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thehustler posted:Apparently Preston to Manchester is getting electrified by 2016, which is great. Does anybody know if the Preston to Blackpool bit is being done also? It isn't electrified already?? That's mad
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Jul 18, 2012 15:28
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Zephro posted:Hey Bozza, is there any way I can find out whether South West Trains are going to pull their rolling stock from out of their fundaments at any point and put some wifi in along some of the busiest commuter routes in the country? I don't think any of the TOCs that operate in the old Southern Region have wifi, it just doesn't seem to be a priority. When you look at the operators that do have wifi they are all focused on long distance travel, while SWT is primarily catering to commuters. If they ever did put wifi in their trains, I'd bet it would only be on the white long distance fleet. Why they only seem to give wifi to long distance passengers I don't know. Edit: Apparently Southern had wifi on Brighton expresses, but it was removed due to lack of use (!) thehustler posted:Does anybody know if the Preston to Blackpool bit is being done also? I don't think it is. Edit 2: Actually yes it is, but it was actually already announced before this scheme. Here is a big nerdy list of everything. This is all in addition to the GWML electrification and the Liverpool - Leeds stuff. The Electric Spine - Southampton Port – Basingstoke enhancement from 750 DC third rail electrification to 25 kv AC overhead electrification; - Basingstoke – Reading 25 kv AC overhead electrification; - Oxford – Banbury - Leamington Spa 25 kv AC overhead electrification; - Leamington Spa – Coventry capacity enhancement 25 kv AC overhead electrification and additional double track; - Coventry – Nuneaton 25 kv AC overhead electrification; - Oxford – Bicester Town - Bletchley – Bedford 25 kv AC overhead electrification and double track (core of East West Rail); - Bedford – Nottingham and Derby, and Derby – Sheffield (Midland Main Line) 25 kv AC overhead electrification; - Leicester area capacity enhancement (freight/passenger crossing flows); - Derby station area remodelling in conjunction with renewals; - Sheffield station area remodelling in conjunction with renewals; - Kettering – Corby 25 kv AC overhead electrification; - Kettering – Corby capacity enhancement (additional double track); And, where applicable, on all routes loading gauge enhancement to W12 South Wales South Wales Electrification 25 kv AC overhead electrification of - Cardiff Central to Cardiff Queen Street, Cardiff Queen Street to Aberdare, - Cardiff Queen Street to Cardiff Bay, - Cardiff Queen Street to Coryton, - Newport to Ebbw Vale, - Cardiff Central – Pontyclun – Bridgend – Maesteg, - Abercynon - Merthyr Tydfil, - Grangetown to Penarth, - Cardiff Central – Danescourt – Radyr (City Line), - Cardiff Queen Street to Rhymney, - Pontypridd to Treherbert, - Cardiff Central – Barry – Bridgend (Vale of Glamorgan), - Barry to Barry Island, and - Bridgend to Swansea. Thames Valley - Acton – Willesden 25 kv AC overhead electrification. - Slough – Windsor 25 kv AC overhead electrification. - Maidenhead – Marlow 25 kv AC overhead electrification. - Twyford – Henley-on-Thames 25 kv AC overhead electrification, and - Oxford station area capacity and station enlargement. Midlands - Walsall – Rugeley 25 kv AC overhead electrification, - Water Orton – Tamworth capacity, and - Depot and stabling enhancement for extra trains. Yorkshire - Micklefield – Selby 25 kv AC overhead electrification, - Micklefield turnback, - Huddersfield Station capacity enhancement, - West Yorkshire platform lengthening including Leeds, - South Yorkshire platform lengthening, and - Depot and stabling enhancement for extra trains. Airports and Ports - Heathrow Western Access subject to business case and conclusion of an agreement with the aviation industry, - Ely area capacity enhancement (freight/passenger crossing flows) and - Redhill additional platform Northern Hub and Manchester - Liverpool – Manchester track capacity (Huyton – Northern Hub), - Manchester Airport fourth platform (Northern Hub , - Castlefield corridor additional capacity and additional through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly (Northern Hub), - Rochdale turnback (Northern Hub), and - Depot and stabling enhancement for extra trains South East - London Waterloo platform lengthening and station throat expansion, - Virginia Water - Reading line platform lengthening for 10-car operation, - Gordon Hill turnback, - West Anglia Lower Lea Valley capacity enhancement (turnback facilities), - Bow Junction capacity enhancement (potentially CP6), - East Kent capacity enhancement including relocation of Rochester Station, - Uckfield line platform lengthening for 10-car operation, - Norwood Junction capacity enhancement (turnback facilities), - Paddington station passenger capacity improvements, - Victoria station passenger capacity improvements, - Clapham Junction station congestion relief, - Wimbledon station congestion relief, - Traction power upgrade – Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Anglia, LNE, - South