Rolling stock.

[MIGNAL]

I'm no supporter of HS2 but this one made me laugh. :shock:

 

[mseries]

you are also in West Yorks sir, check out the class 142s that I sometimes have to get, make that single car 153 look modern. #retrorollingstock But to be fair that image compares vehicles from different eras, I am certain that not all German trains are ICEs

 

[Jonzjob]

Oh, come on now! that's not a very fair comparison is it?

Wigan hasn't got electricity yet :shock:

 

[acewoodturner]

Says everything about this backwards 3rd world country we live in. Our political masters have no pride in anything. Just as long as they are all getting their snouts in the trough its ok. I am including all political parties in this this as they have had a shot in power and nothing much has changed for the better!

 

[misterfish]

Many other countries have had investment in rail transport by their governments whereas we seem to be given subsidies.

Misterfish

 

[Jonzjob]

The French don't have so much to crow about theze daze. Our neighbour is a student in Toulouse, about 70 or 80 miles west. She has a student card for the rail and it's as cheap as chips for her, but!! The trains are frequently an hour or so late and that's not just to Toulouse. It seems that the days of SNCF being smack on time are long gone.

 

[Droogs]

Doesn't surprise me, the poster, it just helps prove the fact/perception that the rail companies in the UK don't give a steaming guava about an integrated and modern public transport system. Why should they when they are allowed to take profits every year as their rolling stock is replaced piecemeal and allowed to fall apart. I belive they shouldn't be given subsidies at all and allowed to stand or fall on their own feet. if they provided a decent service at a decent cost then they would make a profit if not then they should fold. If the UK government were to really invest in the whole thing then it should be as the owner and all pay should then be performance related. No profit then wage cuts make a profit then some decent bonuses for all staff, would I'm sure be an excellent way to get a decent service. Keep accurate records of lateness and deduct fines before calculating profit and we might get a reseanable service. After all £26 return Edinburgh to Clydebank that takes nearly 2 hours each way is rediculous when it costs £9.60 and takes an hour by car.

 

[BearTricks]

I've spent a lot of time on those trains, probably even in the actual carriage on the picture.

There are posters in the North West stations stating that 99.7% (made up number but somewhere around that mark) are on time. I don't take the train much any more but I'd say that at least every other train is late when I do.

A while ago they altered their peak fare times to end at a certain time, let's say 6pm for illustration purposes. So of course the timetable changed so that the last train for a good while was at 5.59. I got the train twice after that. Once it was on time and I had to pay peak fare but the other time it was half an hour late, making me late for an appointment and I still had to pay the ridiculous inflated price despite the fact that the train arrived and left after peak prices had ended. I'd have bought my ticket at the ticket office but it closed six hours earlier.

All that subsidies do is keep the public in a stranglehold because the companies can keep a sub par service going with little fear that they'll go bust knowing that commuters have no other options but to pay nine quid to deal with surly, undertrained employees and to travel shoulder to shoulder with each other on a filthy train twice a day. I've seen the fares go up countless times with absolutely no positive change in quality.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

[MIGNAL]

Of course the poster doesn't really tell the whole story. I doubt that every train in China, Germany and France look as sleek and as modern as shown.
Fortunately I sometimes travel on an electrified line with continuous track. The units are modern. Beautifully smooth journey. Unfortunately sometimes I also get to travel on some of those old rickety diesel units too. The contrast between the two types is huge. I simply cannot support a huge amount of tax payers money being poured into HS2 when large swathes of the rail network could be upgraded to electrified lines and modern stock. That would be to the benefit of a far greater number of people, as opposed to a relatively few who want to save 15 or 20 minutes between London and Birmingham.

 

[finneyb]

I see a European Union agenda to have a high speed rail network to the extremities of the EU, regardless of the need.

Some years ago EU spread their departmental offices to the extremities eg Health & Safety policy went to Bilbao, Spain, Ireland got the EU Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions; Helsinki has the EU Chemicals Agency etc. So a high speed rail network to me is a similar political project designed to integrate countries into the EU.

HS1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel - I have my doubts that this is effective if you fly from UK airports you can get to Paris and back in a long business day and do the job - you can't on the train it takes too long .

Looking to the future rather than HS2 we should/will be using video conferencing etc to cut down travelling time and working from home or near home more to cut the daily commute time; both time wasters.

Brian