Great Western Coffee Shop

An ?unholy spat? has broken out between the Treasury and the Department for Transport (DfT) over funding for Britain?s railway, according to a senior industry source.

The taxpayer is currently propping up train operators to the tune of ?750m per month, as they run a near-normal rail service with few paying passengers.

At one stage the annual premium paid to the DfT for the right to run trains to and from London Waterloo was enough to match the subsidy to Northern.

The DfT is aiming to provide a near-normal level of service for essential journeys and to ensure plenty of space for social distancing. But fare revenue is now a tiny fraction of the cost of providing the service.

?The Treasury are asking the DfT how this will ever come to an end,? said the industry source.

?The official line is to provide ample services for essential workers, but a more pressing reason seems to be to avoid a confrontation with the unions.?

HOW THE GOVERNMENT WILL SQUANDER ?50M ON EMPTY TRAINS THIS WEEKEND

As you know, the government does not currently want anyone to travel from Manchester to London, or vice-versa. Anyone checking out online rail timetables is asked: ?Please avoid non-essential travel in the Greater Manchester area".

As you may not know, the government is paying Avanti West Coast to run 150 trains connecting Manchester Piccadilly and Stockport with London Euston over this weekend. All day on Saturday and Sunday, and into the evening, an express will set off from each end of the route every 20 minutes.

If everyone follows the official advice on tier 3 locations, all 75,000 seats on those trains will be empty when departing from and arriving at Stockport and Manchester. A few fare-paying passengers will join at en-route stops, which variously include Wilmslow, Crewe, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent and Milton Keynes. But much of the line?s normal traffic is end-to-end.

Running an astonishing number of ghost trains a distance of 184 miles, at a top speed of 125mph, is just one way in which ?50m of taxpayers? money will be squandered on the nation?s railways this weekend.

The Independent is also expressing its view in another article ...

Quote
HOW THE GOVERNMENT WILL SQUANDER ?50M ON EMPTY TRAINS THIS WEEKEND

As you know, the government does not currently want anyone to travel from Manchester to London, or vice-versa. Anyone checking out online rail timetables is asked: ?Please avoid non-essential travel in the Greater Manchester area".

As you may not know, the government is paying Avanti West Coast to run 150 trains connecting Manchester Piccadilly and Stockport with London Euston over this weekend. All day on Saturday and Sunday, and into the evening, an express will set off from each end of the route every 20 minutes.

If everyone follows the official advice on tier 3 locations, all 75,000 seats on those trains will be empty when departing from and arriving at Stockport and Manchester. A few fare-paying passengers will join at en-route stops, which variously include Wilmslow, Crewe, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent and Milton Keynes. But much of the line?s normal traffic is end-to-end.

Running an astonishing number of ghost trains a distance of 184 miles, at a top speed of 125mph, is just one way in which ?50m of taxpayers? money will be squandered on the nation?s railways this weekend.

At first glance, perhaps one service in 2 or 3 might be enough at the moment ... but then, what about the staff and capital hire costs of the trains - what would actually be saved?  Below hourly - NO!

I think what will happen is the fares structure will be flattened to 2 or 3 types of ticket, if the franchise system has been consigned to the history books then all that is need is

• Regular user (Season replacement), this should have the new way of working flexibility of use build in
  
  Peak - 
  
  Off peak - Pay as you go
  Off peak - pre booked
  

This would not rule out in the future offering pre booked discounted fares on set trains

Well - there are NOT 75,000 seats all empty - unless perhaps you were to go round on the trains and count the empty seats, ignoring those (not very many, perhaps) in use.

I would agree that a 20 minute service THIS weekend is overkill, but I wonder how busy the trains were - say - 2 and 4 weeks ago?  Personal view - it makes sense to reduce services (but NOT to less than hourly long distance at any station served, nor to make the first train later or the last train earlier) where there is overcapacity ("crowdbusters" not required are running) for a period and not just for a single weekend. Further view - the raining trains may be slowed down by 15 minutes + 10% per journey to allow for services to call at additional intermediate stations to further reduce capacity / provision while not having services at those intemediate stations fall below the reasonable service threshold.

