporate culture revolving around good customer service.

TPE could be run by the devil himself and I would still take that over a Northern Pacer.

But not Stagecoach. gently caress Brian Souter.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2012 03:30

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Whenever Southerners complain about overcrowding on their 12-car trains, I love to point out that one of the busiest routes out of Leeds (Leeds-Harrogate) is still operated by 2-car Pacers. Even in rush hour (though a couple of trains will get an extra car added on).

Given the poo poo contract terms they were handed, Northern have actually done pretty well in comparison to other franchises. They wouldn't get subsidy anyway, seeing as the bulk of it goes to London routes...

# ¿ Oct 5, 2012 15:40

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Hezzy posted:

I think Northern has the potential to be a really good TOC, it's just a shame about their rolling stock

Northern's franchising agreement prevents them from suitably investing in the railway because the DfT didn't see rail in the North as that important. For the poo poo hand they've been given, Northern have done pretty loving well for themselves.

Hopefully, given that rail travel in the North has grown immensely, DfT won't stipulate another no-growth agreement.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2012 17:50

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Cerv posted:

Skyfall's nearly as bad as Modern Warfare 2 for accuracy. At least they got permission to use the actual signage and logos.

You mean Modern Warfare 3.
:goonsay:

Because I have nothing better to do with my time, I once tried to see if the Pripyat escape mission (what was it called? One Shot One Kill) was accurate enough. It kind of was, if you excuse Mac and Price going to long way around to throw off the Russians.

Modern Warfare 3, however, doesn't even try, evidenced by the fact there is a small patch of woodland in Canary Wharf. :psyduck:

The tube part isn't that accurate either, as you end up driving in the tunnels towards and through Canning Town, then go through the Widened Lines to eventually get to Westminster station. :psyboom:

# ¿ Nov 6, 2012 03:52

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Most of you are likely aware of London Reconnections, a wonderful blog covering transport in London in depth. They've recently done a retrospective of Beeching in London 50 years on, culminating in an epilogue about the secretive Kenny Belle service. Of all LR posts, this is one of the most interesting I've read.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2013 15:15

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Incidentally, the HS2 preparation bill (the so-called "blank cheque") gets its Second Reading today. Will be fun to see the NIMBYs complain about "outstanding beauty!" and how Birmingham will lose out with HS2 because Curzon Street is supposedly in the middle of nowhere.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2013 11:50

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Is it TfL's intention that most/all London suburban services under the Overground banner? It would make sense, but I'm wondering how it'd work with their turn-up-and-go philosophy.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 16:18

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Would it be worth doing a HS2 infobomb? Regardless of the utility of the specific route, it's rather annoying seeing people want to shoot ourselves in the foot for "ARE GARDENS :qq:

# ¿ Sep 9, 2013 20:55

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

In a statement that says more about local politics than it does about national politics, Ed Balls returns to making non-statements about High Speed 2:

Ed Balls Threatens To Kill Off 'Mismanaged' HS2 Rail Project posted:

Ed Balls has dropped the heaviest hint yet he would like to scrap the High Speed 2 rail project were Labour to win the next election, opening up a split at the top of the party.

The shadow chancellor told the Labour Party conference in Brighton on Monday afternoon that the HS2 line had been "totally mismanaged" by the coalition - leading its costs to reach �50bn.

"David Cameron and George Osborne have made clear they will go full steam ahead with this project � no matter how much the costs spiral up and up. They seem willing to put their own pride and vanity above best value for money for the taxpayer," he said.

"Labour will not take this irresponsible approach. So let me be clear, in tough times � when there is less money around and a big deficit to get down � there will be no blank cheque from me as a Labour Chancellor for this project or for any project.

He added:"Because the question is - not just whether a new High Speed line is a good idea or a bad idea, but whether it is the best way to spend �50 billion for the future of our country."

Balls' words are the harshest criticism yet for the project, which began life under the last Labour government.

His attack on the rail line, which the government argues is necessary to bridge the North/South divide as well as free up much needed rail capacity, appears to be at odds with recent statements by other senior Labour figures.

Just last week shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle told The Huffington Post UK that there was "no way other than building a new line" to deal with the nation's transport needs.

"None of those people who either object to specific routes or object to spending all of this money on building extra capacity into our railway system the can explain how they are going to deal with this capacity crunch," she said.

She added: "Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and I agree it needs to go ahead."

And while Eagle acknowledged there was "of course" a point where the project would cost to much to be worthwhile - she said there was "no reason" the line could not be delivered within the current �50bn budget. The figure Balls today questioned.

