Originally posted by Seven Saxon Kings
View Post
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Broken & Late Ltd: Britain's Railways
Collapse
X
-
Originally posted by Fussbudget View PostFair enough, thanks for the replies folks. Presumably HS2 won't make a difference there.
You can factor in the chance to do work on the train with HS2 as well.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View PostPlus the vulnerability of the network to any disruption, and the consequences. I travelled from Lancaster to London recently and it took over six hours - the initial delay caused by a person being hit by a train (I know) having a ripple effect which resulted in the train being stationary near (but not near enough to) Euston due to all the tracks being occupied by trains which couldn't move out of Euston because the crews needed to operate them couldn't get there in time because their southbound trains were cancelled or delayed (partly because they couldn't get into Euston because..... etc etc). Since then I've declined two requests to go to London for meetings and done them by videoconference instead, but every week brings a similar tale from colleagues - journey times of 7-8 hours between Cumbria and London.
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 20807
- Black Country Green Belt
- Crusaders FC, Norn Iron, not forgetting Serendib
- Blueberry vodka Jaffa cake on marzipan base
I met ex-boss Natalie Bennett recently in Hednesford (ex pit town in Staffs)- we were chatting up locals before a (won) by-election. She and a passenger drove from Sheffield...Green Party oppo to HS2 is based on, broadly the cost of the unnecessary infrastructure on a small island outweighing the benefit to business travellers to and from Northern England. That said, much as I enjoy French TGV I might think otherwise if living between Paris and Lyon with cuts to other services. FB will know better than I.
Anyone needing to travel at same day notice from Brum to Glasgow need pay 'only' £46 one way- provided they buy a ticket to Belfast...
Comment
-
Originally posted by My Name Is Ian View PostOn top of that, the attitude of the staff really, really, really stank (understandable, because they must get shat on all day, but that doesn;t change the fact that they're the public face of the company), and every time I tweeted about it I got an identical automated reply from their Twitter account advising me to claim the money back. I kept giving them further chances, but screw it. Southern Rail just aren't worth the effort and annoyance. I'll do everything I can to avoid them from now on, which is a shame, because I really love travelling by train when it doesn't turn my blood to the consistency of Tizer.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View PostWhere you joining the mainline? HS2 will be much more reliable than the WCML. Carlisle to London 2h 33, without any of the extra stuff that's been suggested for the mainline North of HS2.
I'm not opposed to HS2 by the way.
Comment
-
Here's Jenny Jones making a fool of herself too.
https://jennyjones.org/2017/12/05/sa...lley-from-hs2/
HS2 is a horror. It’s a railway that is far too expensive for the gain of 20mins reduction time in travel for a few business people and by-passes a lot of communities in desperate need of local rail services.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Walt Flanagans Dog View PostCarlisle usually, but some colleagues use Penrith or Oxenholme. This is the point though, when it works it works fine, 3hrs 15 between Carlisle and London is good enough for me. It's the network's vulnerability to disruption that is causing the grief - some of it is physical (over a 400 mile length through a variety of landscapes, a lot can go wrong) but some is process driven, like the example above where the problems caused by crews being out of place quickly spiraled and paralysed the system.
I'm not opposed to HS2 by the way.
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 20807
- Black Country Green Belt
- Crusaders FC, Norn Iron, not forgetting Serendib
- Blueberry vodka Jaffa cake on marzipan base
Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View PostIf lots of people are flying from one part of the island to the other, it can't be that small
As above, I could commute for a day in Glasgow by train arriving about 1030. And just possible from London.
Size matters also when you consider squeezing new lines etc in. HS2 will be a direct blight for many in the midlands and prob also cut their services, as you suggested re coventry above
What's her solution to capacity on the mainlines? Not just inter city, commuting capacity too?
Jenny Jones like you is worried that a HS2 line to Brum will mean fewer services thru Coventry. Our supermayor Andy Street is getting stick on this from the localsLast edited by Duncan Gardner; 14-12-2017, 14:41.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Duncan Gardner View PostPoint taken. Do you have a breakdown of how many of the flyers from Scotland/ Northern England are connecting internationally in London?
As above, I could commute for a day in Glasgow by train arriving about 1030. And just possible from London.
