They found the opposite with the ONS move.Let them leave. There are plenty of talented people in the rest of the country to do the work if Londoners are too insular to make the kind of move they expect others to do in reverse.
They found the opposite with the ONS move.Let them leave. There are plenty of talented people in the rest of the country to do the work if Londoners are too insular to make the kind of move they expect others to do in reverse.
Unfortunately I don't have the time to do so today but will do a detailed post with links and references in the next few days, in which case I hope you will read it with an open mind...You’re making statements without giving the details yourself.
Good luck to you but I think you're wasting your time.Unfortunately I don't have the time to do so today but will do a detailed post with links and references in the next few days, in which case I hope you will read it with an open mind...
I will indeed. Incidentally, I’m well aware of the private investment in Crossrail, but if it was purely that there wouldn’t be such a fuss at the moment about the amount of money being wasted by Crossrail delays, so the picture is more complex than that.Unfortunately I don't have the time to do so today but will do a detailed post with links and references in the next few days, in which case I hope you will read it with an open mind...
Evenings maybe, but in what ways are daytime services unattractive in most cities and towns?
Why do you keep having a dig at Warrington's Own Buses? Naff branding, but a modern fleet and an efficient, integrated network in my experience. Head and shoulders above the mishmash of operators in Greater Manchester.... I don't know if the average council would do a better job (yes, there's Nottingham, but there's also Warrington).
As we all do. But the truth is that London, the South East and East subsidise the rest of the country.
https://www.ft.com/content/6ebd5350-3f8f-11e7-9d56-25f963e998b2
There is also the disparity between London which has transport devolved to TfL, and the rest of England (Wales and Scotland also have devolved transport). There is a good argument that transport should also be devolved to the regions for local travel with what might be called Intercity travel being centrally controlled just like Motorways.
The argument will, no doubt, rage long beyond my departure from this earth! But if you were investing your own money would you invest it in an area with a known, proven, track record of creating a return or would you risk loosing it all and invest in an area with a proven track record of never providing a return? At least if you make a profit you can invest some of that in high risk, low return, projects.
Far too generalised and sweeping a statement. Which specific examples?Surely this is well documented? Poor reliability, slow journey times, high fares and poor integration with other routes and other modes. If they were "attractive", then car users would use buses a lot.
Surely this is well documented? Poor reliability, slow journey times, high fares and poor integration with other routes and other modes. If they were "attractive", then car users would use buses a lot.
About the time you started paying for it for most of your working life.
Did you not want to visit it and others first to decide if it met what you needed?
Just wasn't the done thing then. And does a day at a carefully staged event really tell you much?
Far too generalised and sweeping a statement. Which specific examples?
If we specifically focus on fare integration, single fares usually do not allow change of vehicle. So a single journey involving a change of vehicle can often cost as much as a day ticket.
You'll have to explain the relevance of that comment I'm afraid.
Public transport is NOT the solution to this problem. Putting money into the "bad" schools to make them not bad schools is the solution.
All kids should attend their local school (thus avoiding unnecessary journeys), and all local schools should be good enough that nobody has an issue with this.
So what do you do until things change? Happy to sacrifice your childrens' future? We have to deal with the here and now, not what some perfect system would look like!!
When did attending an Open Day become part of the process of going to University?
Londoners pay for the congestion charge/ultra low emission zone that if I remember correctly, Greater Manchester voted against implementing. In addition, Londoners also pay the levy for Crossrail, while business has also stumped up cash. Now the North doesn't get enough, nor does the Midlands, Wales, NI, South West and I'd even argue London itself. I'm rather tired of it being made out as if London - a city with 8.8m residents of global importance and 20% of the UK economy doesn't pull its fair weight. The politicians have failed (most of whom don't even live in London) to invest in the regions while conveniently blaming everyone else - from the unions to Brussels for their own failures to construct a diverse economy.
Liverpool is west of Manchester. I heard that the route via Chat Moss was being electrified. The Ordsall Chord is west of both Piccadilly and Victoria.
To the north of Manchester, the route to Bolton has been given OHLE. I'm surprised that no improvements are to be found.
So at least 4 of those represent public sector funding in different ways.It's easier to persuade people to give you money when you already have a decent track record on spending/investment.
London didn't give itself TfL, it was given it by central government. The TfL 'brand' has also existed for a lot longer, & on a lot more things, than the regional equivalents.
They also are of a size where they can have staff dedicated to arranging funding for projects etc. That makes a massive difference.
So, again, it's easier for TfL to raise funding.
As for Crossrail;
- Transport for London
- Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy (a local tax charged on property developments across Greater London, with different charging rates for each London borough)
- Crossrail Business Rate Supplement (additional business rates)
- Section 106 Agreement payments
- Over-site development opportunities
- UK Government
- City of London Corporation
- Major landowners Canary Wharf Group, Heathrow Airport Holdings, and Berkeley Homes.
TfL - has massive fares income, & future income from Crossrail, that it can borrow against. Nowhere else comes close.
