No groen, that isn't what happens. You can't just build new tracks, especially through cities. Just to have competition.
People now what train they are getting and as said use the same ones most days. Becuase works shifts for maor people are set.
Do you have any clue how much tracks cost, let alone buying the land and kicking resident and companies out and then all the other work, like building bridges for the roads.
It's simply not possible and you need to have a think how trains work and that you can't just have trains line a stern.
Actually you appear to be continually missing groens point. I don't think he is saying there should be two 08:00 trains from A to B each morning operated by different companies. It is of course illogical and technically impossible for this to happen. He is saying that there should be an 08:00 GroenRail service and perhaps an 08:10 AcidhellTrains service, both from A to B.
Contrary to the AcidHells bleatings there is no technical reason why this cannot happen - infact in many areas it DOES happen. Travel from Plymouth to Exeter and you have a choice of frequent services from two operators. FGW only tickets are cheaper, as well.
What does prevent it happening on a more widespread basis is legal, not technical or physical restrictions. It is also not necessarily a railway thing but more a trait of the method of privatisation chosen.
The passenger rail companies, with a few notable low volume exceptions, are franchised. Large companies buy a franchise to operate a TOC. The franchise agreements will contain regulations they must adhere to and one of these relates to competition. It is in most TOC's franchise agreements which operating areas they can operate in. They are legally prevented from deciding to run a service on somebody elses 'patch'. This is a franchise business model thing, not a government thing or a railway thing. It is inherent in all franchise models because you don't want to cannibalise your market if you are the one selling the franchises. Try buying a Subway franchise to open next door, or even within a certain distance, of another branch of Subway. You can't. It's the same with the railways.
The other issue is that of ticketing revenues. Because of the fact the UK runs an integrated ticketing system, revenue is shared over routes where multiple TOC's operate. This means that in my example above, GroenRail and AcidHellTrains would both receive a cut of the tickets sold for each other's service. They can sell operator specific tickets but there are limitations to this. The benefit of this is you avoid issues such as those in America where you need a certain ticket for a certain train and connections are often a pain. The disadvantage is there is little incentive for price competition.
Competition does exist in some areas. You can for example chose London Midland or Virgin Trains to get from Birmingham to London, over two different routes with two different pricing structures. But sadly in this example price is all they can compete on - London Midland don’t have an ex InterCity franchise so don't have the routes to operate such trains on, and are instead limited to running more local trains, if that makes sense. Ie, Virgin will be quicker and there is little LM can do to avoid that.
New operators have arrived on the scene under open access regulations - ie, no franchise. But what they can and cannot do is again limited - the Rail Regulator doesn't want Bob Trains to come in, undercut Virgin Trains who have huge liabilities incurred as a result of the investment they've made in stock, and subsequently ruin the franchise and make it unsustainable. This tends to end up killing these ventures - see Wrexham and Shropshire who started London to Wrexham services but have withdrawn due to making a loss. A loss they may not have made had they been able to pick up people from stations closer to London - something they were prevented from doing.
I don't disagree its all ridiculous. To me it points at one thing - the privatised railway is a bad idea and is better run as a non-profit making state run enterprise. However sadly with the system we have now much of what would appear to make sense can never happen, and the steps that would require it to happen are all but impossible.
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