The proposed reorganisation of the railways has at its centre a wholly admirable concentration on the passenger. We are told there will be a new accent on
1, Punctuality.
2. Cleanliness.
3. More comfortable seats – also a campaign of mine given the way GWR substituted less comfortable seats for more comfortable ones when it switched from the 125s to the new Hitachi sets.
4. Good wi fi availability
The aim is to allow the reconnection of places where closure of lines and stations by the former nationalised industry left places without service, and to encourage service quality improvements in areas like catering.
The issue is can theĀ new structure deliver these straightforward and desirable requirements? Great British Rail, a public sector body, will have ultimate control of trains and track, timetables and service levels. They can use and harness a wide range of local community groups, local government partnerships and private sector companies to bid to provide and manage services.
I asked for some assurance that Great British Railways will have the powers and the will toĀ innovate and accept challengers to the status quo. We do not want them delivering existing timetables and clinging to them when it would be possible to change them for the better. We do not want them delivering current levels and standards of catering or wifi or other on board services when we want new and better.
The government made several good arguments about the way rail travel shrank badly under nationalisation, withĀ high fares, line and station closures, poor catering and poor punctuality. The Secretary of State remined usĀ how the privatised railway doubled passenger miles travelled after years of decline. Now we want something better that can adapt to part week commuting, new patterns of leisure travel and a more tempting offer to displace the car.
May 21, 2021
Let us hope that whoever is put in charge of GBR, the nationalised part of the railway system , is a person from the private sector who has experience of running a large organisation , not some career public servant apparatchik ?
May 21, 2021
Not some PPE graduate like say Sir Simon Stevens at the dire NHS which fails millions, kills thousands and has 5 million awaiting procedures. The main skill they will need is ability with a begging bowl wanting ever more tax payer subsidies and an ability to control the rail unions. Driverless trains asap perhaps. Cancel HS2 for a start.
May 21, 2021
Lifelogic
You a long with a lot of other people may get your wish. Ć new progressive imaginative CEO with a mandate as described by Sir John might with the openings of alot of the old branch lines have a plausible excuse to cancel HS2 and invest the money in providing world class quality customer service excellence to all the rail operational services. Then there will have to be investment to the roads infrastructure to get passengers quickly to and from the train terminals. It is not just about the journey it has to involve everything. The new travel slogan has to be about the new quality rail experience of travelling door to door. Not just the main journey.
May 21, 2021
Well you cannot really drive door to door on a train – unless you live in a railway station and have an office/destination in another one.
Interestingly High Speed trains makes far less environmental sense as they can only be HS train if they cut out most stops which automatically increases the length of the end journeys for most passengers. Also the higher the speed the more energy they use and the more track protection and maintenance issues they have. If you have a seat and an decent internet connection what is the point of it being 10 minutes faster especially if you have had to take 50 mins extra longer to get to and from the main HS stations.
May 21, 2021
By that logic air flights are pointless as they don’t land at each regional airport en route. Existing train services don’t always stop at every station. Forgotten is the furore over HS1 when some thought that passengers should trundle to Dover on existing stopping services.
May 21, 2021
+1
May 21, 2021
You may not be able to travel door to door as a passenger, but if more railheads were installed at business premises or business ‘parks’, we might be able to shift more freight off the roads. If railways were to be truly innovative they would investigate self-propelled single rail freight container carriers to travel mostly by night and other off-peak periods.
May 21, 2021
Lifelogic
The whole package has tobe looked at. Of course the train cant go door to door but the rail companies should be looking at doing things a different way.
Park and ride style transport to get the passangers away from the terminal quickly to an area designed for private pickup or fleets of taxis. Reducing the number of car journeys within the city centre. Channelling passengers to use public transport. If the start and end travel experience doesn’t change things are likely to remain as they are.
May 21, 2021
Oh I thought all the users could walk to Euston or Curzon St.
May 21, 2021
@ beresford that does not remotely follow logically at all.
Are you that weather man who has cost GMB millions of viewers by any chance?
May 21, 2021
I do hope that this is not part of the green agenda to get people of the roads and into trains.
May 21, 2021
Off the roads and into trains with a taxi or āwifeā (double direction journey) drop off and/or collection by car at each end. So often very little point in this at all for many journeys in time, energy or convenience terms.
May 21, 2021
Oh, but it is. I took a look at a planning application for a gazillian houses on the green belt near us. To support and house the hordes that the Governments mass migration policy needs. No extra health or services to match those numbers of course. They openly write about changing the publics use of vehicles, walking, cycling, public transport etc in the future. To support their climate change emergency religion. No mention of how mass migration adds to the carbon footprint of 0.04% of the atmosphere. How do they imagine we’re going to get the weekly shop home, let alone the young getting to work, providing for family needs etc. Government, Councils, public services have all succumbed to woke madness, whilst expecting us to pay for it.
May 21, 2021
Let me tell you when the Conservative Party became āgreenā ā it was when every Tory MP accepted it as so
May 21, 2021
If Birmingham had population / commercial / cultural importance of a Barcelona or Berlin then fair enough maybe to HS2 but doesn’t so complete waste of money.
Spending some / all of the money on helping to develop UK’s High Tech sector would be money much better spent in particular in region between Cambridge and Oxford.
May 21, 2021
Two very separate subjects EdM. One HS2 absorbs wealth, the second, UK High Tech is designed to create it.
Your first paragraph is very odd. Barcelona has a population of 1.62 m, Berlin 3.645m, Birmingham 2.626, but Greater Birmingham 4.33 m. I was born near Birmingham and was educated in Birmingham from the age of 10 to 18. At the time, before and after its importance as a manufacturing centre was paramount. It continues, but like everywhere else its manufacturing product is changing. Barcelona is the one city I would choose to live in, having spent a lot of time there working and enjoying myself, often at the same time. Berlin is a place I would like to visit. Having enjoyed the company of many Berliners, it should be good fun.
Birmingham is connected with London because they are the two most significant cities in the UK. They are very different places, and they are both very different from the time I knew them but that has little to do with a compelling need to travel between the two at 20 minutes less than you can at present.
May 21, 2021
Apple is worth 2 trillion dollars, high exports. Imagine UK economy if our High Tech sector was much bigger? We have great engineers and designers – I really think UK gov needs to do more to boost the UK High Tech / Digital sector (in particular in Cambridge area) – greatly increasing productivity, exports, quality brands, GDP etc – and also spreading our economy to make it more stable long term.
May 21, 2021
Lets’ rid the Establishment of Oxbridge Classics and PPE graduates and employ a few engineers, physicists, chemits …
May 21, 2021
Normally Engineers, Physicists, Chemists and Medics for that matter prefer doing what they are good at, only rising to the Establisment in their dotage. It is questionable whether they would have anyone there who could understand them. When they know what they are talking about, how could they converse with politicians and civil servants who have totally different imperatives in their minds.
If you are saying we need more of the former and less of the latter I would agree with you. In my view those with practical talent who enter the establishment do so for two possible reasons. To return something to society that has served them well, or to at last succeed when real success has eluded them in their trained profession. Lawyers seem good at this realisation. I would suggest the Duke of Wellington as one of the former and politeness disuades me from naming any of the latter.
May 21, 2021
How about scrap HS2 and have bullet train to Cambridge from London via Stanstead helping to develop Cambridge area as UK’s Silicon Valley and major world High Tech Hub?
May 21, 2021
EdM, ever heard of the Silicon Fen?
May 24, 2021
Brilliant..
May 21, 2021
David , we know the public servant approach is a no no with the example of PPE, and me today having to visit my GP practice to sort out their useless , inaccessable NHS web site. I am still in a queue at some foreign airport trying to demonstrate my vaccination regime. A classic public service cockup.
The vaccination programme, organised by a private sector director was just the opposite. Here is one lesson that government will acknowledge, but my best guess is promptly forget.
May 21, 2021
Episode 3 on my saga with the NHS website. They had accepted all my details and they emailed me saying I was good to go.
Historically having been called for my first jab and having had it, my partner and I had to chase the second jab. We were told that records of the first had been lost.
