What is your controversial railway opinion/idea?

[tsr]

All station retail outlets and freebie giveaways should have compulsory checks to ensure:
- No unnecessary litter is created on or around the network by stupid packaging (such as needless plastic bags around magazines, shapeless plastic attachments to food packaging which serve no purpose, etc...)
- Any pastry products are fresh, at a pleasant temperature, and edible

Failure to comply will result in a deadline of 1 hour to rectify the situation. If not, the shop will be closed and the management placed in the stocks in lieu of the next TOC Meet the Managers session.



Meet the Managers sessions should be scrapped and replaced by permanently visible managers holding formal customer service and safety competencies. Local and area managers for stations and crew should wear distinctive uniforms.



Ticket barriers should be modified with higher and tougher barriers which resist being climbed over or pushed through. Emergency exits would be provided but fitted with facial recognition for use when activated, to catch freeloaders.

Mandatory drug and alcohol testing for all "safety critical" operatives, with zero tolerance for any drugs, or alcohol above 15mg.

That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact!

In fact, alcohol limits tend to nominally be zero (not that this is actually technically possible for everyone’s bodies to maintain, thus there is a tiny amount of leeway upwards of that, before questions are asked).

 

[61653 HTAFC]

TOC station staff who gather round the ticket barriers to natter with each other, both blocking the barriers and ignoring the 150 people either side wanting to get through said barriers, should spend the next week cleaning the bodysides of units which don't have toilet waste tanks fitted. Using only their hair and tongue.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

The rail ticketing system isn't complicated or confusing, it's just that most passengers are too lazy to take the time to work out how to use it to their advantage.

 

[B&I]

Agreed. In a similar way, cynicism doesn't make people 'edgy iconoclasts'. Them being caustic and cynical does not make their commentary sophisticated; if it did, I'd be pulling sonnets out of my arse. Nor does it actually help the point that they are making; it's just window dressing.

Also: the concept of rail renationalisation is not the preserve of left-wingers. In a 2014 poll, it was revealed that a majority of the members of all the major parties supported renationalisation of the railways; I'm not saying that we can draw an accurate conclusion on whether there is national support for rail renationalisation based on the outcome of one poll - not everyones a member of a party - but it still proves my point that it is disingenuous to portray the policy as a 'Corbynista' thing.

Also, please stop saying that. Not all Labour supporters are 'Corbynistas'; it's a Murdoch media invention. Have you ever hear about 'Mayistas', or 'Cablistas', or 'Govistas', or 'Battenistas'? No, because the right-wing media are hardly going to describe their own readers that way. See, the only other 'istas' are 'Boristas'; and they work in pretentious coffee shops.

I cannot agree with you about cynicism. Strip it away in my case and little of substance remains

 

[B&I]

The OP specified (in the very first words in the very first post) "no debates allowed".

Alright, here's an opinion: people who want a strict no-debates rule enforced shouldn't have a go at opinions expressed by other people with which they disagree under a thin pretence of preventinf debate

 

[EM2]

What a great thread EM2 (nearly 300 posts already).
Anyone would think that there’re some folks on here that have a few things to say...

I must admit, I thought we'd get a lot more 'trivial' opinions, like the Jaffa Cake CEP one (which I agree with, btw!).

 

[yorksrob]

I must admit, I thought we'd get a lot more 'trivial' opinions, like the Jaffa Cake CEP one (which I agree with, btw!).

It may be trivial, but no less an opinion (which I also happen to agree with btw).

 

[mushroomchow]

Barriers should be ripped out and the money wasted every year maintaining and fixing them should be used to employ revenue protection officers to put on-board.

Seriously, we're the only country in Europe I know that has such an obsession with cramming everybody into (usually tiny) concourse rather than letting them onto the platform. It only takes one or two idiots with crumpled tickets or an inability to operate an incredibly simple piece of technology to cause a pile-up behind and delay people who may only have minutes to make their train. Rush hour is chaos at many stations with barriers. It just adds to the overall feeling of passengers being treated like cattle... when the barriers are even working, of course.

EMT in particular seem to have mechanical failures down to a fine art in that respect, so they're not even stopping fare-dodging, and a lot of guards don't even bother to check tickets from major stations on the basis that passengers would have had a ticket to be physically able to get on-board anyway.

