How bad is public transport in this country. Been to Reading and back from Preston yesterday coming back today. Can’t be much more than 200 miles there and 200 back. On the last leg home and stuck at Warrington due to a broken down freight train. All in all over the two journeys it’s taken 11 hours and 8 changes across both legs. Is public transport this bad in other countries or is it just us?
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Trains / public transport
- Thread starter willipp
- Start date
denislawsbackheel
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 28 May 2008
- Messages
- 25,315
- Team supported
- We went to Rotherham…
NY subway is utter shite.
Always breaking down.
Always breaking down.
Ifwecouldjust.......
Well-Known Member
How bad is public transport in this country. Been to Reading and back from Preston yesterday coming back today. Can’t be much more than 200 miles there and 200 back. On the last leg home and stuck at Warrington due to a broken down freight train. All in all over the two journeys it’s taken 11 hours and 8 changes across both legs. Is public transport this bad in other countries or is it just us?
From my experience .... its us. Rail across Europe seems to run so much better.
Sir peace frog
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 9 Jan 2009
- Messages
- 18,326
- Location
- stalking the canals and rivers
- Team supported
- Manchester City Football Club
Who would of thunk it, not only was it 200 miles there it was also 200 miles back : )
carolinefrances
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 22 Sep 2013
- Messages
- 122
Italian trains are superb, cheap, clean and reliable
So, that's none out of four for us, pretty much typifies every privatised monopoly...Italian trains are superb, cheap, clean and reliable
TheRemainsOfTheDave
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 16 Mar 2017
- Messages
- 6,491
Difficult to say based on one journey. If something breaks down, it breaks down - this happens anywhere. I'll hazard a guess that we're not the worst, but based on the wealth of the country we are probably under-performing. The problem is politics. To improve your specific journey, HS2 would possibly be the solution - a new track to allow trains to keep running when others are blocked, but this has proved divisive and unpopular, with most people saying local journey infrastructure should be prioritised.
NeilYoungIsBack
Well-Known Member
There's been a huge increase in passenger traffic since 1995 (when privatisation happened). Passenger numbers went from 760 million in 1995 to 1,756 million in 2018/19. That's an increase of nearly 1 billion passenger journeys p.a. Numbers have been increasing at a very steady rate of around 3% p.a. and this will continue.
But investment in capacity hasn't kept pace with increase in usage, hence the system isn't always pleasant to use at peak times.
Decisions taken to remove capacity back in the 1960s might have made sense at the time, but in some cases they have proven to be bad choices.
But investment in capacity hasn't kept pace with increase in usage, hence the system isn't always pleasant to use at peak times.
Decisions taken to remove capacity back in the 1960s might have made sense at the time, but in some cases they have proven to be bad choices.
asgoodasitgets
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 31 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 1,381
- Team supported
- Team America World Police
I’ve found local trains are awful (, yes you Northern ) but some of the cross country trains can be really good .
I use them to do surveys in far flung parts of the UK and 8 times out of 10 it’s preferable to driving .
I use them to do surveys in far flung parts of the UK and 8 times out of 10 it’s preferable to driving .
NeilYoungIsBack
Well-Known Member
My personal gripe is being asked to pay for wifi (by certain train operating companies) on top of an already expensive ticket.