Today my GP practice, to whom I had been directed by the NHS App., said they had no record either, so I provided them with my jab record card. They are now delving into NHS computer records so that I can be given an A4 paper confirmation of two Pfizer jabs, I do not trust their App. to be available at that critical time I am waiting in an immigration queue in Spain.
The EU have today agreed that two recognised jabs will gain you entry to any of their member states and unrestricted travel within Shengen.
Everytime I look at a frying pan on Amazon I get weeks of offers of frying pans. Why is NHS admin such a shambles, are they hampered by confidential information acts. For the medical staff working within this cloud of incompetence it must be very frustrating indeed. It does not bode well for anyone trying to produce a railway service fit for purpose.
May 21, 2021
I see that John does not point mark affordability or simplicity.
In the late 1970s I used to walk to my nearest mainline station – about 130 miles from London – and buy a return for typically a fiver. If I wanted to go somewhere else then the man in the kiosk would tell me the best route and give me the tickets explaining the changes. He had the whole national timetable in his head. There was nothing in it for him to rip me off either.
Could we have that back please, John?
May 21, 2021
Well, MiC, how nice that you were able to live close enough to your local station to walk there – no consideration for those who were many miles away and might have been carrying heavy luggage, of course.
And then, recollecting the late 1970s, you probably weren’t able to travel anywhere on a train when one or another rail Union was on strike, of course ….
May 21, 2021
How, exactly, do you know that I had “no consideration” for those people – of whom I would now be one, incidentally?
What a funny post.
May 21, 2021
Seconded.
We need simplicity and the freedom to turn up, get information from people and a ticket and go. The demands that we book ahead as a requirement in travel, and elsewhere which has been introduced must be abandoned. The reasons put forward as justification are fake.
May 21, 2021
Prangwizard
Agree absolutely, a train journey should simply be a turn up and go system, you should not be penalised with higher fares for purchasing a ticket on the day of use.
A train is no more or less a travel service than a bus route operation, known destinations, known stops and working to a timetable.
The ticket price should be the ticket price, simple easy for everyone to understand, and not requiring a PHD to purchase an advance split ticket, a farcical system which breaks your route down to station by station price points, because that is the cheapest way to travel.
May 21, 2021
I imagined you might hanker over things decades ago. Does the 1917 era bring a smile to your face?
May 21, 2021
I miss good things, which have been thrown away for no sensible reason. The amount of time which has passed is irrelevant.
May 21, 2021
The good ‘ole days, eh?
May 21, 2021
A London inner Tube (daily) Railcard is now Ā£12.70. Just saying….
May 21, 2021
Well the government took a unified system with experienced long term employees and ruined it for doctrinaire reasons.
Privatisation never worked but the government have always been too proud to admit this.
The network itself had to be taken back under state control to ensure passenger safety after the Hatfield disaster.
Lots of foreign rail companies made handsome profits which they invested in their own rail services abroad. They got money for doing very little other than continuing an existing service. No improvements were required and they received money regardless of passenger numbers.
Now that passenger number have disappeared we are back the old model of privatising profit and nationalising losses. The private sector will still be involved. You can bet they will still make a tidy profit. Otherwise they will walk away.
We do know that we will have a new brand name for this rail service and the intention is to make it more transparent as regards pricing and more unified – like most national railways elsewhere in the developed world.
Meanwhile Grant Shapps can wax lyrical about the great things the government has done and the bright future that lies ahead.
May 21, 2021
That was tried before with Beeching. Not sure it worked out that well.
May 21, 2021
@David Peddy – As a Democracy and the ones that pay their wages shouldn’t we be the ones that choose. If the English Transport Minister(we don’t have a UK one, devolved powers) says he is responsible, then he should really be responsible and all day-to-day failures falling in his lap, no second-hand-fob-off as has been a ministers privilege in recent years.
May 21, 2021
The problem train have is people want to go door to door directly from A to B and not A to B to C to D. The trips at each end plus the stuff you often need to carry make them expensive and impractical for many. They are also largely empty most of the day. They also rarely have any energy or green advantages when you consider these end journeys, the ticketing, stations and track maintenance despite government and industry claims to the contrary . They can make sense for some intercity journeys and some commuting. If you have more than a couple of people it is nearly always far cheaper, more flexible and more convenient by car. Especially when you so often need taxis at each end. Driverless cars will be the real innovation in transport and especially taxis slashing the fares.
We should have fair competition between cars and trains. Currently cars are very heavily taxed and trains and buses are heavily subsidies. What is the real demand for trains/buses if there were their any fair competition here. 83% of passenger millage is done by car, van, truck, motor bike or taxi. The other 17% by trains, buses,boats… About 50% of train fairs are subsidies from other taxpayers and about 25% of bus fares. The car driver however pays about 60% tax more than the cost in the form of fuel duty, road tax, vat, congestion charges and other government motorist muggings. Despite this you can take 7 people in a car from say London to Manchester for about 1/50th of the cost of going by train. Plus you do not have the end connections to pay for.
Government running the trains will almost certainly make things worse not better it nearly always does so.
May 21, 2021
The usual absolute nonsense from Lifelogic, still fighting environmental battles already lost.
I welcome the semi re-nationalisation of the railways. I would equally welcome the re-nationalisation of the water and sewage industries and a cessation of dumping raw sewage into our rivers. Why should we be drinking treated urine in our water supply? Maybe we should put the sewage in Lifelogic’s oil tankers and send it to the French
May 21, 2021
Sorry, what in the post above do you think is wrong?
May 21, 2021
Why should we be drinking treated urine ? You are aware that all animals have been urinating in our water since the birth of life, so every drop we drink from what ever source is in effect treated urine. I’d rather have some of our properly treated water to drink than some from “natural” sources.
May 21, 2021
what is natural? Diluted acid rain from the heavens, and evaporated polluted sea water?
May 21, 2021
It is inevitable that people are drinking water that contains many molecules that have already passed through several people, sewage farms, animals etc. just do the trivial maths.
Battles lost at the dire BBC perhaps and with MPs and people who do not remotely understand science/engineering/economics/energy reality perhaps – but they are clearly quite wrong. The laws are physics will not change for them whatever expensive and mad climate laws they come up with.
May 21, 2021
Sakara.
You failed to counter any of LL’s arguments, just one bland sentence of dismissal followed by a switch to a completely different topic.
Ridiculous.
May 21, 2021
Didn’t it used to be said that if you live in London, every drop of water you drink has passed through a human body at least 5 times?
May 21, 2021
sakara
“Maybe we should put the sewage in Lifelogicās oil tankers and send it to the French”
………excellent ! +100
May 21, 2021
Untreated water is a litmus test for the prevalence of Covid in specific areas, I am told, not forgetting hard drug use of course. Treated water has probably been treated ten times around, so unless you drink straight out of a Lake District Beck that is what you are getting. The beck never harmed me in two years of constant outdoor survival. If in doubt sanitize you tap water with Scotch.
May 21, 2021
LL – next time my son arranges to visit Manchester or Birmingham as he did this week, he will travel alone since finding 6 other occupants to illegally squeeze into the car just can’t be done.
May 21, 2021
Indeed but there are car sharing apps and some train fares are far more expensive then getting a mate or relative to drive one person and come back again. Especially if they need taxis at each end and have luggage to carry.
May 21, 2021
Self drive car will eventually bring taxi fares down hugely as driver wages no longer needed.
May 21, 2021
But what government would support sacking thousands of immigrants that are employed as taxi drivers
May 21, 2021
Lets put things into perspective, UK covid deaths past week ā 17, 7, 4, 5, 7, 3, 7
There are more deaths in the UK due to slips trips & falls
May 21, 2021
Since 14th July 2020 (after the nasty spring of 2021 with nearly 70k excess deaths) to date the total UK deaths (adjusted for population and age) is only very slightly higher than the five year average 1-2% up. Entirely within the normal range, this with much of the NHS shut, so what is the problem exactly?
May 21, 2021
9 covid deaths today – I am highlighting the death figures because the BBC nor Sky want to headline the good news
May 21, 2021
Glen Cullen
I agree with you and a return to sanity is long overdue but until the people stop wearing their stupid masks which have been proven to be harmful thereās isnāt much hope, I met a friend at a local garden centre and a middle-aged couple were walked their dog, both wearing face nappies, do they imagine that thereās a swirling green miasma of viruses waiting to pounce on them?