London HV traction power upgrade, and - Depot and stabling enhancement for extra trains West - Filton – Bristol capacity enhancement (four-track). - Bristol Temple Meads station capacity and incorporation of historic Digby Wyatt train shed. Station potentially a focus of wider city regeneration. - Route gauge clearance for different DMUs. East Coast (Ring fenced £240m enhancement fund) - Stevenage Down platform addition, - Huntingdon – Fletton capacity enhancement (four track), - Peterborough Down LDHS call time reduction, - Peterborough grade separation for access to GE/GN line, - Doncaster bay platform and track capacity, and - ERTMS signalling system fitted on the south end of the East Coast Main Line (renewals item and not funded as an enhancement). Enhancement Funds - £200m Strategic Freight Network - £300m Passenger Journey Improvement - £100m Station Infrastructure Improvement - £100m Station Access for All - £140m Development and Innovation - £65m Level Crossing Improvement nozz fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Jul 18, 2012 |
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Jul 18, 2012 16:26
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The expansion of Manchester Piccadilly will see my favourite pub/club venue on the planet close down. In conclusion, gently caress you Bozza.
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Jul 18, 2012 17:35
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Which one?
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Jul 18, 2012 21:53
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Gat posted:Thames Valley GOD loving DAMNIT. Literally just finished the design on these shitters assuming 3 car turbos cos "there's no way these branches are getting electrified any time soon". Urgh, got a meeting presenting this to FGW et al today so that should be 'amusing'. PS sorry about your pub, Crossrail shut the Astoria in London and I'm still annoyed about that 
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Jul 19, 2012 08:46
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The train I was on ran over a goat the other day and yesterday another train hit a cow and had to be cancelled due to damage. Farmers need to sort their fences out!
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Jul 22, 2012 17:06
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britishbornandbread posted:The expansion of Manchester Piccadilly will see my favourite pub/club venue on the planet close down. In conclusion, gently caress you Bozza. Heh, Star & Garter?
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Jul 22, 2012 18:04
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£64.50 for a single from Kings Cross to Grantham (just over one hour). Are you loving kidding me?
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Aug 12, 2012 00:12
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Lord of the Llamas posted:£64.50 for a single from Kings Cross to Grantham (just over one hour). Are you loving kidding me? Yield management at work.
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Aug 12, 2012 00:45
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Lord of the Llamas posted:£64.50 for a single from Kings Cross to Grantham (just over one hour). Are you loving kidding me? :dahnsahf: £1.80 for a pint of Carlsberg in my local. £4.50 in London
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Aug 12, 2012 02:17
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Lord of the Llamas posted:£64.50 for a single from Kings Cross to Grantham (just over one hour). Are you loving kidding me? Free is you're in the Army.
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Aug 12, 2012 10:47
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Lord of the Llamas posted:£64.50 for a single from Kings Cross to Grantham (just over one hour). Are you loving kidding me? But don't you see, our system gives you a range of easy to understand fares!. Did you know that a Hull trains only off-peak single is valid in the morning rush hour on trains departing London? While an East coast only off-peak day single is not (morning peak defined as trains departing between 0300 and 0953). And neither is an any permitted super-off peak single (morning peak defined as trains departing between 0300 and 0906), which is actually more expensive than a Hull trains only anytime single. And evening peak time could either be (train departure time) between 1500 - 1800, 1555 - 1901 or 1459 - 1859 (1815 on Fridays) depending which off-peak single you bought. By the way, if you buy a return ticket the peak restrictions might be different on the return journey! nozz fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Aug 12, 2012 |
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Aug 12, 2012 11:42
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Fig. 1 - A sign anyone familiar to the railway will have seen Fig. 2 - The line in question  Meanwhile tomorrow we get to discover how much more expensive our trains will be thanks to the government's handy RPI+shitloads policy, unless Gideon's done something nice and reformed ahahahahahah I can't bring myself to write it.
