Come riparare i treni della Gran Bretagna: gli esperti chiedono più tessere ferroviarie, prenotazioni e carrozze di prima classe

I don’t find much truth in this article.

I don’t take the train regularly because fares are high, integration with other forms of public transport is poor, services are relatively infrequent, and there are no late night services.

I don’t really care about getting a seat reservation or getting a better seat on my commute. I’d only be there for half an hour anyway. For infrequent long distance journeys, it’s way better to drive instead.

I was shocked by how much better the rail services were when I visited Germany this summer.

What annoys me is that it seems like everyone else qualifies for a railcard apart from the bulk of the working age population aged 30 – 59 (like me)

We need a thourough modernization and expansion of our rail network, nothing else will fix things.

That sounds like a report aimed at getting the rail operators buy in.

The real way to get more people travelling by train regularly would be to reduce the cost of rail fares.

It is significantly cheaper for me to drive an inefficient, V8 motor car, getting 17mpg, the 52 miles from my house to London. Pay for fuel, parking, relevant charges and then get the tube the last few stops if needed (that I’d have to pay anyway)

I get to sit in my own seat, guaranteed, I get room and am comfortable. There’s no obnoxious people and I’m not going to get stabbed. It also, somehow, costs significantly less and is often reasonably comparable in time taken!

Unless I’m going into very central London (Oxford street say) and then it takes a bit longer but even with parking it’s still cheaper than a return ticket.

It’s also still cheaper and quicker for me to drive in my car, and park, to various other towns that I might want to go to. The only time it gets quicker is if it’s a really long distance journey – and then it CERTAINLY isn’t anywhere cheaper.

Until that changes It won’t be attractive.

These seem to just make things worse by increasing costs and decreasing capacity

As someone turning 31 next year, please introduce a 31-40 rail card

So out of touch.

* Kids under 18 should travel free if with a parent.
* Season tickets should allow free travel for the whole family, evenings and weekends
* Bring back bicycle cars
* Clamp down on anti-social noise
* Subsidise tickets by charging motorway tolls

Things that need fixing?

The rolling stock leasing companies (this is where most of the profits get siphoned off to. They need taking out of the equation entirely).

The whole London centric hub and spoke network layout (thank you Dr Beeching, 60 years later and we’re still affected).

Connected to the last one – hub and spoke networks from all key cities across all 4 nations.

Having no real competition on major routes.

Tying licences for major route services to provision of local community services.

No urgent maintenance being done during the hours after the morning peak and before the evening peak.

The arcane and over complex ticketing system. Split journeys with two sets of tickets should not cost less than end to end tickets.

It’s a monumental task.

More first class? We need less.

First class should only be on Intercity routes. Everywhere else is just wasting capcity

How to fix Britain’s trains:

Bring them into the public sector and stop giving money to shareholders.

Make it so that a train journey isn’t more expensive than flying or driving on your own.

Have trains running past 11pm. If the reason rail is so expensive is due to capacity, why not increase the capacity using the easiest method by adding more earlier and later journeys. It’s ridiculous that I can’t plan to go to the theatre or a concert outside of my home town because I can never book a train back because the last ones are always so early.

Build HS2 to increase capacity.

First class on planes works because the journeys tend to be 5+ hours and people have to add on the extra hours of security and finding their luggage. First class on a train that takes 1-3 hours isn’t going to be as profitable. The real first class experience will be on HS2 getting you there in half the amount of time.

Rail cards are silly because they only benefit people who aren’t 31-59.

The only real way to fix them is to make the train a viable option in terms of cost and availability.

Some of these fixes would be easy, some are already happening, some are massively expensive and would take years, but worth it –

– Nationalise all train companies. Labour, to their credit, threatened to nationalise train operators not doing a good enough job, and have done so to some of them, so it is possible. None of them are any better as a result though.

– Build more railways and reopen branch lines where possible. This is actually the real purpose of HS2, not “cutting 20 minutes of a train journey from London to Manchester”. Get intercity traffic off the existing mainlines so regional and freight traffic can be increased.

– More trains per hour on every line where possible.

– Reduce ticket prices so the train is a no-brainer instead of choosing to drive.

– Allow anyone to use a ticket on any train provided it isn’t full. The fact you cannot simply get an earlier or later train because you’re not booked on it, despite there being empty seats, is madness.

– Have standing-only train carriages with leaning pads and a long table for a laptop or whatever, charging ports and free wi-fi. Makes the train more productive a place to be.

Last two nicked from Rory Sutherland, but they’re brilliant points.

Can we go back to locomotion? I’ll pay 2p and sit in an open top carriage

Trains are prohibitively expensive and if you fork out you’re not guaranteed your train will arrive. If it arrives you’re not guaranteed it’ll be on time. When it does arrive you’re not guaranteed a seat.

> In Switzerland, almost every rail passenger pays the annual subscription of around £180 for the “Half Fare Travelcard”. Only tourists like me lament the price of a Swiss journey from (say) the deep south to the far north of the country, because only tourists pay around £90 for the privilege. For everyone else it’s £45.

One of the highest earning economies in the world pay less than us even without a rail card.

How to fix Britain’s trains?
Make it affordable
Make it reliable

I believe that 1st class should be discontinued and all carriages better designed bearing in mind that a great many passengers will have luggage. A booking system should be used by law and a standing only carriage be added. All rail journeys should be heavily subsidised and finally the railways nationalised again

The expert forgot to add these to their list.

Clean trains – clean seats, tables, buttons. every surface needs cleaning. why would I pay over £100 for a ticket to sit in chairs that were originally grey now brown. Or surfaces all sticky. I’d rather lick the handrail of an escalator than set foot in a train.

More trains, more seats.

Stop cancelling trains.

More direct routes instead of having to get 4 trains to travel 67 miles.

Cheaper train fees.

Ban passengers from wearing an entire bottle of purfume/aftershave or deodorant. If you need that much, maybe you should wash more or start washing.

Ban alcohol on trains, I don’t want to be sat next to some aggressive drunk twat.

I wonder if Mr Abelman has ever commuted by train?

He clearly has no clue that “modern” Transpennine class 185s are 18 years old and still have bits of paper in the seats for reservations, that at least 20% turn up half sized, that between Manchester and Liverpool three of the main stations including Warrington Central and Liverpool South Parkway can’t accommodate 6 carriage train, that having 3/4 of a carriage for the five people who decides to pay the premium for first class is not bringing in lots of revenue.

And that’s just the individual trains. My station for instance has the 2446th best performance in the UK, out of 2639. I make a nice rainy day savings pot out of my delay repay claims.

Build more railway infrastructure. Then run more trains