But the dog had to take its chances!
May 21, 2021
Boris is fighting a lonely battle against his own officials to reopen Britain
This time the PMās instinct to be optimistic may win out, but he lacks the tools to overrule the scientists
Says Fraser Nelson today. Perhaps one with his girlfriend too over green crap?
We need a red team of competent and honest scientists to challenge lockdown and indeed the insanity of the Net Zero Agenda. No shortage scientist who can see through the insane group think lunacy that currently prevails.
The JCVI āexpertsā could not even get the Vaccination order gender risk right killing perhaps 1000+ extra so they are no very expert it only needed GCSE maths.
Michael Levitt, Matt Ridley, Prof Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Clare Craig types please & these latter two are even women so that should suit this deluded woke PC government.
May 21, 2021
Lifelogic
Boris isnāt fighting with his officials, heās the one heading the policy to remove our freedoms
May 21, 2021
If he lacks the tools to overrule the scientists, perhaps it is time for him to change scientists.
May 21, 2021
Good morning.
Nationalise the infrastructure but contract out the administration. That way you get the best of both worlds.
May 21, 2021
The unions will ruin it.
May 21, 2021
How about an article on the senseless job destroying and impoverishing net zero.
May 21, 2021
+1
May 21, 2021
And actually…the truth re all this.
Here, before the virus-coated destruction of our country, there was a wonderfully frequent train service up to the City.
Now TWO TRAINS PER HOUR.
Thatās the reality of what they are doing.
JR has said previously that we will need fewer trains ( no jobs, no offices).
No trains, no planes, no automobiles!
And us idiots probably restricted to a 5 mile travel limit anyway.
May 21, 2021
IanWragg
Steady on Ian it is a Friday and you will only upset Samara Gold and her colleagues. The battles she mentioned are never lost until the taxpayer finally agrees and pays for it all.
May 21, 2021
+1 thats requires real debate – and I don’t mean the pathetic debates they have in the HoCs, spouting strap-lines, scoring political points and promoting their own agenda
May 21, 2021
How will Johnson have the time or money for this?
He will be too busy mining as yet unknown viruses.
So he can play at world domination…King of the planet?
He plans a worldwide virus radar system apparently.
A new lockdown every minute.
May 21, 2021
or accompanying ‘er indoors on home furnishing trips to designer premises.
May 21, 2021
And one condition of being employed in the railways should be the removal of the right to strike. Nationalised operations have plenty of avenues to resolve disputes instead of attacking the very public who pay the staff to run the services.
May 21, 2021
Yes, they do have plenty of avenues, and they will use all of those before engaging in an action in which every participant loses their entire income for its duration.
May 21, 2021
Yes, let’s replace the right to strike with binding arbitration. Except the bosses and the Government would never accept decisions that went against them.
May 21, 2021
An excellent suggestion which would almost certainly not be adopted for exactly the reasons you highlight.
May 22, 2021
@beresford; Exactly… It would also result in the Trade Unions escalating all disputed to ‘strike’ level as quickly as was decent, simply to get proposed management changes in working practises, T&C, or what ever subjected to binding independent review & arbitration, many such tribunals the Trade Unions would win based on hard evidence, for example the long running dispute about having guards on trains, perhaps even double manning on the footplate!
May 21, 2021
+1 – they almost always do. Usually at the expense of more jobs for their members.
May 21, 2021
@Mark B; That was the current privatisation model, very few TOCs own their own trains, most have been leased with govt subsidies, whilst the track and stations were renationalised back in 2002), it has been the private TOC administration that failed!
BR worked, not always well but at least it was a/. cheap b/. available, c/. you could board 99% of the train, d/. use any “reasonable” route without having to jump through hoops or wait official up-stream authorisation.
May 21, 2021
There’s no reference to either ASLEF or the more militant and Marxist RMT who have a certain degree of control of what happens on the rail network and when. These two Labour affiliated unions will be silently cheering this Socialist development by this Socialist Tory government though no doubt in public lampooning it but this development is more State control over how we get from A to B.
There is now no ideology this Tory party will not embrace if it suits and serves a political purpose and Johnson’s thirst for control over all aspects of life.
And John’s slight more revealing reference to ‘more tempting offer to displace the car’ is unnerving. It seems the aim of this political class is to encourage public transport (herding) rather than the person asserting their freedom to choose when and where they go in the privacy and convenience of their own vehicle (the private owner’s property not the Socialist State’s)
The overriding theme from this now collectivist party that has wormed its way into government is State control of all things both public and private. They tell the ‘little people’ the State will protect them from harm if only they would sacrifice their freedoms that would allow this. This most deceitful and nefarious narrative is simply destructive
I’d like to know about the ‘behind the scenes’ input from unions and lobby groups we never get to hear about regarding Tory party policy in government.
All that Labour created in 1997 has been built on by successive Tory governments. The spread of State infection is everywhere.
I now understand John’s party. They appease their political enemies and competing threats by either capitulation or passing oppressive laws to silence them
May 21, 2021
‘3. More comfortable seats ā also a campaign of mine given the way GWR substituted less comfortable seats for more comfortable ones when it switched from the 125s to the new Hitachi sets.’
I think a poll would find the opposite. From the start users found the new seats to be too firm -who trialled them before agreeing to the design?
Reply We agree. Iām against the new ones!
May 21, 2021
I read it too fast and thought you phrased it to mean the seats were now more comfortable! Sorry !
May 21, 2021
Indeed the more seats they pack in the more vertical and airline “cattle” class like they become. The older the train the more comfortable and spacious they seem to be.
May 21, 2021
until you go back to original 3rd – wood seats, open-air, no reservations- just pile in.
May 21, 2021
@Fred.H – It would make even more sense, if ‘all’ those that take the ‘taxpayer’ pound had to endure the basics that mere mortals have to endure. The excuse I needed to be in 1st Class to work, or because it is less crowded is an insult to those paying their wages. Its as if no one else has similar commitments or desires.
May 21, 2021
But then even the HST 125 seats do not compare very well to those that were found in the 1950s era mainline coaching stock, even if they were non air-con and people leant on doors without first checking they were (fully) closed!
May 21, 2021
As a result of Covid the commuting public have changed their work habits and travel less. This will change rail demand and myriad businesses in commuter destination areas. This is largely the private sector and will quickly adapt as is its nature.
Will the trade union movement within the rail system accept that it will of necessity shrink and have to adapt to a new customer demand. Not without much threat and breast beating, I would submit.
Yesterday I drove an out and back 100 mile trip on A roads. It amazed me how heavy the traffic was when we are not yet back to normal business activity levels. Apart from the weather, road surfaces were bad, a constant patchwork of remedial roadworks, on roads not suited to a constant stream of heavy artics. Conclusion, the management of our railways have a business opportunity to move and distribute freight particularly in none commuting hours. Lets wait and see what they do to provide a service to the new market situation, opportunities are there for the taking.
May 21, 2021
Why does Sir John Redwood never call for the dismantling and privatisation of the poisonous BBC? I am intrigued as to why he and his party refuse to back this proposal?
Is it a case of keeping them in the camp rather than becoming a more potent political threat to the Tory party outside the camp?
Forget the bollox about ‘reform guidelines’ or ‘standards’. We’ve had this tosh for decades but this Labour affiliated political propaganda platform remains as destructive as ever
Just destroy this rancid Marxist, racist organisation
May 21, 2021
I would imagine that the BBC, in terms of propaganda, is just too valuable a resource for the government.
After all, from its inception, it has been used to mould minds.
Within parliament there is no opposition to what is being done to us. None.
So they all LOVE the disgusting BBC. We are all Marxists now!
I nearly vomit if I even hear the BBC accidentally.
May 21, 2021
It’s not your imagination.
I can’t see what ever marxism has to do with it though.
May 21, 2021
@DOM; I suspect your rant is a swipe at the BBC due to the publication of a certain report yesterday, but do not forget that BBC interview, how ever mush in error, how ever much was wrongly covered up in the past, was the product of the years of bulling suffered by members of the entire Royal Family by a largely right-wing tabloid MSM. When newsprint editors private lives are also front page headlines then perhaps, and only then, might the tabloids have any reason to pry into the personal lives of others in the ways it has become.
