GRALISTAIR
Established Member
Certainly not in the short term. Medium term possibly.Realistically will it change anything or improve punctuality?
Certainly not in the short term. Medium term possibly.Realistically will it change anything or improve punctuality?
that's a much better report than elsewhere in the press, with more informed comment too.It is, but the BBC's interpretation seems to be somewhat different to other news sources.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50971629
Because Burnham shouts loudest?Why should Greater Manchester commuters be any greater a priority than West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, north east etc?
This empty announcement is purely a 'dead cat' to divert attention away from the fare rise. And it appears to be working.
maybe the BBC checked posts #2 and #3 on this thread before just 'buying' the spin...The itrm is nowhere on the BBC News website's national pages. If it had been GTR I suspect it would be a different story.
Mary Hewitt so I'm lead to believe.Her...
A very good overveiw!Exactly, which is why I'm surprised that there's been so much attention spent on this - it's the first working day of the year, people are fed up enough and then they get to the station to find that their ticket has gone up in price (only in line with inflation, but still, an increase)... any savvy politician is going to want to divert attention away from that.
I'm not convinced that Shapps will be any good at Transport, but he's a lot "cannier" than Grayling, he's more adept in the Dark Arts, he knows how to engineer a smokescreen and distract people away from bad news - we can probably expect more stunts like this as he continues to find inconvenient truths that he wants to deflect attention away from (to feed the compliant press a nice simplistic story full of Tough Talk and the likes)
and indeed, not front page news, as the status quo hasn't actually changed yet. Interesting, as some news outlets are convinced Arriva are being stripped of the franchise, so I suppose if this was intended to divert attention from the fare rise, it's worked. People hoping for this to happen, however, must have very short memories - it wasn't that long ago Arriva took over the franchise from someone else. It doesn't really need mentioning in here that the franchise would be in basically the same position regardless of which of the UK's TOC parents was running it. In my humble opinion, OLR will also make very little difference. My only real hope is that now more parts of the north are voting conservative they may be repaid in kind by an increase in subsidised investment up there. Further electrification still seems a bit optimistic, but extension of the fleet withdrawal to cover the 150s and 156s seems perfectly reasonable to ask for.that's a much better report than elsewhere in the press, with more informed comment too.
He also knows sorting stuff takes time...Exactly, which is why I'm surprised that there's been so much attention spent on this - it's the first working day of the year, people are fed up enough and then they get to the station to find that their ticket has gone up in price (only in line with inflation, but still, an increase)... any savvy politician is going to want to divert attention away from that.
I'm not convinced that Shapps will be any good at Transport, but he's a lot "cannier" than Grayling, he's more adept in the Dark Arts, he knows how to engineer a smokescreen and distract people away from bad news - we can probably expect more stunts like this as he continues to find inconvenient truths that he wants to deflect attention away from (to feed the compliant press a nice simplistic story full of Tough Talk and the likes)
100% this.A case of "be careful what you wish for," I fear.
This is the fear. Hopefully even the Tory party wouldn't have the front to implement a mini-Beeching programme after getting elected on a 'policy' aspiration of reversing Beeching !
I always cringe at press terminology of TOC's being 'stripped' of their franchises. I understand it is related to the terminology of, for example, athletes who fail a dope test being 'stripped' of any medals won by cheating. I think better terminology would be of the the TOC being 'relieved' of their franchise like a failed sea captain or general being relieved of their command.
Please!Split the Liverpool to Crewe and Southport to Alderley Edge as they were prior to May 2018 timetable and watch punctuality improve dramatically (this will benefit TPE also)
Because Burnham shouts loudest?
What you could see “Michael Green Grant Shapps” to give him his full name
Split the Liverpool to Crewe and Southport to Alderley Edge services as they were prior to May 2018 timetable and punctuality should improve dramatically (this will benefit TPE's poor punctuality/cancellations also by removing some Castlefield services)