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Aug 13, 2012 18:11
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I love the note on that site: "Note: Not all the fares shown on this site are available to the general public. The ticketing system is not simple, and some amount of prior knowledge is needed in order to use the site effectively." I can picture the poor guy who tried to write a clean and simple guide and website tearing his hair out in despair. Another thing is that the precise on-peak/off-peak times for the various train companies tends to be almost impossible to find (or certainly used to be). Munin fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Aug 13, 2012 |
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Aug 13, 2012 18:26
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Munin posted:Another thing is that the precise on-peak/off-peak times for the various train companies tends to be almost impossible to find (or certainly used to be). Part of the problem was the so called "Simplification" of the names of fares. On the one hand it did limit the amount of names for a ticket to 4: Anytime, Off-Peak (and Super Off-peak) and Advanced. The problem with this is that any of the minor differences in restrictions between (and within) each operating company is now completely obscured when you are selecting a ticket on a machine. The tickets themselves don't even have printed on them the relevent Restriction Code (not a comprehensive list), which the average passenger doesn't even know exists. Most people might assume that any train after 9.30am is off-peak, but that really isn't the case at all. The problem is that the restrictions are so complicated its impossible to concisely present them to the public, instead generally making us do the hard work to find out. This applies to route validity as well. The internet has helped somewhat, booking engines automatically take everything into account and so for most people you don't have to know what the full restrictions are for your ticket, as long as you know in advance what you are doing. Train companies websites often have their peaktime restrictions on there somewhere but its often only catered for the most common or most simple journeys which take place solely on their network. But if you have something like a long distance off-peak ticket that requires a change between two London terminals, its quite possible that the ticket will be valid on your first train that goes into London during rush hour, regardless of what it says on the train company's website (Instead the restrictions applythe second leg, leaving London. This situation arises when the first leg is considered to be a "connecting service"). Because this depends on the exact journey being made, you can't really have a general piece of advice on a website. ADDITIONALLY peaktime restrictions can have an easement for specific services which will probably not be put on their website either, for example. In the end you can either use that site I linked earlier to find the restriction code by clicking on the ticket name you want. It also exists on the National Rail Enquiry website: when you have your exact journey displayed and selected as if for purchase, you can click on the hyperlink next to the price at the bottom which lays out the full list of restrictions. At the bottom is a link to the validity code for that exact ticket. Basically its a huge mess.
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Aug 13, 2012 19:11
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Looks like First Group are getting the West Coast Mainline franchise. Wonder what units they're going to be using.
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Aug 13, 2012 20:43
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Hezzy posted:Looks like First Group are getting the West Coast Mainline franchise. Wonder what units they're going to be using. As far as I know they're more or less locked (possibly legally and definitely practically) into using the current ones for pretty much the whole of the franchise.
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Aug 13, 2012 20:46
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Just generally browsing the thread so forgive me if this has already been asked but what is the cost breakdown to get a train from one end of its journey to another? It just puzzles me that tickets can be made mega-cheap to ultra-expensive and still be on the same carriage. Like getting an £8 journey from Sheffield to London and then having to pay £50 or more for a journey back up north, I've had to do this a lot of times (I'll admit I didn't always plan ahead) and it just doesn't make much economic sense. Why can't it just be one reasonable price based on cost to run the service?
