What aspects of the railways does the UK railway industry do well at?

[ar10642]

It should be possible to issue a through ticket for any journey in Germany, often including buses and the likes too. There's a single* national "Deutschlandtarif" that applies to any journey not wholly inside one Verkehrsverbund or Landestarif area. What journeys did you try?

The one exception is the small number of open access operations such as Flixtrain which exist outside the Deutschlandtarif.

* Stepped - so if the journey involves an ICE for a short part then regional trains splitting may be cheaper - but it should nonetheless be possible to do it.

I think I was trying to do Mainz - St Goar, but it was a few years back. Seems to work now.

 

[Envy123]

Frequency is probably the biggest one. 3tph Euston-Manchester would be unheard of in most countries (true IC services* are typically hourly or at best 2tph), while French rural users would give their eye teeth for hourly clockface on something like the Cumbrian Coast - that'd get a train or two a day in France if you're lucky, plus maybe a lunchtime bus.

Oh yes, tell me about it.

On my last 2 holidays in Spain, I only took the IC train once between Barcelona and Figueres. Other times, there was a really long wait for it. So long that it was faster to take the much slower regional service that had a short wait. The rolling stock wasn't meant for end-to-end journeys for over 2 hours.

 

[johntea]

Are advance fares a 'thing' outside the UK?

It is pretty impressive how I can frequently get from Pontefract to London using Grand Central for around £15 - £20 each way even when booking quite close to the journey date, also you have the likes of Northern offering advance tickets that are available to book 15 minutes before departure!

 

[507020]

Are advance fares a 'thing' outside the UK?

It is pretty impressive how I can frequently get from Pontefract to London using Grand Central for around £15 - £20 each way even when booking quite close to the journey date, also you have the likes of Northern offering advance tickets that are available to book 15 minutes before departure!

I don’t believe Northern is the only operator that does those ‘Advance on the day’ fares. The problem with them is that it adds complication in that they should just be the walk up single fares anyway and returns shouldn’t be much more, so I’m not sure that’s done well exactly.

 

[bramling]

The coverage of the railway network in the UK is really good as well: small villages that in many other countries wouldn't get any service can have stations here, and the slightly larger places get much better/more frequent service than similar villages in other countries

The only problem with that is it’s quite unequal. So some pretty tiny villages (or less in the case of something like Sugar Loaf!) get a station, yet some fairly big places like Wellington, Wantage, Yaxley, Bawtry (etc) don’t, simply because of where they happen to be on the network. Only the Southern Region seems to have managed to avoid this in the most part.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Are advance fares a 'thing' outside the UK?

It is pretty impressive how I can frequently get from Pontefract to London using Grand Central for around £15 - £20 each way even when booking quite close to the journey date, also you have the likes of Northern offering advance tickets that are available to book 15 minutes before departure!

Yes. DB's Sparpreis and Supersparpreis are near identical to our Advances in concept. Even SBB now have fixed train tickets, though online only if I recall, to fill spare seats now they are moving to become a multiple unit railway so don't have as much flexibility of formations as they used to.

 

[Trainbike46]

The only problem with that is it’s quite unequal. So some pretty tiny villages (or less in the case of something like Sugar Loaf!) get a station, yet some fairly big places like Wellington, Wantage, Yaxley, Bawtry (etc) don’t, simply because of where they happen to be on the network. Only the Southern Region seems to have managed to avoid this in the most part.

This unequal coverage is an issue in every country, usually for historic reasons or geographic reasons. But, for a town of any given size, in the UK it is much more likely to have a station with decent service than in most other countries

 

[tornado]

Oh yes, tell me about it.

On my last 2 holidays in Spain, I only took the IC train once between Barcelona and Figueres. Other times, there was a really long wait for it. So long that it was faster to take the much slower regional service that had a short wait. The rolling stock wasn't meant for end-to-end journeys for over 2 hours.

Speaking of unequal coverage, Figueres has a population of 46000. It must be costing the Spanish government a forture to have the equivalent of a Eurostar stop there every hour or so, and a tiny handful of people get on and off.

