What is your controversial railway opinion/idea?

[Neil Urquhart]

I haven't read through all of the posts on this thread, so apologies if we've had this one....

Class 59s and 66s are good looking freight locos, a good piece of industrial design that looks appropriate for the job. I much prefer them to 60s, 67s or 70s etc

 

[Cowley]

I haven't read through all of the posts on this thread, so apologies if we've had this one....

Class 59s and 66s are good looking freight locos, a good piece of industrial design that looks appropriate for the job. I much prefer them to 60s, 67s or 70s etc

I’ve read the all the posts over the last few weeks and I don’t think it has been said (welcome to the forum by the way).

Time to state something controversial...

The only good thing about the APT was the livery and it looked as cheap as a Sinclair C5 or a 1980s Mini Metro.

 

[tbtc]

I haven't read through all of the posts on this thread, so apologies if we've had this one....

Class 59s and 66s are good looking freight locos, a good piece of industrial design that looks appropriate for the job. I much prefer them to 60s, 67s or 70s etc

I’ve read the all the posts over the last few weeks and I don’t think it has been said (welcome to the forum by the way).

Time to state something controversial...

The only good thing about the APT was the livery and it looked as cheap as a Sinclair C5 or a 1980s Mini Metro.

I'd echo that - both on the functionality of the 59/66s and on the welcoming of @Neil Urquhart to the Forum.

However if anyone did ties resembling the tartan seats of the APT, I'd probably buy one.

Controversial opinion of the day: Enthusiasts who jump into Twitter conversations (when a member of the public has contacted a TOC) can give the hobby a terrible reputation - I'm sure it's well meaning but it can come across as overbearing (when the person staffing the TOC Twitter feed is trying to answer the question).

 

[B&I]

Rail replacement buses must be of at least the same quality as the train they are replacing

Buses of the same 'quality' as much of Northern's stock.were all scrapped decades ago

 

[Ashley Lewis]

If a train company hands back a franchise early, then a period of being blacklisted from bidding for future franchises should be inforced i.e forever!

 

[krus_aragon]

Tunnel built between Holyhead and Dublin with line upgrade to allow high speed train services between Dublin and Euston via HS2

Will you include a Crossrail-style tunnel underneath Dublin itself? That is, are you going to do Euston to Heuston?

 

[Brian1979]

Rail companies who do not actively train staff ie Drivers, shunters, guards off the street and instead poach them when qualified should be excluded from bidding for lucrative contracts.

 

[Cowley]

Will you include a Crossrail-style tunnel underneath Dublin itself? That is, are you going to do Euston to Heuston?

Very good.

 

[fowler9]

Buses of the same 'quality' as much of Northern's stock.were all scrapped decades ago

That's not controversial, it's true.

 

[R Trevithick]

Very controversially-

People who post “anybody heard anything yet” 24 hours after applying for a job should be pelted with tomatoes.

Same applies to posters who get antsy if no-one answers their question within 2 hours

 

[DaiGog]

If you buy split tickets to save money, and you are delayed on leg 1 resulting in a missed connection into leg 2 which left on time, you shouldn't be compensated as if you held a through ticket.

 

[yorksrob]

Where a train company provides a disabled lavetory at a station, it should also have to provide a ladies and gents open for the same duration.

 

[Kneedown]

Thameslink services should be kept where they belong on the slow lines, leaving the fast lines free for extra MML expresses.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Heathrow Express trains should wait for GWR trains to pass in front of them if they're delayed.All HST's to be fitted with electric traction engines to become bi-modes.

 

[Julia]

If a train company hands back a franchise early, then a period of being blacklisted from bidding for future franchises should be inforced i.e forever!

I'd agree if ministers and civil servants who mislead (or downright lie to) franchise bidders to get them to over-bid suffer the same banishment...

 

[Fearless]

Heathrow Express trains should wait for GWR trains to pass in front of them if they're delayed.All HST's to be fitted with electric traction engines to become bi-modes.

Welcome to the forum, Alastair - and I like what you're saying here! Let's also add the electrification of the GWR line from Thingley Jcn to Temple Meads. It's shocking that that comes under 'Not gonna happen', at least for a while.

