Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways

[Tubby Isaacs]

Bringing this back up top as the dedicated railways thread. Shame all the rail tangents on the Brexit thread couldn't be on this too.

Some news from Friday. I don't know what BB&F thinks- looks like the sort of short termism that gives rail a (sometimes undeserved) bad name- filling a budget gap by selling good assets because they're "non-core".

http://www.railtechnologymagazine.co...cial-portfolio

Network Rail will seek a major cash boost through the sale of its commercial property portfolio in England and Wales, announced today.
The infrastructure manager is looking for private bidders on a mostly leaseholder basis while retaining the freeholds, meaning it can retain control of access to the properties but still receive an immediate financial gain.
Most of the 5,500 properties in the portfolio that are up for grabs are spaces under rail arches, which means access to them is important for Network Rail to continue its network operations.
While no firm announcement has been made regarding how much the sale will generate, sources estimate that it will be worth more than £1bn – although this figure has not been formally confirmed.
Despite its success and profitability, the decision has been taken to sell off the business because Network Rail considers it a “non-core property asset” which is not essential to keep the railway running. It hopes it will now be able to “place even more focus” on its core business of improving the passenger experience and running a safe and reliable network.

In defence of the Chancellor (who could have provided a bail out but didn't) rail investment has been protected reasonably well, and everyone seems to agree that Network Rail have overspent badly. But even so.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Northern Rail are world class tweeters if nothing else.

NorthernVerified account
@northernassist
Follow Follow @northernassist
��Have a cheeky nosy at the interior of 150142 with it's brand new seating! Our team are working hard to ensure our refurbished fleet is looking tip top! #WeAreModernising

Don't all die of excitement.

[Fussbudget]

Some top turd polishing there. Nice to see they're keeping the super inefficient 3+2 seating layout that everyone hates.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The bank of three seats is ideal for sprawling over drunk, mind.

[Tubby Isaacs]

New rolling stock, running more trains, reducing delays, that sort of stuffcan be expensive and complicated. I appreciate that.

But how complicated can replacing those seats be? Not exactly the Great Egg Race, by the look of it. Yet the trains do look a lot better. For lots of people who occasionally use trains, I expect ropy looking seats really stand out.

What if somebody were to introduce some sort of kitemark or whatever for having seats in good condition?

[Capybara]

Leg room's the issue on these things. That photo is cunningly shot to give the impression that it's not a problem but it's practically impossible for two people with average length legs to sit opposite each other. And, unless they have actually removed some seats, the 'airline-style' seating which forms most of the seating in these units will be as uncomfortable as ever.

[NHH]

Quite; refurbing a design built in the depths of the Thatcher-era BR funding squeeze to be the maximum seating for the minimum cost only takes you so far. You probably have more chance of polishing an actual turd than making those fuckers comfortable.

[Tubby Isaacs]

How far are you expected to travel on Sprinters, generally? I think one goes all the way from Norwich to Liverpool, where I presume it connects with a slow boat to China. Somewhere like the Valley Lines, meandering into Cardiff, for less than an hour, they'd likely do a job.

[HORN]

Sprinters occasionally operate between Manchester and Fishguard Harbour - an eye-watering six and a half hours.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Christ.

I found Haverfordwest to Gloucester quite a challenge. I think that was a Sprinter.

[Kevin S]

The Norwich-Liverpool one is an Express Sprinter (158), a different and far more accommodating beast.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ah right, that's a relief.

[Snake Plissken]

I used to take that Norwich - Liverpool train to work in the Liver Building. (From Stockport, I'm not a maniac.) From memory, there was a period where the four coaches we formed of a 158 (as mentioned, comfortable) and a 150. Which was rubbish.

[Janik]

I used that train (with god knows what rolling stock) to get to and from Uni in Nottingham, as the cross country route was much, much cheaper than heading into London and back out. There was a reason for that... I used to pick it up at Ely. It was timed to collect passengers from the Great Northern Cambridge-Ely services; these would pass through 2 minutes before the Norwich-Liverpool train. Which was very handy if you wanted to make the connection that way, not so if you wanted to connect to a train to Cambridge. During one 58 minute wait on some winter's evening, I came to the conclusion that Ely station is the coldest, bleakest place in the entire world. And that was before some pillock threatened to punch me for pretentiously reading a timetable.

There was also a similar Cambridge to Birmingham New Street service that also wended it's way across the midlands, taking hours. That has now been extended to Stansted Airport and seems to have gained slightly more modern and comfortable carriages.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ely's getting some work done on one of its junctions. In about 2 years time, maybe more.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news...k-dft-13760682

I know the little amounts all add up, but the Network Rail contribution is only £2.2m. I can't understand why stuff like this isn't done much more quickly after it's agreed.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'd forgotten this was on the agenda at all. Sounds like great news indeed.

The Man in Seat 61Verified account
@seatsixtyone
Eurostar have just told me they are absolutely still working hard towards a Spring 2018 launch of their London-Amsterdam service which is great news.

[Lang Spoon]

Northern Rail are world class tweeters if nothing else.



Don't all die of excitement.

It’s like they’ve got seat covers from Halfords.

[Levin]

I'd forgotten this was on the agenda at all. Sounds like great news indeed.

Are they also still working hard to stop db running direct trains to Frankfurt?

[Gangster Octopus]

I used that train (with god knows what rolling stock) to get to and from Uni in Nottingham, as the cross country route was much, much cheaper than heading into London and back out. There was a reason for that... I used to pick it up at Ely. It was timed to collect passengers from the Great Northern Cambridge-Ely services; these would pass through 2 minutes before the Norwich-Liverpool train. Which was very handy if you wanted to make the connection that way, not so if you wanted to connect to a train to Cambridge. During one 58 minute wait on some winter's evening, I came to the conclusion that Ely station is the coldest, bleakest place in the entire world. And that was before some pillock threatened to punch me for pretentiously reading a timetable.

How do you read a timetable pretentiously?

[Kevin S]

Janik is spot on about Ely station's bleakness and chill, says a daily user. The fenland wind really rips through the place. Had a delay this morning and when the train eventually turned up it was a squeaky old Super Sprinter (156) borrowed off instead of the Norwich-Cambridge service's usual 3-car Turbostar (170).

I wonder if Littleport station might be even bleaker, perhaps, but nowhere near as many people use that as Ely - which is both a very busy commuting station to Cambridge and London, and also one of the main junctions in the east (as mentioned) so loads of people change trains there.

In fact Shippea Hill would beat the lot for bleakness, but that only has one or two trains a day each way I think.

[Levin]

But anyway, isn't the big news the announced plans to break up GWR and GTR (because we need more operators) and to bring major improvements to those much deprived commuters in the, oh hang on SOUTH east. As you were.

[Snake Plissken]

In fact Shippea Hill would beat the lot for bleakness, but that only has one or two trains a day each way I think.

Least used station in the country. But not this year, thanks to All The Stations.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Are they also still working hard to stop db running direct trains to Frankfurt?

I don't know if DB are still interested. Would be nice free money for the tunnel operator, hard to see why they'd have a problem.

[Levin]

The original plan was DB wanted to run services to Amsterdam and Germany direct. There was a court case I thought from the tunnel operator (owner of eurostar). It get tied up in required safety equipment and I don't know how much was really needed and how much was just keeping the eurostar's privileged position as only loco that could run on that track.

In other news Virgin terminate East Coast 3 years early. What is up with that line?

[Gangster Octopus]

Virgin terminate East Coast 3 years early. What is up with that line?

Nowt. It works perfectly well when it's run in-house.