CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Rail latest
(583 posts)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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Morning @EdinburghLive_ , services are returning to normal now. @NetworkRailScot teams removed icicles from two tunnels between Waverley and Haymarket, which was causing the overhead power to 'trip'.
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https://mobile.twitter.com/networkrailedb/status/1602222083098169344
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ah, that will be the "overhead wires problem" that delayed my journey this morning.
Posted 1 year ago # -
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The pandemic devastated the railways, despite the government strangely paying to keep them running throughout. Taxpayers spent £16bn and goodness knows how much carbon transporting air round Britain. Latest figures suggest that rail use has stabilised at two-thirds to three-quarters what it was before the pandemic, a huge fall. The fact is that train travel has a high profile but supplies barely 6% of passenger journeys and 8% even of long-distance ones. The vast majority of Britons – 84% – go by road. Talk of a Christmas “lockdown” through rail strikes would apply only to a small minority. For most people, private cars and coaches are the realistic, and cheaper, norm.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/12/ministers-trains-strikes-railways-north
Posted 1 year ago # -
Interesting on icicles
We had this in the High Street-Queen Street tunnel a few years ago but the trains kept running, by dropping the pans & coasting through - and not stopping at High Street
Posted 1 year ago # -
@chdot: Simon Jenkins has a long history of railway skepticism. Read with a large pinch of salt.
Posted 1 year ago # -
“Simon Jenkins has a long history of railway skepticism“
Yes
All this ‘no-one uses the railways’ is easy to do and there’s usually an agenda of one sort or another.
No doubt Marples used it in various ways to ‘justify’ massive road building.
Imagine London without massive rail infrastructure - presume Westminster based politicians would rather not.
Elsewhere
Well clearly people on the Liverpool/Manchester/Leeds/York/etc axis want better.
E-G likewise.
Plus routes shadowing the A9…
Posted 1 year ago # -
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3m ago
12.03 GMT
John Stevenson (Con) says West Coast rail passengers have having terrible experienes. If Avanti does not get its act together, will the government cancel their franchise?Sunak says the government supports the restoration of services before taking long-term decisions. It will be closely monitoring Avanti’s performance.
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Posted 1 year ago # -
Congestion charge / peak fare charge removed on rail in Holyrood budget?
Posted 1 year ago # -
New Sleeper
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STARTING WITH BERLIN
Extension to Prague planned from 2024
Due to construction works south of Dresden, we didn’t get track capacity allocated all the way to Prague for 2023.
The German infrastructure manager allows for just one long distance passenger train every two hours.
BRUSSELS - ANTWERP - ROTTERDAM - AMSTERDAM - BERLIN
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Posted 1 year ago # -
New sleeper is good if bike spaces on board.
Back in Scotia from National...
Peak time train fares will be a thing of the past in Scotland during a six-month trial period. It is not yet known when this pilot will begin. Swinney said this would cost the state £15m.
This is on top of £1.4 billion committed to maintaining, operating and decarbonising rail infrastructure, £60m to electric vehicle charging and £200m in active travel such as cycling and walking.
Posted 1 year ago # -
How will the removal of peak fares work with season tickets? eg EDI-GLA annual season ticket still showing as £4432 pa which is ~£22 per return assuming 200 uses in the year. But an off-peak return is £14.20?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Peak time charging could only really be justified as a way to manage demand but I don't think peak commuter demand has ever gotten back to pre-pandemic levels, has it?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Well there’s demand and capacity.
Putting 2 coach trains on services that are/likely to be busy doesn’t help - not just ‘rush’ hours.
Especially if previous train has been cancelled…
Posted 1 year ago # -
A terrible decision. ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper will get £823m in Scottish Government support next year. Buses will get £62.5m, despite carrying around four times as many passengers as rail. Rail is overwhelmingly used by better-off travellers. If there is £15m going to support public transport fares then it should be for buses.
Posted 1 year ago # -
“If there is £15m going to support public transport fares then it should be for buses.“
Easy to agree with that.
Hard to know if idea is ‘to remove an anomaly’ or ‘compensate for some people paying higher income tax’ OR a small attempt to get a few people out of their cars??
Posted 1 year ago # -
From a thread about valuing road infrastructure.
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data to be used to determine economic impact of road schemes
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That an underground rail passenger is valued the same as a pedestrian but an overground rail passenger is valued higher suggests maintenance costs aren’t a factor. What’s shown are values to estimate costs to employers. Suggestion is highly paid employees travel by rail.
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https://mobile.twitter.com/rtayloruk/status/1059122809820114944
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Morningsider, I don't know exactly how rail funding works. Will any of the money for the ToCs make it's way to network Rail to maintain the tracks?
Posted 1 year ago # -
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RMT boss says no new offers but deal achievable as rail and road passengers face strike disruption – live
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Posted 1 year ago # -
@acsimpson - sorry, missed your question when you posted it. Yes, some of the funding to the rail operators will be paid to Network Rail for track access. This is in addition to the £442m paid directly to Network Rail by the Scottish Government.
Posted 1 year ago # -
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It said it was too early when the railway will reopen.
Road maintenance and management firm BEAR Scotland is also conducting a safety inspection and liaising with Network Rail as to the cause of the landslip.
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Posted 1 year ago # -
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TransPennine Express is not being straight about a major cause of its cancellations: it has lost the goodwill of the staff
The Secret Train Driver is a driver with TransPennine Express
…
Part of the problem is that the train operating companies no longer get fined if they cancel trains, since the government effectively took over control of the railways during Covid. When I first started, if they cancelled a train they were fined thousands of pounds. Previously they would beg staff to work an extra hour or two, however long it took, to get a train to its destination, even if it was really delayed. We would say yes: it was an automatic answer. No problem. We’d do a couple of hours’ extra overtime. But that was when there was goodwill.
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Posted 1 year ago # -
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UK rail system described as ‘broken’ as 2022 data reveals extent of disruption
Delays and cancellations linked to 20 years of privatisation, rising costs and labour shortages worsened by pandemic, say experts
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Posted 1 year ago # -
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This was a self-imposed flight-free pact made easier — but not cheaper or quicker — by using high-speed trains and slow-speed sleeper services.
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Posted 1 year ago #
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