What is your controversial railway opinion/idea?

[Eagle i-Thrust]

Dr Beeching did nothing wrong, he provided a logical solution to a logical problem and basically did what no politician dared to do.

Alot of people don't realise he was seconded onto the BRB purely to produce his infamous reports, the government of Harold Macmillan and subsequent ones are responsible for the closures.

 

[jj1314]

Mark 3 coaches should be removed from service at the earliest practical opportunity (e.g. once enough replacement stock is operational).

I often travel with EMT in first class. It's nigh-on impossible to sip from a cup of tea without spilling it, anywhere between St Albans and Bedford

 

[Strat-tastic]

A brand new fleet of 500 37s should be built and used double-headed on various passenger services over the whole network.
However, because of the racket they make, and in the interests of elfNsafety, all passengers are obliged to wear noise cancelling headphones.
Tough luck chaps

 

[underbank]

Ha! Selfishly, I quite like 143s and 144s and I’m also working on the principle that all trains are better than no train.

I'm jaundiced by suffering too many painfully long journeys on Pacers, i.e. Morecambe<>Leeds and Morecambe<>Barrow (or even worse Carlisle via the coast). Thankfully, quite a rare sight these days, but it certainly put me off travelling longer distances by train. Half an hour or maybe an hour on a Pacer is bearable, but 2/3 hours or longer is just torture, especially when (as usual) the loo is out of order and/or you're sat there frozen in a draught. That's what caused me to use my car more! For longer journeys, I don't think any sane person would have favoured a Pacer over the comfort of their own car.

 

[PhilipRdNGauge]

NSE Jaffa Cake livery really suited the refurbished 4CEPs

 

[cin88]

Anyone who proceeds to ask me a question after being told "i'm not on duty" should be banned from using all forms of transport.

Spotters should have a dedicated viewing areas on all lines, far away from where they can interfere with staff and be restricted to using them, space reservable for £5 an hour.

Regular announcements should be made stating "welcome to x station, read the bloody signs and use your common sense".

 

[53703]

Settle & Carlisle line should be upgraded/electrified so we can have East Coast services extended from Leeds to Scotland and then have 333s on Northern stoppers

 

[tbtc]

• I don’t care about “metals”. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest whether my local line in Yorkshire was built by the North British or the Great Western, I’m not fussed whether a modern route stays wholly on tracks that were once LNER or strays onto ex-LMS territory. Rails look shiny silver or rusty bronze to me; I don’t picture them in the variety of reds and blues and greens of a 1920s Track Atlas.

• If you are the kind of person who moans about “noisy” underfloor engines on modern DMUs then you look a bit silly when you eulogise about how wonderful “thrash” is and how much you enjoyed sitting in the front coach of a train with a loud diesel locomotive pulling it. Sorry!

• We’ve got enough stations. If your plan is to re-open some long abandoned ones then you should do so at the price of closing an equivalent number of ones currently open. It’d put some jeopardy into the “My Idea For…” threads.

• 1980/1990s BR were much better at design and aesthetics than they were at actually running trains. Their liveries and patterns were ahead of their time and many still work well today. Simple clear branding, easy to understand colour schemes. But at the same time as having such marvellous Advertising Agency stuff, they were inflicting Pacers on passengers. Fur coat and no knickers.

• 153s should all have a Quiet Coach.

• (with the obvious exception of London services) Virtually any journey over two hundred miles and most journeys over one hundred miles will have such insignificant numbers of daily passengers to be irrelevant. Such through services exist more as happy coincidences rather than any significant number of passengers. For example, it makes sense for Plymouth/ Exeter to have through trains to Bristol and Birmingham. It makes sense for Bournemouth/ Southampton to have through trains to Oxford and Birmingham. But the numbers of people travelling from the south coast to places north of Birmingham are so small that it doesn’t really matter whether one route has a direct service to Liverpool/ Manchester/ Edinburgh (via Leeds) or Newcastle (via Doncaster). Same with arguments about whether the service from Manchester along the Welsh coast should go to Llandudno or Holyhead (with the other Welsh town getting a service from Birmingham/ Cardiff instead) or whether Scarborough or Middlesbrough are more deserving of a through service to Manchester Airport or Liverpool. Most of these through services exist just because it balances out the service patterns on XC/TPE etc (where most passengers are concentrated on the middle of the journey) rather than any huge demand to get from coast to coast. Some people will benefit but not enough for it to be worth trying to give everywhere a direct service to everywhere else or for it to be unforgivable to remove a direct service between two places hundreds of miles apart. See also Norwich – Liverpool, Brighton to Cheltenham etc (and proposals for Nottingham – Carlisle and the like). I'm not arguing against long distance services, I'm just saying that people on here get far too fixated with the tiny number of people going from end to end and it wouldn't be the end of the world if termini were swapped around for whatever reason.

• The future for branch lines should be more like Falmouth (frequent shuttle service to the main line, catering for local passengers who use the line daily, giving connections to longer distance services) and less like Newquay (irregular service on the branch, relatively useless for locals, but a few Birmingham/ London services providing a direct service for longer distance passengers).

• Once the longer trains are introduced (and the conflicts caused by Northern’s well documented problems resolved), the new TPE timetable from Leeds to Manchester will be a big success, giving more services between the cities, providing faster journeys from some intermediate stations to Leeds/ Manchester (e.g. Marsden to Manchester, Batley to Leeds) and providing direct services from some intermediate stations to Leeds/ Manchester (e.g. Marsden to Leeds, Batley to Manchester). But introducing it with three coach 185s at the same time that Northern are struggling was always going to be a baptism of fire.

