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Rail companies but no railway system

slavedata

pfm Member
Yesterday my wife had cause to travel by rail from Derby to Grantham. The Derby train reached Nottingham at 17.42 The Skegness train Left Nottingham at 17.44 In the "bad old days" of British Rail this was an held connection and the Derby train arrived across the platform from the Skegness train. In the bright new world of privitisation the Derby train arrived at Platform 6 and the Skegness one departed from Platform 1. The 3 passengers who made herculian efforts to make this connection were greeted by the sight of the train pulling away 10 yards from them. Is it any suprise over 70% of the population want the railways nationalised.
 
Yesterday my wife had cause to travel by rail from Derby to Grantham. The Derby train reached Nottingham at 17.42 The Skegness train Left Nottingham at 17.44 In the "bad old days" of British Rail this was an held connection and the Derby train arrived across the platform from the Skegness train. In the bright new world of privitisation the Derby train arrived at Platform 6 and the Skegness one departed from Platform 1. The 3 passengers who made herculian efforts to make this connection were greeted by the sight of the train pulling away 10 yards from them. Is it any suprise over 70% of the population want the railways nationalised.


If a "held" connection delayed me, I'd be furious. Trains are scheduled and we moan enough about them not running to time but really "held trains" no. And what has this got to do with nationalisation, why politicise the issue, why be so selfish that you want a train held, delaying the passengers already on the train and further down the line.
 
No surprise at all. It's a shambles. An expensive one at that.

It is expensive, but it works very very well for me, it is generally on time, comfortable - and I've been taking trains all over the country in the last few years, including many rural routes. Yes is has some problems, but I wouldn't call it a shambles and I see improvements happening. The only thing I see being shambolic is the cancelled services due to strike action!
 
The shambles is the lack of connectivity between TOCs as illustrated in the OP. As for strike action, the Govt seem to have been allowing this to go on for too long; heads have not been knocked together, and the losers are you and me (I live on the Brighton line).
 
If a "held" connection delayed me, I'd be furious. Trains are scheduled and we moan enough about them not running to time but really "held trains" no. And what has this got to do with nationalisation, why politicise the issue, why be so selfish that you want a train held, delaying the passengers already on the train and further down the line.

For a public transport system to work in a meaningful way it needs to co-ordinate its services and I would have been very cross if this had happened to me. As for 'politicizing' the topic, how can it be anything but political if you consider how much public subsidy our railways receive. I am surprised that its only 70% who want to see our railway network re-nationalised but its amazing how around 30% of a group can screw it up for everyone else.
 
Simply rewrite the contracts in such a way as to make them unviable for private concerns looking to profit from them. Impose the new terms with immediate affect. Our sovereign government after all writes the laws in this Country. Failing that, systematically remove every single franchise's contracts when up for renewal.
 
Reminds me of my time in Denmark. If the train arrived late, the connecting bus waited (to a point). It just worked. And I could buy a ticket across all transport modes (at a lot less than it would cost here). The UK transport system is a shambles, not just the railway system - I have to suffer Southern Railway on a semi-regular basis, and I've lost count of the number of times I've just thought 'stuff it, I'll take the car'.

The system can't work if Delay Repay is underwritten by the DfT. Southern just have no incentive to make it work.
 
Isn't it amazing that the country that invented the train can't run a proper train system at a reasonable price.
 
I am surprised that its only 70% who want to see our railway network re-nationalised but its amazing how around 30% of a group can screw it up for everyone else.

a bit like referendums, but I suppose that was 37% :)
 
The current model is a complete dogs breakfast, but to see it as simply 'nationalised vs privatised' is nonsense, it is a mixed system with private operators operating franchises the government tenders out; we have simply done it very badly. There are examples of such systems working very well else where in the world, just as there are of truely nationalised and truely privatised systems working very well in others. Not having the rose-tinted view of BR that some seem to have, I have reached the conclusion that the British as a nation are just sh!t at running railways. Ergo, we should put the whole damn network out to tender to any private/public company or foreign government entity, provided they can demonstrate they already run a railway sucessfully elsewhere within certain service and efficiency parameters!

In a similar vain, we should also put the Germans in charge of our motorways...:D
 
The current model is a complete dogs breakfast, but to see it as simply 'nationalised vs privatised' is nonsense, it is a mixed system with private operators operating franchises the government tenders out; we have simply done it very badly. There are examples of such systems working very well else where in the world, just as there are of truely nationalised and truely privatised systems working very well in others. Not having the rose-tinted view of BR that some seem to have, I have reached the conclusion that the British as a nation are just sh!t at running railways. Ergo, we should put the whole damn network out to tender to any private/public company or foreign government entity, provided they can demonstrate they already run a railway sucessfully elsewhere within certain service and efficiency parameters!

In a similar vain, we should also put the Germans in charge of our motorways...:D

Don't worry post-Brexit the UK will be unfettered and show its true organisational and manufacturing brilliance.
 
If the Railway system was run as a public service rather than for profit then 'service' would trump everything and this example of disconnection could be designed out of the system.BR managed to run an integrated timetable across its regional networks without too much difficulty-granted traffic density on the network was lower which did tend to allow more wriggle room for connections. The point highlighted is that franchise A has no interest in delaying for franchise B, a nationalised system would.
 
It is expensive, but it works very very well for me, it is generally on time, comfortable - and I've been taking trains all over the country in the last few years, including many rural routes. Yes is has some problems, but I wouldn't call it a shambles and I see improvements happening. The only thing I see being shambolic is the cancelled services due to strike action!

TBF you mainly get the train into London for a night out or round the country on holiday.

Commuting on a daily basis is a whole different problem, I commuted into London from Southampton and paid £6,500 for a season ticket and £1,500 for parking.

That was £8,000 a year for a train that 50% of the year had no seats free by the time the train reached southampton and 90% of the time didn't have standing room by the time it reached Woking.
 
TBF you mainly get the train into London for a night out or round the country on holiday.

Commuting on a daily basis is a whole different problem, I commuted into London from Southampton and paid £6,500 for a season ticket and £1,500 for parking.

That was £8,000 a year for a train that 50% of the year had no seats free by the time the train reached southampton and 90% of the time didn't have standing room by the time it reached Woking.

Louise commutes on a daily basis and is paying 4 figures for her season ticket - please don't quote about what you don't know about..
 
Really, your jaunts into london and around the country on the train are well documented.

Do you commute into London everyday?
 
Really, your jaunts into london and around the country on the train are well documented.

Do you commute into London everyday?

Nevermind - I don't commute into London everyday, but I do use the trains regularly for the purposes of work. My wife is a commuter, who splits her time between London and Bristol, clearly contributes to my view and experience, but you choose to ignore that.
 
I reckon any attempt to judge the satte of UK rail system from the perspective of 'The Brighton Line' etc., is pointless. Govt. has a whole ifferent approach to London and the Commuter Belt.
 


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