Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 20:15 28 Mar 2024
- Easter getaways hit by travel disruption
- Where Baltimore bridge investigation goes now
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Passengers pleaded with knifeman during attack
- Family anger at sentence on fatal crash driver, 19
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1917)
Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore closed (link)

Train RunningCancelled
18:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
18:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
19:23 Reading to Gatwick Airport
19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill
19:35 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
19:59 Gatwick Airport to Reading
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
20:16 Frome to Westbury
20:20 Reading to Shalford
20:49 Newbury to Bedwyn
20:54 Reading to Gatwick Airport
20:56 Worcester Foregate Street to London Paddington
21:16 Bedwyn to Newbury
21:16 Westbury to Swindon
21:30 Shalford to Reading
21:53 Newbury to Bedwyn
22:25 Bedwyn to Newbury
22:30 Gatwick Airport to Reading
22:30 Swindon to Westbury
22:47 Newbury to Bedwyn
Short Run
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:30 London Paddington to Taunton
17:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
18:03 London Paddington to Penzance
18:54 Reading to Gatwick Airport
18:59 Gatwick Airport to Reading
19:04 Paignton to London Paddington
19:13 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
19:29 Gatwick Airport to Reading
20:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
20:11 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
20:42 Bedwyn to London Paddington
21:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
Delayed
16:15 Penzance to London Paddington
Additional 17:17 Exeter St Davids to Penzance
Additional 17:26 Castle Cary to Penzance
19:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 19:40 Redhill to Reading
19:54 Reading to Gatwick Airport
23:04 Reading to Bedwyn
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 20:34:09 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[118] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[116] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[89] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[46] Return of the BRUTE?
[38] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[28] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: "off the rails?" ITV tonight 19.30  (Read 8122 times)
old original
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 877


View Profile
« on: October 25, 2012, 17:20:11 »

Just seen this in the listings. It goes on....
"Chris Choi investigates the state of Britain's railways....."

 Don't know what slant it's going to take but by the title they've given the programme, I would suggest that you won't hear many good things, probably a slag fest...
Logged

8 Billion people on a wet rock - of course we're not happy
Umberleigh
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 456


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2012, 18:32:04 »

Will no doubt focus entirely on commuters and peak time fares.

Nowhere will it convey the fast, comfortable Exeter - Paddington ^40-50 First Class single with trolley service, or the  pleasant Looe valley line etc...
Logged
EBrown
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 540


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2012, 19:33:38 »

Nowhere will it convey the fast, comfortable Exeter - Paddington ^40-50 First Class single with trolley service
Frankly that's the stupidest thing I've heard (today).

If they listed the Advance prices for every train across the country, no one would watch it and it'd be considerably longer than its scheduled time.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2012, 19:39:48 by EBrown » Logged

I am no longer an active member of this website.
stebbo
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 445


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2012, 20:15:19 »

Presumably it's ^100 or more to get back to Exeter which makes a difference. And I'm assuming you don't get to travel at peak times.
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #4 on: October 26, 2012, 02:09:34 »

Mostly much more even than perhaps a cynic might have expected - although I think I've seen those particular fares from around Europe quoted before, looked at them, and decided they were cherry-picked to make a case.

The car driver's view ("I rarely use the train, so why should I subsidise it as a taxpayer") is a fair question. But then does income from road tax, petrol tax, road and bridge tolls, etc, fully cover all road costs such as expenditure, interest on loans / asset value, road accident costs including health service, policing.  So the train passenger's view might be "I rarely drive, so why should I subsidise it as a taxpayer", and the program didn't pose that question.

In researching if there was a question to answer on road subsidy here, I came across http://www.igreens.org.uk/great_road_transport_subsidy.htm and that convinced me that the question should be raised. The figures used in the calculations on this page are point of use only, and I wouls argue that a farer comparison would also include annual income payments i.e. road tax - to make a financial model that's as level in compasion as practical.   However, I appreciate the up-front nature of road tax which makes individual journey decisions exclude it once people have taken the plunge and licensed a car
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
John R
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 4416


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2012, 09:53:10 »

Also many car drivers would suddenly find their journeys get a whole lot worse if the abolition of the subsidy to the rail industry was removed, resulting in a mass modal shift onto the roads. 
Logged
eightf48544
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 4574


View Profile Email
« Reply #6 on: October 26, 2012, 10:28:45 »

The biggest failing I thought was that although they showed that the current franchising system is comprehensively broken, other than DOR they didn't offer any other alternatives.

