June 5, 20188 yr Another couple of links to the TFL £1bn deficit... http://www.cityam.com/280467/transport-london-fears-permanent-drop-passenger-numbers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42975661 Falling numbers of passengers is partly responsible, this was also something that the franchise who owned the East Coast mainline said when it handed the line back to the government last month I just think it’s very lazy to say it would all be great if it had never been privatised / was re nationalised (not that you have said that Frank). It was awful before it went private for a start Also, nobody has a good word to say about local or national government, let alone the likes of TFGM etc. Why on earth do people think that public transport would be better if it was nationalised? It couldn't be any worse - seems to work ok on the continent too. I used to use the train a lot back in British Rail days - I don't remember it being as shit as this. Used to rock up on the day, none of this pre booking shite, none of this trying to split tickets bullshit, buy a ticket for not much and used to get a seat no bother. If I get the train to work now (only if I'm going on the piss after work - otherwise, fuck that) it's still using British Rail era pacer carriages (fucking 1970s bus bodies dropped on a train chassis for fucks sake) and the journey takes twice as long as it did back in the 1970s. Progress? It's dogshit, make no mistake.
June 5, 20188 yr Exactly the same issues affecting Thameslink through London. The new timetable introduced 2 weeks ago resulted in a third fewer rush hour services from my town which was already too few. At least half of the trains on the new timetable have been cancelled every day meaning that there are actually now about a third of the trains there were a month ago. I thank god I don't have to commute into London every day as it's a chaotic situation which is proving a complete nightmare for many people I know. Total joke. It’s not chaotic. I get it every morning from zone 4, there are less trains for the less busy stops. One cancellation this morning, but I could hop on a Victoria train if I wanted. If I lived further out I might be miffed, but to be honest, if it’s to help run more services to the busier stops, fine by me. I’m sure in places like Luton, Bedford or out to Orpington etc they’re grumbling. It’ll settle down - have to say Thameslink are the best service I’ve had. Especially getting home direct from work to home in 40 mins!
June 5, 20188 yr They won’t be anywhere sorted till December at the earliest. Itk Aye, Northern rail chap said as much. Over running upgrade works by network rail. What a dog's dinner.
June 5, 20188 yr It’s not chaotic. I get it every morning from zone 4, there are less trains for the less busy stops. One cancellation this morning, but I could hop on a Victoria train if I wanted. If I lived further out I might be miffed, but to be honest, if it’s to help run more services to the busier stops, fine by me. I’m sure in places like Luton, Bedford or out to Orpington etc they’re grumbling. It’ll settle down - have to say Thameslink are the best service I’ve had. Especially getting home direct from work to home in 40 mins! I can assure you that on my line it is chaos. I arrived at my station at 7:30 yesterday morning and couldn't even get onto the platform. 40 minutes later I squeezed onto a supposedly "fast" train that then spent 45 minutes crawling into London stopping at every station where not one person could get on because the carriages were already full. We had 2 people faint in my carriage alone. And the regular commuters are paying almost £5k a year for this privilege. You are honestly the first person I know who's had a remotely good word to say about the changes. But it's good to know that someone has benefited from the change. The irony is that for the past year or so the service had actually been pretty damned good on the line I use. Now I know families where parents are taking it in turn to leave home at 5:30am so they can get into the office early enough to start their journey home at 3:30 to make sure they are back home for nursery / school pick up at 6. Having to allow 2 and a half hours for what should be a 30 minute journey is bonkers.
June 5, 20188 yr MEN (and other local papers, I believe) going in hard here. Fair play, not often you see a local newspaper being super critical of government and companies. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/nine-reasons-should-angry-northern-14743563
June 5, 20188 yr Greater Manchester has needed a massive overhaul of its public transport for years. It was dealt a massive blow when the blair/brown Labour government denied the funding unless congestion charging was brought in. Stagecoach has helped with investment in the Metrolink but the rest of it is severely lacking. Bolton was due a combined bus rail interchange development including hotel, apartments, offices, retail and multi storey car park. Instead the station got a lick of paint and the new bus station development was massively scaled back. The same happened for pretty much all other AGMA towns.