CIL - nicely overheated London property market
Business Rate Supplement - all those HQs paying it out of income earned elsewhere in the UK
Previous times that the government has moved parts of department outside London, staff have just left in droves for example see the PAC reports into the ONS Newport saga.
For some more international businesses it is London area or not in the UK (e.g. the firm my wife works for)
Of which 3 are local public sector who fund through additional local tax raising (council tax levy for GLA/TfL (which bill payers see documented to the nearest penny on their bills), business rates increments) not central government funding pass through.So at least 4 of those represent public sector funding in different ways.
Because there's so much choice these days - there are far more uni's than ever before.
Costs are extortionate, not just the tuition fees, but also accommodation which can be up to £200 per week on campus in some Unis. The quality of some of the accommodation we've seen is pretty horrendous - you really want to know which to avoid, especially when paying so much for it.
If you don't like your chosen course/uni, you havn't just wasted a year, you still have to pay the fees, accommodation for the full year, etc., so it's important to get it right as it may have just cost you £15-£20k if you give up mid-year.
Some uni's openly state that attendance at one of their open days "may" help your application and "may" increase your chances of an offer. Registrations of those attending is taken on the day.
The schools are heavily recommending attending as many open days as possible.
OK. A fair point but you are speaking of your own experience. What about people using the Chat Moss route? Does no-one travelling towards Victoria from Newton-Le-Willows or even Eccles notice any improvement? I find that very hard to believe.I travel from Wigan via Castlefield to South Manchester for work, have done for 25 years.
With the Ordsall Chord and Trafford Park freight causing daily chaos in Castlefield and the reduction in services from Wigan to Picadilly the service to South Manchester is now worse than it was a few years ago. The stock is exactly the same as it was 25 years ago, I suspect the journey time is longer due to timetable padding, it’s certainly no quicker, punctuality is worse than it’s ever been.
The only service improvements have been from occasional long distance services stopping at Wigan and Castlefield. These services become overcrowded with commuters and so have been withdrawn. So no, I struggle to see any improvements for my particular daily journey. It’s frustrating as I like railway travel but I’m probably closer than ever to driving to work instead of using the train, although the roads into Manchester are equally horrible.
As an occasional user of the Chat Moss line between Liverpool and Newton-le-Willows, it has to be said that despite the splendid new station at the latter, the service on that end of the line is lamentable. Two trains an hour of which one is a fast (diesel) TPE and the other, five or so minutes later, is an all-stations EMU. Heading towards Manchester there is also an hourly train (another diesel) coming from Wales via Warrington. Makes you wonder why they bothered to electrify. It would have made much more sense, if it was either/or, to have electrified the CLC line which might have increased the frequency for the local stations between Warrington and Manchester.OK. A fair point but you are speaking of your own experience. What about people using the Chat Moss route? Does no-one travelling towards Victoria from Newton-Le-Willows or even Eccles notice any improvement? I find that very hard to believe.
Well there is some improvement but from an incredibly low base. And having the TOC from hell, Northern, as a lead operator ensures that standards remain incredibly low.OK. A fair point but you are speaking of your own experience. What about people using the Chat Moss route? Does no-one travelling towards Victoria from Newton-Le-Willows or even Eccles notice any improvement? I find that very hard to believe.
As an occasional user of the Chat Moss line between Liverpool and Newton-le-Willows, it has to be said that despite the splendid new station at the latter, the service on that end of the line is lamentable. Two trains an hour of which one is a fast (diesel) TPE and the other, five or so minutes later, is an all-stations EMU. Heading towards Manchester there is also an hourly train (another diesel) coming from Wales via Warrington. Makes you wonder why they bothered to electrify. It would have made much more sense, if it was either/or, to have electrified the CLC line which might have increased the frequency for the local stations between Warrington and Manchester.
The actual, as opposed to the timetabled, service is by all accounts even worse. The other day a friend was sitting in a train at Lime Street bound for Manchester, for half an hour before the train was cancelled owing to the absence of a driver. The following TPE for Newcastle was cancelled for the same reason.
Thank you both for that. The implications from your posts is that the real issue is not London getting preferential treatment but that investment in your area is not done wisely.Well there is some improvement but from an incredibly low base. And having the TOC from hell, Northern, as a lead operator ensures that standards remain incredibly low.
Mass ongoing cancellations, the Piccadilly 13/4 shouters, the South's cast off trains, half baked Penalty Fare schemes, remote management from the other side of the country, inability to deal with special events.
Basically it's all cheap and shoddy
Change requires quite a bit of personnel resource to get it done right and in many cases the TOCs don't have the resources to carry out change properly. They are just staffed as leanly as possible for doing the same thing.Thank you both for that. The implications from your posts is that the real issue is not London getting preferential treatment but that investment in your area is not done wisely.
Well there is some improvement but from an incredibly low base. And having the TOC from hell, Northern, as a lead operator ensures that standards remain incredibly low.
Mass ongoing cancellations, the Piccadilly 13/4 shouters, the South's cast off trains, half baked Penalty Fare schemes, remote management from the other side of the country, inability to deal with special events.
Basically it's all cheap and shoddy