Size matters also when you consider squeezing new lines etc in. HS2 will be a direct blight for many in the midlands and prob also cut their services, as you suggested re coventry above
Short and mid term I think the priority is commuter lines out of London up to MK and Stevenage
Coventry is a quite a good illustration of the issues around HS2. You often hear from opponents that "it's not all about fast journeys into London", there needs to be more local services, better connections to other "provincial cities" etc. Well, Coventry will (by having fast trains taken off the line) likely have better local services. And it'll get faster journey times to the main destinations North of Birmingham (see those journey times above). But Coventry is very clear that it's losing out, because of the London problem. So we can infer that these fast connections there do matter, a lot.
Stafford is being worked up into a major HS2 stop. I think that's a good thing, and will help Wolverhampton which was another place that was reckoned to lose out.
I don't know how many people flying from Scotland are just changing planes at Heathrow. But with Old Oak Common near Heathrow, you've got a decent chance of getting people to do connections to Manchester etc by train instead of by air.
Comment
-
I don't think you can get more commuter trains in up to MK without building a new line. They're certainly busy at the moment.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View PostWhy not? Why won't people want to travel on a new railway? As Blameless says, the journey isn't very appetizing at the moment.
You can factor in the chance to do work on the train with HS2 as well.
- they're connecting from/to another flight
- they live/are going somewhere closer to an airport than to King's Cross/Euston
- flying is cheaper
- flying is more reliable due to poor maintenance/congestion on the rail network
I don't see how HS2 is likely to affect this.
Comment
-
Those things will still apply in lots of cases, but HS2 shifts the time/money/risk calculation in some ways. If you live in West London (or to the West of London), there's the new station at Old Oak Common, much more convenient than going to Kings Cross/Euston, and extremely well connected. There'll be more local capacity coming into Euston/Kings Cross. And the HS2 line will be far more reliable.
Comment
-
Ticket prices, by the way, are (indirectly) down to the government. They want the WCML and ECML to make big surpluses and save them money. They don't have to do that. If a future Corbyn-type politician were prepared to raise taxes and have cheaper tickets, and argue that this is how you maximise the value of the capital investment, by making it affordable for more people to travel on, they could very easily. Even without renationalizing.
Comment
-
- Mar 2008
- 20807
- Black Country Green Belt
- Crusaders FC, Norn Iron, not forgetting Serendib
- Blueberry vodka Jaffa cake on marzipan base
Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View PostI'm not sure what you do about Coventry's "London problem". I suppose you need to invest in other stuff in Coventry. Or try and distract it with a culture festivaL
Doesn't almost every town in the Midlands have this problem? Coventry isn't bothered about links to nearby Leicester for example- the line there via Nuneaton has very poor service
Comment
-
It's worth sticking up Old Oak Common here to see how well connected it should be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Oa...ailway_station
Just the existing London Overground line calling at there brings vast numbers of people within very easy reach of HS2, via a change at Clapham Junction.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View PostI don't know how many people flying from Scotland are just changing planes at Heathrow. But with Old Oak Common near Heathrow, you've got a decent chance of getting people to do connections to Manchester etc by train instead of by air.
I used to catch the 6.43 from Stockport and be in an office in Threadneedle Street by 9.30. Not going to do that by air.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Duncan Gardner View PostHeh- Bread and Circuses?
Doesn't almost every town in the Midlands have this problem? Coventry isn't bothered about links to nearby Leicester for example- the line there via Nuneaton has very poor service
Coventry's strong opposition has certainly been centred around losing fast trains to London. I don't know if there's anywhere else large that has the same problem to that degree. I've seen Coventry-Leicester mentioned as being very poor now. You can certainly see Coventry's point that they'd rather money went on that.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Snake Plissken View PostConsidering Manchester to Euston is a shade over 2 hours, then anyone who is still doing it by air is an idiot.
I used to catch the 6.43 from Stockport and be in an office in Threadneedle Street by 9.30. Not going to do that by air.
But yeah, otherwise flying doesn't make much sense.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View PostIt's worth sticking up Old Oak Common here to see how well connected it should be.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Oa...ailway_station
Just the existing London Overground line calling at there brings vast numbers of people within very easy reach of HS2, via a change at Clapham Junction.
Comment
Comment