They also only showed DBs» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) ICE which is still state run. They didn't show the numerous (semi) private operators who work RE (Religious Education) and RB in many parts of country. During my recent visit as well as the Harz we used Lander tickets to visit Onasbruck, Hanover, Bremen and Braunsweig using REs. As an observation these RE/RBs still seemed to run like clockwock whereas several ICE and IC (Inter City) were up to 110 minutes late. In one case they had to run a train that normally runs combined from Hanover in two parts as the second portion came in as an ICET rather than an ICE2 so couldn't couple.

It looks as if the wheel saga is still ongoing.

Logged
Andrew1939 from West Oxon
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 535


View Profile Email
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2012, 17:13:53 »

This broadcast was very unbalanced and certainly did not show the various aspects of subsidy systems.
As Grahame and John R comment, if all rail subsidies were abolished there would be no funding for many of today's services and the consequent increase in road congestion from people having to use a car instead would result in an enormous increase in the number of complaints from people like those who complained about rail subsidy.
I remember how when bus deregulation came in with the Transport Act 1985 so that most bus companies were privatised and cross-subsidisation of bus routes by National Bus company operators ceased, the newly privatised bus companies in Oxon asked the county council for subsidies to run peak hour bus services, bus services operated by buses that lay unused outside of peak hours and were therefore high cost to run. The county council said no and the bus companies chopped the peak hour bus services. Here in Hanborough we went from 3 or 4 double deck buses to Oxford between 08.00 and 09.00 to zero. We had instead a small single decker departing at around 07.55 and the next bus was not until after 09.30. Loads of people just had to go and buy an old banger of a car just to get to work and the week after the bus cuts came in, the A40 peak hour congestion and doubled lengthened travel times for thousands of people. We are still in that situation with no road improvements to cope with the ever increasing traffic and ever lengthen peak hour congestion. At least some people have been able to see the the light and change to using the Cotswold Line train service that has been improved dramatically since 1985 with a nearly 20 fold increase in the use of Hanborough station as an example. Cut the subsidies and these people would have to use their car on the congested roads to Oxford and London. Multiply that across the country and it is not difficult to see what the roads would be like.
Logged
Oxman
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 423


View Profile
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2012, 23:58:25 »

I thought the programme was dreadfull - nothing new and the same old misconceptions regurgitated.

And the best the Virgin driver could come with (as a reason for renationalisation) was rodent control at Euston!

Utter rubbish.
Logged
Umberleigh
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 456


View Profile
« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2012, 20:32:24 »

Nowhere will it convey the fast, comfortable Exeter - Paddington ^40-50 First Class single with trolley service
Frankly that's the stupidest thing I've heard (today).

If they listed the Advance prices for every train across the country, no one would watch it and it'd be considerably longer than its scheduled time.

Where did I suggest that they should list the Advance ticket price for every train across the country?

My point was, and indeed still is, that every documentary on Britain's railways today invariably focus on commuters and walk-on fares.

It would be refreshing to hear from people who use - and enjoy - the railways off-peak, when tickets are much cheaper, in order to present a balanced view for a change, okay?
Logged
Umberleigh
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 456


View Profile
« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2012, 20:43:05 »

Presumably it's ^100 or more to get back to Exeter which makes a difference. And I'm assuming you don't get to travel at peak times.

You assume wrong.

I have paid ^160-odd for a First Class SINGLE from Paddington to Exeter in the past, and quite often buy Open First Class tickets for the same (return) journey.

I have also made many journeys off-peak in First Class for under ^100 return, sometimes for less than ^80. This is what you won't hear in this documentary, instead it will be the bloke who writes the letters to the Chairman of FGW (First Great Western) whenever his train is late (yawn) and other commuter woes.

All I'm asking for is some balance, and not just a London-centric, commuter-biased, was-never-like-this-in-BR (British Rail(ways))'s-day (as if) moan about the railways.
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page