So yes, when will this govt (any govt) actually start to properly regulate the MSM, both press and periodicals, not just the BBC or other broadcasters, how about having laws that would “destroy” any media company who fails to print only the known and true facts [1] and dose not allow an equally prominent Right of Reply?
[1] no more blatant lies, couched as questions, for example
May 21, 2021
Indeed people chosen for flower arranging reasons rather than any ability, left wing, absurdly woke and all misguided believers in the new totally misguided Climate Alarmist (& renewables) Religion. Tedious and wrong on almost every issue and corrupt too in many ways.
May 21, 2021
DOM
“Why does Sir John Redwood never call for the dismantling and privatisation of the poisonous BBC?”
I seem to remember he has, at some point.
However the question is better directed at Boris Johnson, since it was he who said the licence fee was going to be abolished.
May 21, 2021
Yes Steve I too think the Tory Party believes them to be better in the tent pissing out.
Left to me I would cast News and Current Affaires to the commercial world, pour encourager les autres. I would give them one year to get it organised. The World Service I would keep, no doubt a useful tool from time to time.
May 21, 2021
It is a great shame Boris backtracked on decriminalising the licence fee. There is no reason we should be forced to buy a licence then to have the BBC drip the nation in deluded, left wing, climate alarmist, woke propaganda. They should abolish the licence tax.
May 21, 2021
What I read in the DM today re. Bashir should do for them. Even the future King of England is up in arms about the way they operate. Privatise or cull, take your pick.
May 21, 2021
BBC should be limited to the weather and factual information such as shipping forecasts, although it’d probably turn those into some climate alarmist propaganda. Perhaps sell off the good bits and shut down the rest. Same with the NHS. Never let these be run by Lord Hall, Sir Simon Stevens types, all arty articulation and no sense of proportion or business logic borne of studying maths and science.
May 21, 2021
DOM
Excellent suggestion, be since the BBC has become the chief propagandist for the government theyāre far too useful!
May 21, 2021
I love trains and it pains me deeply that the country which invented the railways has fallen so far behind where we should be.
We still commute on track which was largely built in Victorian times. Connections are routinely awful. Passengers have to jump through hoops just to buy a ticket – and those tickets cost a small fortune.
I find it staggering we are still debating HS2 when we should already be building HS3, HS4, HS5 and so on. All of our major cities should be linked by high speed rail – freeing up space on existing lines for improvements to commuter services.
We are beyond lousy with infrastructure in this country – we have no ambition – and it comes from the Tory obsession with money. Good infrastructure is always worth it – but it is also really expensive. And the people who donāt mind spaffing billions on pensions and on COVID contracts to their mates are not keen to spend billions improving our infrastructure to bring it up to date.
The Tories are the reason our railways are bad. They are the reason our roads are jammed. They are the reason our hospitals and schools are crumbling. I find it inexplicable that anyone would ever vote for them.
May 21, 2021
I suppose we could go back to the ‘good’ days of Blair and Brown. LOL. You know – sorry, there’s no money left.
May 21, 2021
I’m sure the Greens would have ambition and build the infrastructure you envisage. Labour might love the idea of full employment, all those rail workers controlling the people taking trains from Little Snoring to the big cites on HSx. They would dig up the countryside, removing cows and sheep we shouldn’t be eating, and build modern comfy trains. Hospitals should be resited next to main stations to avoid all those carparking problems, alongside new Care Homes to work hand in hand with the hospitals. Must stop writing there is work to be done. Forward !
May 21, 2021
Fred H
Really good post, tongue in cheek maybe but one or two of those ideas make a lot of sense.
Bought a smile to my face on a really dismal morning. Thank you
May 21, 2021
We should stop giving the āGreensā creditability and use the term āGreenā as they only have one (1) MP
You made an interesting comment that got me thinkingā¦.I canāt remember during the last decade when the Labour Party last highlighted āunemploymentā as an issue or top priority
May 21, 2021
1 more MP than Farage got. And significantly more votes than him too. Yet, for some reason, some people still think Farage has some credibility.
I quite like the Greens. I hope they join forces with Labour, Plaid and the Lib Dems to remove the Tories – who in recent decades have only ever been elected by a minority.
May 21, 2021
They will never gang together andy.
The Left will eat itself like 4 cats in a sack.
May 21, 2021
Both Labour and Conservative governments have only ever been elected by minorities. Minorities like 35.2% of the votes and 36.9% of the votes have been enough to deliver “majority” government in recent times.
When I was a kid, I was taught that democracy was all about the majority getting to decide. This is clearly not the case in UK general elections.
May 21, 2021
“Hospitals should be resited next to main stations”
Actually not a bad idea.
May 21, 2021
thank you – of course it is a great idea, and coupled with Care Homes next door.
May 21, 2021
Thats my idea – I mentioned just yesterday building Care Homes on NHS hospital estate
May 21, 2021
Iād like us to build lots of proper retirement villages – properly connected by bus or light rail to nearby towns. Think of it as a sort of Center Parcs for pensioners. Individual living accommodation but plenty of activities to keep the oldies active – cycling, swimming, rock climbing, golf, spas. As well as things to mentally stimulate them – talks, movies, bingo and so on – as well as some shops, restaurants and proper healthcare facilities as well. This to my mind would be a much better way to spend retirement than stuck in an oversized unsuitable house a gazillion miles from your friends.
May 21, 2021
glen – when were stations on NHS hospital estate?
I’m suggesting using the nearly empty office blocks next to most stations.
Easy adaptation to Care Homes.
May 21, 2021
@Andy – I think they call these Cruise Ships – rather an excess of them currently.
May 21, 2021
What a sensible idea
May 21, 2021
@Andy; The Tories are the reason our railways are bad.”
Historical incorrect, the labour govts between 1964 & 1979 closed more miles of railways in the UK than any other govt before or since, HS1 and the CT were Tory govt policies, as was the 1955 Modernisation plan.
HS2 is a total white elephant of a national vanity project, that will do little in anything to sort out the many existing problems, I suspect the govts real agenda is that it will allow many Whitehall offices to be moved (or re-established, post Brexit) out of an over priced Greater London area..
May 21, 2021
Now instead of “miles” of track do the sums with “passenger-miles” of capacity.
You’ll be writing about “coal mine” closures next, all the ones employing about five men working depleted seams.
May 21, 2021
depleted seams ? – oh so there were reasons to close nearly all the coal mines.
I thought Scargill was arguing against closing when plenty of coal was accessible.
May 21, 2021
@MiC; Talk about either, passenger only or freight only routes, the facts as stated are the same – it’s one of the quarks of the era, Mrs Castle signed off on closure of the most railway lines, whilst Mrs Thatcher signed off on the conversion of the most schools to the Comprehensive system.
Then of course Martin, you need to do the sums yourself, on the number of stations that closed in the 1960s and early ’70s, whilst passenger trains may still run of the route.
May 21, 2021
Thank you Jerry for pointing that out – I know it’s off-topic, but far more coal-mines and mental health hospitals were closed during Labour Govs’ administrations than Tory ones, too.
May 21, 2021
Bingo!!!
May 21, 2021
Tory party needs to attract higher qualified politicians for the job. Boris’ work experience is writing witty articles.
May 21, 2021
Ed M
attract higher qualified politicians for the job.
Not only for number 10 but the cabinet as well. It is not the qualified politicians we need. We desperately need skilled highly qualified scientists, engineers, corporate management, utilities, infrastructure, procurement, military, and logistical experienced candidates.
This present government has too much experience and knowledge banished to the backbenches.
Too many politicians just paying lip service to all the iffy computer sciences afraid to stick their heads above the parapet, whilst the few that have the knowledge and experience get overwhelmed by apathy, ignorance and incompetance of their fellow members. All the while ths country bleeds.
