The Railways

[Clem H Fandango]

On 11/05/2023 at 16:52, Bjornebye said:

 

Same trains just rebranded and more expensive. They fucking stink. I remember them pendolinos seemed like fucking spaceships when they came out 20 years ago. 

Exactly, some trains on the network are 40 years old. Just gets re-covered with new vinyl when a new operator steps in.

Vinyl has to be replaced at least every 6 years so it confirms to fire regulations. It might be surprising to some that every label on a train inside or out has to pass a fire test. You don't want to be breathing in black acrid smoke from standard vinyl.

And as a side note each carriage on a train inside and out I charge about 3k, so every train to re-cover is about 20k in total.

[Bjornebye]

4 minutes ago, Clem H Fandango said:

Exactly, some trains on the network are 40 years old. Just gets re-covered with new vinyl when a new operator steps in.

Vinyl has to be replaced at least every 6 years so it confirms to fire regulations. It might be surprising to some that every label on a train inside or out has to pass a fire test. You don't want to be breathing in black acrid smoke from standard vinyl.

And as a side note each carriage on a train inside and out I charge about 3k, so every train to re-cover is about 20k in total.

 

So every time I travel to Portsmouth I basically pay for half a train to be covered. 

[Clem H Fandango]

Just now, Bjornebye said:

 

So every time I travel to Portsmouth I basically pay for half a train to be covered. 

Hahaha yep! 

We do the cruise ships aswell down here so double bubble!

[sir roger]

The new Merseyrail trains are good, but not sure who decided to make the seats out of concrete.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Ticket office closures, coming soon to a station near you.

[Mudface]

This sounds like it'll work perfectly and no one will be inconvenienced at all on their way to work after buying a ridiculously overpriced ticket.

[elvis]

Hoping to get from Liverpool to Manchester airport on 30th , I know there's a strike on the 29th but Trainline are saying 30th will be affected . I assume this is some kind of knock on affect, does anyone know how likely next day issues will be ? Only use trains about 2/3 times a year

[Gnasher]

 

 

 

[Gnasher]

Lucky we've still got ticket offices,

 

 

 

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 17/07/2023 at 20:05, Gnasher said:

 

 

 

Nice little Ralph Wiggum quote in there, too.

[Captain Willard]

This is interesting:

 

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Well, because that's the way they built them in England, and English engineers designed the first US railroads. Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that's the gauge they used. So, why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England . You see, that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since. And what about the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's as came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' ases.)  Now, the twist to the story: When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature, of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system, was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's arse. 

[Kepler-186]

Nearly new trains removed from

service on the trans Pennine routes. 

Free markets win. 
 

https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/09/05/uk-transpennine-express-to-withdraw-nearly-new-nova-3-train-sets/

[Harry Squatter]

On 09/07/2023 at 01:26, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Ticket office closures, coming soon to a station near you.

I like the way these twats say it is "modernisation" when all it is about is cutting everything to the bone, providing a non existent service and maximising profits. 

[bossy]

I’ve just been, and come back, to Spain by train, stopping in France to break up the journeys. Absolute pleasure, all the trains ran on time, great scenery, basic food and drink. First class and standard class both full because the difference in price wasn’t so great, first class having a bit more room. The only train I missed was my final one. My train from London to Manchester ran late so missed the one home and had to wait 35 minutes for the next one, so not bad but annoying when you’re knackered. 

[Kepler-186]

Reports government might stop HS2 North as costs spiral. 
 

A damning verdict…not my words the words of Railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis. 
 

”That the future of these critical, overdue projects is in any way in question, particularly that they may be thrown on the pyre of pork barrel politics in advance of an election, says everything about the health of the UK's dysfunctional democracy.

 

“We often hear questions about why major UK infrastructure projects cost so much and take so long to deliver, and herein lies the answer: our political institutions are set up to deliver as little as possible, or ideally nothing. We see this in our approach to smaller projects too (in my view the term "minimum viable product" is a toxic one), but when it comes to major, economy shifting infrastructure, quality or indeed necessity is ignored in the face of chasing meaningless and indeed damaging fiscal rules. Or worse: votes.

 

“The UK is now significantly off-track in meeting its carbon emissions targets. Levelling up is already a forgotten term. It is nothing short of a calamity for the nearly-70M people living on our little cluster of islands.”

