Well there's not a great deal of options for commuting into Leeds, buses are too slow, cars with parking in the city center is too expensive, the trains in theory should be alright but they're run so poorly. So yeah, kind of.
Trains!
- Thread starter Avenged7Fold
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Well there's not a great deal of options for commuting into Leeds, buses are too slow, cars with parking in the city center is too expensive, the trains in theory should be alright but they're run so poorly. So yeah, kind of.
Soldato
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Motorcycle!!
Or bicycle, if you really have to...
I'm not sure we want them to Japanese standards, I can't say I've ever had a problem with trains leaving too early over here either, at least on some services the Japanese don't seem to be able to manage putting on sufficient train services or sufficient carriages - I'm not sure I'd see their system as an improvement... London trains might be a bit cramped during rush hour but not like this:
I travel daily on Great Western and they've just got a load of new electric trains and increased capacity massively. My train is on time pretty much every day and the only delays ever are called by Network Rail issues (track/signals). When I moved back to the UK from Germany (where I was a daily rail commuter) in 2004 I saw a big improvement in the UK over the old British Rail service and now it's light years ahead. Some franchises work better than others.
I spent a week working in Tokyo last year, and although the trains were nice the commute was terrible! I've never been so squashed and I use the Central line. They pack people in like you cannot imagine.
I spent a week working in Tokyo last year, and although the trains were nice the commute was terrible! I've never been so squashed and I use the Central line. They pack people in like you cannot imagine.
I don't know how far out you live, but pretty much everywhere in Leeds is commutable by bike. I work with folks who cycle in from Otley every day (which personally I think is a bit excessive). Can you not do flexible working and then get the bus in later/earlier when they're not as slow?
Some Southern rail trains have been in service since 1976/7. I have to get one to work every morning.
Caporegime
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I am in Japan right now, the trains are just as expected, they work, it's on a track....everything can be controlled so it should be on time. Things I have noticed:-
1 - The Conductor bow when he enters and exits the cart, they are super polite
2 - People don't talk and if they do, they whispers. (the loud people are tend to be foreigners, and most of them are Chinese)
3 - it's clean, very clean
4 - trains are on time, VERY much on time. I saw a guy thinking a train was late and got a time table out checking (Google maps tells me it's not due another 2 mins), he looked very surprised to think it was late, even when it's not.
5 - I have now been on the Shinkansen across half of Japan, underground in over 3 different cities and they are all efficient.
I commuted by train for 8 years, it's dirty, it's late a lot, I have had trains cancelled and stop mid point for all kinds of reasons. If it gets me home 10mins of ETA I would be happily surprised.
p.s. I have seen that video before lol. I went through rush hour with my luggage and that never seen that happened.
1 - The Conductor bow when he enters and exits the cart, they are super polite
2 - People don't talk and if they do, they whispers. (the loud people are tend to be foreigners, and most of them are Chinese)
3 - it's clean, very clean
4 - trains are on time, VERY much on time. I saw a guy thinking a train was late and got a time table out checking (Google maps tells me it's not due another 2 mins), he looked very surprised to think it was late, even when it's not.
5 - I have now been on the Shinkansen across half of Japan, underground in over 3 different cities and they are all efficient.
I commuted by train for 8 years, it's dirty, it's late a lot, I have had trains cancelled and stop mid point for all kinds of reasons. If it gets me home 10mins of ETA I would be happily surprised.
p.s. I have seen that video before lol. I went through rush hour with my luggage and that never seen that happened.
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I guess they have either improved or the video is a rare occasion that went viral.
Either way, i would easily trade their trains for ours
Either way, i would easily trade their trains for ours
I live near Wakefield so it's quite far out, it's 20 minutes on the motorway with zero traffic. I'm not much of a cyclist either to be fair, I had considered a motorbike but the whole 30x more dangerous than a car thing put me off.
Well Japan was nuked, maybe that is actually a factor in their exemplarily train times
Soldato
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I've gone to catch a Shinkansen before now and it has been late (in fact it was 5mins late) ... everybody was very, very apologetic. I've also seen them giving out the slips at Shinjuku station for passengers to give to their bosses to say I am late due to a problem with the trains outside my control. For local city stuff being able to use the same travel card from one end of the country to the other is very useful.
in the UK, I used to commute by two separate trains each way when I lived in Hampshire and it was frankly hell with no joined up thinking about how people would actually use what was a fairly common route. Now I use a tram and a train each way and both of can be questionable on their reliability. The trams used to be good until the network was expanded but now there seems to be problems every day (as well as questionable competence from the people running it). The train is only a short trip and it is nearly always late. the only plus is at the moment I can still get a annual ticket that covers all of the journey so i don't have to screw around buying tickets all the time.
in the UK, I used to commute by two separate trains each way when I lived in Hampshire and it was frankly hell with no joined up thinking about how people would actually use what was a fairly common route. Now I use a tram and a train each way and both of can be questionable on their reliability. The trams used to be good until the network was expanded but now there seems to be problems every day (as well as questionable competence from the people running it). The train is only a short trip and it is nearly always late. the only plus is at the moment I can still get a annual ticket that covers all of the journey so i don't have to screw around buying tickets all the time.
A disaster for several reasons.
One of the first country's to implement them means it's all old.
Lack of land
Expensive land and to many not in my back yard moaners.
Lack of investment.
Privatisation
Public opinion of why should I pay for others. Public transport should be cheap and great. Allowing more people to expand their work search area.