I have no personally observed data out of Euston, but I do have from GWR services from Paddington to Bristol, where the Long distance traffic is thin (to put it politely at) at the moment.  However, local traffic has been much more robust, and many of the long distance trains off Paddington race to Swindon, Taunton, Newport or Oxford and then become regional and local trains. So that makes it more complex.  Busiest arrivals at Swindon (where I have been volunteering as a Journey Maker) in the morning peak are from Bristol Temple Meads / Weston, followed by arrivals from Cheltenham Spa.  Busiest departure with overcrowding problems with social distancing considered is the 07:52 to Gloucester.   London trains - thin.   In the afternoon, busiest arrival - the only one with a notable flood of passengers through the barrier is from Cheltenham / Gloucester, and that's followed again by notable flows but not floods from the Bristol Temple Meads direction.

Busiest trains I have used?  Would you believe 14:32 Melksham to Swindon last Wednesday - not many joining, but when I got on I had to search for a socially distanced seat.  Also the train that connected with WightLink from Ryde Pier Head to Ryde Esplanade the Tuesday of the previous week.  Quietest - 19:00 Swindon to Bath, 3 of us in carriage 6 of a 10 coach train.  With (ironic) the train manager getting really strong-arm with a customer with an off peak ticket as "this is a peak train from London".  Peak in fares, maybe - but not peak in use!

The savings are minimal, so much so that I?ve heard people say that should there be another national lockdown it isn?t worth the hassle of temporarily reducing the service again.

What a wonderful time to be in charge of Britain?s railways. The pandemic both demands and enables a programme of improvements which would otherwise have taken many years to achieve.

Since March, about ?10 billion of public money has been spent to keep the trains running. At first sight, that looks like an unmitigated disaster. It is certainly unsustainable.

But it also means the strike weapon has lost its edge. To threaten to bring empty trains to a halt is no threat at all.

Nor can the rail unions divide and rule, as they did when services were divided between different train operating companies, a system which had already collapsed before the pandemic.

This is a moment of central control, when the Government is paying the bills and can insist that the interests of passengers and taxpayers take precedence over the desire of the unions to prevent change.

Ministers recognise this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sweep away the accumulated absurdities, ranging from outdated working practices to the ludicrously convoluted fare structure, which are holding the railways back, and to press ahead with such innovations as the introduction of driverless trains, first seen on the Victoria Line in 1968 and the Docklands Light Railway in 1987.

Long article continues ...

Beeching was a blunder of Harold Macmillan?s later and less happy years as Prime Minister. It ought now to be undone, along with the destruction of the Euston Arch.

From Conservative Home (https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2020/11/shapps-has-spotted-a-once-in-a-lifetime-chance-to-give-britain-world-class-railways.html)


There are elements in the article which some members will dispute.  But it's certainly correct that we're in a time of opportunity.  The arguments are about what, how, and to what end ...


Is this a suggestion for the rebuilding of the Euston Arch, together with a restoration of [most of] of lines closed under the Beeching plan?

That'll go down well with the bruvvers!

Is this a suggestion for the rebuilding of the Euston Arch, together with a restoration of [most of] of lines closed under the Beeching plan?

One recent High Speed 2 report included a headline-grabbing detail: a rebuilt Euston Arch. The early-Victorian landmark was famously destroyed in the 1960s despite a fierce campaign from national treasures like John Betjeman. Now it could be rebuilt, using the original stones.

Press and public attention was wholly positive, with nobody stopping to question whether there's any merit in spending money on resurrecting the arch. Just to be contrary iconoclasts, here are some reasons to leave it well alone.

I see Saga cruises, as well as a London plumbing firm are requiring a vaccine treatment done before travel/employment, wonder if that will be a tick box when booking rail/coach journeys after lockdown?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55738918