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Train nationalisation or not ?

richardg said:
I work in Germany. I live in France. I occasionally end up on a train in either country. It's better in France. Both are better than UK. By a long way.

I have this year been paid 50% compensation by Deutsche Bahn for getting me home 2 and a half hours late.
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Decent compensation policy. Assume it was easy to apply for? It can be a bit hit and miss here.

The trains here are decent - clean, modern, airy, spacious and punctual (so way ahead of 70s and 80s) but I live in London not in the hellish North.
 
Kirk said:
Decent compensation policy. Assume it was easy to apply for? It can be a bit hit and miss here.

The trains here are decent - clean, modern, airy, spacious and punctual (so way ahead of 70s and 80s) but I live in London not in the hellish North.
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It was easy. Paper form uploaded and 2 weeks later the cash was there.
 
dweezil said:
We've got to go to London on one of the strike days; what amazed me id that it's cheaper to drive down the evening before and stay in a hotel than the train would have been. Not the Savoy obvs.
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What about parking and congestion etc?
 
Jubal said:
You are very hard to talk to. Instant negative reaction. I could not be further from victim blaming but you go on believing everyone’s against you. It seems to be going so well for you too.

My intent was to be be constructive. You moved the dialogue so far from general complaints to the specifics of your situation it seemed relevant to see what had happened and assist you to navigate the relevant bodies. But there is no point engaging with you.
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It’s a reaction based on previous experience tbh. Thanks for trying to help but these processes don’t really work for big issues like accessibility. I’m sure they’re well intentioned but there’s been no real progress in decades.
 
I rarely use the train even though I've considered it:

a) day trip to York for me and the GF travelling from Jarrow, even allowing for my uneconomical Volvo (27mpg) and nigh on £10 parking charges, its about £10 cheaper and more than an hour quicker by car than train.

b) coming back from Luton Airport to South Shields, 2 adults and 2 children. It was £150 cheaper and 2 hours quicker by one way hire car than train.

c) visiting a friend in Preston several times. Same cost, slightly longer journey time in the train than by car. So I took the train, until one day I was put on a coach replacement service for leg of the journey....... never again. Car.

I appreciate not everyone's experience will match mine and that other areas/operators are probably better than the areas in which I have experience. Cost, agro, sharing space with unpleasant members of public, having to stand for more than an hour on overcrowded trains, service unreliability and extended journey time aside I still prefer rail travel to the car. Just not in this country. I've had much better experiences on rail in Italy, France, Japan and Germany.
 
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While I'm certainly of the view that a lot of the UK rail industry is quite crap (and I used to manage a large rolling stock investment, so I've got decent industry knowledge), I'm inclined to the broad view (as an empirical matter, not a philosophy) that goverment management seldom leads to great, or even adequate, operational outcomes.

Also used to manage an investment in a UK water company, long since sold thank goodness, and all you can really say there is given how bad it is now, imagine what it would be like if dimwits like Grant Shapps or Steve Baker were making investment decisions about drinking water.
 
mattjevans said:
While I'm certainly of the view that a lot of the UK rail industry is quite crap (and I used to manage a large rolling stock investment, so I've got decent industry knowledge), I'm inclined to the broad view (as an empirical matter, not a philosophy) that goverment management seldom leads to great, or even adequate, operational outcomes.

Also used to manage an investment in a UK water company, long since sold thank goodness, and all you can really say there is given how bad it is now, imagine what it would be like if dimwits like Grant Shapps or Steve Baker were making investment decisions about drinking water.
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I think the point needs making that 'public ownership' is not, or at least should not be, the same as 'government control'. The problem with government management tends to be that it is liable to interference at ministerial level, for political purposes. It's not 'public sector control' per se that is the problem.
 
mattjevans said:
Also used to manage an investment in a UK water company, long since sold thank goodness, and all you can really say there is given how bad it is now, imagine what it would be like if dimwits like Grant Shapps or Steve Baker were making investment decisions about drinking water.
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Would Grant Shapps have asset stripped Thames Water and paid himself £18bn?

Hmm. Actually maybe you don't need to answer that...
 
Also water companies have "sweated the assets" to the point that they're worn out. Asset stripping by another method, they can't sell and rent back so they take the money, fail to modernise or maintain and expect Victorian infrastructure to keep pace with demand. Then leave us with billions of debt and a huge bill just so things don't get any worse.
 
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