Lord Adonis, the Labour peer who was transport secretary when the rail project was conceived, said in August it would be an "act of national self-mutilation to cancel HS2". Writing in the New Statesman he said: "The case for High Speed Two is as strong now as when Labour committed itself to the project in March 2010."

Ed Balls' constituency is Morley and Outwood, which is half within Leeds and half within Wakefield. In 2010, Balls was the expected Portillo moment that didn't materialise, and his lack of meaningful statements on the matter may indicate concerns about his majority; Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Metro are both fully in favour of the plans, and why wouldn't they be? They'll get the some of the biggest benefits from the line.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2013 15:23

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Allan Assiduity posted:

Despite the headline, Balls doesn't really say that he opposes or dislikes HS2, but that he thinks the coalition has done it wrong, which isn't a massive surprise.

I remain not an expert on HS2, but it seems like at least a step in the right direction if it'll alleviate pressure on the West Coast Main Line. As the Demand Nothing article says, there are better things to do, but they'd be less headline-grabbing than HS2 is, and we're unlikely to see a transport minister who'll do smaller things to improve the railway system overall than an expensive and fancy system.

I do like how that article says �30 billion, but I'm sure there's articles which pin the HS2 cost as lower than that.

Bring Adonis back. He was actually competent and knew what he was doing.

And hey, he got Wakefield Kirkgate and Halifax upgraded after years of neglect. He gets props in my book.

# ¿ Sep 23, 2013 21:41

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Incidentally, we've discovered the real intent of the Lobbying bill: to stifle anti-HS2 dissent.

quote:

MPs have taken the first step towards making the current activities of the Stop HS2 campaign illegal, by voting by 300 votes to 249 for the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill on Tuesday. Not only could this bill see the current level of Stop HS2 activities become illegal from May 2014, it could well cut access to the Parliamentary process, or at least limit what people can say and do when petitioning the Parliamentary Joint Committee which would be considering the HS2 Hybrid Bill at that time. Parliamentary insiders have told Stop HS2 that Part 2 of the bill, the bit that turns this piece of legislation into a �Gagging Bill� is, besides being generally aimed a trade unions, specifically aimed at gagging Stop HS2, along with 38 Degrees and the National Union of Students in the run-up to the 2015 General Election.

The Gagging Bill would seek to limit the amount of money that can be spent in the entire year running up to a General Election, not per organisation, but across all organisations both nationally and per constituency, which are working together toward the same end. While it might be unlikely that �390,000 would be spent nationally on the Stop HS2 campaign as a whole, there would be a limit of �9,750 per Parliamentary constituency, with regulation being compulsory for all �third party� bodies opposing HS2 once �5,000 is spent between them. The Gagging Bill sets to limit the amount of money which could be used on �election purposes�, with the problem stemming from changing the definition of what �election purposes� consists of.

According to the Electoral Commission who would have to regulate the Gagging Bill, activities and items which could be done for �election purposes� would be:

Advertising, including placards and banners.
Leaflets.
Websites and blogs.
Unsolicited material sent to voters (i.e. newsletters).
Rallies, demonstrations and other events.
Manifestos and documents discussing policies of political parties.
Market research and canvassing.
Media work.
Transport for the purpose of obtaining publicity.
All relevant costs are regulated, including staff costs.
Now you might be excused for thinking that this is about what political parties do, but it�s not. In fact it might not be any surprise to know that the rules for political parties aren�t as strict, for example it is apparently �too difficult� for them to attribute staff costs, and political parties are allowed to spend �30,000 per constituency, to a maximum of �19.5m. The list above mentions the things which could be done for �election purposes�, but what would make those activities �for election purposes� under the terms of the Gagging Bill is if they were considered to be:

promoting electoral success for
one or more specific parties
parties who do/do not advocate particular policies
candidates who do/do not advocate particular policies
otherwise enhancing (or undermining) the standing of such parties or candidates
a course of conduct may constitute the doing of one of those things even though it does not involve any express mention being made of the name of any party or candidate
There is no question that the Stop HS2 campaign falls within these definitions. The Green Party, UKIP and Plaid Cymru all oppose HS2 as it is proposed, as do some individual politicians and party associations from the three main parties. Saying HS2 should be stopped is, under these terms, without question promoting their policy stance, at the same time as it would be considered an attempt to undermine the position of other parties or politicians. As shown above, it would not matter if names of parties or candidates are not mentioned, just the saying �Stop HS2� would be enough, because some candidates in the General Election would agree and some would not. The last set of council elections saw both UKIP and The Green Party make gains, which commentators accepted were in part connected to their positions of opposition to HS2, thus influencing the outcome of the election, and of course the year before saw an Independent win on a Stop HS2 ticket.

