British Rail?

[Deerfold]

BR is far enough in history now for a lot of rose-tinted cr@p to be spouted about it. I grew up with BR and witnessed the privatisation of the railways in my 50s. Here's few of my observations:

1) First, the biggest point: BR was always at the mercy of the Treasury for investment (or 'subsidy' as it's called for rail, as opposed to road). There was never any real investment so the network just got more and more run down. It was in a death spiral, with lines being closed, or singled, junctions and signalling taken out, and life-expired stock pushed into extra use, all to 'cut the cloth to fit'. Heck, BR even misrepresented the repair costs of Ribblehead Viaduct to try to get the Settle Carlisle closed! It could not carry on like that for much longer; hence privatisation, which allowed far more investment to flow into rail.

That wasn't the case everywhere though. I started catching trains in the late 80s in West Yorkshire. Between 1986 and privatisation station (re)openings happened nearly every year. The train service between Halifax and Bradford/Leeds improved from 3tp2h to 4tph. Admittedly this was with funding from the PTE. However since privatisation only 2 stations have opened with another 2 due by 2014.

 

[dubscottie]

Hope you use this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igcesxk3Is0&feature=related

 

[Smudger105e]

To be fair, back then, a hip-flask was part of the uniform.

At the time of Hatfield, the Railtrack Group Standards for Drugs and Alcohol levels were in force.

I am also a little upset that someone can make unsubstantiated accusations about alcohol use on the Railways. The vast majority of my colleagues are professional in their behaviour regarding alcohol use, and any that are not,are soon found out and soon seeking alternative employment.

 

[Sadsmileyface]

At the time of Hatfield, the Railtrack Group Standards for Drugs and Alcohol levels were in force.

I am also a little upset that someone can make unsubstantiated accusations about alcohol use on the Railways. The vast majority of my colleagues are professional in their behaviour regarding alcohol use, and any that are not,are soon found out and soon seeking alternative employment.

It's not unsubstantiated. I've worked in the industry for ten years, and it's no secret that basicly, prior to privatisation and a few high profile incidents (not necessarily related to drugs or alcohol, but nevertheless contributed to an increase in safety awareness) , it was common for staff to... enjoy a drink, even on duty. I've seen it first-hand, to the extent that one particular member of staff who really wasn't able to change with the times was let go. After stringing the company along on what he had convinced everyone was a medical issue.

 

[9K43]

At the time of Hatfield, the Railtrack Group Standards for Drugs and Alcohol levels were in force.

I am also a little upset that someone can make unsubstantiated accusations about alcohol use on the Railways. The vast majority of my colleagues are professional in their behaviour regarding alcohol use, and any that are not,are soon found out and soon seeking alternative employment.

In my time I have seen drivers and guards turn up for work reeking of beer and spirits.
If we were on a ballast job near a pub, the traincrews would be downing a pint in that pub.
The foreman at HM had the telephone numbers of the pubs near the yard and would phone down to the pub to tell the crews in there that their train would be at HM181 Signal in a short time.
On Thursdays at 1100hrs we got paid and at 1500hrs the mess room smelled like a brewery.
After the miners strike we spent many long hours at Guide Bridge mess room waiting for coal trains to come from Warrington.
One of the guards spent so much time at GB he was a member of
The Boundary Pubs dart team.
This was the culture of the Depots all over the system.
This post is just skimming over how things were at that time.
More to come if you think I'm making it up.
( The Guard on the darts team retired a couple of years ago as a driver( FIB)

 

[4SRKT]

Are you including Mr Hammond in that?

Or himself? Old Timer is hardly renowned for his political impartiality on these boards. As ever, he is at his best when giving us technical facts about the railway (in this he is hard to beat), and in the same thread at his worst when trotting out his tired and patronising 'all left wingers are stupid' stuff, as ever done without any trace of humour or self-awareness as evidenced by his complete failure to spot DarloRich's obviously not serious post. <yawn>

Stick to the technical stuff Old Timer at which you excel (your insights into the maintenance regimes of various incarnations of railway organisation are as fascinating as ever) and leave your predictable political views off the boards.

 

[A0]

Many routes with more than one TOC have restrictions which catch out the naive or unwary, such as the WCML with Virgin and London Midland.

Same used to happen in BR days - places like Stevenage which were served by both InterCity and suburban services had separate ticket pricing to London. If anything it was far less clear cut than it is today where it is quite clear who the operator is and if a ticket is only for use on a certain operator's service.