June 5, 20188 yr I can assure you that on my line it is chaos. I arrived at my station at 7:30 yesterday morning and couldn't even get onto the platform. 40 minutes later I squeezed onto a supposedly "fast" train that then spent 45 minutes crawling into London stopping at every station where not one person could get on because the carriages were already full. We had 2 people faint in my carriage alone. And the regular commuters are paying almost £5k a year for this privilege. You are honestly the first person I know who's had a remotely good word to say about the changes. But it's good to know that someone has benefited from the change. The irony is that for the past year or so the service had actually been pretty damned good on the line I use. Now I know families where parents are taking it in turn to leave home at 5:30am so they can get into the office early enough to start their journey home at 3:30 to make sure they are back home for nursery / school pick up at 6. Having to allow 2 and a half hours for what should be a 30 minute journey is bonkers. Basically they are trying to make sure the busier stations have more services and cutting back on those with less folk - so outlying like Sevenoaks etc it means that whilst my direct to St Pancras has been reduced to two an hour, it’s still 5 to Blackfriars and then a quick hop from there and homeward it’s direct. As I say, if you’re further out you are hit harder as you’ve had a reduction in services - but the aim of it is to increase capacity at those that need it most. They’ve had some serious mess ups so far but the plan is well intentioned if they can sort it out. Further you are out however, you might have to get up earlier to get a direct train.
June 5, 20188 yr Basically they are trying to make sure the busier stations have more services and cutting back on those with less folk - so outlying like Sevenoaks etc it means that whilst my direct to St Pancras has been reduced to two an hour, it’s still 5 to Blackfriars and then a quick hop from there and homeward it’s direct. As I say, if you’re further out you are hit harder as you’ve had a reduction in services - but the aim of it is to increase capacity at those that need it most. They’ve had some serious mess ups so far but the plan is well intentioned if they can sort it out. Further you are out however, you might have to get up earlier to get a direct train. Indeed. I'm sure things will settle down in time. Just feel sorry for those people who are likely to have a pretty shoddy few weeks and months ahead. And particularly sorry for what might be a small group of people who have built their lives around being able to get a train to and from London at certain times when those have now been suddenly taken away.
June 5, 20188 yr Just saw this message on twitter... "@TLRailUK I’m fortunate enough to have a sympathetic employer who just let me leave the office 40 mins early to run to Farringdon and catch THE ONLY TRAIN to St Albans departing this hour. THE ONLY TRAIN."
June 5, 20188 yr Another couple of links to the TFL £1bn deficit... http://www.cityam.com/280467/transport-london-fears-permanent-drop-passenger-numbers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42975661 Falling numbers of passengers is partly responsible, this was also something that the franchise who owned the East Coast mainline said when it handed the line back to the government last month I just think it’s very lazy to say it would all be great if it had never been privatised / was re nationalised (not that you have said that Frank). It was awful before it went private for a start Also, nobody has a good word to say about local or national government, let alone the likes of TFGM etc. Why on earth do people think that public transport would be better if it was nationalised? In virtually every measurable way our trains were better when nationalised. The problem is that private driver for profit over everything else, compromises service when there is no competition. It’s too late to go back but the private sector simply aren’t good at providing these sorts of services. If they ran the whole NHS immediately see loads of expensive non profitable services withdrawn.
June 5, 20188 yr Indeed. I'm sure things will settle down in time. Just feel sorry for those people who are likely to have a pretty shoddy few weeks and months ahead. And particularly sorry for what might be a small group of people who have built their lives around being able to get a train to and from London at certain times when those have now been suddenly taken away. I know, however the horrible part of me thinks...sod ya. If the outlying Home Counties want to live in the countryside but want the city wage then you’re going to have to work a bit harder to get the earlier service. No one in the zones are really complaining. That’s the horrible part of me, though. The nice part thinks tough tits. ????
June 5, 20188 yr Just saw this message on twitter... "@TLRailUK I’m fortunate enough to have a sympathetic employer who just let me leave the office 40 mins early to run to Farringdon and catch THE ONLY TRAIN to St Albans departing this hour. THE ONLY TRAIN." The lesson in this story. Don’t live in St Albans.
June 5, 20188 yr Author I worked in St Albans in my former life. We stayed in a premier inn next to a boozer with a lake round it and loads of fat overfed ducks twatting about. It was the Bar mans last shift and decided to serve me and my gaffer free pints all night. My boss ended up that smashed he stumbled to nearest garage to get a local paper to find some brass adverts. The garage owner didn’t know what brass was and threatened to ring the police. We were evicted from the hotel the day after and ended up in market harborough the night after when England played Holland. We ended up in a massive fight and the whole villlage ended up on lockdown. We had to walk about 20 miles to our hotel as no taxis would come near us. Edited June 5, 20188 yr by gonzo
June 5, 20188 yr Plenty of folk base their decision on where to live on their work location. To suddenly change that, especially in Greater London and nearby areas is a right pisser for those affected. I live pretty much next to a railway station, the car park is usually packed by 8am every day but it has been less than half full recently. Bet the motorways are murder.