It gets worse. The legislation as proposed doesn�t cover individual organisations campaigning for or against something, but all organisations within a coalition campaigning for or against something. The requirement will be that each coalition member, no matter how small, has to report the entire coalition spend and register with the Electoral Commission if the entire coalition spend exceeds �5,000. That�s not on a constituency, but on a national basis. If the entire coalition spend exceeds �390,000 nationally, or far more likely �9,750 per constituency in the entire year before a General Election, a criminal offence will have taken place.

For example, in Warwickshire there are only two Parliamentary constituencies affected directly by the route of HS2: North Warwickshire and Kenilworth & Southam. In Kenilworth & Southam, there are a total of 11 action groups. If they were the only groups fighting HS2 in the constituency, they would only be able to spend an average of �886 each for the entire year under what is proposed. However, there are also county-wide organisations opposing HS2: Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and CPRE Warwickshire, who have worked with the action groups, so would therefore each have to apportion half of their HS2 related costs to that constituency, as there are two constituencies in the county directly impacted by the route of HS2. All of the costs apportioned to fighting HS2 in any constituency would have to be agglomerated, whether that be printing leaflets, travel costs, holding public meetings, website costs, signs and placards as well as the costs of any staff time from the professional organisations spent on work which could be seen to be aimed at fighting HS2.

It is certain that current spending levels across some constituencies will be over �9,750 per annum on what will in the future be deemed to be �election purposes�. The Gagging Bill would mean that all spending for all groups fighting HS2 up and down the country would have to be added, and that the total cost of this could not exceed �390,000 otherwise a criminal act would have taken place, but with over 100 action groups opposing HS2 to start off with before you add in the NGOs, other organisations and national Stop HS2 bodies, determining whose fault it is would be a legal nightmare. Basically, the whole thing has not been thought through, as it is totally unworkable.

You may think it couldn�t possibly get worse than that, but it does. If the Parliamentary schedule for HS2 is stuck to, or even if it is a bit late as expected, the Gagging Bill would cover some activities relating to the HS2 Hybrid Bill. Whilst attending parliamentary committees isn�t in itself regulated, doing media work around evidence sessions could be. Additionally, petitioners could fall foul of the Gagging Bill, if they made any analysis of or reference to party policies or politicians stances on HS2. So, as an example, if the Woodland Trust were to simply mention that: �HS2 is not environmentally sound�, (which could be seen to advocate the position of The Green Party), or simply to try and get some press coverage around their evidence, then their travel as well as the staff costs of drawing up their evidence may have to be included in the total spend �for election purposes�.

However, the Electoral Commission who seem to be very reluctant regulators as things stand, aren�t sure if reactive media work, i.e. not sending out a press release, but giving a comment after a media organisation rings up for a comment would count. The reality is that in this situation, sending a press release would be a moot point, as it would be almost completely impossible for any organisation or individual petitioning the Joint Committee to avoid �enhancing or undermining the standing of parties or candidates who do/do not advocate HS2�.

Stop HS2 Campaign Manager, Joe Rukin said:

�To hear that Stop HS2 was one of the organisations the Government were thinking about silencing when they wrote their Gagging Law is massively scary for all of us, but we�ve also got to see it as a compliment, that we have been so effective in just three years that the Government wants to make what we have been doing illegal!�

�There is a public mood to clamp down on back room lobbying and deals involving dodgy connections from those with vested interests, like the fact George Osborne�s father in law is both working within Government and for a high-speed rail firm, or maybe appointing the chair of construction giant Laing O�Rourke to an �independent� HS2 taskforce, but the Government has decided to continue to let them get away with it. Instead, they are taking the opportunity to clamp down on freedom of speech from grass roots organisations they don�t like, whilst claiming this is all about �transparency�. We are called �Stop HS2�, and have t-shirts, car stickers, websites and placards that say �Stop HS2�, what could be more transparent than that? The only thing that is more transparent is the way vested interest groups who will make money from HS2 are being allowed to lobby for it at the heart of a hypocritical Government.�

�This Gagging Bill is just all wrong. You could not have something more opposed to the principle of free speech. The Government don�t like what we have been saying so they want to make our activities illegal, and want to have a whole year when people can�t say too many bad things about them. This piece of legislation could effectively limit what people can say to a Parliamentary committee, if that isn�t Orwellian censorship, I don�t know what is. Grass roots campaigns groups exist to change politicians� opinions, but they are saying that the only people allowed to effectively campaign before elections are politicians. This Gagging Bill is insane, it�s rotten to the core, and it must be opposed. Forget HS2, this is about anyone to having the inalienable right to say they think what a Government is doing is wrong for a whole year before an election, it must be stopped for all our sakes.�

�Our problem is that our continued campaign might be seen as affecting the next election, and we have already seen that people have gone to the ballot box with HS2 in their minds. No-one would have thought that in the last council elections that the safe Conservative seat of Aylesbury would turn into a UKIP-Tory marginal overnight, and no-one would have thought that the leader of Warwickshire County Council would have lost to the Greens, but both of those things happened and HS2 played it�s part. The last thing the Government want is people making them look bad by pointing out the truth when all we should be getting hypnotised into them our votes.�

An e-petition can be signed here, and additionally an UPDATED letter on the campaigning website 38 Degrees, which is also threatened by this Gagging Bill, for you to send to your MP can be signed here.

Click here to read the latyest briefing from the Electoral Commission on the Gagging Bill.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2013 20:51

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Install Windows posted:

The HS2 requirements include right of way and stations being built to a more normal and larger structure gauge as compared to the typical british narrow and short one, right?

The specification for HS2 is GC loading gauge. For comparison, most key freight routes are supposed to be at least W10, which I believe is between GA and GB:

TinTower fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Oct 1, 2013

# ¿ Oct 1, 2013 21:30

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

So the Spectator are proposing yield management as it applies to Advance fares as an alternative to the passenger capacity crisis.

Then that gets shot out of the water by pointing out that the existence of walk-on fares makes that infeasible.

And then some says this:

quote:

The current situation in the UK for (each of) ticket prices, capacity utilisation of rolling stock and congestion management on the UK rail network is both wasteful and delay inducing.

A far better way to run this railroad would be to allow prices to vary continuously and to also sell tickets via national capacity exchanges, where options, futures and forwards on seats could be traded transparently.

I'll trade a seat on the 0715 Virgin ex Euston for 2 bitcoins!

# ¿ Nov 8, 2013 19:56

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

I was talking at the Northern Hub proposals in depth with an acquaintance of mine, and we touched on how the plans seem to be less ambitious than it should be. In particular, they seem content to have only one transpennine route up for electrification despite both Manchester-to-Liverpool routes and both routes out of Leeds getting wires. It seems doubly strange given how the Calder Valley route is often used as a backup route.

Is there any other examples where the Northern Hub could've been improved? Actually putting the Hull electrification in the original plans than adding them on at First's insistence would've been an example.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 00:41

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Does TOC 2 not have shareholders? Must be East Coast. :v:

# ¿ Nov 21, 2013 20:07

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Incidentally, is the Canary Wharf branch of Crossrail following the safeguarded Jubilee route to Thamesmead via Custom House? Diamond Geezer linked a UCL profile of the JLE and it looks similar, although didn't the NLL stump use that route til 2006?

# ¿ Nov 30, 2013 17:30

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Apparently John Denham (Labour MP for Southampton Itchen) has found the real disparity in regional service provision:

Train passengers in south pay �1billion for rest of Britain posted:

Rail passengers in southern England are subsidising those in the Midlands, North, Scotland and Wales by more than �1billion a year, figures show.

Commuters on trains into London are paying up to �1 extra a day for every 16km (ten miles) they travel � so that services can run in less populous areas.

They are contributing to the Treasury through the price of their train tickets while those in the regions receive subsidies worth more than �650million.

Despite enduring cramped conditions and often being forced to travel without a seat, southern commuters are paying a larger proportion of their income on travel.

Labour MP John Denham, who uncovered the figures, said it was time for those in the south to stop subsidising the travel of passengers outside the capital.

�London commuters can be forgiven for feeling they are paying over the odds to subsidise railways compared with passengers in other parts of Britain,� said the MP for Southampton Itchen.

A season ticket to London Waterloo from Southampton Central costs just over �5,000 per year. Prices will rise in January by RPI inflation, which is currently 3.2 per cent.

On top of the subsidies received by train operating companies, northern and Scottish commuters also receive the biggest grant to track operators Network Rail.

The government defended the approach of using popular routes to subsidise unpopular ones.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: �Those franchises that can generate more money are expected to pay back more into the public purse.�

Of course, the fact that the London and the South West are the two most invested in areas at the moment is not included at all.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 03:11

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Thoughts on Mary Creagh's latest statement?

