What is your controversial railway opinion/idea?

[SteveyBee131]

White/off-white should be banned as a main colour for train liveries. As someone else suggested earlier, try looking at the amazing blazers of Michael Portillo for inspiration

Refurbish all Pacers 144012-ish (but with better seats), as they are not at all bad. They could even be used to give rural branch lines a half decent service!

 

[hexagon789]

The InterCity 225s should be retained and the ECML upgraded to allow 140 mile/h running.

 

[vlad]

Pacers are far more pleasant than some trains (153s, 22Xs, 390s...).

Beeching has been the victim of a smear campaign. The real villain was Barbara Castle.

 

[AJM580]

The RMT strikes are nothing to do with safety and everything to do with politics

 

[KevinTurvey]

1. Long distance walk on fares should cost a lot less than taking a black cab on a pence per mile basis.

2. Some pacers should be converted to open toppers for use on scenic lines in summer!

 

[Ianno87]

1. Long distance walk on fares should cost a lot less than taking a black cab on a pence per mile basis.

It should not be necessary for a family of 3/4/5 wishing to go away for a weekend on a longish distance journey to have to book Advance fares 12 weeks in Advance just to get fares that are even vaguely competitive with the cost of just driving.

 

[Tube driver]

Seat reservations should be banned outright.

First class on commuter trains should be banned outright.

Bicycles on trains should be banned outright.

 

[James James]

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.

So much this. Railways are essentially a monopoly. Sure, you might be able to fit a few true individual private trains onto the network, but in general you can't have true competition on a railway, without actually building multiple networks (which in turn makes no sense since railways are a publicly funded common good). Moreover splitting infrastructure and train operations is also a load of nonsense, infrastructure pretty much entirely governs what services are even possible and infrastructure maintenance has huge influence on operations...

 

[GatwickDepress]

1. Liveries aren't important. Frothing about them as soon as a franchise changes is the least of anyone's worries.
2. Reading commuters to be barred from GWR InterCity services and piled into the Reading Rioter - a non-stop 12 carriage Electrostar equipped with one of those old Automat vending machines, so they can't complain about not having a buffet either.
3. All public transport should be integrated into a comprehensive yet accessible journey planning and retailing system. Our fragmented system is the envy of the unknown world.
4. The Class 419 Motor Luggage Van concept should be revived in a new form of universally compatible self-propelled vehicle to provide additional luggage and cycle storage facilities on busy routes.
5. Redhill is the unwanted stepchild of the Southern network and should get an hourly Brighton - London Bridge/Victoria semi-fast to provide quick and frequent journey opportunities to the coast again.
6. Every member of staff to receive basic first aid training, no matter what grade or position.
7. The old inspector's caps might have been uncomfortable to wear, but they were at least distinct. Staff shouldn't blend in with Jimmy the Painter on his way back from the pub

 

[randyrippley]

To aid the environment, all railways should be converted to use pneumatics as the primary power source.
Brunel had the right idea, he was just beaten by the then state of materials science

 

[maire23]

Ban buggies/prams from trains completely! The exception being those that are a wheelchair for a young disabled child.

 

[Cowley]

To aid the environment, all railways should be converted to use pneumatics as the primary power source.
Brunel had the right idea, he was just beaten by the then state of materials science

Come on!!

 

[jazza374]

The Abellio Scotrail contract is going so well it should be extended by 267 years



(which should allow the 385's to fully enter service)

 

[Rail Blues]

1. I find mk. 3 stock to be rough riding and generally uncomfortable. Nor do I get the fetishism for LHCS in general.

2. I don't get the fuss about class 442s. They're just another southern region third rail emu as far as I'm concerned: the hand wringing over their fate mystified and bored me to tears in roughly equal measure.

3. Other than the one piece efforts in Mk 4s, which dig into the back of my thighs after a couple of hours I find pretty much every other seat on the network perfectly comfy.

4. Londoners don't know when they're well off when it comes to public transport. Any London commuter moaning about the frequency or quality of rail or underground services, should have to spend a whole day on a pacer in midwinter on the mostly tightly curved sections of track northern has to offer to check their bogus sense of entitlement.