June 5, 20188 yr 're st Albans Stayed in a hotel for work, there White swan Was about 3000 years old Expenses, very low ceilings, a 12 inch drop from one side of the room to the other and even lower beams wasn't a good mix
June 5, 20188 yr In virtually every measurable way our trains were better when nationalised. The problem is that private driver for profit over everything else, compromises service when there is no competition. It’s too late to go back but the private sector simply aren’t good at providing these sorts of services. If they ran the whole NHS immediately see loads of expensive non profitable services withdrawn. Network rail is a nationalised organisation, from everything I’ve read (read the MEN link above) they are a complete fucking shambles Nothing to do with ‘driving for profit over everything else’
June 5, 20188 yr Plenty of folk base their decision on where to live on their work location. To suddenly change that, especially in Greater London and nearby areas is a right pisser for those affected. I live pretty much next to a railway station, the car park is usually packed by 8am every day but it has been less than half full recently. Bet the motorways are murder. But it’s a numbers game, privatised rail networks are looking at numbers, not if it’s a right pisser for a few hundred to serve a people a more frequent service for a few thousand. I know it’s painful for a lot of people but if you can afford (or have decided to pay) 5k a year travel plus mortgage and childcare, then I’m sorry my heart doesn’t really bleed. I could have move further out with a bigger house but rail costs and time where too silly to contemplate - especially with kids. People on here want a free market economy - which we have - then hate subsidies for the rail network, then complain about lack of competition. The changes benefit more people- apologies if it’s not in the Shires, but I’d rather have a good service for the majority and some people have to get up earlier and pay a bit more fore childcare.
June 6, 20188 yr But it’s a numbers game, privatised rail networks are looking at numbers, not if it’s a right pisser for a few hundred to serve a people a more frequent service for a few thousand. I know it’s painful for a lot of people but if you can afford (or have decided to pay) 5k a year travel plus mortgage and childcare, then I’m sorry my heart doesn’t really bleed. I could have move further out with a bigger house but rail costs and time where too silly to contemplate - especially with kids. People on here want a free market economy - which we have - then hate subsidies for the rail network, then complain about lack of competition. The changes benefit more people- apologies if it’s not in the Shires, but I’d rather have a good service for the majority and some people have to get up earlier and pay a bit more fore childcare. If you pay 5k a year or more in travel I think the least you deserve is to have a service that will get you to and from work. It took me ages to get in and out of Leeds yesterday. City was gridlocked, not sure if this was a knock on effect of the trains?
June 6, 20188 yr If you pay 5k a year or more in travel I think the least you deserve is to have a service that will get you to and from work. It took me ages to get in and out of Leeds yesterday. City was gridlocked, not sure if this was a knock on effect of the trains? Think leeds issue was due to eastbound m62 being closed after another lorry pile up
June 6, 20188 yr Roads have been easier this week; some schools still off? Or have people just given up?
June 6, 20188 yr But it’s a numbers game, privatised rail networks are looking at numbers, not if it’s a right pisser for a few hundred to serve a people a more frequent service for a few thousand. I know it’s painful for a lot of people but if you can afford (or have decided to pay) 5k a year travel plus mortgage and childcare, then I’m sorry my heart doesn’t really bleed. I could have move further out with a bigger house but rail costs and time where too silly to contemplate - especially with kids. People on here want a free market economy - which we have - then hate subsidies for the rail network, then complain about lack of competition. The changes benefit more people- apologies if it’s not in the Shires, but I’d rather have a good service for the majority and some people have to get up earlier and pay a bit more fore childcare. Perhaps I’ve mis read the last few posts but I don’t think anyone is arguing that services shouldn’t be concentrated on the areas that they are used most Just the fact that this new time table roll out is a complete fucking abortion and has left many with no service whatsoever That can’t be right at all, it’s a mess Edited June 6, 20188 yr by birch-chorley
June 6, 20188 yr Author From the road networks to the trainlines the infrastructure in this country is boderline 3rd world. Day after day, the motorways are gridlocked, day after day folk can’t get anywhere by train. Even the road surfaces resemble something off the surface of the moon. With the trains, it’s been complete mismanagement from the very top. The shedule of works, the change in time table and driver requirements is nothing to do privatisation or funding, it’s been complete mismanagement. Round here, we’ve had electrification of lines for a couple of years. They don’t even have the trains or drivers to use these line. Then we have the 3 bridges and station refurbishment that came after the work on the lines. It wouldn’t have happened down south that’s for certain. The transport minister should resign over this imo.
June 6, 20188 yr some schools are still off quite a few bolton primaries Aye, still off down here in the Shires, they go back tomorrow I think
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