Labour minister Mary Creagh attacks Thomas the Tank Engine over lack of female characters posted:

Thomas the Tank Engine is sending out the wrong message to children and needs more female engines to encourage girls to become train drivers, Labour�s shadow transport secretary has said.

Mary Creagh said the lack of female train drivers in Britain was a �national scandal� and that the �negative stereotypes� seen in children�s shows were partly to blame.

Mrs Creagh used the example of Thomas, saying that while the books and television show are �wonderful�, they contain hardly any female characters.

�In the Thomas the Tank Engine books there are almost no female engines. The only female characters are an annoyance, a nuisance and in some cases a danger to the functioning of the railway,� she said.

She was referring to the original books� only female characters: coaches Annie and Clarabel, Isabel the auto coach, elderly woman Mrs Kyndley, and female engine Daisy.

Thomas and the remaining characters are all male.

Train drivers' union Aslef is currently working to encourage more women into the industry, where only 4.2 per cent of workers are female - equating to 1,000 train drivers.

Mrs Creagh suggested train companies could recruit more female drivers by advertising in magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Women�s Own and by offering more flexible, part-time work.

According to the Telegraph, the mother-of-two said: �There is a preponderance of men in the transport industry and I am very keen to unpack some of the myths that stop women from taking up what are often highly paid and highly skilled jobs.�

There are now 42 book in the Thomas the Tank Engine series, which was created in 1946 by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry. The TV show has been running since 1984 and is currently broadcast by Channel 5.

Mrs Creagh drew unfavourable comparisons with the CBeebies series Underground Ernie, which features a train called Victoria as its main character.

Hit Entertainment, the company which owns the rights to Thomas & Friends, admitted there was a �historical imbalance�, but said more female engines are "in development."

When I saw the headline, I thought she was scraping the bottom of the barrel (both from a transport and a feminist perspective), but giving it more thought, I'm agreeing with it.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2013 23:56

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Install Windows posted:

Again, in America the relevant unions to rail transit operations explicitly have it in their contracts that temporary cover for things like maternity leave are ok with them and mandatory. I've no idea why the British rail unions would oppose that.

People think that RMT and ASLEF would strike because Bob Crow couldn't get any Coco Pops at the corner shop.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2013 21:45

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Metrication posted:

Problem north of St. Pancras, entire Wimbledon Loop goes down. Maybe we should cut the loop off at Blackfriars to allow for a better, more frequent, more reliable service? Oh wait...

It's the southern London counterpart to Camden Town. It'd be much less of an operational headache the Wimbledon loop to be cut off and the Northern Line split into two (especially given the extension to Battersea), but it'll never happen because the residents are too lazy to walk between platforms.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2014 19:43

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Endjinneer posted:

Thanks for this! My favourite graph is the one on page 20, which shows that although construction costs have been going up, the risk of a higher total cost has been decreasing.
I don't know why they don't point this out with the HS2 cost estimates: everyone shits the bed when the cost rises from a projected �40Bn to �45Bn, but actually the numbers are probably going from �40Bn +/- 40% to �45Bn +/- 20%

Isn't a good deal of the �45bn contingency anyway?

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 23:25

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Bozza posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/21/how-much-cost-scare-british-taxpayers-pay-hs2

Another day, and another terrible, terrible anti-HS2 article from Simon Jenkins in the Guardian.

We had a good laugh about it this morning at work.

Haha, he's basically complaining about Camden while trying to say he's not a NIMBY.

Incidentally:

quote:

(In fact Euston does not even get into the top 10 of most crowded services: Paddington and Waterloo are far worse.)

Paddington has Crossrail and Waterloo has the old International platforms. Euston has neither.

And to be honest, the South can gently caress off about overcrowding when the 1713 Leeds to Harrogate is a 2-car Pacer.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2014 12:40

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

SybilVimes posted:

In fairness, the Harrogate line was supposed to be electrified by now, another conservative failure I guess.

Adonis was probably the best transport minister in 30 years, purely because he agreed that Wakefield Kirkgate needed to be made less rapey.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2014 14:19

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

The idea of Northern clamping down on ticket dodging given the amount of stations they operate that are exempt from Byelaw 18 is hilarious.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2014 08:27

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Jonnty posted:

It's worth mentioning that all ScotRail services allow you to buy a ticket on board whenever there isn't an open ticket office, and even when there is one will allow you to buy a ticket on board but won't give you any discounts (eg. off-peak returns.) This presumably applies to inter-city services that call at ScotRail stations as the signs aren't specific to one TOC. In my experience they're usually even more lenient than that. Just worth mentioning as rail folk from further south are usually pretty absolutist about this stuff but it's a bit more relaxed up here (and "RPI" is still just a measure of inflation.)

