Who says our trains are crap and always late

[Lampshade]

Another gripe is that walk-on fares are damn expensive compared to the rest of Europe. Romsey - Waterloo during the rush hour is about £44 with a YP railcard and I probably won't get a seat for the Southampton - Waterloo leg. Also, who'd want to pay lots to travel on a 150 from Manchester to Sheffield? A journey of comparable length in say Germany would be made by a 101 and a push - pull set. Finally, what's the point of Virgin West Coast introducing its Very High Frequency timetable if walk-on fares are going to be prohibitively expensive?

Northern usually put 142s on Manchester - Sheffield, it's more comfortable to travel by bus hock: EMT and TPE have 158s and 185s respectively.

What we need to drive down the fares is open access on the WCML but that's not happening - why did the DafT allow an effective monopoly? :-?

 

[ivanhoe]

As somebody who remembers BR with a hint of fondness, I would be the first to say that the only problem I have today with the 'New Railway' is the fare structure. Some of it is DfT driven but what I would like to see are TOC's bringing down the cost of walk on fares in off peak time. Too many half empty trains running which is criminal when you see well loaded National Express Coaches going in the same direction.

Biggest advantage I have experienced besides the new stock has been the guarantee of getting a paasenger home if a connecting train has been running late. Central Trains as it was laid on taxis from Nottingham to Loughborough and Leicester when the Liverpool Nottingham train was running late on a couple of occassions. C'ant remember BR being so obliging !

 

[Pumbaa]

I used 6 different services today:

2O31 - arr Clapham 3 late
1A26 - arr Brighton 4 late
1A73 - arr into Croydon on time
2B50 - arrived 3 late into London Bridge
2R02 - arr 4 late into Clapham, the previous Southampton service just didn't appear on departure boards in Victoria, meaning I missed my hourly service from Clapham
2M61 - arr 21 late into Hemel

Not terribly late apart from the last one, but still caused me hassle all day.

 

[OMGitsDAVE]

Ive had quite a few delays, and even a train stop about 20 metres out of the station when it was already 27 minutes late, left around 35. Got delayed on the 16:50 GC from KX, on-time/early all the way to Billingham - Seaton Carew, cable thefts delayed us by 1 hour, 5 minutes. aha!

 

[yorksrob]

From experience I find the railways still the most pleasurable way to get to and from work and visit friends and family so it must be doing something right. Not to mention going on holiday! Theres nothing like getting on the train with a beer or three at your nearest mainline station then stepping off a few hours later in Devon on hols! (same applies for Norfolk but it requires a few more changes.)