British trains and government targets

[*End Is Forever*]

Incidentally, the only time I've ever travelled on French railways, my train back was hideously late. Also, there are very few lines in France with anything like the frequency and capacity of British lines. It's not a very like for like comparison.

[JohnT]

Get a car.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by *End Is Forever*
Incidentally, the only time I've ever travelled on French railways, my train back was hideously late.

Was it due to the SNCF? In the Stuttgart-Paris travel, I often get late because the Deutsche Bahn has been late even before I climbed in the train...
I have been late in French trains a few times, but then again I use them very often. Your 100% late is really bad luck.

Also, there are very few lines in France with anything like the frequency and capacity of British lines. It's not a very like for like comparison.

In 2001, the SNCF serviced 315 millions trips on long distances, including 83 millions via only the TGV.
On short distances in the Paris region, there were also 560 million more travels.

Maybe you're right, but I'd like to see figures of you substantiating your claim. I looked for them, but I gave up after seeing chaos your rail websites were.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Big Crunch


You're French, you'd be haughty at reading anything.

[Drake Tungsten]

* Spiffor can only feel haughty when reading this thread

* Drake Tungsten feels a bit haughtier than Spiffor

[Skanky Burns]

I like the Australian train system
We have only had 7 major derailments in 7 years. If we make it to the end of this month without another one, that will be less than 1 major accident a year!

[Solly]

The Viceroy

I reserved my seat for my return from Chester to Euston, and when I got onto the mainline at Crewe, some git was sitting in my seat.. So i asked nicely if they could move, and I got the response "Well, somebodies in my seat !!" ... turned out the reservations system had crashed and had double booked loads of seats and as a result, there were about 20 people too many for the coach, and it caused hours of delays ... AAAAAGH ..

Well were there other seats available? If there weren't forgive me for this, but..

Trains aren't aeroplanes ffs. Whenever I am travelling back from uni to Manchester, I'll just take an empty seat. There's never anyone standing on the train..yet you get one grumpy fool demanding the seat the train company allocated him. So you have to get up, moving your coat and bags, and sit on an identical seat opposite. This has happened a couple of times..if there are seats available, take them.

I like the Australian train system
We have only had 7 major derailments in 7 years. If we make it to the end of this month without another one, that will be less than 1 major accident a year!

I remember a funny example of rail safety a while back. I don't remember the specifics but it went something like this. On a certain route, they wanted to slow all trains down to like 20mph or something bollocks like that, in order to make sure the journey was safe. They did an analysis of the situation, and found that doing that would save something like an average of 1 life every 20 years; they also saw that by slowing down the train, they would force x number of people to drive the same journey, an increase in traffic that could cause more than 1 death every 20 years. Er, no doubt EiF knows what I am on about...

[*End Is Forever*]

Stew,

Trains aren't aeroplanes ffs. Whenever I am travelling back from uni to Manchester, I'll just take an empty seat. There's never anyone standing on the train..yet you get one grumpy fool demanding the seat the train company allocated him. So you have to get up, moving your coat and bags, and sit on an identical seat opposite. This has happened a couple of times..if there are seats available, take them.

Not every line is like Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury, you know.

Main line routes out of London - especially at peak times - are regularly reserved to capacity, and that's before people without reservations decide to get on!

I remember a funny example of rail safety a while back. I don't remember the specifics but it went something like this. On a certain route, they wanted to slow all trains down to like 20mph or something bollocks like that, in order to make sure the journey was safe. They did an analysis of the situation, and found that doing that would save something like an average of 1 life every 20 years; they also saw that by slowing down the train, they would force x number of people to drive the same journey, an increase in traffic that could cause more than 1 death every 20 years. Er, no doubt EiF knows what I am on about...

I'm not aware of the specific example, but I do find the hysteria "rail safety" as a topic induces rather puzzling. Serious rail incidents are few and far between, and yet it dominantes the media (even when there has been no such incident), whilst you rarely see headlines about the hundreds upon hundreds of people that die on our roads every year. It's perverse.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
* Drake Tungsten feels a bit haughtier than Spiffor

/me feels ashamed now that Drake entered the place

[:) Smiley]

* scratches head and wonders what trains are

[RGBVideo]

Hooray for private-owned, splintered British railway-organisation!

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by VJ
Hooray for private-owned, splintered British railway-organisation!

yep, for every industry that needed privatizing theres one that didn't.