Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

[Kevin S]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

[Kevin S]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

^ Not my photo, I hasten to add.

Abellio have been named as preferred bidder for the East Anglian franchise through to 2025.

In theory, things should all get better. And let's hope so, because there has been significant growth in rail use in this region in recent years, and they haven't had enough Turbostars to go round (even borrowing some old class 37 locos from DRS to pull rural passenger trains), and the GEML from Norwich to London LS via Ipswich and Colchester always has something up with it.

But, on the flipside, they sometimes randomly hand out chocolate or, like today, lemonade at the stations.

[SouthdownRebel]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

I really hope that shot was taken at Cambridge

[Kevin S]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

KGX I'm afraid.

[Mumpo]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

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[SouthdownRebel]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

This is the railway, Mumpo. There's no place for sound logic here.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Kevchenko wrote: ^ Not my photo, I hasten to add.

Abellio have been named as preferred bidder for the East Anglian franchise through to 2025.

In theory, things should all get better. And let's hope so, because there has been significant growth in rail use in this region in recent years, and they haven't had enough Turbostars to go round (even borrowing some old class 37 locos from DRS to pull rural passenger trains), and the GEML from Norwich to London LS via Ipswich and Colchester always has something up with it.

But, on the flipside, they sometimes randomly hand out chocolate or, like today, lemonade at the stations.

Any news on Chloe Smith and Norwich in 90? I expect they'll downgrade it actually happening by putting something vague in the franchise, which isn't binding if National Rail don't do the work, which they probably won't.

[Guy Profumo]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Tubby Isaacs wrote: So Guy.

Meadowhall or Sheffield centre for HS2?

I won't be able to afford either.

But for HS2, Sheffield.

But as it's not going to be HS2 at Midland Station, Meadowhell.

(Not that that station was going to be at the existing bus/tram/railway station anyway)

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

I think it probably will be central Sheffield, because it's cheaperand people see high speed rail in city centre terms, rather than regional terms. And you get much more visible "regeneration" in a city centre than a wider reason. But it looks harsh on the region.

There'll be some advance cheap tickets like now, Guy. If not then I'll be senior railcard age when it opens..

[tuckwat]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

[/quote]
The Underground has been driver only since the 1960s.

[/quote]
End of the 80's IIRC. Picc certainly had Guards in the rear cabs. Drivers were certainly still officially graded as motormen until the early 80's.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Northern Line had guard opening doors till the late 90s.

[Gangster Octopus]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

As did the Met.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Suggestion that the East-West Rail Link might be delayed further. Already 7 years late.

I said at the time all this investment scheduled looked too good to be true.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Gangster Octopus wrote: As did the Met.

Crikey. I can hear the clunks from here. I do like new trains though.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

John Major didn't do very much investment, did he? I think it was close to zero net in some years.

[Kevin S]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

As did the Met.

Crikey. I can hear the clunks from here. I do like new trains though.

Anglia still had slam stock in 2003.

Anyway, news: delays on the GWML?

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Now that Anglian trains have been mentioned, that's a hook for me to repeat a maths gag of my own proud coinage, namely that the train company for Greater Anglia presumably chose the name Abellio because most of its passengers commute.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Kevchenko wrote:

As did the Met.

Crikey. I can hear the clunks from here. I do like new trains though.

Anglia still had slam stock in 2003.

Anyway, news: delays on the GWML?

Those look like small sections coming off the mainline, rather than the mainline. I wasn't aware there were all these other bits to it, but they'll have been chosen for a reason as useful destinations for electric trains.

[Wouter D]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Evariste Euler Gauss wrote: Now that Anglian trains have been mentioned, that's a hook for me to repeat a maths gag of my own proud coinage, namely that the train company for Greater Anglia presumably chose the name Abellio because most of its passengers commute.

Sin(x) sits on a park bench. A differential operator walks up, and says: "Hey, move aside!"

I'll get my coat.

[Paul S]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Tubby Isaacs wrote: John Major didn't do very much investment, did he? I think it was close to zero net in some years.

I don't know what it was under Major, but under Blair and Brown it was abysmal. They managed to electrify just nine miles of railway. The current plans are for 1 in 9 miles of railway to be electrified. The big problem though is where do all the electrification engineers come from? The answer is, we don't have any. They're having to re-learn the job, we're having to train up new ones and old mistakes are being made again and again. It was the failure to do anything for 13 years that caused the problem.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

I was referring to investment across the board rather than just rail or electrification . Blair''s first term was poor for that too but they got better.

[Lang Spoon]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Could any resident train folk help on the following please?The SNP are taking pelters over delays and overcrowding on the network. Now punctuality has dropped 2% to 88 for Scotrail, and many services are being given two car trains that fill in a second.

How much of this is due to Scottish govt shiteness and/or Abellio profiteering (I believe they have cut the number of trains they are leasing), or is this unavoidable to an extent due to electrification of the Edi/Gla mainline, rebuilding Queen St (track and platforms anyway, the new station/cultural Chernobyl shopping mall extension still isn't taking shape) etc, and awaiting the new fleets to come on stream?

It looks a clusterfuck, but it's hard to get a real sense of what's going on between media frenzy, Labour/Unions shouting Something must be done! nationalise!, the tories(!) calling for curbs on Abellio, and the Nats deflecting blame elsewhere.

I don't think all powers over rail and associated infrastructure are devolved, but their crisis mgmt now looks very poor (certainly compared to last year with the Forth Road Bridge closure , where the ex Transport Minister came out pretty well in the end).

[Tubby Isaacs]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

The Scottish Government are complaining a lot about Network Rail who have been going overbudget and leaving the Transport Scotland with problems, as they have with the DfT in England. They certainly have a point and maybe devolution of Network Rail would improve its performance in Scotland.

[longeared]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

Northern Rail have finally got round to compensating me for my two and a half hour delay coming back from Leeds earlier this season. Without irony, the covering letter apologises for the disruption on 13 September. They've sent me a cheque (!) for the journey cost and a voucher for one day's use on the Northern network. Day trip to Carlisle next summer then.

[Capybara]

Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

I was never one for claiming compensation for late trains - trains get delayed, it happens - but the general money-grabbing antics of the privatised companies have caused a rethink so I tend to claim these days when I've been subjected to a big delay even though I know the companies will do what they can to blame Network Rail and get the money back off them.

Anyway, last week I was delayed by over half an hour on a Virgin train which meant I missed my first connection, then was delayed by another half hour when I missed the new connection (on Northern) because they only had two cars on for a service which, by then, was in rush hour and there was simply not enough room for everyone who wanted to travel. The guard (I still call them that) on the first train did explain that passengers (I still call them that) could claim for the delay, as did the guard on the Northern train I eventually caught to my destination. Now I don't think I can be bothered with all this anyway, but given the total delay was for two different reasons and with two different companies and I had a through ticket, does anyone have a clue how such a claim(s) would be handled? Apart from badly. Probably not the best place to ask, but you never know.