What is your controversial railway opinion/idea?

[318266]

So what would you call Stourbridge Junction then as Stourbridge is served by Stourbridge Town

Stourbidge Over-sized Car Park.

 

[adamello]

Stourbidge Over-sized Car Park.

**Dons Tin Hat**

Stourbridge Parkway

 

[318266]

It's longer than the platform! And still gets full half the time.

 

[tbtc]

Since the railway works pretty efficiently with clockface hourly services, if your proposal (for any speculative service on one of the many threads for "My Suggestion To...") is only bi-hourly, it's a waste of time.

Same goes for suggestions for new services that involve various convoluted splits/ joins. If it needs portion working or can only sustain a bi-hourly frequency, forget about it.

 

[nw1]

Said this elsewhere, but... make the railway less congested by reducing the frequency on 'OTT frequency' off peak services as long as number of seats can be maintained or increased. For example, replace a half hourly 4-car service with an hourly 12-car. Hanging around at signals constantly due to a congested railway is a PITA!

 

[krus_aragon]

No station should be named __________ Junction. Stations should be named after the localities they are in, not the nearest bit of railway infrastructure.

A bit late for the town of Llandudno Junction. I doubt many of its residents would recognise the old name Tre-marl.

 

[underbank]

All services to/from anywhere should be a minimum of 1 tph.

Trains running less frequently are neither use nor ornament. Who in their right mind (given a choice) would risk a bi-hourly service where you're stuck at the station for 2 hours if a train is cancelled or you miss it? Given a 2 hourly service, or worse, people will just find an alternative.

It's a chicken/egg situation. The TOCs say a route doesn't justify a regular service due to lack of passengers, but the lack of passengers is often because the service isn't frequent enough.

 

[moogal]

There's nothing wrong with longitudinal seating and no toilets on trains for metro services.

 

[theageofthetra]

Cancelling evening TPE services at Scarborough when Yorkshiremen have been drinking all day in the sun at the cricket isn't a great idea.

 

[squizzler]

Risk assessments should be holistic and consider the likelihood of harm occurring to passengers discouraged from the railway who go by road. And assume that they will ride high powered sport motorcycles.

 

[EM2]

So, if you've got a disability, time isn't allowed to be a factor? Commuting into London, say, or travelling inter-city? And you're not allowed any form of spontaneity?

And if the drag created by having opening windows is significantly more expensive (in extra fuel costs) than modern air-conditioning?

And ticket inspection is hardly the sum total of a guard's duties, now, is it?

No debates!

 

[yorksrob]

Risk assessments should be holistic and consider the likelihood of harm occurring to passengers discouraged from the railway who go by road. And assume that they will ride high powered sport motorcycles.

This is a very good point !

 

[yorksrob]

Slam door trains are far superior to non-slam door trains.

 

[bspahh]

Trains that run late into the evening might not be heavily used, but they mean that people use the earlier trains, knowing that they have a later service that they can take instead. I don't like bus services during the day, as they get stuck in traffic, its a hassle to get an extra ticket, and you run the risk of the bus never appearing.

When its not economic to run late trains, then bus services should be used. They should take rail tickets, appear in rail timetables and departure boards.

For example, at the moment, the last train from London to Ely leaves at 23.14. There are trains that arrive in Cambridge between 00.30 and 00.40 from Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, and one day perhaps Thameslink. If there was a bus from Cambridge Station to Ely that left at 00:50, I would be able to rely on getting a train back Heathrow or Gatwick for flights that land up until 22.00.

Similarly, the Southbound first train from Cambridge on a Sunday morning is at 8.57. Perhaps there isn't the demand to justify earlier trains, but an earlier bus service would make longer journeys possible.

 

[BENO]

Nationwide Oyster cards.

 

[68015 (^AG)]

No debates allowed, just a straightforward statement of what you think about something railway-related, that is probably not widely shared by others.

Pacers are much maligned, not all bad (FAR from being the worst units!) and are deserving of a place in preservation/NRM

 

[Teflon Lettuce]

the senior management of GTR should be tied to the tracks and run over by their own trains... though of course they might starve to death before a train actually turns up!

 

[LOL The Irony]

Whenever the RMT stage strike action to maliciously co-inside with a major event, Mick Cash should be forced to use the affected services to get to the event.

 

[tbtc]

Just because this is a site for railway enthusiasts doesn't mean anyone should expect the majority of them will automatically back your latest proposal for a new line through mid Wales/ the Highlands/ rural Devon/ Lake District/ Lincolnshire.

It seems fairly common for people to suggest something fanciful, see cold water poured on their idea and then react along the lines of "I thought this was meant to be a pro-rail website".