5. Grossly overweight people whose lardy rears encroach onto other people's seat should be charged for the two seats they take up.

6. Anyone who puts a bag on a seat when other people are standing should have their bag taken off them by the guard and flung out at the next station. Ditto those using mobile phones in quiet coaches.

7. Children should not be allowed in the quiet coaches.

8. I find the message in virgin west coast toilets absolutely hilarious. *

* I lied about this.

 

[DanDaDriver]

3. 4 star overnight hotel accommodation and a taxi to your depot for any duty starting before 0700. And you can bring your wife.

If you do not have a wife, one will be provided for you.

 

[Clansman]

Nor do I get the fetishism for LHCS in general.

Hear hear.

 

[Daz28]

Station car parks should be replaced by goods yards and sidings

 

[Daz28]

All property built on ex-railway land should be forfeit d and returned to railway use.

 

[yorksrob]

To aid the environment, all railways should be converted to use pneumatics as the primary power source.
Brunel had the right idea, he was just beaten by the then state of materials science

And the rats !

Another opinion of mine:

They should forget about new trains for the MML for the time being, and keep the HST's going until full electrification is completed.

 

[The Ham]

Summary execution for anyone who tries to get on while I am still getting off. Firing squad is fine, making them kneel down and setting fire to them preferred.

Pressing the door open button in rapid succession should produce electric shocks (People would still do it and it would be hilarious).

That is not a controversial thought, try again.

 

[The Ham]

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.

... and any member of staff with that attitude should be given a written warning for bring the company into disrepute. (All staff of all companies no matter what they do should be doing what they can to improve the image of the company by helping their customers)

Whilst passengers who help their other passengers out should be able to claim "pay" from the above staff. (I've lost count the number of times I've been asked questions by other passengers and helped them out).

 

[The Ham]

The RMT strikes are nothing to do with safety and everything to do with politics

That is not a controversial thought, try again. If they were concerned about safety then they would be striking until all guards were first aid trained so as to be able to help people who become unwell (which happens fairly regularly) rather than arguing that if a train hits a pink cow whilst the train is reversing (i.e. is something that happens rarely) the only person who could possibly do anything to help is a guard.

 

[The Ham]

6. Every member of staff to receive basic first aid training, no matter what grade or position.

That is not a controversial thought, try again. See my previous post.

 

[The Ham]

When defining the amount of money spent by the government on the railways it should include all the tax paid by the staff and companies as without the railways there wouldn't be this money being paid to the government.

 

[The Ham]

Taxes should be compared against the value that you get in any given country and not by how much more is paid.

I would rather live in a country with a 90% tax rate but all the basics (food, power, housing, transport, health care, education, etc.) To a basic level than a country with a 10% tax rate which provided virtulay nothing.

 

[Malcolmffc]

Bi-Modes aren’t always a bad idea

 

[Camden]

Metrolink should further expand and take over as much of heavy rail as possible

Second this. We know that urban light rail investment boosts the local economy, and we know that making long distance lines faster increases their use too.

Making HS2 a national tramway instead of a high speed railway would therefore boost the local economy of everywhere it touches, along with incentivising people to stay put in their local economy by limiting long distance travel to max 50mph.

We could probably also save a packet there by the lower build costs generally, and being able to run the line down the hard shoulder of the M6.

Should keep the name HS2 though.

 

[GatwickDepress]

That is not a controversial thought, try again. See my previous post.

Stop being such a killjoy, goodness me... and use multiquote.

 

[Camden]

Re mine, it's "controversial" because most people in the country think that HS2 is simply a complete waste of cash and should be scrapped entirely. My version would rescue it, and limit its budget to no more than £50bn.

 

[B&I]

Railforums is secretly a support group for the sort of men in late middle age who see themselves as free market buccaneers despite having been glorified wage slaves all their careers, whinge about other people receiving free stuff while making most of their life decisions on the basis of paying as little income tax as possible, cannot abide unions, public ownership, political pluralism or anything which makes life better for people they perceive as their social inferiors (or for anyone younger than them), and never actually use railways apart from the occasional final salary pension-funded weekend in London.