We absolutely need things like HS2 not only is it cheaper than upgrading,but it means you can shut down old track and re route on the new line. Allowing old track to be upgraded whilst keeping trains running.
One of the first country's to implement them means it's all old.
Lack of land
Expensive land and to many not in my back yard moaners.
Lack of investment.
Privatisation
Public opinion of why should I pay for others. Public transport should be cheap and great. Allowing more people to expand their work search area.
We absolutely need things like HS2 not only is it cheaper than upgrading,but it means you can shut down old track and re route on the new line. Allowing old track to be upgraded whilst keeping trains running.
there are plenty of videos like that, given how quickly the station staff reacted and how many station staff there were standing by all ready to push people through the doors I doubt it was simply a one off... if for some reason that were to happen in London you'd probably find them controlling passenger traffic before they got to the platform - you certainly don't have a small army of staff on standby ready to push people into the trains
my train is very rarely late and tbh... they're frequent enough that it doesn't matter too much - I'd take regular trains with sufficient capacity over being shoved into a packed carriage like a sardine
the other issue with Japanese trains that goes along with the overcrowding problem is the groping problem - Japanese society has an unhealthy tolerance of a weird schoolgirl fetish some Japanese men are into (and indeed some posters on here) - groping on overcrowded trains is an issue there
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I believe things are improving on the groping sense there, i have heard that there are carriages for women only there to help with the issue. Our own MPs have mentioned the merit in them as we are not immune to harassment and groping on trains in this country. It could even be more openly done in Japan and only really coming to light in the west due to the current hot topic.
Lets not pretend we dont have overcrowding here to the same degree, the difference is that we dont have people helping us squeeze in the carriage. It is not like people were forced onto those trains against their will...
It isn't uncommon to have people shove through on rush hour, squishing people in, just that those people are passengers.
Japans rail network is accepted to be among the best in the world as far as management and coverage goes.
Lets not pretend we dont have overcrowding here to the same degree, the difference is that we dont have people helping us squeeze in the carriage. It is not like people were forced onto those trains against their will...
It isn't uncommon to have people shove through on rush hour, squishing people in, just that those people are passengers.
Japans rail network is accepted to be among the best in the world as far as management and coverage goes.
we don't have overcrowding to the same degree, that isn't pretending
Japan has an overcrowding problem and a groping problem on it's trains - it isn't some mythical place were everything is perfect to the point where the only issue is some driver apologising for leaving 20 seconds early
sure there no doubt exist sexual assaults in the UK too and we can get fairly crowded trains too but neither to the same degree as the Japanese - rail operators here at least do try to put on more services/more carriages as required to meet capacity... I'd take that and the occasional delayed train over a service that can't really meet capacity, crams people in like sardines but is always on time
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Absolutely time to nationalise the railways. If British Rail had the subsidies the private companies now it would have worked so much better than it did. Not to mention at privatisation it was the most efficient railway in Europe, I don't think so anymore!
What has "competition" delivered? I have no choice over my provider (SWT who were actually not that awful were good so what did the DfT do, gave the franchise to somebody else - punctuality has already gone down and they've already had strikes).
If we had a proper long term view for infrastructure investment we might actually have some infrastructure. But we don't, so we can't.
Making the prices cheaper would take strain off the road network for one, how bad are our roads?
We live in a union bashing country. There must be balances but Germany has good union rights, decent railways, good roads, good wages. Really everything is better and they run a surplus every year.
But really the only hope we have is to put Labour in power. They are the only party who have an interest in doing this and the only one who has a realistic chance at winning an election. Thankfully I think it might be soon.
People call me a Utopian dreamer or a Marxist or something. But I only want to live in a better country. Is that so bad?
What has "competition" delivered? I have no choice over my provider (SWT who were actually not that awful were good so what did the DfT do, gave the franchise to somebody else - punctuality has already gone down and they've already had strikes).
If we had a proper long term view for infrastructure investment we might actually have some infrastructure. But we don't, so we can't.
Making the prices cheaper would take strain off the road network for one, how bad are our roads?
We live in a union bashing country. There must be balances but Germany has good union rights, decent railways, good roads, good wages. Really everything is better and they run a surplus every year.
But really the only hope we have is to put Labour in power. They are the only party who have an interest in doing this and the only one who has a realistic chance at winning an election. Thankfully I think it might be soon.
People call me a Utopian dreamer or a Marxist or something. But I only want to live in a better country. Is that so bad?
I see your problem now. I used to live in Wakefield and that commute drove me to move closer to work. The buses take an hour to get into Leeds at all times of day. Condolences
Also, I had to laugh when I went to my mum's the other weekend. Got a train at midday on a Saturday, stopping service out of Paddington - to Oxford. It had two flippin' carriages. Two FFS !! 
We could have done better if we'd have chipped in for twenty Ubers between us. So what should be an 'easy' relaxed afternoon train ride with no commuter stresses was just plain uncomfortable, cramped and tedious Two carriages out of London on a Saturday. The mind boggles..
We could have done better if we'd have chipped in for twenty Ubers between us. So what should be an 'easy' relaxed afternoon train ride with no commuter stresses was just plain uncomfortable, cramped and tedious Two carriages out of London on a Saturday. The mind boggles..
Soldato
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Some Southern rail trains have been in service since 1976/7. I have to get one to work every morning.
Old enough to be your granddad then.
Man of Honour
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Network Rail needs fixing before going after TOCs, they seem woefully incompetent when it comes to upgrade projects.