British Trains.

PJH said:
Yeah that is the number 1 problem.

As for your waiting for a train to drive, was the train coming from elsewhere and you were part of a crew change? Or was it due to start from that station - but possibly from a train due to terminate there? It just seemed when a sort of strike was happening where drivers just worked to time and no overtime that a lot of services were cancelled showing operators were running on constant driver overtime rather than sufficient driver numbers.
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It came from Edinburgh and was terminated at Newcastle I was the relieving driver taking it to a destination then to depot.
 


There’s some excellent deals out there if booked in advance and are flexible on travel. Some examples that we’ve done this season

Newcastle to Birmingham £31 return by buying advance singles Newcastle to Carlisle and then Carlisle to Birmingham and the same split on the way back. Newcastle to Huddersfield was £11 each way (typically just after we bought them, TPE had an offer on of £1 each way).

Newcastle to Kings Cross for the Watford game £50 return.

Durham to Swansea was £43.25, however booking Durham to Manchester, Manchester to Swansea would’ve put the price up to over £80. The return journey we had to book Swansea to Manchester, Manchester to Slaithwate and Slaithwate to Durham to get the price down to under £40.
 
Iballistic George said:
Scotrail are under gov ownership too. We are still running trains built in the late 70s early 80s. Class 150 156 158 to name 3.

When I come down for the match it still amazes me that northern are still using 142s. I remember them coming into service when I was about 12. I'm 2 months away from 50.


Get the rolling stock right is a must too. We have 385s which are crap for a driver. We were meant to have a centre seat with full view window but the Scottish gov insisted on a gangway door for revenue collection. The cab was moved to the left side and as a result there's nearly 100 feet 30m ish where it's completely blocked off for signal sighting and station stopping points.
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I was going to say they were still running Pacers until last year, but looked it up and they are 142s.

So yes, they have finally gone, but were what you would expect in an Eastern Bloc or third world country, not in the UK in the 2020s
 
To me the main issue with our railways is a lot of it is still run on Victorian Infrastructure, which then isnt helped by our goverments continued views of being Londoncentric, we need investment on people traveling between cities not just to London. There is a lot of investment needed in updating a lot of the old lines.

Also you would like to think that the goverment would take all the Operators of Last Resort and merge them in to a single company to cut down on overheads, and then use the profits to do one of the following buy the current rolling stock from the ROSCOs, or buy new trains and return the current rolling stock to the ROSCOs, but this would then go down as a CAPX in the books rather then an OPEX

The goverment should be doing everything they can to reduce the operating costs of this public service so that these savings can be passed on to the passengers, which will then hopefully encourage more people to travel by train.
 
Cockney Mackem said:
TBF though, only every other developed nation in the world runs a better and cheaper train service than us
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Certainly impressed with other European services I've used. On fares though, we have both some of the most expensive and cheapest fates in Europe depending on whether you book on the day or in advance.
 
diggers22 said:
It came from Edinburgh and was terminated at Newcastle I was the relieving driver taking it to a destination then to depot.
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Odd. Unless other cancellations maybe meant they wanted to keep the train at Newcastle for the next day or send it on a run back to Edinburgh? (Assuming you were taking over to go further south)
 
Priced up for 4 of us to go to London in May. £401 by rail and all of the potential problems that could give us or £280 to fly

We're flying down
 
Paddy O'Dors said:
Last time I was at Heathrow there was a pop up just outside the arrivals hall with two people on trying to get gullible tourists who'd just landed to part with £25 to get on the Heathrow express to Paddington. If you were clued up you'd know that the Elizabeth line is £5.60 for the same single journey.
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Crossrail is class like, got me from Terminal 5 to Farringdon in 25 minutes

The old journey on the Piccadilly line used to take an age
 
Absolute carnage today. Signalling has failed and the East Coast line is blocked. It’s taking 3hrs from York to London - if the train is running
 
LewisLad said:
F'ing shambles today. Wife and son kicked off at York on way to London. Sent to Sheffield, no trains. Taxi down the M1 then a lift from her dad, arriving 5 hours late.

Aye...
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Today was bad. We were also kicked off at York but thankfully we avoided having to go to Sheffield/Derby as there was a train going direct to KX at 5.30pm. Mind, it only arrived in London at 8.50pm😂

The train though was unbearable as it was beyond packed
 
LynchMob said:
Booked a Megabus from London to Manchester on Thursday, 5.99 each way!!
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I booked a Megabus to Manchester airport and traveled at the end of January. Time wise it was similar to the train but I didn't trust the trains to get me there. Megabus are cheaper and have a lot more buses from Sunderland than Megabus. So I thought it would be quite pleasant to sit back and watch the scenery go by. I paid a bit extra to have a front seat to see better. I wouldn't do it again the seats are very uncomfortable. It ran on time mostly and took me direct to the airport but it was an unpleasant journey. I'm getting the train back to Sunderland next week no more buses.
 
zinedine said:
I booked a Megabus to Manchester airport and traveled at the end of January. Time wise it was similar to the train but I didn't trust the trains to get me there. Megabus are cheaper and have a lot more buses from Sunderland than Megabus. So I thought it would be quite pleasant to sit back and watch the scenery go by. I paid a bit extra to have a front seat to see better. I wouldn't do it again the seats are very uncomfortable. It ran on time mostly and took me direct to the airport but it was an unpleasant journey. I'm getting the train back to Sunderland next week no more buses.
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I would go as far as Leeds on the coach these days but no more. Scarred for life getting the megabuses from Sunderland to Bristol when I was at University. 9 hours it used to take, always strange people on it.
Hank Scorpio said:
Today was bad. We were also kicked off at York but thankfully we avoided having to go to Sheffield/Derby as there was a train going direct to KX at 5.30pm. Mind, it only arrived in London at 8.50pm😂

The train though was unbearable as it was beyond packed
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Jesus. Glad they left then. She thinks they were only advising Sheffield to reduce number of people at York. That 5.30 with the little one would've been hell.
 
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zinedine said:
I booked a Megabus to Manchester airport and traveled at the end of January. Time wise it was similar to the train but I didn't trust the trains to get me there. Megabus are cheaper and have a lot more buses from Sunderland than Megabus. So I thought it would be quite pleasant to sit back and watch the scenery go by. I paid a bit extra to have a front seat to see better. I wouldn't do it again the seats are very uncomfortable. It ran on time mostly and took me direct to the airport but it was an unpleasant journey. I'm getting the train back to Sunderland next week no more buses.
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Just arrived in Manchester, slept most of the way from London & only 5 minutes late! Having a pint an a tab now before going to hotel - feeling rather refreshed!! Only 6 people on coach so had a double seat to curl up on.
 

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