Private companies tendered to operate the train services that the Government agrees to over a seven year period in a specific local area don't innovate as much as an all encompassing public sector organisation that owned boats/ hotels etc - yeah, no real surprise - I don't think anyone was expecting the Valley Lines franchise to set up its own engineering department or build their own trains directly
Okay, private companies have significantly increased capacity on many routes, have seen a massive increase in passenger numbers, but if you want to think they were lacklustre then fair enough
Apologies, yes
So, we need to use the BR that was there at the time of privatisation, but not the actual BR that was there at the time of privatisation?
But presumably not the BR of the distant past either... so what you're saying is that during the fifty years of BR there was a brief period around 1990 when they were quite good (but it'd be unfair to use any periods of BR earlier or later than that)?
I'm perfectly fine with lightly used stations like Brightside/ Attercliffe/ Sinfin being closed - I'm just making the point that the BR era that was being held up as this golden era did see them continue their regular closures
Whereas, if stations like Brightside/ Attercliffe had contiued post-privatisation then I doubt we'd have been able to close them, there'd have to be some token service, since the railways are scared of shutting anything down these days (plus the odd million pounds on new footbridges etc to keep them accessible)
Any suggestion that we close a station like Brightside/ Attercliffe now would bring lots of complaints, suggestions that we should really increase the service for a five year trial before any decision could be taken, claims that by closing these lightly used stations we'd end up with significantly fewer people connecting onto InterCity services, people worrying that this was the thin end of the wedge and resisting any closure whatsoever (I think
@yorksrob 's definition was that we should never close any station that is used regularly by any person?)...
... yet BR regularly closed lightly used stations like these and the world kept turning, the difference on national passenger numbers was negligible, even though the usual suspects would be against private companies trying to close similar stations today
Just watch - we'll see the same complaints if Cottingley is proposed to close as part of the proposal for a station at White Rose (which seems a pretty similar situation to Brightside closing whilst Meadowhall opened) - we'll hear how "useful" Cottingley is to the people who use it and someone will suggest that "if we allow them to close this one station, they'll try to push through closure of hundreds of stations" etc