 

[Envy123]

Speaking of unequal coverage, Figueres has a population of 46000. It must be costing the Spanish government a forture to have the equivalent of a Eurostar stop there every hour or so, and a tiny handful of people get on and off.

It was much less frequent than that. But yeah, I understand. It would be unlikely in the UK for such population to have an IC service.

 

[kristiang85]

From comparing to other railways on my travels, definitely frequency, cleanliness, smoothness and safety are big pluses for us.

 

[duesselmartin]

General punctuality is good in the UK. The mentioned staff visibility. Try finding rail staff at Düsseldorf. They must be hiding.
Also compared with many European countries both trains and stations are generally clean.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Part of that seems to be the keenness to keep French rolling stock factories busy (something BR was never allowed to do after the 60s).
Plus the deliberate "white space" in timetables messing up clockface times.
Many places in France also have their 2tpd morning/evening TGVs which are difficult to resource efficiently.
We tend to turn trains round in major terminals rather than run through to minor places.
Franchising has also reinforced the TOC service boundaries here.

 

[davetheguard]

The ability to break your journey. Enormously useful if you want to do a point to point walk, or get off for a nice lunch at a point during the journey. Or sightseeing at a place other than your main destination.

As far as I know, that is not something that is generally available overseas, any more than it is available here on buses.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Safety, particularly single-line safety by way of lessons from Cowden.

 

[bspahh]

Last week I was on a train in the Netherlands. There was a power cut which meant that trains were cancelled between Rotterdam and Breda for a couple of hours. The first service after the power was fixed was then cancelled because of overcrowding. 10/10 for safety, but not much for clearing the backlog of delayed passengers.

 

[TFN]

For the London area, contactless. It always amazes tourists (domestic too!) how well it works and how easy it is. It’s great to see it roll out further and it’s something that other countries are trying to do but just isn’t as popular as London’s.

 

[gabrielhj07]

Cleanliness

Cleanliness/lack of grafitti (hello Italy...)

This can't be overstated. I spent a couple of weeks on the RER a few years ago and was quite surprised when returning to the UK to see trains properly painted, stations well lit, and no graffiti whatsoever.

at the terminus we see several fully electrified sidings with not one, but two TGV sets parked doing nothing.

This cannot be a purely European/continental thing? Several places have trains 'sitting around' during the day; Clapham, Longsight, Crewe, Wimbledon, Hornsey, Bounds Green, etc.

Another thing could be the friendliness of staff - I'm not sure how much of it is to do with me being a 'rosbif', but SNCF staff have never been particularly forthcoming with useful information in the same way GWR's are, for example.

 

[Runningaround]

Having an extraordinary amount choice of tickets for one journey on one type of train.

 

[DelayRepay]

I'm not sure how we compare with other countries, but I think having the ability to book passenger assistance is one of our strengths. I've booked it a few times for elderly relatives and it's worked well. I'm sure there are exceptions but generally it works like clockwork.

 

[The exile]

The only problem with that is it’s quite unequal. So some pretty tiny villages (or less in the case of something like Sugar Loaf!) get a station, yet some fairly big places like Wellington, Wantage, Yaxley, Bawtry (etc) don’t, simply because of where they happen to be on the network. Only the Southern Region seems to have managed to avoid this in the most part.

Though that is inevitably going to happen everywhere - being sited on an active railway line is a distinct advantage in the “keeping your station open” stakes (!). Our round of closures was longer ago than in many European countries so there’s been more time for anomalies to arise.

 

[Jamiescott1]

Uk trains seem to be more dda accessible

 

[TheSeeker]

Some observations from Belgium :-

Level boarding is much better in the UK. Here the platform, often just gravel can be very low.
Passenger assistance is very good in the UK compared to here.
Service frequency is generally much better in the UK.
Last trains run much later. Cost me many a taxi to get home from a concert in Brussels as the last train would be around 11:30.
Most big stations have a book shop, pub, something decent to eat. More like airports than railway stations. St P. being the best.
Catering on board the train. Unheard of here on domestic services.

