Poll - what do you think is the most important thing for the future of rail?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

In travelling around recently, I have not seen the railway covering itself in glory - rather it comes across to me as system that fails to be managed / resourced to provide a service that encourages passengers, whilst at the same time I must give 110% credit to passenger facing staff I come across who with a few sad exceptions do their best to help.

2. We have had rail strikes and actions short of strikes ongoing for a very long time now and that's at least part of the cause of service unreliability. But even when there's no industrial action, we seen to be sort of train crews, short of carriages on trains, and have emergency line closures because track problems and hosts of other problems.  Carriages stewing passengers with staff coming through to open windows because the AC^▸ (Alternating Current, or can mean Air Conditioning, depending on context. The second meaning is often used in a railway context and more generally) is not working, and multiple failed loos on trains. 

1. Ticket purchase is an issue. Frightening (to many) signs at stations warn of penalty fares, but ticket offices are closed - not only because its out of their normal hours, but because of staff shortages.  Ticket machines, where they're available, are often out of service or if they're working offering a limited product range, with some of the products that ARE there well hidden and incompletely described when you find them.

Which of these is it most vital for the rai industry to sort out if it wants a bright future?  Or are we too late and in no longer matters - rail going the way of the coal industry?  Am I just inflating problems and the system (overall) is working well and can carry on as it is? Is there an elephant in the room that I haven't offered you in this poll?

[grahame]

P.S. - If you vote "Abstaining because something else is more important" please tell us what it is 

[Red Squirrel]

I've chosen "Abstaining because something else is more important"

While the industry remains rudderless and battered between the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) and the Treasury, it will stagger from crisis to crisis getting weaker and weaker. We need to get the structure sorted out.

[johnneyw]

I spent some time umming and ahhing about this, changing my mind repeatedly so voting both as being equally important is, I admit, a bit of a cop out on my behalf.  RS has a good point mind.....the more that I tend to look at the industry's organisation, the less I feel that I understand it.

[infoman]

Step free access for Parson Street train station would be nice.

[CyclingSid]

multiple failed loos on trains

Sounds like you have been travelling on South Western trains. Look at Journeycheck on a Saturday morning and it can list more than 100 trains in service with defective loos. Wholesome on Saturday going towards Bournemouth with a couple of cruise liners due out and a football match (or two?). Absloutely rammed and I believe one manual loo working.