YorkshireBear
Established Member
- Joined
- 23 Jul 2010
- Messages
- 8,699
Nationalisation would fix very little, there are much more fundamental problems with the industry at the moment.
If parking a car became harder and parking a bike was a lot easier then more people would cycle. You would then start to see the critical mass of cyclists that would mean that investment in more cycle facilities to get to the stations and around town becomes politically attractive.
Not sure if it's ever been voiced/suggested before (so if it has please forgive me!) but I think that HS2 is a wasted opportunity for so many reasons if not only because it will not (as I understand it) have vehicle carrying carriages only for people. It really should offer a service like Eurotunnel, imagine being able to take your car from (or near) London to (or near) Manchester in around 90 minutes? That ease so much congestion on the M1/M6 etc. I've wondered why this was never part of the thinking for HS2, is there a reason why this was or was it actually considered and ruled out?
It was never cheaper to take the train (buying a standard ticket, ignoring advances etc) than the marginal cost of driving there instead.
People complain nowadays that its cheaper to fill the car with a tank of petrol than it is to take the train, as if this is proof of the failure of privatisation, or indeed a new thing. It's amazing to think that the cost of a train ticket (which pays for a driver, a guard, signalling staff, the upkeep of the railway, schedulers, cleaners etc and the fuel for the train) would be cheaper than the fuel required for your car (when you are doing various jobs yourself - e.g. driving, cleaning) and not paying directly for other costs (traffic lights, motorway repairs).
No debates!How long would it take to get from your home to the London terminal, and from the Manchester terminal at the other end to your destination, at times where congestion on the motorway is likely to cause significant delays, and would it be worth the extra cost (which would likely be substantial)?
Hence why money should be invested in kerb-protected cycleways on main roads first. No-one except Lycra-clad red light jumping roadies are going to use a fancy station cycle parking hub if getting to the station involves dicing with death on a four lane roundabout or a mugger-friendly canal towpath.Much as I advocate cycling as an alternative form of transport, I very much doubt you will get significant increase in utility cycling in the UK, without making car use so unpleasant that people cycle because it is the least worst option, rather than because they see it as a viable alternative, and it is unlikely you could ever get there without mass protests. Even in London, which is probably the UK city with the highest level of cycling, and is the least pleasant/most expensive to drive and park, the roads are still rammed full with motor vehicles. People just don't like being directly exposed to poor weather and heavy fast moving machines that can kill on impact, and this is before you look at the car-centric transport policies over the decades which have aimed to enable motor vehicles to move as fast as possible, at the expense of vulnerable road users. The UK is more like America than Europe in this regard.
How long would it take to get from your home to the London terminal, and from the Manchester terminal at the other end to your destination, at times where congestion on the motorway is likely to cause significant delays, and would it be worth the extra cost (which would likely be substantial)?
Hence why money should be invested in kerb-protected cycleways on main roads first. No-one except Lycra-clad red light jumping roadies are going to use a fancy station cycle parking hub if getting to the station involves dicing with death on a four lane roundabout or a mugger-friendly canal towpath.
Abolish seat reservations and first class. Seating should be on a first come first served basis with basic manners leading to the young giving up their seats for the old/infirm etc
Overseas owning groups bring a pool of world class talent who can show us BR has been's how it should be done.
It was never cheaper to take the train (buying a standard ticket, ignoring advances etc) than the marginal cost of driving there instead.
People complain nowadays that its cheaper to fill the car with a tank of petrol than it is to take the train, as if this is proof of the failure of privatisation, or indeed a new thing. It's amazing to think that the cost of a train ticket (which pays for a driver, a guard, signalling staff, the upkeep of the railway, schedulers, cleaners etc and the fuel for the train) would be cheaper than the fuel required for your car (when you are doing various jobs yourself - e.g. driving, cleaning) and not paying directly for other costs (traffic lights, motorway repairs).
Also, these new door mods are a waste of time... Cars have slam doors, your house has none auto doors, whats wrong with trains not having auto doors??
No debates allowed, just a straightforward statement of what you think about something railway-related, that is probably not widely shared by others.
Here's mine:
The HST prototype is better looking than the production version.
It was never cheaper to take the train (buying a standard ticket, ignoring advances etc) than the marginal cost of driving there instead.
People complain nowadays that its cheaper to fill the car with a tank of petrol than it is to take the train, as if this is proof of the failure of privatisation, or indeed a new thing. It's amazing to think that the cost of a train ticket (which pays for a driver, a guard, signalling staff, the upkeep of the railway, schedulers, cleaners etc and the fuel for the train) would be cheaper than the fuel required for your car (when you are doing various jobs yourself - e.g. driving, cleaning) and not paying directly for other costs (traffic lights, motorway repairs).
What Branson wanted Branson got.In hindsight the WCML upgrade should have kept it as a 110mph railway with no need for tilting trains. The four track sections and grade separated junctions are great, I just think that the extra 15mph wasn’t worth all of the conditions/requirements that come with it.
We’d have fitted more paths (due to keeping all of the faster services at the same top speed)…
…we’d have avoided the need for specialist stock that will be hard to cascade (390s)…
…we’d have found it a lot easier to introduce additional trains for LDHS services (nobody is going to build a tiny fleet of tilting 125mph trains so VT can’t increase capacity on their services; one of the busiest main lines in the UK is essentially in purgatory until HS2 comes along and frees up some paths)…
…XC wouldn’t have been lumbered with narrow Voyagers (that were all built to tilting envelopes, even though so little of the XC network benefited from such functionality that Arriva just put lumps of concrete on the trains to replace the tilting mechanism)…
…the WCML could now be taking on an order of 802s (or equivalent), capable of matching the current fastest times, permitting things like extra services to Blackpool or Liverpool and replacing the Voyager diagrams that currently run under the wires…
…it was a waste of money to go that little bit faster; the tilting requirements were too high a price to pay.
(plus, as various HS2 threads have taught me, it apparently doesn’t matter if you get to Birmingham five minutes earlier, so presumably everyone would be fairly relaxed about getting there marginally slower at 110mph)
Stations in popular tourist areas to provide hourly car rental (ideally electric) as they have in Japan.
Stations in popular tourist areas to provide hourly car rental (ideally electric) as they have in Japan.
Supposed to be controversial opinions.HS2 should be abandoned forthwith. It is a money sponge.
For some here it is. ISupposed to be controversial opinions.