how about a good news thread?

[daccer]

It is a fact of life that we all like a good moan from time to time. It is also indisputable that we tend to have different ideas on how things should be done. if we didn't this forum would be a little pointless!

My question then is there any facet of todays railways which we all agree is a positive and for which we should count our blessings. Some positivity in these dark times might be nice!

I'll start the ball rolling with a couple. 35 billion pounds over the next five years for NR - we should be in a lot better position in 2014 than we are in 2009.

Also Andrew Adonis. Proactive and decisive, I think that when we lose him next year (Labour must surely lose the election) we will only then truly be able to judge his true worth.

 

[tbtc]

I agree - we can be far too negative at times.

Witness the reaction to a levelling off of demand on the ECML after 10% annual rises in the past. That still means we've 10% more people travelling than before (it's not negative - yet).

Things are a lot better now in many ways than they used to be, but enthusiasts are a very conservative bunch, hence the nostalgia for "good old days" and criticism of everything modern.

These days I can plan rail journeys with a laptop smaller than the size of the timetable books I'd have needed to use in the past, book train tickets 24 hours, have a free newspaper at the station, free electricity on new trains (not just first class), much greater frequencies on a lot of routes than in the past (services to London from many big cities doubled since privatisation), disabled access, clear destination screens at stations and on trains, TOCs that are much more responsive than BR - actual customer service!

Sure, things could be better, but a lot of us will never be happy...