 

 

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/government-considering-cancelling-hs2-north-of-birmingham-to-save-money-14-09-2023/

[sir roger]

As probably the only positive list on this thread, we went to Chester races a couple of weeks ago and a return ticket on Merseyrail from Ormskirk to Chester on the new trains was £5.95. Fantastic value.

[Section_31]

Infrastructure projects in Britain always go to shit because nobody involved gives a fuck.

 

The likes of Germany and Japan have a sort of 'healthy nationalism' so if they're building a bullet train or some shit they're quite proud of it and want the world to think it's boss.

 

As soon as HS2 was announced half the consultancy bums in Britain probably bought a new Rolex there and then. The construction company would be running game on the government, the suppliers would be running game on the construction company, everything would be over budget as people worked their angles, leaving John Q Taxpayer here fucked in the ass.

 

That's what happens though when you say there's no such thing as society and that it's everyone for themselves. 

[bossy]

There’s a complete lack of civil pride and courage. ‘They’ are corrupt and ‘we’ are exhausted by all the fucking drama. 

[Kevin D]

 

[RedKnight]

There's not much that's as upsetting about UK infrastructure than the state our railways have been allowed to fall into. The government says no one uses ticket offices and that's why they're closing them. One reason is that the pricing structure is so stupid that no one would buy a ticket on the day of travel for anything but a short journey, because it's too expensive.

 

Most major cities should have tram systems put in and cars banned from them. Nottingham isn't that great a city but it's tram is excellent, and it's baffling that other cities don't have them as a matter of course.

 

The speed and price of public transport, all run for profit of private companies, holds the UK back and keeps the chance of reducing emissions as a pipe dream. It's okay though, as there's nothing the Tories won't do to appease their base, including damaging climate change targets.

 

The whole thing is a racket, like the corruption in the Wire. No projects are done without backhanders and donations.

[Creator Supreme]

56 minutes ago, RedKnight said:

There's not much that's as upsetting about UK infrastructure than the state our railways have been allowed to fall into. The government says no one uses ticket offices and that's why they're closing them. One reason is that the pricing structure is so stupid that no one would buy a ticket on the day of travel for anything but a short journey, because it's too expensive.

 

Most major cities should have tram systems put in and cars banned from them. Nottingham isn't that great a city but it's tram is excellent, and it's baffling that other cities don't have them as a matter of course.

 

The speed and price of public transport, all run for profit of private companies, holds the UK back and keeps the chance of reducing emissions as a pipe dream. It's okay though, as there's nothing the Tories won't do to appease their base, including damaging climate change targets.

 

The whole thing is a racket, like the corruption in the Wire. No projects are done without backhanders and donations.

Well said.

 

I agree with the idea of kicking cars out of cities and putting in tram systems, elevated railways, more cycle routes, and improving current bus and rail services.

 

I love driving, I do, but we need to get away from private car ownership to a fully integrated public transport system. Otherwise the planet has no chance whatsoever.

[Creator Supreme]

Just seen this story about Burnham amongst others calling for a review of Avanti West Coast:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-67762923

 

I particularly liked this bit from the last paragraph:

 

"A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: "Despite progress since last year, Avanti still needs to further improve and we continue to hold it to account for matters within its control.

"Crew shortages linked to train drivers on average £60,000 salaries refusing to work overtime highlight the need for modernisation across the wider railway that is being resisted by unions.""

 

Tories are always gonna Tory aren't they?

[Bobby Hundreds]

Yeah make them poor so they have no choice but to have to work overtime rather than paying for more drivers and evening up the work load. Cunts at the very top are going to kill us all with their constant fucking insatiable appetite for more more more, more profit more growth even if it means everything is shit for everyone except them. The so called "wealth creators" are now the tumours in humanity.

[Creator Supreme]

Fucking Omnishambles, people should be in jail for this, it's a massive fucking con.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67932247

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Steve Rotheram promising to open three new stations: Carr Mill (St Helens), Daresbury (Halton) and Woodchurch (Wirral).

 

The Woodchurch one, in particular, has been talked about for decades, but the cost of electrifying the track beyond Bidston was a deal-breaker.  Because the new trains have batteries, that's no longer an issue.

 

 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/plans-open-three-new-merseyrail-28753088