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Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Class 802s
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on: August 24, 2018, 15:09:37
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05.53 Plymouth/Paddington today (Friday) has once again departed Plymouth 45 minutes late arriving Paddington 70 minutes late to conclude what has been a totally disastrous first week of IETs▸ on this service.
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Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Night Riviera double headed, 22nd June 2018
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on: June 25, 2018, 11:07:15
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Cost is a factor too, as much as I'm reluctant to say, "Ooo's gunna pay for it?" the Night Riviera is, I believe, already subsidised. That is one reason why it has survived.
If Plymouth business leaders and their Chamber of Commerce feel the city is losing out because of poor rail service provision then they can use their clout to lobby for changes to the Night Riviera.
Hence my earlier mention of Tudor Evans (Leader of Plymouth City Council but more given to vanity projects than anything practical) Greater use of a more customer oriented service in tune with the needs of the area would, of course, increase revenue, offsetting costs........in the meantime however, people will either drive and/or take their business elsewhere. If you want investment, you need to make it as easy and attractive as possible to do Business. If the railways don't see themselves playing a part in this or even see the need to try, then they, and their advocates, shouldn't complain when roads are built instead of rails. Speaking as a Plymothian, Plymouth city centre has indeed seen better days. Ongoing defence cuts since the end of the cold war have impacted particularly badly on Plymouths once buoyant economy https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/devonport-been-robbed-pay-portsmouth-1708202 with Devonport Dockyard now a mere shadow of its former self. The city has also lost many large manufacturing companies in last few decades but surprisingly still retains the largest manufacturing cluster in Southern England providing about 13k jobs. The city's University has to some extent helped to alleviate the economic void created in the city centre but the retail tsunami now sweeping the country is having a particularly devastating impact on Plymouth once the prime regional retail centre despite the economic boost provided by the nearby University of Plymouths 19k students. Bare in mind that at the time of the 1982 Falklands war Plymouth had four flights a day to London Heathrow! However the closure of the city's airport and the loss of air links to London City/Gatwick airports in 2011 has left a void which the railways west of Exeter simply cant fill (poor infrastructure hence poor rail journey times), while the much smaller Exeter, 45 road and 52 rail miles closer to everywhere of economic importance has been consistently fairing much better with its successful airport, fast rail and motorway links. For political reasons the government now seems far more concerned about Cornwall's economic needs than Plymouths https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/heathrows-third-runway-game-changer-1708636 and the city now finds itself essentially the forgotten transport "piggy in middle" in the Devon and Cornwall's transport strategy (if there is one). No amount of money spent on resilience at Cowley Bridge or Dawlish/Teignmouth or elsewhere is going to change that fundamental problem either. The sleeper solution is "old hat" now in the 21st century for a city that is just 225 rail miles from London, not in the Scottish highlands. Not surprisingly then the wider business worlds perception and attitude to Plymouth is that it is much further away from London than it actually is and lets be honest not even the new Hitachi class 802 bi-mode trains are going to change that perception are they! |
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Sideshoots - associated subjects / Campaigns for new and improved services / Re: 50 years since Okehampton to Bere Alston closure
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on: May 02, 2018, 09:06:01
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Unfortunately John Majors disastrous rail privatisation hasn't done the us any favours.
Network Rail or the engineering companies cost so much. Network Rail quotes for schemes are sometimes a factor of ten more than might be expected and even the most minor routine job seems to be far higher than comparable work in other industries.
Er..............isn't Network Rail publicly owned?  I would remind you that the fully privatised Railtrack went bust very shortly after the rail privatisation. As a result the taxpayer (Network Rail) had no choice but to take on all of Railtracks huge debt baggage and commitments. Worse still, instead of learning from their mistake by taking track maintenance back "in house" as elsewhere in the world where economies of scale meant costs were much lower under BR▸ , the dogmatic conservative government simply has simply repeated Railtracks mistakes with its use of "rip off" contractors and sub contractors, Ie the massively over cost West Coast main line upgrade and the current GWR▸ main line electrification fiasco, both £ billions of taxpayers money over cost to the detriment of the wider railway including of course the now long in tooth proposed Tavistock reopening. Incidentally Network Rail was only reclassified as a public sector body from 1 September 2014 meaning its huge public sector debt was up to then not counted as public spending which of course it is, effectively a government accountancy scam. This has of course increased public scrutiny on this failed rail privatisation generally as money gets ever tighter. |
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Sideshoots - associated subjects / Campaigns for new and improved services / Re: 50 years since Okehampton to Bere Alston closure
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on: April 29, 2018, 14:53:17
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I liked the post by Grahame, not because I liked the closure of the line. It's been nearly 10 years now since the proposal to reinstate the Bere Alston to Tavistock section, and it seems to have gone extremely quite again on that front.
The big problem is that costs have risen from the original estimate of £30 million to some £60 million. According to 'Rail' magazine several months back completion of the project to reinstate the line from Here Alston to Tavistock has now been pushed well back into the 2020s. |
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