What's wrong with the railways in this country?

[oldbag]

So I travel to London every day on the Brighton line and so does my wife. We must pay around 700 per month between us to travel in 2nd class and have to fight for a seat daily inside packed usually un air conditioned trains that on parts of the journey to London the train crawls.

Almost every other day we have problems on our journey due to various signal failures and broken down trains and yet year after year the train fare goes up.

For years I have heard a plethora of politicians bang on about the railways being underfunded for years and investment is needed, hence why fares need to be increased. I dont however seem to see any improvements. Therefore where does all the money go? Are we paying for some chairmans fat payrise each year? They go on about constant upgrades and improvements going on, but when will we see them? 20 years time?

Countries like Germany seem to run a perfect system with no delays as the trains seem to be in a worse state than ours..

Posting this whilst yet again we are sat outside a station on a red light.

 

[Danthus]

They are run for profit.

 

[StriderX]

They are run for profit.

I really cant say much else.

 

[gary996]

As said profit first and oar locks to the punters

 

[deusexlumina]

Use the same line myself, and its a nightmare, at least half of my journeys are delayed.

 

[oldbag]

Well there should be fines handed out and a structure that stops them from passing that fine on to travellers in ticket increases.

 

[OhEsEcks]

If I lived over 50 miles from my place of work and was expected to travel to it every day, I'd move closer to work. **** travelling 100 miles a day.

 

[Ahleckz]

I have no problem with Scotrail or SPT, they are pretty good.

 

[StriderX]

I have no problem with Scotrail or SPT, they are pretty good.

That's because we practically invented it.

 

[Destination]

Your ticket price is still around 50% subsidised by the govt.
There is considerable investment.
Like a greta many things things in this country there is a to b, with no reference to how to keep doing it, what will be replacing it, and if we need to think to the future.
the joy of 5 year govts is they rarely think in terms of the big picture.

Labour dodged the social care question for 13 years, now the current lot are trying their best to muddy the waters before coming to any decision.
Railways are the same, healthcare is the same, education isn't as bad, as bar a bit of technology it doesn't progress as fast at the rest of the world, but building replacements and such not, isn't factored into budgets in the way it should be.

 

[braveheart]

uk railway still hopeless as u can see japan has excellent rail service included bullet train with prefect tidy and clean plus fast travel also switzerland is 100% electric rail and very excellent service we already been travelled.... feel so relax and great view. i wouls say japan and swiss still the best rail service all the time

 

[doofer]

Move closer to work or work closer to home... Simplez.

 

[Danthus]

So the government subsides the price of a ticket and the train companies make a profit.

No, can't see anything wrong with that.

 

[Posty]

The nationalisation after WW2 when the government refused to pay the rail operators war time debt from war time usage & damage. After nationalisation successive governments underfunded the railway and instead focused on building out the road network because they were impressed by the German autobahn system and petroleum was super cheap and trucks and cars were seen as the future.

Also the fact that a lot of the rail lines were originally built as uneconomic vanity projects by rich Victorians and had no chance of actually producing enough revenue to cover the running costs let alone new investment.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Try using the trains elsewhere in the world - other than Switzerland. In isolation our service may seem bad but comparatively speaking it really isn't. As for crowded trains - name me a single city in the world that doesn't have packed metro-rail commuter services?

There is almost nowhere on the planet where you can commute to the capital city by rail and the train not be crowded.

Also, use Southern and not First Capital Connect and you can have AC

 

[Macro]

the joy of 5 year govts is they rarely think in terms of the big picture.

Possibly the most sensible thing I've read on these forums when discussing any kind of politics...

 

[oldbag]

Try using the trains elsewhere in the world - other than Switzerland. In isolation our service may seem bad but comparatively speaking it really isn't. As for crowded trains - name me a single city in the world that doesn't have packed metro-rail commuter services?

There is almost nowhere on the planet where you can commute to the capital city by rail and the train not be crowded.

Also, use Southern and not First Capital Connect and you can have AC

Can't, I go to Farringdon each day.

 

[TMP]

I use that line and I've had a delay once or twice, I do a backwards commute out of London though. Try south-west trains if you really want to have your jimmes rustled.

 

[Trifid]

I always smile when people on Facebook moan about the C2C service to Fenchurch street. One of the best train operators in the country IMO. Unless you get one on one of the last stops before London you can get a seat, very rarely is the service delayed by more than a minute and when it is, it's usually something outside their control (cars crashing into bridges seemed to be popular?)

 

[pingwing]

Privatising things might free up tax money but makes everything worse, best to remember that every time someone from the conservative party speaks.