Are Network Rail really this poor?

[ThameslinkUser]

How many people are actually spending that?

Not many, of course, however the vast vast majority of customers are paying significantly more than they would've been paying under BR. Wages have gone up, but so have fares.

 

[Krokodil]

It costs upwards of £530 for a return ticket to Manchester from London. I think they can afford to have someone sitting around doing nothing on 40% of days.

It doesn't cost "Upwards of £530" at all. Not unless you're pretending that Standard Class doesn't exist. I'm pretty sure that no trains have been all-first on the route since 1985 when the Manchester Pullman gained some standard class Mk3s

 

[The Planner]

Not many, of course, however the vast vast majority of customers are paying significantly more than they would've been paying under BR. Wages have gone up, but so have fares.

How do you think the railway should be paid for then if not via the fare box? more subsidy?

 

[ThameslinkUser]

How do you think the railway should be paid for then if not via the fare box? more subsidy?

Did you not read what I said? I said fares have gone up. Fares can continue to go up. Fares will continue to go up. That can cover the cost of 1 more spare driver rather easily for the sake of reliability that will cut down on delay repay and taxis etc for the last train.

It doesn't cost "Upwards of £530" at all. Not unless you're pretending that Standard Class doesn't exist.

It does cost upwards of £530. Standard class does indeed exist but the definition of "upwards" covers that eventuality as I'm sure you know.

 

[12LDA28C]

It costs upwards of £530 for a return ticket to Manchester from London. I think they can afford to have someone sitting around doing nothing on 40% of days.

Really? Someone I know has just booked a return from London to Manchester travelling outward on Wednesday and return on Thursday for £91.00. Where are you getting your information from?

 

[Darandio]

It does cost upwards of £530. Standard class does indeed exist but the definition of "upwards" covers that eventuality as I'm sure you know.

Only if you skew it to suit your non-argument.

 

[Krokodil]

It does cost upwards of £530. Standard class does indeed exist but the definition of "upwards" covers that eventuality as I'm sure you know.

Wrong. See the definition of "Upwards of" from the Cambridge Dictionary:

if a number, value, etc. is upwards of something, it is at least that amount or more

So the cost of a return ticket between Manchester and London is not "upwards of £530" because you can (easily) get it for much less.

 

[12LDA28C]

It does cost upwards of £530. Standard class does indeed exist but the definition of "upwards" covers that eventuality as I'm sure you know.

'Upwards of £530' literally means £530 and above, so not less than £530 which is clearly nonsense as the vast majority of fares are well below that.

 

[Darandio]

Would you like me to DM you the definition of the word "upwards"?

You could well do that and it still wouldn't make a difference. However, claiming something costs £XXX upwards would start from the cheapest option, not from the random figure you lifted from the fare table.

 

[Broucek]

I've been travelling up and down the West Coast Mainline quite a bit recently and at least 50% of my journeys have been significantly impacted by infrastructure issues incl points failures and signal failures. Given the regular maintenance closures, should I surprised at just how poor and unreliable the infrastructure is? Are Network Rail just a little ****e?

You could try the M1 except that too is almost perpetually broken at the moment

I fear the problem is much, much, wider than Network Rail or even the transport sector and, whilst a change of gov't should be an upgrade, I somehow doubt that the problems will improve just because we have (hopefully) better ministers....