May 21, 2021
Well said
May 22, 2021
@turboterrier; I like the thrust of your argument and logic. So surely the best govt, to stop the ‘country bleeding’, would be a coalition made up from both time served ‘professional grades (as you suggest) and trade union/shop floor representatives, just as many other countries -our competitors- already have, for example has Germany ever had a single party of govt since 1945? You make the case for PR and NOC very well!…
May 21, 2021
Andy
“The Tories are the reason our railways are bad.ā
Actually ALL governments are the reason why so much in life is bad. They’re all full of the gab telling us what we want to hear pre election, but once elected – folk are flat on their faces while governments toady – up to the big money.
They’re all tarred with the same brush Andy.
May 21, 2021
You only have to listen to Lord Frost responding to committee questions three days ago to understand that youāre correct ā the people have been let down
May 21, 2021
The Brexitists have let you down? Well slap me down with an unsellable fish. Who on Earth could have seen that coming?
Actually, I do genuinely feel sorry for you all. You voted to leave because they told you it would make our country better – and many of you, misguidedly, believed them.
We can see from what they have done to Northern Ireland, to fisherman and now to farmers that the Brexitists have no interests in making this country better at all.
Those of you who have not figured it out yet probably will at about the time you have to apply for a visa waiver to go on holiday to Europe – and when you find that you can no longer get adequate travel insurance to go because your pre-existing conditions are no longer covered. But, hey, Blackpool can sometimes be nice.
May 21, 2021
‘The Tories are the reason our railways are bad’
– @Andy, I’m a Tory but I want a strong Labour Party to keep Tories on toes. Labour right now are USELESS. Probably time to disband the Labour Party (it’s had its day) and create a new party instead – based on capitalism (as opposed to socialism) but a bit to the left of the Tories.
May 21, 2021
“I find it staggering we are still debating HS2 when we should already be building HS3, HS4, HS5 and so on.”
Have you looked at the cost benefit balance of these white elephant projects they are an absurd waste of money. Why should tax payers pay for trains they may well never every want to use? Surely if they make sense the users buying the tickets should cover the cost of the vast investment or private finance looking for a return. They never will by miles. HS2 is only going ahead due to market distortions by socialist governments who are robbing tax payers.
May 21, 2021
If you can face the Brexit/COVID bureaucracy nightmare Iād recommend taking a drive down through France.
About 200 miles south of Clermont-Ferrand on the main A75 motorway to Montpellier is the Viaduc de Millau- perhaps one of the modern wonders of the world. Designed by Norman Foster it is basically a bypass taking the motorway over the Tarn valley – away from the twisty turny roads that lead to and from the town of Millau. In terms of population Millau is about the same size as Godalming or Berkhampsted.
But the scale and ambition of the Millau Viaduct is immense. It is the sort of thing we would not even attempt in this country any more, let alone as a bypass for a small town. And your attitude explains why.
Millau will not pay for itself this year or next. Itāll not pay for itself 10 or 20 years from now. But itāll still be stood there 100, 200 years from now slowly and steadily recouping those costs and ultimately paying for itself.
HS2 will not pay for itself in your lifetime. Nor in mine. But my grandkids generation – and their kids and their kids – will still be using it in 2100, 2150 and beyond. And sometimes, you know, you just have to think big and think beyond your tax bill this year. The individual cost of HS2 to you is negligible – perhaps a few quid a year. The long term benefit to society is huge. Stop being so selfish and think of the future.
May 21, 2021
I grew up thinking it was only the British who financed follies. A silly extravagant ‘building’ for those eccentric ones with time and money on their hands.
Seems the French have taken over from us.
May 22, 2021
Cost of HS2 will be about Ā£5,000 per household. Benefit to most people zero or even negative and clearly an environmental disaster too.
May 22, 2021
You have to consider the interest and or the lost opportunity costs and the large maintenance costs. The Millau viaduct (not really a bridge) cost about Ā£350 million it seems and saves about 15,000 vehicles a day about an hour. At a 10% return cost is perhaps Ā£7 per vehicle that is saved Ā£1 hour and some fuel. No actually such a bad return.
HS2 will cost Ā£100 Bn plus huge disruption and massive environmental damage too. I can think of hundreds of better ways to spend the money that would return at least a 10% return. HS2 will return almost nothing. Lost opportunity costs is well over Ā£10 bn PA for evermore – rendering everyone far poorer and reducing the UKs ability to compete.
May 21, 2021
Andy, for the past 98-100 years we have had 11 coalition governments, 56 Conservative and 31 Labour with varying majorities.
It was under Labour we got privatised dentists and reduced NHS availability, GP contracts that effectively removed out of hours local care for many areas and rotas, home visits etc. As Jerry pointed out Tories weren’t the only government to close railway lines. My town of 30,000 people has little service, once per hour, out of town, the railway station isn’t connected properly with the public transport with little parking.
May 21, 2021
Well said a-tracy
May 21, 2021
Once an hour service is usually a consequence of stopping services having to use the same tracks as the long distance, high speed trains (it certainly was, and still is, in the town I went to school in) and the capacity restrictions that imposes.
To fix this, the high speed trains need to run on separate lines, either by expanding from 2 tracks to 4 (probably very difficult to impossible on most lines) or run on completely separate lines (which is the HS2 approach).
May 22, 2021
HS trains need far fewer stops to be high speed. This clearly means far longer connection journeys at each end and thus often longer journey times overall! So what is achieved exactly?
May 21, 2021
a-tracy
+1
May 21, 2021
What closed railways was people choosing to drive instead this as it was far more convenient, more flexible, you could carry goods and it was usually cheaper too.
May 21, 2021
Why should all our cities be linked by high speed train routes? Why on earth do people want to travel from one city to another? They all have shops, churches, museums etc. Who wants to go from Norwich to Exeter? We have roads for those occasional journeys. We should scrap the whole railway network and just keep a few lines for steam trains.
As for commuting. What nut job came up with that environmental vandalism?
May 21, 2021
@Mike Wilson; “We have roads for those occasional journeys.”
You are surely trolling, if not you are woefully ill-informed…
Not everyone drives, not everyone wants to be coop up in a motor coach for extended periods, one of the advantages with railway carriages is the ability (theoretically) to move about, make use of any Buffet, some trains even offer full restaurants, some sleeping accommodation, nor is the railways just for passenger traffic.
May 21, 2021
Andy, Tory obsession with money is an obsession with your money. If you do not mind a very big tax hike and a majority agree with you you can have your high speed trains and billiad table roads. The problem is less the politicians , but more the administrative mindset.
May 21, 2021
The reason our roads are jammed (etc.) is that the UK has at least 30 million too many people.
May 21, 2021
Opening up the lines that were shut is something I’m all for. There are so many villages and small towns that have had large housing estates built on them that a good train service would benefit commuters and shoppers alike. I am thinking as an example of the Fawley to Totton line which links up with Southampton. Over the years there has been enorous amounts of new homes built and the road has become very busy and congested. A train which connects into the city of Southampton would be a God send. New houses have and are springing up in every village and town so public transport which is priced well would be a winner.
May 21, 2021
Fedupsoutherner
Sadly the housing estates are often built on the land once occupied by the station and goods yard
May 21, 2021
F U S
well said, and it is happening all over the country
May 21, 2021
Our railway has been reduced to 2 trains per hour.
It used to be a fabulous service.
It isnāt now.
May 22, 2021
Such is the customer demand I assume.
May 21, 2021
If the passenger wants more of the four items in your list then he/she should expect to pay more – or the general tax-payer will have to. My experiences, travelling off-peak from Hampshire into London, are generally positive, albeit the price of tickets is now too high, making an excursion (rail trip + theatre ticket + meal + drinks) more than Ā£100. (I suspect that my off-peak ticket is more expensive than that of a season-holder travelling in rush hour.) The government is about to find out that an unthinking pursuit of better equals more cost – as it should have known in the first place.
May 21, 2021
At first sight yesterday, this reorganisation appeared as if the dogs breakfast had been placed in the trap rather than the greyhound, but of course there had to be the usual Tory smokescreens to conceal their past errors, will a Tory Minister ever stand up and say “Sorry, we messed up in the past, we got it wrong”?…
So the franchises will remain, but there appears nothing to stop them being handed back early. thus (G)BR will surely become operator of last resort, and whilst there might be some private sector involvement down the line (sorry!), such as there was in the past with the Pullman Car Co, the Wagons-Lits Night Ferry train and more recently VSOE. etc, it will not be many years before (G)BR is the main train operator, along with the suggested single corporate livery. The same is likely to apply to freight operators, given that (G)BR will be responsible for timetabling, which the freight trains need to find paths through. I welcome the return to an integrated railway network.