• We should rename the West Coast Main Line. I know that this is what it was called hundreds of years ago but the name just sounds silly, given the geography of the route.

 

[Victor C]

Britain's railways should be deregulated and more privatised (like the Japanese model), so that:

• Each railway company (not TOC) will have complete control over its assets, i.e. it will be able to build, own, operate and maintain both its track and trains.
• There will be direct competition between railway companies in busier areas, which would encourage innovation, bringing faster, more comfortable and cheaper train journeys.

The only exception would be rural branch lines, which will probably need government subsidy to maintain a public service.

 

[deltic]

A statue of Dr Beeching should adorn every station in the land

 

[B&I]

A statue of Dr Beeching should adorn every station in the land

Yes, so we can symbolically melt them all down to be re-forged into rails for re-opened lines

 

[NorthKent1989]

You should be able to buy a ticket on the train.

 

[woodmally]

The RMT are a Corbynite union simply trying to fight against change for fighting sake. Do not care about passengers safety and are never prepared to admit they have lost even though the evidence is to the contrary. Therefore should be about time disbanded.

 

[B&I]

The prototype PEP looked infinitely better than any production class

 

[Whattraintoday]

You shouldn't be able to buy something as old-fashioned as a ticket on the train. All trains* should have Oyster-like/Contactless pads to 'bing' in and out, with revenue inspectors to check compliance. Daily cap too, like in London - though this may have to be limited to journeys on a single TOC.
As an added bonus it would really help generate accurate figures for station/route usage and passenger movements.

*And on the platforms to ease congestion getting on and off. Not viable at some tiny halts, but perfectly possible anywhere with a TVM.

 

[Shoeburysam]

The Unions shouldn’t blindly follow one party (labour.) Remain neutral and can give a better service to it’s members.
British Rail was terrible and was saved by the 125. (Fluke as it was a stop gap for another BR failure)
Privatisation actually saw more modern stock being introduced.
Driver’s earn more under TOC’s then they ever did or would with BR.
BR was only great for those old enough to have worked for it. Largely because they could get away with a lot more then than they can now. Although they forget the significant increase in wage since BR died.

 

[superalbs]

You should be able to buy a ticket on the train.

Yep. It should be the TOC's responsibility for any revenue loss if they don't instruct staff to go out and sell tickets.

 

[Buggleskelly]

Freight companies should be heavily fined for their late running trains that hold up passenger services.

 

[Journeyman]

1. The Great Central London Extension was a colossal waste of resources that should never have been built, and Beeching was right to close it. Before anyone starts, it was not, repeat NOT, built to "continental loading gauge".
2. All trains should have at least half their seats in airline format, as I'd far rather not spend my whole journey staring at a stranger if I'm travelling alone.
3. ScotRail were fools to propose using HSTs and should have built new stock instead - something like the TPE Mk 5a's or an IET would have been better.
4. The Flying Scotsman is just a steam loco like any other and I have no idea why people get so excited about it, over and above interest in any other kettle.

 

[fusionblue]

Building shiny new projects for London (Thameslink, Crossrail, JLE, DLR Extensions, Northern Line Extension) all seem to have a implicit catch of "not SE london", as Thameslink largely proves, it benefits south of London.

 

[cactustwirly]

All first class seats should be leather.
Get rid of complimentaries in first class.

All IC70s should be removed and replaced with grammar seats.
All intercity services should be operated using MK3 carriages.

 

[theironroad]

1) 442s should be the only traction allowed on HS2

2) Every 442 on HS2 should have a guard

3) That is all.......

 

[CaptainHaddock]

No-one should be allowed in cycle spaces unless they are a cyclist with their bike. No fold-down seats, no prams, no luggage - anyone putting anything else (or themselves) there should be thrown off the train.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

To avoid nuisance to other passengers, all smartphone should be handed in to the guard on boarding the train. He will then return the smartphone to the owner as they alight from the train.

 

[yorksrob]

British Rail introduced almost as much new rolling stock in the ten years prior to privatisation as the ROSCO's managed in the ten years afterwards. A lot of it was pretty comfortable as well.

High Speed one isn't worth the premium, and a trip on the express to Charing Cross on a slammer was almost as quick (around fifty mins from Ashford via Tonbridge) more comfortable and with better scenery.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

The Unions shouldn’t blindly follow one party (labour.) Remain neutral and can give a better service to it’s members.
British Rail was terrible and was saved by the 125. (Fluke as it was a stop gap for another BR failure)
Privatisation actually saw more modern stock being introduced.
Driver’s earn more under TOC’s then they ever did or would with BR.
BR was only great for those old enough to have worked for it. Largely because they could get away with a lot more then than they can now. Although they forget the significant increase in wage since BR died.

How old are you please ? - read the Daily Mail by any chance.?

 

[Northhighland]

Privatisation has done nothing to improve the railways, it is the increased public investment that has made the difference.

Some TOC's are incompetent and so badly run they should be removed.

Nationalisation is a red herring in the whole debate, it is still the same staff doing the same things every day.

A public sector provider should be allowed to compete at franchise renewal.

Scotrail services to the Highlands are always overcrowded and standing from Glasgow to Pitlochry, should be illegal.

 

[greyman42]

Bring in regulation to ensure all seating is of a reasonable comfort for passengers.

 

[plcd1]

It will take TfL and MTR Crossrail 2-3 years to make Crossrail run properly and reliably.

 

[xotGD]

Anyone trying to claim a reserved seat from another passenger when the reservation labels have not been put out should be told to bugger off.