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Aug 13, 2012 22:36
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Temascos posted:Just generally browsing the thread so forgive me if this has already been asked but what is the cost breakdown to get a train from one end of its journey to another? It just puzzles me that tickets can be made mega-cheap to ultra-expensive and still be on the same carriage. Like getting an £8 journey from Sheffield to London and then having to pay £50 or more for a journey back up north, I've had to do this a lot of times (I'll admit I didn't always plan ahead) and it just doesn't make much economic sense. I'm not sure how easy this would be to calculate. Running costs of a train would include: the leasing of the train itself, track access charges, fuel, staff wages, maintenance... this is going to vary alot depending on the exact journey, never mind the differening passenger numbers. Cheap advance tickets are there to simply fill up trains that would normally be relatively empty. If there are no advances available that means the fares have already been allocated or the train is usually busy enough to never have advance tickets. Advance tickets are so restrictive to ensure that you only travel on these "quieter" trains, and as an excuse to make people pay more for flexibility. When looking at one particular train by itself advance tickets generally make some sense, prices go up as more people buy tickets for that train. It gets complicated and weird when you start comparing it to other journeys (including the same trip at a different time), or when a different journey partially shares the same route, or when a journey involves two companies that might have wildly different pricing methods, or when part of your journey is in peak time somewhere along the way, or there's some weird fare that is held over from BR days that no one has noticed to change. In other words they are charging as much as they can get away with for each particular journey, with low advance fares available to put on adverts, enticing people to consider the train journey as an option. Advances are really geared for "the occasional leisure trip" type of journey, regular commuters would all be on season tickets anyway. For your journey, you pay £50 when you cant plan the return trip in advance - once you are at the station and ready to go its just "take it or leave it" really, coaches are not really much better at such short notice. By the way the walk up return ticket price is going to be only marginally more expensive than a walk up single, so if you know you can't specify an exact train for the return trip there's no real point in getting the Advance ticket on the outbound trip, it probably costs more overall. (Returns are priced this way since 90% people do return trips, even if not on the same day so might as well shaft the occasional one way traveller). Edit: Travel companies in general want to encourage you to have concrete plans so that they know how many seats to provide
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Aug 13, 2012 23:26
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If, as asserted in numerous books, trains were vital in the rapid mobilisation of the Army in 1914/15. And, if, as asserted by the government, trains are a vital aspect of population movement as part of civil defence plans during the cold war; then people should be in the Tower on treason charges for the omnishambles that is the British train network. Just received my "Bring Back British Rail" season ticket wallet to home my SPT zone card. A lot of the train guards seem to like it \o/
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Aug 14, 2012 03:37
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Gat posted:Travel companies in general want to encourage you to have concrete plans so that they know how many seats to provide
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Aug 14, 2012 07:59
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Good news quote:Rail fares will rise by 6.2% in January Oh well I'm sure Theresa is right when she says charging us more is better for us. Or (surprise) politicians don't know how to run railways. John Major, 1993 posted:British Rail is deeply inefficient Reforming our Railways, Department for Transport, 2012 posted:The rail industry... remains unacceptably inefficient. Trebles all round, to progress!
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Aug 14, 2012 12:57
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:Good news Buy some shares then?
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Aug 14, 2012 13:47
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tentish klown posted:Buy some shares then? Or even better, buy the whole company! Then you get all the profits!
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Aug 14, 2012 14:10
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tentish klown posted:Buy some shares then? But I spent all my money on season tickets so I could get to work 
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Aug 14, 2012 14:25
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:Good news You should have seen her interview on BBC Breakfast this morning. Really hard hitting and completely took her to task for just repeating "we are committed to these investments, which will result in a better rail network for all." Oh wait no, they just took her at face value, even if she was repeating herself as much as Miliband famously did.
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Aug 14, 2012 16:43
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I think it sums up the whole problem with the franchising system if First Group get their grubby hands on West Coast. The little scam they pulled with the Great Western should have got them thrown out but no, they're gonna get WCML and look to be moving into the territory of gulping up the whole Network South East system. Bollocks. It's all just bollocks.
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Aug 14, 2012 18:29
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glitchkrieg posted:You should have seen her interview on BBC Breakfast this morning. Really hard hitting and completely took her to task for just repeating "we are committed to these investments, which will result in a better rail network for all." Oh wait no, they just took her at face value, even if she was repeating herself as much as Miliband famously did. If you're wanting hard hitting interviews then a breakfast program isn't exactly the best place to be looking dude.
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Aug 14, 2012 19:11
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:If you're wanting hard hitting interviews then a breakfast program isn't exactly the best place to be looking dude. That'll be why it's the only interview they're giving, then.
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Aug 14, 2012 19:38
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Loving Africa Chaps posted:If you're wanting hard hitting interviews then a breakfast program isn't exactly the best place to be looking dude. Not on the telly, anyway.