How long before even Ministers drop the silly “Great” prefix from the corporate name, most I expect understand this is a return to BR, most will simply refer to British Rail or BR, as many still do!
May 21, 2021
often called the ‘Big Railway’.
May 22, 2021
@Fred.H; Yes the ignorant often think up silly names for what they do not understand, it was the same back in the 1930s, LNER = “Long and Never Ending Railway”, for example – your point was what?
May 22, 2021
well jerry, I can’t help thinking it is ‘have a pop at Fred today’ -did I touch a nerve somewhere?
So when it reverts to BR (British!) – will Scotrail, NI Railways, South Wales Railway etc all disappear. I assume you are the authority here?
May 22, 2021
@Fred.H; The last time I checked, Scotland and Wales are still a part of the island called Britain, and like now, I expect the successor to Network Rail to be responsible for maintaining the railway infrastructures in both devolved nations along with that in England, and no NI Railways will not be any part of (G)BR, just as they were not a part of the 1948-2001 entity called British Railways (BR) – and indeed the review makes that clear…
May 21, 2021
Is this all based on a Johnson āpromiseāpart of the levelling up rubbish?
The red wall towns that have been āleft behindā?
If so…it obviously will not happen.
Any more than ātaking back controlā or any of the other fatuous little phrases.
Oh …we will grow more food. Make USE of our new autonomy (š).
Nope! Australian trade deal, new biddable āboughtā farmers and cheaply produced imports.
And what a fuss they made about chlorinated chicken!
May 21, 2021
Like the Leave vote, by far and away most Tory votes are in the populous South East.
Yes, in a marginal vote and with FPTP those in the North made the difference, but those voters whom the Tories really need to keep are mostly elsewhere.
May 21, 2021
Ah the South East where the great majority of the UK wealth is created.
May 21, 2021
And?
May 22, 2021
Martin ‘Like the Leave vote, by far and away most Tory votes are in the populous South East.’
Your statement, I just added the likely reason !!
Are you contesting my ‘ the South East where the great majority of the UK wealth is created.’ ?
May 21, 2021
@Everhopeful Agreed. We have a Government so wound up in ‘Virtual Signalling’ they wouldn’t know what ‘delivery means.
No one or one area will be given equal or proportionate opportunity to ‘the metro left society’ – Promise
Take back control – only when the EU permits. NI to leave the UK, Fishing to stay under EU Control. The Channel Isles that have never been in the EU and where the PM of the UK is not in any way shape part of its Government, is left exposed to the wills of the EU without a say all on a Boris promise.
Chlorinated Chicken was only ever a mechanism to inhibit the poor appalling quality standards in EU Abattoirs. That is why Chlorinated Salad produce is permitted.
The naysayers on the agreement with Australia are those that profit from massive taxpayer subsidies – mean while the taxpayer is punished once more.
Rather than go on further all we have to remember this is not a Conservative PM it is not a Conservative Government – they pretended to be Conservatives to get the Conservative Votes
May 21, 2021
nota#
Fishing to stay under EU Control.
It is being widely reported on the net that Boris has allowed super trawlers into our water and over 1500 licenses have been issued to the EU fisherman. If it is true the man is acting like a kipper. Two-faced and gutless and this is yet another hole he is digging for himself. How much longer can the country afford him in post?
May 21, 2021
As you have strayed off topic to the planned free trade deal with Australia, yesterday Richard North was speculating that the Aussies may be interested in supplying the UK with sugar just as much as meat:
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=87978
Which led me to check up on our present supply arrangements for sugar, and according to the (obviously rounded) percentages offered here:
https://www.absugar.com/sugar-markets/uk-sugar-sector
they and our other Commonwealth friends could take over the 25% market share presently enjoyed by our EU neighbours before starting to impinge on the 50% share which is home produced.
I’m all in favour of diversifying our food suppliers, and in particular cutting our unhealthy dependence on unfriendly and unreliable EU countries like Ireland, France and Germany.
The fact that the europhilic FT has launched a propaganda campaign against a free trade deal with Australia should be enough to suggest that it would be to our national benefit at the expense of the EU.
May 21, 2021
On levelling up I heard a Gov. Minister talking about the different GDP per head of the South East and the North. This is a bogus PR spin agenda. Many in London and the South East earn more but after housing costs, and commuting costs, child care costs… they very often have less disposable income than many in the north and are often paying far more tax too.
Unless perhaps they have cheap social or council housing .
May 21, 2021
Worth catching Sky’s report today about COVID from ‘deprived’ Bolton, whose residents are having a ‘deprived’ time of it because of ‘deprivation’. The drone footage showed – house after house with a garden that a Londoner would kill for.
May 21, 2021
Sir John,
These latest reactions to the BBC and its failings bring a new momentum to the call to stop the licence fee, ban its ‘news’ services and legislate to break it up. I look forward to your suggestions on here.
May 21, 2021
@Fred.H; Nothing like jumping on a bandwagon…
There is nothing in the report that creates a need to stop the TVL fee, even less break up the BBC, any more than making “Fleet Street” tabloids freebies, paid for by printed adverts, given their own hounding of the Royal family before and since.
May 21, 2021
not jumping on the bandwagon – I’ve been complaining on here for years about the biased, political animal BBC. their News is creating stories not reporting on what has actually happened, all interviews are either nation independence, racist allegations or LGBTxxxx claims. And then Brexit the decision that keeps on giving THEM subjects to whinge on about.
May 21, 2021
Fred.H
+1
Yes indeed!
May 21, 2021
@Fred.H; If you were not jumping on the bandwagon why raise the issue, given a previous thread from last week (?), that became a vehicle to bash the BBC, is barely cold and the facts have not materially changed. All the fault you attribute to the BBC can be found in the pages of any national tabloid, celebrity periodicals, some broadsheets, & across the broadcast media. Why not do something useful, campaign for better regulation of the media, that way the problems you see with the BBC would be dealt with, but then so would all the other bias and salacious stories – oh hang on, except those would be the stories against the political left etc….
May 21, 2021
Well if jerry can, go do it!
I imagine you are an employee or contractor to the BBC?
May 21, 2021
Well said Fred.H
May 21, 2021
BBC needs to be cut down to offering cultural and arts documentaries and films, wildlife, children’s, comedy – get rid of everything else.
May 21, 2021
This government is good at banning things; cars, gas boilers, free trade ith NI, UK fishermen to fish our coastline etc so why not ban the BBC (well sell it off to fund HS2)
May 21, 2021
Fred H
Boris Johnson said his government was going to abolish the licence fee, remember ?
One can only assume he had no intention of doing so.
May 21, 2021
Whatever he says, expect the opposite.
May 21, 2021
Correct ā point in case ā¦GB/NI border in Irish Sea
I also remember he was going to build a bridge from Scotland to NI (canāt under his new protocol)
May 21, 2021
Easy way to sort this BBC thing out once and for all, pass a new law for all it’s staff – ‘misbehave and have your big fat juicy pension confiscated’
May 21, 2021
I thought he promised to maintain the over-75s go free? Thus denying the money to BBC.
May 21, 2021
Initially this sounded like a simple renationalisation, but no – It is so much more.
The government was effectively running the railways for over a year, thanks to ‘you know what’ so rail franchises were no longer a feature of rail life.
To have one central platform to run it all from has to be an improvement, but haven’t we created another quango — What will happen to Railtrack?
Let’s see how this plays out – There are certainly major benefits to be had.
May 21, 2021
the open access operators like Grand Central trains are the best, we should be encouraging more like them, and not allowing the state sector to dictate to them and stifle their innovation
May 21, 2021
In theory its a great Idea, it should make for a better timetable with sensible interconnections, it should make the purchasing of new trains or anything else more cost effective due to volume, single source ticketing should be able to be much clearer, as should route planning information. let us hope ticket pricing will be far more simple, less expensive, and at last understandable.
