Public Transport

[Blue Mist]

The operators are given long contracts to run the service. They don’t get a phone call from Andy Burnhan telling them to make a balls of running it. Similarly, Amey, who have the contract to manage the stock don’t get told how to do it.
The failure of the tram system was inevitable once it was designed ‘on road’ and, as usual with UK infrastructure, it was done on the cheap.
Finally, unlike TFL, the Manchester Metro attracts no government subsidy meaning modernisation and upgrades are done in a piecemeal fashion.

Therefore the obvious answer is to stop all the new projects. If it isn't working at the moment, adding 2-3 more routes won't make it work better.

 

[Really_here]

I looked at tickets to go to London in November two weeks ago £77 return, cheapest now £150-£180! For the same trip, so guess what me and my mate will drive down, says it all really will cost us about £60-70 in fuel.

I used to go to London for work meetings a few times a month a few years ago and thank god I wasn't paying for the tickets. I used to get on the 6-30am in order to be able to catch the tube from Euston and be at work around 9am so driving was never an option. Personally if I was going for pleasure I'd take the train every time and try to book as early as possible avoiding peak hours and prices. It's a long time since I drove to London and the endless traffic, road charging zones, difficulty parking etc etc put me right off now. Euston coming back in the evening is a nightmare with everybody and his dog tryind to get on overcrowded trains though until 19:00 when it calms down.

 

[mexico1970]

Just bought a return journey to Newcastle for 2 persons £98 all in, OK I used a railcard but I don't think that's bad value at all.

 

[mackenzie]

We bought return tickets to Market Harborough from Manchester. It was a 3 day visit and a September trip, with tickets bought in July. 90 quid for the 2 of us,which I thought reasonable.
However, my cousin lives in Market Harborough and travels into London, for work, about twice a week and his costs are over 200 quid. Absolute madness.

 

[MCFCTrick]

Don't forget the Delay Repay for any cancelled train journeys!

Happens often to my missus on going to Edinburgh for work, and even though work pay for it, she gets to keep the refunded dosh. Winner :-)

 

[East Level 2]

My partner lives near Ludlow and the train is about £55 for a return. This drops to approx £37 with an FOC railcard, and the bus to town and to her village from Ludlow are free for FOCs.
The current price of petrol means it would cost £25 for the round trip and would be slightly quicker due to the time taken to get from home to Piccadilly. If two or more are travelling it makes no sense to use the train unless it's to London where driving and parking can be a nightmare.

 

[Bill Walker]

I booked a train this week.
Return to London euston for next month so plenty of time in advance.
£369.40
Good job my work are paying.

Wtf! You can't be serious..... first class?

 

[117 M34]

Wtf! You can't be serious..... first class?

Nope. That was £530+

 

[East Level 2]

Ah, the joys of public transport.
On the train from Ludlow to Picc for the game. Only two carriages and it's packed. And there are no working toilets on board.
Transport for Wales bought a load of new trains on the cheap, and many are being worked on in Newport as they weren't fit for service.

 

[Phil1]

Train from Alicante to Madrid in a couple of weeks. Spotlessly clean, big comfortable seats, free wifi and a dining carriage with complementary tea/coffee and soft drinks.

€68 return. :-)

 

[BlueMoonday]

Northern rail are shite. They're happy to ensure that bouncers turn up on the platform to physically check tickets of paying customers causing delay. They aren't happy to employ enough guards to cover all services hence delays. Absolute morons.

They won't other think to add additional carriages during match days leading to crowding.

 

[East Level 2]

Ah, the joys of public transport.
On the train from Ludlow to Picc for the game. Only two carriages and it's packed. And there are no working toilets on board.
Transport for Wales bought a load of new trains on the cheap, and many are being worked on in Newport as they weren't fit for service.

And as for the return: Missed the 1730 so caught the 1830 and all started well. Five coaches including a first class section and it was fairly easy to get a seat if you were on the platform early enough.
Quick check on t'interweb and I'm connected to the train WiFi without internet. What the fuck is the point of being connected to the WiFi if there's no flip-fucketing internet.
Then it reached Crewe where we had to wait about 20 minutes for replacement train staff as they weren't where they should have been. And the brew wagon finally opened around Shrewsbury. Transport for Wales are probably the only company offering a worse service than Metrolink, if you consider the limited number of routes they run.

 

[southamptonblue]

Don't forget the Delay Repay for any cancelled train journeys!

Happens often to my missus on going to Edinburgh for work, and even though work pay for it, she gets to keep the refunded dosh. Winner :-)

I started taking a day return train once a month to London for a job....done it for 5 months and used Delay Repay for either to or from every time....South West trains are not fit for purpose, totally useless.

 

[KS55]

At Last !!!

Our state government have done something really good. From August all public transportation, Buses, Trams, Trains, Ferries will be 50 cents per journey (about 26 pence).

Should take some cars off the road and persuade people to think about using public transport. I think it's the future as more and more people want cars, when I grew up we had 1 car, now families have several.

I'm always impressed when i go to Asian countries like Japan or Singapore at the awesome public transport.

People in the UK should tell politicians to make it better and cheaper as a priority and a vote winner.

The new UK gov is abandoning the maximum £2 fare on local busses.

 

[KS55]

I looked at tickets to go to London in November two weeks ago £77 return, cheapest now £150-£180! For the same trip, so guess what me and my mate will drive down, says it all really will cost us about £60-70 in fuel.

Leeds to London is £10, if you use certain trains (after 10am, return after 7pm) and book through certain sites on the internet. You have to use the train you are booked for.
This info might be a bit out of date.

 

[idahoblues]

Public transport?

 

[Blue Maverick]

Leeds to London is £10, if you use certain trains (after 10am, return after 7pm) and book through certain sites on the internet. You have to use the train you are booked for.
This info might be a bit out of date.

We aren’t in 1975 anymore Dorothy

 

[.db.]

I looked at the train for Brighton away on 9th November… it was £140.99!

I could get a flight to somewhere like Turin and watch a Torino game for less than it’d cost me to get to the other end of this little island we live on to watch City at Brighton.

I will still go but I’m not getting a sodding train at that price.

 

[.db.]

Before we moan about private companies running things.....

Remember who runs the tram in Manchester and how shit it is.

This issue with the Mets is that they run on roads so have to travel slowly, they stop at lights in conjunction with road lights, they run some lines on a lot of bends (Navy/Mcr Airport Line) and they have to go 15mph around the bends, or lines converge at too many points meaning the network has to slow down for other lines too often.

Idiot drivers don’t help either where they do things like stop their cars on the tracks at junctions and the light change or run red lights when the Mets are coming and the Met driver has to slam the breaks on.

 

[DutchSMOKE11]

Public transport privately owned. Something not right.