I think that's Northern's unofficial policy too. I've only been stung once by a ticket guard, and that was on TPE when his card reader didn't work.

KennyTheFish posted:

As a tourist landing in London in august and heading to Carlisle that day, what would be the best way for me to get a ticket?

Book online about a month in advance, and then elect to collect your ticket at the station. You'll need the credit card you booked with and the booking reference number, IIRC.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 08:04

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

In my experience, TPE have always been accepting of the excuse "got on at Brighouse, guard didn't come round to me". Because that's usually what happens if I have to buy on the TPE train. Even though Brighouse stopped being an easement for Huddersfield recently.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 19:06

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Camden basically don't want any infrastructure that they won't directly benefit from; see also: Camden Town remodelling.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2014 13:59

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

I was arguing with someone in the office about privatisation and have made a list of other countries national railways that we pay huge subsidies to run our own.

Deutsche Bahn (aka Arriva)

Arriva Trains Wales
Chiltern Railways
CrossCountry
Grand Central Railway
London Overground Rail Operations (50/50 joint venture with MTR Corporation)
Tyne & Wear Metro

SNCF (aka Keolis)

Southern
Southeastern
London Midland

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (aka Abellio)

Merseyrail (with Serco)
Greater Anglia
Northern Rail

Which explains this

At least we're getting something in return from Virgin, Go-Ahead, First and Stagecoach though; private sector investment is 1% of all investment in UK rail!

Keolis also hold a 45% share in Transpennine Express.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2014 15:12

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Lofty132 posted:

Investment is usually an exercise in illusion anyway. I remember waiting at Workington whilst a manager waxed lyrical about the hundreds of thousands that had been spent on a station refurbishment: my point that the train was 15 minutes late and that's all the passengers really cared about was ignored.

Then again, in some cases refurbishment is much appreciated, such as in the case of Wakefield Kirkgate and the rape subway.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2014 08:51

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

E: Awful double posted for me by mistake.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2014 09:10

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

History's greatest monster!

Russell Brand Admits Dodging London To Chelmsford Train Fare posted:

Comedian Russell Brand has admitted that he recently dodged a train fare because he "couldn't be bothered with the rigmarole of getting one", it has been reported.

The comic, who is estimated to be worth around �15million, told a podcast recording in London on Thursday that he jumped the barrier for a train from London to Chelmsford, Essex, skipping the �14.90 rail fare, The Daily Mirror reported.

The paper reported Brand told the recording: �From someone that�s gone from no wealth to wealth, I know that money doesn�t make me happier. Like I jumped the train yesterday when I had to go to Chelmsford.

"I could have got a ticket but I couldn�t be bothered with the rigmarole of getting one. I realised all I had to do was get over a barrier so I did that and then slid out the other end behind someone.�

A spokesman for Greater Anglia, which runs the train route, declined to comment to The Mirror on Russell�s admission but told the paper: �We take fare evasion very seriously as it is in the interest of everyone that travels.�

Brand is not the only wealthy person to dodge train fares.

Earlier this week, a high-flying city executive was revealed as the UK's biggest train fare dodger after being made to pay back nearly �43,000 in unpaid fares and legal costs.

The man, who has not been named, spent five years exploiting a loophole which allowed him to pass through exit barriers at London Cannon Street by �tapping out� with an Oyster card � paying only a third of the actual cost of his journey.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2014 07:53

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

HS2 bill second reading is today and tomorrow.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2014 21:48

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

Indeed, look at the business case, where released capacity could lead to the return of the Blackpool and Shrewsbury London services, better connectivity for East Anglia to the ECML and the South West to the North East (for example, cutting an hour off Leeds�Wales).

# ¿ May 3, 2014 19:09

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

nozz posted:

Manchester to Euston would go down to around 1 hour 45 minutes.

1:48 after Phase 1, 1:08 after Phase 2.

# ¿ May 3, 2014 23:54

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 16:48

TinTower: Apr 21, 2010; You don't have to 8e a good person to 8e a hero.

I don't see why we should be spending billions on a rich man's toy when the money could be spent more wisely improving the already existing infrastructure.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2014 14:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Trainchat - The failure of privatisation in the British Railway

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