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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption elsewhere - ongoing, since Oct 2014
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on: January 13, 2024, 11:26:07
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It's all very well blaming Haines & Hopwood, but they can't make a can't make a silk purse out of sow's ear. We all know that under the present arrangements it is the DfT» and the Treasury who are micro-managing the railways.
Fine. Then let's hear H & H stand up & say that, and explain what they'd do differently. You know what this government does to people who publicly criticise their policies. Witness the people who have been suddenly disinvited to speak at government organised conferences for criticism of government policies. They would find a pretext to remove First Group and put in an operator of last resort who would led by someone who would not criticise, but may not have the ability that Hopwood undoubtedly has. Haines would also find himself suddenly out of a job with similar consequences. It is quite possible that behind the scenes they are trying to argue for different policies, but to do so publicly would IMO▸ probably not be helpful. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption elsewhere - ongoing, since Oct 2014
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on: January 13, 2024, 08:55:10
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It's all very well blaming Haines & Hopwood, but they can't make a can't make a silk purse out of sow's ear. We all know that under the present arrangements it is the DfT» and the Treasury who are micro-managing the railways. Government keep saying that revenue has not returned but people are starting to ask whether the reduced number of seats available is suppressing demand and therefore revenue. I would also ask whether reliability due to reduced maintenance is suppressing demand and therefore revenue. There is a theory of the anorexic company that keeps cutting costs and consequently loosing revenue until it ceases to exist. You could see some element of that in BR▸ . We are seeing it again here. |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: HS2 - Government proposals, alternative routes and general discussion
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on: January 10, 2024, 21:42:47
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A report by New Civil Engineer Magazine on the Transport Select Committee enquiry into HS2▸ . Reasons for cost increases: The main financial issues that Thompson highlighted related to premature cost estimates, civils contracts, changes in scope and inflation. Some further lesser factors leading to additional costs: “The government itself has sometimes said [...] ‘We can’t really afford the schedule, so we need you to go slower because we can’t really afford it in cashflow terms.’” He said the current year was a good example of this. “If we go slower and do something in two, three years, it costs more,” a hostile operating environment where both getting consents for the project and stakeholder engagement had a big effect. Discussing the hostile environment, Thompson said: “Some stakeholders have been pretty hostile to the idea HS2 should go through particular areas. “Getting consents has been a really significant issue in some particular cases. Planning consent is meant to be a 56-day turnaround. The longest we’ve waited [...] for the consent to be rejected is two years. Then we’ve had to go through the planning appeals process.” |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Travel advice 4th January onwards
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on: January 05, 2024, 10:37:47
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The UK▸ Met Office's high resolution model (UKV) has definitely performed quite poorly this week for accuracy in predicting the rain on both Tuesday and Thursday for both intensity and positioning. It has come into line with other models such as the French Arpege late on but this means it wasn't represented too well early in public forecasts (ie just being described along the lines of 'something to look out for').
Of late, I'm getting the impression that Met Office weather warnings are pretty much only based on what their UKV model is showing. Going back to Tuesday, as you say the French Arpege model was showing higher wind speeds the night before that were worthy of an amber warning. The following morning the UKV showed these higher wind speeds with the yellow warning upgraded to amber. A difficult call I know as you always want a warning to mean something. If you issue too many warnings or too higher warnings, their significance can be diluted, especially by the click bait media! If you want to understand what the Met Office is up against in their forecasting, I suggest following their weekly "Deep Dive" on their You Tube channel. They do indeed look at the European and even the US weather models as well as their own. |
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20
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Journey by Journey / London to Didcot, Oxford and Banbury / Re: Oxford Station - improvements, incidents and events (merged topic)
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on: January 04, 2024, 12:03:32
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Given that the builders gave the dip beneath Botley rail bridge a brick invert presumably to hold back the groundwater, and the dip still originally needed a steam-powered pump to drain it, it's surprising in a way that the presence of the brick invert faded from memory to the extent that it had to be rediscovered.
Hindsight is the only perfect science. So the present station opened in 1852 that's over 170 years ago, or over 5 generations. Do you think you are being optimistic about what people might be expected to be remembered if there are no records? Believe me you can do all the desk studies, reviews of old records, site investigations you like and you will still find surprises when you dig underground. Remember in this case it is almost certain that they could not dig extensive trial holes to locate services - especially those that were not on records. Perhaps there was once an old drawing with this culvert on it or perhaps it was what we used to call 'sort out on site' with no design drawing ever made. I have seen drawings which told me detailed construction of a particular tunnelled culvert and even the date (to the day) each section was built, but these drawings are rare and if they did exist are usually lost or thrown away at some point in the past. I have also seen what were thought to be record drawings that did not say whether the proposal was ever built and some did not even identify where they were. A famous tunnelling engineer was once asked what the ideal site investigation was for a tunnel - his replay was to construct a tunnel along the route of the proposed tunnel at twice the diameter! |
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All across the Great Western territory / Looking forward - after Coronavirus to 2045 / Re: What do we and the rail industry need for 2024 and beyond?
