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The Railways?


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Heard a train operating company boss being interviewed on radio 4 the other day. He wants the government to commit to a "50/50" rule whereby 50% of the train operators revenue comes from fares and this is then matched by the same amount from the taxpayer.

 

He says it's currently about 70/30 fares to subsidy, but it is definitely worked out on this sort of revenue matching basis.

 

Of course he wants a formula like this, it guarantees that if more passengers use the railways he gets to take a double profit for his executive bonuses and shareholders, and the cost to the taxpayer will actually go UP not down!!!

 

Blows the argument that our railways would become more cost effective if more people used them right out of the water.

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nationalising is too expensive and the country is skint remember. I refer back to my comments at the start re: re-organisaion of the franchise. Tighten up the regulation i.e. a train is late when its late and not when 5+ mins late. ALso have capacity limits and if broken operator gets fined. Should stop short running on most services. The system is run on the "just in time" philospohy i.e. whats the minimum we can get away with hence EMT at central run 2 car units at peak because they wont invest in new vehicles just repaint the old and squeeze 7 more seats in.

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Would not work. Is a train late because of railtrack, or the train operator. And as there are lots of rail operators running on the same track they can all blame each other when a train becomes late.My Cross rail train is only late because we were stuck behind the virgin train ect. The rail operators should be allowed to look after the track they run on. Get rid of rail Track.

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  • 2 weeks later...
?1.1bn investement announced today but havent said where it is coming from save fares wont be affected.

 

BTW doesant affect Warrington despite this beignt he busier of the two routes from Manchester to Warrington (and quicker!)

 

Because of delays on that route during the upgrade I would expect an affect, because of the possible increase in passengers using the Warrington route. :roll:

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  • 1 month later...

Read on most websites today that HS2 (high speed rail link 2) will reach Warrington.

 

Reading the fine print however indicates that HS2 must have close connections with "Classic Rail" to provide conencting services. Anyone want to suggest where they will fit it close to Bank Quay / Central (we are on the Liverpool Spur, so might be the latter) and the subseuent double track through the middle of Warrington?

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Most advanced countries have had high speed rail systems for decades

 

What, like the USA, Canada or Australia do?

 

High speed rail only works with highly centralised, city centre dwelling populations who all want to get from one specific place to another specific place. Japan is a perfect example of such a population - so it's hardly a suprise that their high speed rail works reasonable well. France also has much more centralised populations than we do, with large stretches of next to nothing in between - so their TGVs do the job they need them to do.

 

We have a much more suburban population distribution, more similar to the way US, Canadian or Australian towns and cities are organised, we also have relatively short distances between cities - so point to point high speed rail has little or no benefit here.

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I take it inky that you have no need to travel in your job :!::wink:

 

I travel every working day, and many nights. About 30,000 business miles last year.

 

Last night, for example, I needed to be at a customer just outside Whiston by 21:00, finished that job around 01:30 this morning, and then needed to be in Copley near Halifax within 2 hours. I then left there about 05:30 to head back to Lymm. That's a fairly typical night shift for me, perhaps a little quieter than normal.

 

Not much chance of doing that by rail, no matter how fast the things can get from central London to central Glasgow!

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A few years ago, me and the wife/little one and my mate/wife/little one went to Disneyland paris on the train from Bank Quay. We decided to splash out and go 1st class all the way and it was an absolute joy compared to the drive....(we did that the years before!) the total cost for 6 of us return was about ?1500

 

We have all decided to go again this year over new year and I checked the cost now to do the same trip 1st class.... ?3,092.00

 

We are going by car via Hull-Zebrugge!!

 

No wonder people drive!

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But if your mate happens not to be of the flying loving fraternity, one has to make alternative arrangements!!!

 

such as the time the wives decided a holiday in Majorca would be nice for a week.... they flew off with the kids and we drove there, via Barcelona and a 4 hour fast ferry crossing. We were on our 2nd pint before the wives arrived!

 

Nothing better than driving through Europe!

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