If your idea is so niche that it can't even attract much support amongst railway enthusiasts then its probably not worth wasting much more crayon on.

 

[krus_aragon]

Nationwide Oyster cards.

How about some Santander Oyster cards? :P

Actually, I think Cheltenham and Gloucester already had them years back:

 

[D9009Spotter]

My controversial rail opinion. Re-open the GC line up to Manchester. Run an hourly train in both ways and leave it as a largely freight only line to take the strain away from the WCML and open it up a little more for additional freight traffic... And get HS2 on the ground finally. If you're gonna do it then get in with it lol!

 

[CaptainHaddock]

This site should have a "like/dislike" option for each thread. Any thread scoring more than 100 dislikes in a week should be deleted. Whoever started the thread with the highest number of likes eash week should receive a free day ranger of their choice courtesy of the forum admins!

 

[B&I]

This site should be a forum for discussion of railways, including potential reopenings, no matter how unlikely in the present climate, not an opportunity for clever dicks who know no more about the railways than other non-staff contributors to try to make themselves feel better about themselves by belittling other people

 

[sprunt]

the senior management of GTR should be tied to the tracks and run over by their own trains... though of course they might starve to death before a train actually turns up!

Not sure what's controversial about this.

 

[Rail Blues]

, if your proposal (for any speculative service on one of the many threads for "My Suggestion To...") is only bi-hourly

I'd go further and say any post on these prefaced with the words 'My idea for' will be ill thought out, utterly impractical and generally crazier than a cut snake.

 

[whhistle]

Three levels of fare only - "red", "amber", "green". Determined by train not by time of departure. Trains are marked in the timetable as R,A or G.

Red ticket - any train
Amber ticket - amber or green trains only
Green ticket - green train only

That's a pretty good idea.
Much better than messing about with some companies saying "trains that depart after X time" or "arrive before X time". Much easier for everyone to figure out.

 

[sprunt]

Power points and wifi, particularly on commuter services should be the very lowest priority when speccing trains. It's transport, not a mobile office.

 

[Rail Blues]

This site should be a forum for discussion of railways, including potential reopenings, no matter how unlikely in the present climate, not an opportunity for clever dicks who know no more about the railways than other non-staff contributors to try to make themselves feel better about themselves by belittling other people

What do you expect people to do when an idea of such staggering impracticality is put in front of them? Say "brilliant idea, I don't understand why VTWC aren't running a London to Glasgow pullman service with 442s being hauled by class 33s bought from preserved railways already" (that was a serious suggestion BTW) or point out the blindingly obvious flaws on such a scheme. Quite frankly if I wanted to read pie in the sky wibble or get into the realms of fantasy, I'd hang around on Star Wars fan fiction sites. As it is, I'd rather discuss sensible ideas and am quite happy to be told when I lack knowledge or understanding of a particular issue by those who are genuinely knowledgeable, I'm not so thin-skinned that I can't take a telling.

 

[mmh]

This site should be a forum for discussion of railways, including potential reopenings, no matter how unlikely in the present climate, not an opportunity for clever dicks who know no more about the railways than other non-staff contributors to try to make themselves feel better about themselves by belittling other people

What do you expect people to do when an idea of such staggering impracticality is put in front of them? Say "brilliant idea, I don't understand why VTWC aren't running a London to Glasgow pullman service with 442s being hauled by class 33s bought from preserved railways already" (that was a serious suggestion BTW) or point out the blindingly obvious flaws on such a scheme. Quite frankly if I wanted to read pie in the sky wibble or get into the realms of fantasy, I'd hang around on Star Wars fan fiction sites. As it is, I'd rather discuss sensible ideas and am quite happy to be told when I lack knowledge or understanding of a particular issue by those who are genuinely knowledgeable, I'm not so thin-skinned that I can't take a telling.

I'd hope (some) people wouldn't be as rude and condescending as they sometimes are.

There are plenty of examples of things actually happening which if you'd suggested them a few years ago the know-it-alls would have instantly dismissed as fantasy or just impossible. Some examples:

Class 319 to Northern
Bi-mode class 319s
Mk4s on Holyhead - Cardiff
Class 707's replacements being planned before they'd even entered service
HSTs to Scotrail
Mini-HSTs for GWR
District line trains with Ford Transit engines to Wales
Thameslink to Rainham (Kent)
442s (part 1) to Southern / Gatwick Express
442s (part 2) back to South West
Crosscountry HSTs
...

 

[Confused147]

Train tickets should be 80% cheaper when replacement buses operate the said journey