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on: January 01, 2024, 19:14:16
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The UK▸ desperately needs a '7 days a week' railway if we are ever going to get close to a truly reliable train service. As a minimum all passenger service operators must implement ASAP, if they haven't already, employment contracts for all 'new' drivers and other on-train staff which specifies mandatory weekend working (?alternate Saturdays & Sundays) on a rota basis. At the same time subject specific negotiations between the TOC▸ 's and relevant trade unions and/or staff associations concerning the implementation of similar working conditions for all appropriate existing staff should be initiated. Additionally as part of this process the TOC's and DfT» should agree that compulsory overtime - an oxymoron if ever there was one - and 'real' overtime & rest day working should be eliminated ASAP with TOC's being permitted to employ sufficient staff numbers to make this happen.
The UK passenger railway network is a customer service system and it should be organised to fulfill that obligation.
If you really do need a 7 day railway then as well as staffing it you are going to have to work out when/how you are going to do engineering works which will mean more use of diversionary routes which emans those routes (e.g. the line through a certain west Wiltshire town) will need improving. |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Network Rail is failing.
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on: January 01, 2024, 19:00:49
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In its previous guise (as Railtrack) costs got seriously out of control without addressing long term problems. Now as a public body under a government that believes in "small government" of course it is going to fail because they wish to prove - despite the evidence of history - that only private sector can deliver value for money. That is why GBR▸ is on hold. To assist them in this they get economists to do crude comparisons with other railways that are not as densely trafficked, have adequate diversionary routes and which (I suspect) don't have to pay operators for disruption during engineering work. So NR» has to do in short night and weekend possessions what other railways can do more efficiently in the daytime.
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Journey by Journey / Plymouth and Cornwall / Re: A new place to flood?
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on: January 01, 2024, 18:46:45
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They have had two goes at trying to sort it. The trouble is there is only so much they can discharge into the river Frome before it causes flooding downstream. The first attempt they built a pond at the old station site to balance the flows and then they modified the sidings to make it bigger. Short of loosing the sidings altogether (what are they used for?) they can't make it any bigger. Any further enlargement will probably have to be outside of railway land. As I understand it, the water not only comes from the tunnel but also from the cutting on the other side. Since the flows are already attenuated by the rock (much of it is coming in through the ground) a pond it always going to be a challenging solution. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Call for rail fare simplification
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on: December 30, 2023, 15:38:57
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I believe the Oxford/Swindon (and some other places) issue has been made worse by the different regulated fares rules in the former network south east area and elsewhere. IIRC▸ in the former NSE▸ area the day return is the regulated fare elsewhere it is something else so that the anytime return is not regulated. Can anyone fill in the detail or correct me?
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: Call for rail fare simplification
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on: December 30, 2023, 13:43:35
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Why should a period or day return offer a saving. What if (in a revenue neutral way) the cake was cut a different way so that the single was a less and those who had the benefit all these years for no apparent reason pay a bit more (though not twice as much).
1. The cost of any purchase comprises a transaction and packaging cost and the cost of the goods. Two singles is two transactions each for a smaller amount of goods. I think I read that 90% of journeys are returns - though the ticketing via advance fares may have muddied that, so "singles only" in the days of paper tickets and ticket offices was a much more expensive thing for the railways to provide. And with ticket machines only offering (may be changing) tickets from the station at which the machine is located, singles-only would have meant queuing at a TVM▸ before your return journey too. They should offer a saving because they are cheaper for the railway to provide.2. In places where revenue protection has been an issue, having a singe ticket priced quite high compared to the return means that the revenue loss is reduced. Taking one of our local "classics", Dilton Marsh to Warminster - return fare £4.60 or £4.00 off peak, single £3.30. No TVM and Dilton Marsh and insufficient time to collect all the fares before arrival in Warminster - at least the railway gets £3.30 if it manages to collect a fare in one direction! 3. Marketing and what people will pay before they decide not to make the trip. Single journeys tend to be necessities and people will pay rather more ... they will pay less (per leg) for a return and even less per leg for a day return. To some extent I am quoting industry [excuses/explanations] there. But they need to be considered and I would tend to suggest period returns at 160% of a single and day returns at 130%. That's a starting point for negotiation. I do not buy these arguments, especially as in my (admittedly limited) recent experience no-one ever tried to check my ticket so they clearly don't care about revenue collection. However, if they are true why are day returns not offered everywhere at that sort of discount? That drives the rank unfairness in the Oxford/Swindon comparisons quoted above. |
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... 
? use? Would have to be added to ticket prices. 