On the down side :-

Walk up tickets are very expensive in the UK. Last time I did Paddington-Bridgend it was 106 pounds for an open return. (was an emergency as my Dad was about to die).
You can't buy beer from vending machines

 

[yorksrob]

Last trains run much later. Cost me many a taxi to get home from a concert in Brussels as the last train would be around 11:30.

Round here you're lucky if you have a last train as late as 23:30 !

 

[Bletchleyite]

Round here you're lucky if you have a last train as late as 23:30 !

Though as Bruxelles is the capital London is probably your comparison, and many if not most local services out of London run a fair bit later than that, e.g. 0134 on weekdays on the WCML (though only 0010 on Saturdays, but that extra 40 minutes is very useful indeed if seeing a show or gig, as these typically finish around 2300 and it gives you time to get back to Euston).

 

[yorksrob]

Though as Bruxelles is the capital London is probably your comparison, and many if not most local services out of London run a fair bit later than that, e.g. 0134 on weekdays on the WCML (though only 0010 on Saturdays, but that extra 40 minutes is very useful indeed if seeing a show or gig, as these typically finish around 2300 and it gives you time to get back to Euston).

Indeed, but there's a lot of network outside of London.

 

[Western Lord]

This cannot be a purely European/continental thing? Several places have trains 'sitting around' during the day; Clapham, Longsight, Crewe, Wimbledon, Hornsey, Bounds Green, etc.

Le Croisic is a small seaside resort at the end of a single track branch, not a major rail centre.

Though that is inevitably going to happen everywhere - being sited on an active railway line is a distinct advantage in the “keeping your station open” stakes (!). Our round of closures was longer ago than in many European countries so there’s been more time for anomalies to arise.

Being sited on an active rail line is not necessarily an advantage. Many places have no stations because there are no stopping services to serve them and there is no way of providing stopping services without reducing track capacity for expresses.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Indeed, but there's a lot of network outside of London.

There is, but if you want to compare a secondary city Bruxelles isn't your comparison, Antwerpen might be a better comparison with Manchester/Leeds, say.

Being sited on an active rail line is not necessarily an advantage. Many places have no stations because there are no stopping services to serve them and there is no way of providing stopping services without reducing track capacity for expresses.

Certainly the Swiss have a bit of a rolling programme of closing smaller stations on mainlines in order to simplify the long distance service and increase frequency. A couple were closed on the Geneva-Brig line in the early 2010s when I was a regular there to allow for the hourly RegionalExpress from Geneva to Vevey to be added, which required removing a couple of local stopping services entirely.

Of course such closures are a bit less painful in the context of the replacement being a properly integrated bus service.

You do have UK examples of that, e.g. Norton Bridge, which would probably have stayed open had the slow lines it had to be on not been moved several miles west to the middle of a field nowhere near the village. There are plenty of useless stations in the middle of fields the world over, but generally speaking they stay there until they actually get in the way of something.

 

[Runningaround]

I'm not sure how we compare with other countries, but I think having the ability to book passenger assistance is one of our strengths. I've booked it a few times for elderly relatives and it's worked well. I'm sure there are exceptions but generally it works like clockwork.

But would booking assistance become less fraught if stations were more disability compliant meaning if it was forgotten and you got off the train you wouldn't be forced to drag yourself up a flight of stairs while assistance doesn't assist.

 

[GordonT]

Recognising that when there's heavy lifting to be done you need old-BR operations folk schooled in the Chris Green era like Tim Shoveller and Steve Montgomery to do the needful.

 

[saxsux]

Speaking of unequal coverage, Figueres has a population of 46000. It must be costing the Spanish government a forture to have the equivalent of a Eurostar stop there every hour or so, and a tiny handful of people get on and off.

That's nothing, Diss gets 2tph to London and 2tph to Norwich with a population less than 8,000!