Its the branch lines that I see as vulnerable. I know the distances in the US are far larger. Easier to view individual US states as the (very rough) equivalent of a European country.
That is what myself and my friends have been going through last year. But this year we have now reached the stage where my friends do not even consider what rail options might exist. The flexibility of the car is quite attractive I have to admit. So we have got used to itineraries that start with a route that collects us all together. Our whole routine has changed and I cannot see what will make us change back. Except I hanker after a cheap day trip to Crewe or thereabouts by not-Avanti.
Yup, they’re certainly full of peasants, especially those Mega and Flix ones.
I do agree 6tph is ridiculous when the trains are so short. And TPE dont even have the drivers it seems. 4tph to me is a good frequency but less important the longer the distance. Short trains are inefficient and there has to be a trade off with frequency.
My London to Cardiff coach has few stops on the way. What is really nice is the lack of sinuous detours for intermediate stations when the line is closed for engineering work. Paying for a train ticket and ending up on a coach that is slower than the normal and cheaper coach service always seems ironic to me. Something lost on the railways when they substitute trains for part of the journey.
Just joking about the typo before somebody claims I’m being too derogatory…
Hmmm a seat on a voyager that’s travelling along smoothly at 100mph or belted into a stop start coach that takes at least double the time the voyager takes to get anywhere.
You maybe lucky enough to have a decent coach service that does the route you want, the vast majority of us don’t. The train is simply faster and more comfortable, even the voyagers that everybody seems to hate.
But conversely, lots of people don't have relatively easy access to a train service doing the route they want. I think we have to accept that for some, train generally works, for others, it's road transport. Not everyone has main line stations on their door step (or frequent feeders from branchlines), and even if they do, not everyone wants to travel just to places served by that main line. Trains are fine if there's a relatively frequent/fast service between the stations you want to use, but road is a lot more flexible for those who want to go to other places!
Your right the latest NatEx interiors are better than rail first class !. One other thing I have noticed is the engine noise is not very intrusive. The only loo is almost always working.
I question whether that reflects commercial reality of how most people wish to travel. To be persuaded to use a train, they want it to be as close as possible to the convenience of leaving at whether time they choose and getting into their car.
Since the war we always have done and that's part of the problem but perhaps for another thread.
Motorways obviously never close in your world. Unfortunately in mine I’ve had to take random detours off the M4 and ended up stuck with all the other traffic heading down the same single lane suburban road. This of not uncommon.
Shouldn’t that be 25 to 60? Which is when people are at their most economically active so can afford it the most.
www.theguardian.com
And not just for transport matters.
I literally found these deals within five minutes, for a journey in less than two weeks' time, not '7 months'. The prices were for a single ticket, no splitting required. If you can drive from Edinburgh to London for less than £30 in fuel, and in comparable time to the train then I would like to know how. Frankly, you are spouting utter nonsense.
I'm not sure about that. I had more disposable income when I was living at home until I bought my first house in my late twenties and after I'd paid off the mortgage but was still working fulltime. Of course there is the Family Railcard for those with kids and Two Together for couples/friends travelling together. Both those groups would otherwise typically find the car much cheaper than the train, unlike lone passengers.
I was simply quoting some cheap advance fares to show that not all long-distance travel is ridiculously expensive. If being able to afford a £30 fare from Edinburgh to London makes someone 'rich' then some people have a strange definition of being well off.
For long distances (I mean 50+ miles, not American style long distance) trains are usually the most comfortable, efficient and quick means of transport. At the other end though, it can be a pain if there is no connecting train or bus to take you where you need to be. Cheap and easily available car hire should be the answer. I've not seen car hire offices at many rail stations, unlike airports. Isn't this the ideal compromise and couldn't train companies be a bit more imaginative with linked deals? As someone who hates driving but enjoys exploring country areas I'd love to see this. (Or examples of it already happening)
Bear in mind the research is from a cycling campaigning group, so have a vested interest in the messages given. They also, as happens too often with cycling groups, seem to think everyone lives within reasonable cycling distance of most places they want to get to. That isn't the case in large parts of the country. In my own case, I live in a middle-sized town but, like many people here, work in Leeds which is almost 20 miles away. Few people are going to want to cycle those kind of distances.The guardian reported today that a significant number of the population are in transport poverty
‘Entrenched car culture’ leaves millions of Britons in transport poverty
Study finds drivers spending up to a fifth of pre-tax income on running a car as lack of infrastructure deters people from cycling
The government should be investing massively in public transport across the country rather than the opposite
I agree with that. The other issue though is that if there is more than one person wishing to travel, rail quickly becomes far from the cheapest option.
It’s decades of planning that’s the real problem, baking car use into every aspect of our lives is just lazy. I do wonder what will happen when fuel duty needs to be replaced as everybody has EVs. Whack a giant monthly fee on their ownership and invest it into public transport outside of London for a change. (Not that EVs are that environmentally friendly of course, everybody casually forgets about the production and disposal of the batteries, as well as the fossil fuel generated electricity used to charge themThe guardian reported today that a significant number of the population are in transport poverty
‘Entrenched car culture’ leaves millions of Britons in transport poverty
Study finds drivers spending up to a fifth of pre-tax income on running a car as lack of infrastructure deters people from cycling
The government should be investing massively in public transport across the country rather than the opposite
)