And then they wonder why people prefer to drive! Overcrowding and unsuitable rolling stock is the reason why I and my colleagues have almost completely given-up travelling by train entirely in this country. I have made precisely two return trips by train over the last 20 months in the UK, whereas at one time it would have been dozens. The only route I now use on a regular basis is Sørlandsbanen between Oslo and Skien, where the service remains punctual, clean, inexpensive and excellent. And anyone can get a seat at any time of day without even thinking of having to make a reservation.
What with short-formed services, shuddering, smoky clapped-out ancient suburban diesel units on regional express services, graffiti, stations with peeling paint and muck everywhere, lack of on-board catering and constant strike action the entire network is a complete shambles.
Ah yes, Norway - where all is just fine and dandy on the railways. Try using some other routes in that country. Both articles below are from June this year and you could also do a Google search for Follobanen.
Issues with train punctuality in Norway have continued to persist since last autumn, with arrivals below official targets set by state-owned rail network operator Bane Nor.
In June, 83.6 percent of passenger trains were on schedule. So far this year, 87.4 percent of trains have arrived on time. Bane Nor has a punctuality target of 90 percent, which it failed to meet last year.
Passengers in Norway have already been faced with more than a year's worth of delays at Norwegian train stations.
www.thelocal.no
Several of Norway’s railway lines are completely full, leading to traffic jams on the tracks and train delays, Bane NOR said in a statement last week. Norway’s mostly single track rails have almost no capacity left, and the rail infrastructure manager already has to say no to railway operators who want to run more trains. How can a modal shift to rail to reduce transport emissions be realised when there is no space?
Several of Norway’s railway lines are completely full, leading to traffic jams on the tracks and train delays, Bane NOR said in a statement last week. Norway's mostly single track rails have almost no capacity left, and the rail infrastructure manager already has to say no to railway operators...
www.railtech.com
But I suspect the LNeR trains you go on are the ones to Scotland or Leeds??? LNER seem to have quite a lot of peripheral stuff like Lincoln and stoppers to York or extensions to Bradford and what not, which id argue are more deserving of 5 car short forms than the only route between London and South Wales or the South west.
In order for trains to extend to Bradford, they have to get to some place called Leeds first - city population 510,000 - before reaching the peripheral place called Bradford, with its population of 360,000 - and which is currently served by, er, two LNER trains a day each way. Is 'what not' a new name for Harrogate, or perhaps Aberdeen on Inverness?
LNER Leeds services of course also provide the main London rail link for Wakefield and Harrogate/what not and, with a change in Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax, etc. But which are all presumably just peripheral. Unlike, of course, the City of Truro, population 20,000 or so.
True. I'm more highlighting the ridiculousness of the situation where one line is flush with proper length trains , whilst an equivalent is made to make do with "scraps". I know in reality ECML will never be made to surrender trains to Western.
I'm confused.
So the GWR operation between London and the West Country is the equivalent of the LNER services on the ECML?
Which it surely must be, given that for years now on this forum you have dismissed the GWR services to Bristol, South Wales, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire as mere suburban operations - so they can't have anything to do with whatever case it is you are trying to make in this thread.
The bottom line here is that, as umpteen people have noted already, that Hitachi is not doing the things that it is being very well paid to do. And unless they sort out the DSD issue, once the devices fitted on LNER sets start to play up as well, they are going to have a problem there too.
