UK trains are not designed for long distance journeys?

[01jtiong]

Throughout January and February I took trains up north of the country and down south and both experience were not good

I took scotrail train from Glasgow to Forres via inverness and that journey was really long but went ok with out a hitch

then went back down to Glasgow from forres via Aberdeen and there were problems as train stopped in Perth as no driver could be found as they had to change drivers in Perth station but lack of staff delayed my journey back to Glasgow

then in February virgin train from Glasgow to London Euston broke down after Warrington bank quay as no power could be delivered from overhead wires to the train so broke down though moved again after 50mins

then from London to Glasgow no catering facilities till Carlisle as no food or water though free water was given but no catering staff till Carlisle

I don't think trains are designed for long journey from north to south and vice versa

what do u think

plus why in virgin train they need to change staff half way down including driver and onboard announcer why staff cant be on same service all the way down or all the way up

 

[Harbornite]

First of all, do you not know what punctuation is?

Second, it's obvious that you don't know anything about traincrew diagramming, there's working time legislation and all sorts to consider which is why you have crew changes.

Finally, to answer your question, no. Long distance trains are generally fit for purpose.

 

[yorksrob]

Depends on the train. I can happilly spend four hours in 1st class of the EMT HST.

 

[01jtiong]

First of all, do you not know what punctuation is?

Second, it's obvious that you don't know anything about traincrew diagramming, there's working time legislation and all sorts to consider which is why you have crew changes.

Finally, to answer your question, no. Long distance trains are generally fit for purpose.

then why do they break down half way down to final destination or half way up and vice versa

scotrail trains long distance not deisgned and virgin breaks down as cant cope the long journey

I don't work for rail companies so no I don't understand crew changes as I get on board Glasgow I assume that's when the crew start their shift and end at when the train reaches its destination in London as its only a 4/5hr shift

 

[_toommm_]

Virgin Trains can more than cope with the journey believe me - if the overhead wires 'break' that's down to Network Rail - I don't know about the rest of Europe, but I'm pretty sure an electric train can't run without any electric can it?

It's incredibly unrealistic for a driver and guard to sign a whole route from Euston to Edinburgh or Glasgow - off the top of my head that's over 300 miles! Couple that with the fact that a shift isn't just one train journey, it's multiple journeys, your ignorance is really shown in this post!

By your logic, a driver and guard would be expected to know the 800+ miles from Aberdeen to Penzance, totalling over 12 hours straight driving. I challenge you to drive 12 hours straight so that you don't have to change trains, then message us back!

 

[Agent_Squash]

virgin breaks down as cant cope the long journey

You got unlucky. It happens - it's called life.

I've used Virgin several hundreds of times and they've not broken down once on me. I've also always had catering with them, and no train crew issues. It's unreasonable to expect drivers and guards to know nearly 400 miles of route to the intricate detail that's required.

Also, the Scotrail trains are been updated as we speak...

 

[driver9000]

It's incredibly unrealistic for a driver and guard to sign a whole route from Euston to Edinburgh or Glasgow - off the top of my head that's over 300 miles! Couple that with the fact that a shift isn't just one train journey, it's multiple journeys, your ignorance is really shown in this post!

Virgin Trains crew at Preston seem to cope with knowing the whole WCML plus several diversionary routes. Granted they don't drive end to end in one sitting or indeed go both ways in a shift.

 

[01jtiong]

Virgin Trains can more than cope with the journey believe me - if the overhead wires 'break' that's down to Network Rail - I don't know about the rest of Europe, but I'm pretty sure an electric train can't run without any electric can it?

It's incredibly unrealistic for a driver and guard to sign a whole route from Euston to Edinburgh or Glasgow - off the top of my head that's over 300 miles! Couple that with the fact that a shift isn't just one train journey, it's multiple journeys, your ignorance is really shown in this post!

By your logic, a driver and guard would be expected to know the 800+ miles from Aberdeen to Penzance, totalling over 12 hours straight driving. I challenge you to drive 12 hours straight so that you don't have to change trains, then message us back!

people who do many jobs can do 12hr shifts there are jobs out there people work 12 hr shifts, too many to name

plus how hard is it to drive and all it is just one journey down then they change staff for the journey up

 

[driver9000]

I don't work for rail companies so no I don't understand crew changes as I get on board Glasgow I assume that's when the crew start their shift and end at when the train reaches its destination in London as its only a 4/5hr shift

Factor in driving hours limits plus the requirements for a break and a maximum working day of 10 hours how do they get home?

As for the claims of always breaking down, yes that is an inevitable part of heavily used machinery but I cover nearly 2000 miles each week on trains and can count on 1 hand how many times it has broken down on me. Generally speaking I arrive at my destination within 10 minutes of the booked time too and occasionally early!

 

[Bald Rick]

Define long distance...

But let’s say it’s 200 miles plus. There’s roughly 450 train services a day in this country that travel over that distance. Almost all of them reach their destination, every day, without incident.

On balance, therefore, I’d say they work fine.