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Aug 14, 2012 20:21
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The private eye are always going on about how poo poo first group are. They call them "worst group"
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Aug 14, 2012 21:51
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They allegedly have large quantities of parliament on bungs of various sizes. I'm sure for a while they were the largest corporate donor to the Labour Party.
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Aug 14, 2012 22:11
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Mr Cuddles posted:The private eye are always going on about how poo poo first group are. They call them "worst group" I'm surprised no one's even given their Great Western franchise the full name "Worst Late Cistern". Only ever seen the first two words. The way that TOCs can variate by 5%, does this mean what I think it does and allow them to raise fares on a barely used branch by 1.2% and slap major commuter routes with an 11.2% rise?
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Aug 15, 2012 00:15
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Something like that! Edit: To be fair, the average % has to be reflected in total revenue earned, so not all of the highest fares can be put on the busiest routes. However, this increase only applied to regulated fares: Season Tickets for commuter journeys and Off-Peak tickets for intercity journeys. Train companies can increase by whatever they want on any other type of ticket, though these are still somewhat influenced by government targets. nozz fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Aug 15, 2012 |
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Aug 15, 2012 00:27
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But surely if one TOC put its prices up 11% then customers would just chose another TOC to use for their journey? Isn't that how competition works? For instance the fairs are going up 2% above inflation up here in Scotland and if I want to get from Glasgow to Edinburgh, I generally have a choice of two trains, one leaving Central, the other leaving Queen Street. The Central train is slower and run by Scotrail, which is First Group, the Queen Street train is faster and run by Scotrail. Oh, wait... No, let me work this out...I know! Privatisation is better because private companies will invest more because if a public company makes £1 profit then that is £1 reinvested into the business, but if a private company, with shareholders that demand dividends of say, 10%, make £1 profit then that's 90p reinvested...Erm... So no choice, less reinvestment, more subsidy, worse service. Thank you Major and gently caress you very much Tony Blair.
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Aug 15, 2012 02:26
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Iohannes posted:But surely if one TOC put its prices up 11% then customers would just chose another TOC to use for their journey? Isn't that how competition works? For instance the fairs are going up 2% above inflation up here in Scotland and if I want to get from Glasgow to Edinburgh, I generally have a choice of two trains, one leaving Central, the other leaving Queen Street. The Central train is slower and run by Scotrail, which is First Group, the Queen Street train is faster and run by Scotrail. Oh, wait... I would love to see what actual choice in the railways would lead to just for the sheer curiousity. Queues upon queues of rolling stock as far as the eye can see, from ICEs to handcars...  (Though, admittedly, I do live in a part of Yorkshire where I do have the choice of two TOCs if I want to go to Leeds. However, I, like everyone, just gets on the TPE train because it's twice as fast as the Northern train and also isn't in danger of spontaneously transporting itself and its contents to another dimension)
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Aug 15, 2012 03:03
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And stuff like this is why I'm glad America only has government owned passenger train service. Well, technically there's a few private companies left who do niche stuff, but they're mostly like "excursion" tour stuff.
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Aug 15, 2012 03:13
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I think TPE do a really good job of training their staff and they've got a corporate culture revolving around good customer service.
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Aug 15, 2012 03:16
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Hezzy posted:I think TPE do a really good job of training their staff and they've got a corporate culture revolving around good customer service. TPE could be run by the devil himself and I would still take that over a Northern Pacer. But not Stagecoach. gently caress Brian Souter.
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Aug 15, 2012 03:30
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TinTower posted:TPE could be run by the devil himself and I would still take that over a Northern Pacer. When I worked as a station supervisor, I heard so many stories of pacers and sprinters literally falling to pieces. Like, I'm talking entire engine blocks falling onto the track and the conductor watching as it slowly disappears off into the distance. Also funny incident at a NW station involving a 156 a fortnight or so ago. Some lout climbed into the cabin while the unit was sat empty on a station and starting tooting the horn. He broke the horn. Cue the 156 making a 20 mile trip to the next station at like 5mph due to having no horn. Luckily it coupled up with another unit there.
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Aug 15, 2012 04:40
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