Rip 'em out, stop treating us like children and penalise those who board without tickets on a more regular basis.

 

[Rail Blues]

Trespassers on the line should accept the consequences. Keep the trains running at full speed and have Network Rail keep a specialised clean up train on standby to pick up the pieces and jet wash the remains.

I cam see the coroner's court being delighted by that idea.

 

[Daz28]

I cam see the coroner's court being delighted by that idea.

They would need to decide in most cases between suicide or misadventure, with the presumption on the latter.

 

[Calthrop]

- Any pastry products are fresh, at a pleasant temperature, and edible

And none of them made by Ginsters -- whose products I boycott because of their, in my experience, invariably gristle-riddled Cornish pasties.

 

[Rail Blues]

They would need to decide in most cases between suicide or misadventure, with the presumption on the latter.

Somewhat hard to do when the evidence has been destroyed.

 

[Cowley]

It may be trivial, but no less an opinion (which I also happen to agree with btw).

And me.

 

[backontrack]

I cannot agree with you about cynicism. Strip it away in my case and little of substance remains

Apologies; I was tired and used the wrong word.

I meant to say that being mocking about others who don't share your view does nothing to help your argument.

 

[richieb1971]

Freight operators should have to pass on a loco free of charge if its not using it for a delegated amount of time.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The short-term profit motive is fundamentally inconsistent with running a safe, efficient and coherent railway system.

 

[backontrack]

The short-term profit motive is fundamentally inconsistent with running a safe, efficient and coherent railway system.

Agree with this. Many people continually argue that the sole purpose of the railway network is to raise a profit - but there is definitely a social obligation.

 

[backontrack]

Also, the term 'crayonista' ought to be eradicated from internet discussion of railways.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The short-term profit motive is fundamentally inconsistent with running a safe, efficient and coherent railway system.

The short-term political advantage motive is fundamentally inconsistent with running a safe, efficient and coherent railway system.

 

[Tetchytyke]

IEP trains, like all Hitachi trains, are cheap plastic crap. DfT have been ripped off big time.

HS2 is a spectacular waste of money and should not be built.

 

[uvarvu]

Trains need to be automated but with humans retained for guard duties only. Buffets can be replaced with vending machines.

 

[richieb1971]

HS2 is a spectacular waste of money and should not be built.

If new railways are not built, old railways get over crowded.

 

[B&I]

Apologies; I was tired and used the wrong word.

I meant to say that being mocking about others who don't share your view does nothing to help your argument.

No apologies necessary. I spend a fair amount of time mocking other people as well, but I try to make sure they did it first

 

[pompeyfan]

More byelaws should be actively enforced with regular penalties. Feet on seats, smoking on railway property and can’t pay - won’t pay type people need harsher treatment.

 

[stut]

And none of them made by Ginsters -- whose products I boycott because of their, in my experience, invariably gristle-riddled Cornish pasties.

Sounds like you've spent most your life livin' in a Ginsters paradise...

 

[40145 Panther]

All staffed railway stations should have a real human voice to announce departures and arrivals instead of the same computerised voiceover that can be heard from Wigan North Western to Whitstable. Live, in person, as opposed to recorded in advance.

 

[CMS]

Thameslink Programme and HS2 are/were not necessary.

London Overground has been a good idea.

We should start 3rd rail infill electrification projects (such as North Downs, Uckfield, Marshlink... speaking of which Ashford Int'l should be completely rebuilt with international platforms moved to new loops, platforms 7&8, on HS1 track and station in the current SE area and SE using platforms 1-6).

 

[backontrack]

No apologies necessary. I spend a fair amount of time mocking other people as well, but I try to make sure they did it first

Thanks.

Fair enough. That's always a good rule.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

All staffed commuter stations should employ a variety of station cats. At times when trains are cancelled or delayed, the cats will wander up and down the platforms for irate commuters to stroke them and thus reduce their stress levels (the commuters, not the cats - you rarely see a cat looking stressed, do you?).

 

[backontrack]

All staffed commuter stations should employ a variety of station cats. At times when trains are cancelled or delayed, the cats will wander up and down the platforms for irate commuters to stroke them and thus reduce their stress levels (the commuters, not the cats - you rarely see a cat looking stressed, do you?).

This is the most sensible policy yet - make it happen, DfT!