I hope it succeeds, but in practice I can see years of argument, confusion and some bloody mindedness from some of the Unions.
Clearly if the government want to modernise the track, equipment, stations, rolling stock, ticketing and timetable, then working practices will have to change as well.
Will all staff be on the same terms and conditions working for the one organisation, or will this be left to the outside contractors/franchises/managers employed to resolve themselves, and who is going to control the outside contractors/services/managers.
The key to all of this will be the person employed who will be in overall control, to see it through to completion, I do hope the vision he and the government have will be clear and one of the same.
May 21, 2021
1, Punctuality. – Agreed
2. Cleanliness. – Agreed
3. More comfortable seats – More than agreed, sitting on a cloth covered short plank is taking the ā¦. That insult puts the car head and shoulders over the railway. More than an aspiration if this is to be an attempt to get us off the roads
4. Good wi fi availability – Not so important, my laptop and general data connection are no longer reliant on public WiFi. More important would be some enforcement of the so-called ‘Quiet Carriages’ most of us don’t want to hear others shouty look at me conversations.
The punitive price structure that punishes the few of us that travel to random destinations as opposed to the one route season ticket holder.
May 21, 2021
Let us spare a thought today for J. Corbyn, rejected even repudiated as he was by the British people, yet he aspired to give us the nationalized railway much as we now have (albeit one with separate carriages for women).
May 21, 2021
All these plans coming on top of COVID make the cancellation of HS2 imperative. Doubtless the Princess has had a word in the PM’s ear about it murdering the planet, so I have my hopes.
May 21, 2021
In this promised bright new future for the railways could we also have one carriage on every train just for the people who leave their filth on the train, play loud music, use their iPhones and put their feet on the seats
May 21, 2021
When something is “broken” you first need to understand why, this GBR proposal smacks of “rearranging the deck chairs on a well know ship”, other than the flexible season tickets which does sound like a good idea…
We will end up with the same higher echelons running the new body as the old, along with those that will be given a golden parachute redundancy and then re-employed a week later as “consultants”…
Has anyone looked to see what Germany & Switzerland seem to be doing right?
May 21, 2021
Well said, and thanks for raising this:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1439221/BBC-news-princess-diana-interview-martin-bashir-lord-dyson-inquiry-royal-news
May 21, 2021
The creation of this new quango āGreat British Railway (GBR)ā is smoke & mirrors, a distraction away from HS2ā¦.it will be the justification of HS2ā¦.it will be the reason why we canāt cancel HS2
May 21, 2021
Trains are obsolete. The entire network needs to be paved over and used as a dedicated driverless vehicle super highway – a massive capacity increase, no time table to worry about and the possibility of door to door journeys.
May 21, 2021
Spot on.
May 21, 2021
This is largely true especially for the fairly small UK yet Gov. are wasting Ā£100+ Bn on HS2!
May 21, 2021
@Pperrin; “Trains are obsolete.”
So what are you proposing to do with those very efficient, very heavy, freight trains, the actual reason why many railway lines were actually built in the first place. The railways are more than a commuter network, or a holiday/lifestyle railway for those who want to go visit family and friends.
“The entire network needs to be paved over and used as a dedicated driverless vehicle super highway”
There have been many suggestion for doing just that in the last 40 odd years, your only new idea is the use of autonomous vehicles, but many other technical reasons exist for why such an idea is not feasible, you might be surprised just how wide a tarmac road needs to be, even for a single carriageway two-way road compared to a two track railway line.
“a massive capacity increase, no time table to worry about and the possibility of door to door journeys.”
Wasn’t that the idea behind Motorways, duel-carriageways and ring-roads?
May 23, 2021
Transport on a driverless super highway will give the maximum possible efficient use for the land used. People and freight. Rubber tyred vehicles do not need miles of breaking distance, and centrally coreographed movements would allow the space to be used at full capacity 24/7 if required – rather than the occasional train every now and then.
It is currently a stupid idea to mix driven and driverless traffic, that is where all the difficulties arise. If the two are separated driverless vehicles can run at the most efficient speed, end to end on their journey, virtually nose to tail.
40 wasted years of opportunity – just to keep the unions and nostalgic train lovers amused. If you haven’t noticed how much has changed over the past 40 years, that really says it all.
May 23, 2021
@Pperrin; “Rubber tyred vehicles do not need miles of breaking distance”
ROFLMAO. How is life on Planet Mars, here on Earth our laws of physics still exist as they have always done and most likely always will. So you think a 1000 tone “road train” will stop in the same distance as a 1 tone “smart taxi”?!…
If you think trains are inefficient at moving freight you should look at the North American railroads, if you think trains are inefficient at moving people you should look at say Japan, or just any London terminus pre pandemic.
Nothing you have suggested is a new ideas, many have been prototyped and trailed in the last 50+ years, even driver-less ‘road-trains’ exist using paved routes (an overhead version exists at Gatwick Airport, connecting north and south terminals for example), non have actually proved any better than older technology road and rail systems.
May 21, 2021
No diesel, no petrol – will we hook up at various service bases to re-charge?
May 21, 2021
That is an entirely different issue – but with a dedicated driverless network there are many, many options..
You could have power lines for vehicles to use on the move…
If vehicles were centrally choreographed, you’d do the entire journey at top speed, no breaking/acelerating the power required would be known precisely, any recharging could be scheduled – just enough to complete the journey… full charge on arrival.
Drive to the superhighway, switch to ‘network control’, switch back to drive the final leg.
The sooner the rail vested interests are removed the sooner we progress to the future…
May 21, 2021
‘The entire network needs to be paved over’ but surely that will include potholes so not that good.
May 21, 2021
No matter how they dress the lastest railways plan, it looks to me like a poorly disguised bail out rather than nationalisation.
May 21, 2021
+1 but will prob. end up as nationalisation.
May 21, 2021
@LL; It is a disguised renationalisation, not that BR was ever truly privatised!
May 21, 2021
First off, this reorganisation should be named Great English Railways. Transport is devolved.
Secondly it is an admission of failure. The de-nationalisation of railways has been a disaster. Leading to worse service and higher fares.
It’s clear that apart from the rolling stock, the railways are being re-nationalised. It’s only a matter of time before all the franchises are bought out.
If you think this is a complaint? You’re wrong. During the Conservative drive to privatise everything. The railways were the biggest mistake. (possibly)
May 21, 2021
I heard Grate British Railways – but obviously got it wrong.
May 22, 2021
Mrs. T swerved the idea when she was in power. Then, suddenly, as soon as she was gone the EU mandated that railways were to be privatised. John Major then set about the task and was one of the reasons for the Tories downfall – Privatisation affected ‘their’ supporters most.
May 21, 2021
My heart sank when I heard the word Great added to British Railways. It’s got braggart and pompous politicians all over it who are thinking of their image more than passengers.
May 21, 2021
‘Better Railways’
Is the Government trying to out do ‘Matt’ cartoons with their constant Virtual Signaling sound-bites.
A round up of todays MsM quotes attributed to this Government
‘fell well short’ – ‘within the rules’ – ‘could’ – ‘public enquiry’ – ‘may have committed a crime’ – ‘levelling up’ – ‘MI5 Chief, People are not permitted a private conversations’ – ‘Ministers threatening overhaul’ – ‘Government money’
That last one is the real kicker -‘Government money!’
I like most want to contribute into making this a nicer place to live, but we have a Government that is in a constant pursuit of them and us.
May 21, 2021
The government is introducing its own online ticketing system whilst international spivs have made a small fortune out of shorting the private company that already provides this service; did they have inside information? Apparently it’s going to be up and running in nine months. Is this an excuse for importing a few plane loads of Indian highly skilled professionals or what? This takes us full circle in a way because in 1990, the publicly owned BT was in the vanguard of introducing fibre optic cabling and ditching copper, its chief technology officer having decided in 1979 that copper wire would not be able to handle the age of digital communication; it had already set up two factories to manufacture equipment, presumably to by-pass the useless GEC, and had successfully rolled out one complete local network as well as miles of trunk cabling and had achieved scale to make optical fibre cheaper to install to the home than copper. Then Mrs Thatcher decided to stop BT in its tracks because she wanted foreign competition in the form of American cabling companies to deliver the fibre network; this never happened. The factories were closed and the plant shipped out to the Far East to the benefit of Fujitsu amongst others. The problem with politicians is that they do stuff that they shouldn’t and don’t do stuff they should because they lack the level of technical knowledge to make informed decisions and shirk difficult challenges which are essential to the future of the country.
