Railway to reopen?

[bigc]

Lucky Thatcher wasn't in power longer, she was after more cuts.

 

[Gwylan]

Thought his name was Thomas Beeching but I may be wrong, memory plays havoc in old age. If any man made a bigger balls up when conducting an inquiry than Beeching, what ever his christian name was , I dont know of it.

You might be thinking of Thomas Beecham, the conductor.


Lord B made some valid points about priorities: certainly the Brighton mainline should be upgraded.

But I do think that some fast connections to Ashford International will encourage more people to use the train for shorthaul journeys to the continental mainland.

 

[Gully]

Thatcher hated railways, football and the north of England, five more years of her and you would not have been able to catch a train to Newcastle to watch a football match and there probably wouldn't have been a team playing there by then anyway.

 

[Gully]

The thing that amazes me about the UK is that we complain about overcrowding on the railways, there is little doubt that their popularity has increased in the last 10 years, however we have so far not taken the obvious step to address this matter.

I have travelled through a number of different European countries by train and the Netherlands which has the highest population density seems to have taken the most obvious step, that is to have double-decker trains, I understand that there might be problems with bridge and tunnel clearances that make this difficult in the UK but we have produced some of the greatest engineers the World has ever known, surely this wouldn't be too great a challenge. I am not talking of having this type of train throughout the country, but running them on suburban routes during peak times must surely be viable.

The other thing that bugs me about the railways is the confusing pricing structure, this needs to be sorted out. My proposal would be to charge by the mile, that way you know exactly what your journey will cost when you book the ticket, this would in my opinion be fairer. The fact that you could have four people sat on a train to a particular destination and all of them having paid vastly different sums for the privelage needs to be sorted out.

 

[Gwylan]

The other thing that bugs me about the railways is the confusing pricing structure, this needs to be sorted out. My proposal would be to charge by the mile, that way you know exactly what your journey will cost when you book the ticket, this would in my opinion be fairer. The fact that you could have four people sat on a train to a particular destination and all of them having paid vastly different sums for the privelage needs to be sorted out.

No, the thing to be changed is to take the railways back into public ownership and have one company running all trains, tracks and stations.

 

[goldstone]

No, the thing to be changed is to take the railways back into public ownership and have one company running all trains, tracks and stations.

With a name like Gwylan you must be Welsh .... and that's a typical Welsh, labour party, nationalise everything kind of comment.

Public ownership never achieves anything positive. Look at the NHS. I'm not suggesting the present arrangement is the right one ..... but public ownership is NOT the solution.

 

[Tubby Mondays]

With a name like Gwylan you must be Welsh .... and that's a typical Welsh, labour party, nationalise everything kind of comment.

Public ownership never achieves anything positive. Look at the NHS.

The NHS wouldnt have existed in the first place without public ownership. Its creation is probably just a bit positive.

P.S

With a name like goldstone, I presume you hail from the newtown road area of hove?

 

[Gwylan]

Public ownership never achieves anything positive. Look at the NHS. I'm not suggesting the present arrangement is the right one ..... but public ownership is NOT the solution.

So you'd prefer a situation where only the wealthy could afford to visit a doctor?
I think the NHS, for all its faults, is a prime example of how public ownership works. I certainly wouldn't be alive if I'd been born before the establishment of NHS.

As for the railways, the rail networks in France, Germany, Netherlands etc all seem to run pretty smoothly. Public sector involvement seems to work there all right.

 

[goldstone]

So you'd prefer a situation where only the wealthy could afford to visit a doctor?
I think the NHS, for all its faults, is a prime example of how public ownership works. I certainly wouldn't be alive if I'd been born before the establishment of NHS.

No NHS in the USA and the health system works there.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

On the theme of public sector input into the railways ...

Does ANYBODY seriously believe that the private sector will identify and develop ANY new railway scheme that will actually get built?

The only chance that a new railway line will open anywhere is if it gets the backing of central government, because it will contribute positively to the objectives of public policy in terms of congestion relief or the national economy. This is the case for small schemes (like Lewes-Uckfield) or mega-projects (like Crossrail or the West Coast Main Line upgrade).

The private sector operators in the railway industry are not in the remotest bit interested in congestion relief or the delivery of benefits to the wider economy. And why should they be?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

No NHS in the USA and the health system works there.

Pardon?

Have you any idea how many millions of poor Americans have no access to the full range of health care necessary to create a healthy nation?

The US health system is a disgrace. It kills people.

 

[bigc]

US Health system makes a mockery of "land of the free".

Yea, land of the free till you fall ill, then you're f***ed cos you're poor..

 

[The Large One]

With a name like Gwylan you must be Welsh .... and that's a typical Welsh, labour party, nationalise everything kind of comment.

Public ownership never achieves anything positive. Look at the NHS. I'm not suggesting the present arrangement is the right one ..... but public ownership is NOT the solution.

Actually, yes it is. Or rather it can be in a way privatisation is definitely not.

Good grief, what a ridiculous post.

Is it typical for the Welsh to be Labour voters who want to nationalise everything? It's a new one on me. I think we should be told.

One thing is for certain. Privatisation of the british raliways network, not only in the way it was handled, but in the resultant mess, has been a national disaster. Private ownership is for the benefit of shareholders and investors, NOT for the customers. So all of the companies will do what it takes to make money. If, by any chance, investing in services or infrastructure happens to achieve this, the companies may do it, but only then by minimum means, and cutting all costs.

 

[Gully]

From my limited knowledge of the railways it appears that some of the problems have been caused by companies tendering for work and then sub-contracting, the quality just gets watered down. There is little doubt that British Rail was a great monolith of a company, there was plenty that was good about it but also a lot wrong, it just seems to me that the whole thing has been broken up into too many little pieces.

Again, when things are done well the results are impressive, but when things go wrong (aka: Hatfield) we enter a blame culture with everyone looking to cover their own six-o-clock.

 

[bigc]

agreed Gully, apparently BR was split into 100 different companies.

WHO THE HELL THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?

 

[Screaming J]

On the theme of public sector input into the railways ...

Does ANYBODY seriously believe that the private sector will identify and develop ANY new railway scheme that will actually get built?

The only chance that a new railway line will open anywhere is if it gets the backing of central government, because it will contribute positively to the objectives of public policy in terms of congestion relief or the national economy. This is the case for small schemes (like Lewes-Uckfield) or mega-projects (like Crossrail or the West Coast Main Line upgrade).

The private sector operators in the railway industry are not in the remotest bit interested in congestion relief or the delivery of benefits to the wider economy. And why should they be?

But the Govt don't seem to have a very good track record of doing this, do they? CrossRail has been on the stocks for years and I do wonder whether it will ever be built, Olympics or no.

And all the planned Metro lines are being axed, Leeds, Liverpool etc.. Whether or not this has something to do with the fact that there seems to be a mutual love in between the Govt and the Bus companies (Arriva, First etc) I could not possibly comment. The only exception was Edinburgh, where Alistair Darling has a constituency.....funny that!

This is not a pro-private sector comment by the way. Its just that this Govt does not seem any more committed to rail than its Tory predecessor.

 

[mona]

No NHS in the USA and the health system works there.

Well this one deserves an award !

The US health system works well on tv.