 

[gerry9253]

Lets have some real competition in the North Kent area and split the Southeastern franchise outer suburban services into two separate companies. The current 'Mainline' and 'High Speed' service.

Gerry

 

[njamescouk]

Train companies should ensure people have valid tickets before they enter the station, as they did years ago. Train companies not doing this should be forbidden from charging penalty fares, we-won't-take-you-to-court-shakedowns, outrageously inflated walk up fares etc etc.

 

[_toommm_]

Remove the minimum fares for railcards, especially the 16-25. That age range are sadly paid less than older folk for the same job, so shouldn't have to have a minimum fare if they commute by train everyday.

But then again you can just buy a ticket for later on in the day with a railcard and use it in the peak so...

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Bring back signalboxes and mechanical signalling - at least if there was a signal or points failure, it would only be a local issue rather than knocking out a wider area

 

[HowardGWR]

For every day that a CP5-delayed scheme is further delayed, deduct £1000 from the NR Chairman's salary.

 

[Kite159]

Remove the minimum fares for railcards, especially the 16-25. That age range are sadly paid less than older folk for the same job, so shouldn't have to have a minimum fare if they commute by train everyday.

But then again you can just buy a ticket for later on in the day with a railcard and use it in the peak so...

...and get caught by a RPI who notices what you are doing and takes details

 

[_toommm_]

...and get caught by a RPI who notices what you are doing and takes details

I strictly travel on advance tickets so it's fine. It's a case of 'Do as I do and not as I say'

 

[tommy2215]

That full nationalisation of our railways will not bring salvation.

Also, HSTs are absolutely appalling trains.

 

[transgeek]

I don't hate Pacers.

(That said, I grew up on them and only as an adult (I'm 29) have I started travelling further afield on lines with other trains, and a lot of my journeys have still been on Pacers, so I they're a default for me).

To be honest I'll be a little sad when they're gone - they've been the trains I've used most for most of my life.

 

[BigCj34]

Railways need a bit more subsidy, considering the current farce with strikes and tiketabling are driving customers away. Freeze fares for the year and be prepared to take a financial hit in order to drastically reduce split ticketing loopholes. Doing so in the aim of being revenue neutral will benefit only those who are the most unaware about train ticket prices.

 

[K.o.R]

How about some Santander Oyster cards? :P

Actually, I think Cheltenham and Gloucester already had them years back:

You used to be able to get a combination Barclaycard / Oyster card.

 

[tbtc]

1. The money that currently goes to private companies in profits can only be spent once - it's around 3% of ticket prices IIRC - but at the moment people are suggesting that, if the railway was nationalised we could use that money to freeze fares, increase staff wages, buy new trains, tackle various infrastructure projects and maybe even re-open a couple of fantasy branchlines. It's like a "magic money tree" for the railways, which people are hypothetically spending on dozens of different things - even if we could get our hands on it, it wouldn't pay for that much in the grand scheme of things (e.g. a ticket price freeze for one year)

2. The changes to "off peak" tickets in the north of England a few years ago (which meant that you couldn't use the return portion of an off-peak ticket in the evening rush hour within PTE boundaries) was probably a sensible and necessary thing - given that we had trains crammed at tea-time with passengers who'd bought off-peak tickets - there were a lot of complaints at the time but I think it was probably the right thing to do in hindsight. ::ducks::

 

[K.o.R]

There should not be barriers at level crossings, just normal green, amber, red traffic lights.

When there is a collision at a level crossing it should be reported as a road vehicle being driven into the path of an oncoming train, not being hit by a train as if it were some sort of malicious act.

I can see this reducing the number of cyclists considerably.

 

[K.o.R]

Time for an actual controversial opinion:

I don't think the RMT are going far enough when asking for a guard on every service. I think there should be a guard on every unit, who stays with that unit for their entire shift. That way, depending on movements, joins, etc., you could have up to 3 guards on a service, and would be able to have 2 missing for whatever reason before the train had to be cancelled. A unit can run ECS without its guard, as long as it attaches to one which does before carrying passengers.

Trains without yellow fronts are an abomination and the livery designers (especially those who make the fronts black) should be pelted with rotten vegetables.