One thing that has not be clarified in respect of ‘Great’ British Railways is who will be paying for late running and cancellations; will the train operating companies be able to claim that the government’s timetable was at fault for being too tight? Separating the ownership and running of track and train doesn’t work now and wont work in the future especially with the Arts graduates in the Transport dept orchestrating the minutae.
Reply Quite wrong about Mrs Tās views and actions
May 22, 2021
Reply to Reply: Fibre is not subject to any known limitation on speed or capacity whoever is in charge. There were no constraints on BT’s own internal networks which were fibre from the late 80’s. The issue was that of Fibre to the Premises which if it had gone ahead would have locked out competition by being future proof; instead of which we had a multiplicity of companies offering a multiplicity of different services based on partial or total copper or fibre to the Premises etc. That Johnson’s government is belatedly pushing ahead with a technology that has existed for thirty years indicates that wrong decisions and priorities were applied many years ago.
May 21, 2021
Do not travel to Bedford, Bolton, Blackburn and Darwen, says the First Minister.
(I imagine thousands of Scots are really angry?)
She says people from Scotland should not go to these hot spot areas.
(But you can go abroad if not Red zoned.)
May 21, 2021
One good thing about trains when compared to aircraft used to be that you could turn up with minutes to spare and just go, if you missed that train you could just hop in the next one. But ticketing is now is so absurdly complex so not always this simple. Ticketing as more and more like airlines as are the cramped, uncomfortable seating.
āhad the whole national timetable in his headā. Indeed there was a chap at Preston station you could ring (and get through to quickly & easily without endless queuing and voice systems systems) who was exactly as you describe knew everything trains and even connecting buses – from the 70s and 80s.
May 21, 2021
Great British Railway (GBR) indeed; feels more like EU level playing field and dark room negotiations with HS2 Ltd
See – ”The Single European Railway Directive 2012 2012/34/EU is an EU Directive that regulates railway networks in EU law”
Donāt remember seeing this policy 18ths ago in the manifesto ā but then again the manifesto was meaningless apart from that one sentence about zero carbonā¦.that was sneaky the way that was included
May 21, 2021
Love the name British Rail but Great ! I very much suspect this will be a disaster and of a piece with the other Butskellite meandering of this administration . In my view privatisation could have worked just fine but we never tried it.
Bet it gets called GBH
May 21, 2021
GBR will never be at fault, it can always blame the train operating companies
May 21, 2021
If, as seems likely, the world moves to a WFH model, if not wholly then in large part… then why do we need railways?
Or… why do we need passenger rail?
Railways for freight. Lorries for rail to warehouse. Vans for local deliveries. And…
Cars for personal transportation.
Unless a railway carriage goes past the end of my driveway every five minutes and can give me a personal carriage (guaranteed to be fully cleansed since the last occupant)… how is it even comparable to having one’s own transport?
Aside from the convenience factor, there’s the disease issue of other humans in close proximity. The only reason for rail is if you believe the climate change nonsense. And then there’s cost… with passenger numbers falling they cannot run the same services at the same prices, something has to give – if not price then frequency.
May 21, 2021
I agree with your notion however the petrol car ban will force people to purchase a Ā£40k EV or travel by train ā this Tory government is removing our choice ā¦.our freedom of choice
May 21, 2021
Glen Cullen
Totally correct
May 21, 2021
Glen Cullen
This is why the next general election matters…..the last opportunity to stop Johnson’s green crap.
May 22, 2021
+1
May 21, 2021
Hey Brexit fans ..remember why we hade this ‘Great’ moment if National renewal …it was to cast off the dead weight of European Social Democracy , away with the Government knows best, away with sclerotic bureaucracy …all aboard the whizzy little speed boat and out into the blue yonder !!!!!
Some of us predicted it would be back to British Rail rip off Britain overwhelming debt and inflation …..and guess what old chum just knocked. Yup the Consumer Prices Index just doubled in a month, from 0.7 per cent to 1.5 per cent in April with signs of more and worse to come.
May 21, 2021
As usual your theory is wrong NM
I think most leave voters just wanted to be an independent country.
Just like the other 150+ nations.
May 21, 2021
Independent, for richer or poorer. We will see.
May 21, 2021
Newmania
It is nothing to do with Brexit, everything to do with spineless lying cowardly and corrupt government.
May 21, 2021
If it is deemed necessary to reduce CO2, environmental degradation, pollution on land and in seas, trash etc. then getting rid of EV cars and windfarms must be a start. Old wind farm rotors can be seen discarded as fly tipping now – perhaps the same with EV cars in the not too distant future. Add to that reducing population levels would solve most if not all problems (housing, soil erosion, antibiotic failures etc., etc.)
May 21, 2021
But donāt you dare say āGood evening Ladies and gentlemen, boys are girlsā
Because if you do you can expect the wrath of the one passenger who complained š¤š¤
May 21, 2021
It’s a funny thing how people so often pretend to talk about the future of the railways, and high-sounding over-arching principles, but in reality all they really talk about is the one journey they happen to use, and how wonderful the railways used to be, just long enough ago that most people can’t remember if that was true or not.
May 21, 2021
The railways are going to need huge HUGE subsidy or cuts. Even with cuts they won’t cover the immense costs of recent expansion of infrastructure, electrification and rolling stock which was all predicated on exponential growth in passenger transport which cannot possibly happen with social distancing or working-from-home. Those infrastructure costs remain and must be payed for and the keys cannot be posted through the building society letter box.
The forecasts for heavily loaded trains and busy concourses has been slammed into reverse – empty trains and boarded up station shops are the norm. I have just travelled the length of Britain and stations are now a bleak experience. Be sure to take two flasks and food supplies with you – the curled up BR sandwich would be a luxury.
The New Normal is sure to find it impossible to meet unpredictable peaks and troughs. Occasional commuters will have to be sure to book and reserve in advance as Sod’s Law will dictate that everyone will want to travel to work at the same time and on an events day.
This country is being ruined by lockdown.
May 21, 2021
When cars are removed from common use we will need the trains. They won’t be there. Nor will the pubs.
I can’t remember Orwell’s 1984 being as bleak as what the Tories are delivering.
May 22, 2021
How will Great British Railways allocate and schedule the available train paths between competing operators? On what basis? It’s a huge task and will have to be done on a regional or corridor basis or even line by line. There will be no pleasing every operating company and the House of Commons lobby will be full of spokesmen lobbying for these companies, complaining that they are not being given a fair crack of the whip.
A much better way would be to create private sector area or corridor monopolies with the right to run services that they want to run, charging fares that they want to charge and outsourcing what they want to outsource. There would be no subsidies from taxpayers. These companies could cross subsidise train services from property rental at stations. To avoid monopoly abuse, the State would ensure that the railway companies got plenty of competition from buses, cars and road freight.
The transport industry should be a revenue raiser, not a basket case.
May 22, 2021
@Lindsay McDougall; “complaining that they are not being given a fair crack of the whip.”
Many TOCs have been on a gravy train, it is time the taxpayer and passengers had a fair crack at the whip!
“The transport industry should be a revenue raiser, not a basket case.”
Sectors such as trains and buses should be regarded as services, not all services will (can) be revenue raisers, but without such services the country soon becomes gridlocked.
May 23, 2021
Between 9 and 10 pm, there are many empty and half full buses and trains. There is an absence of road gridlock at these times. Train operators play their part in creating this situation because many of them only park trains a long way out of town. Particularly on the London radial railways, they could do with more intermediate parking locations to reduce the amount of empty and half full running.
May 23, 2021
As an ex-London Underground commuter, I still await an answer from anybody in the railway as to why trains need guards. The tube runs the busiest network in the UK with long busy trains without guards.
The industry is riddled with Victorian demarcation. If the government wants to do anything, it should sort out the productivity issues.