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-   -   Train Spotters Corner (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=33686831)

Mr K 12-11-2019 13:30
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris (Post 36016916)
The problem with renationalisation in the current model is that it is only designed to ensure the trains keep running when a franchise fails. Services are run in a way that maintains the existing service but there’s no long term plan for investment or service development.

Northern would be saved from collapse in the sense that the trains would continue to operate (subject to driver and stock availability, and the absence of the wrong sort of leaves or snow), but it would not solve the network’s structural problems. The routes between major cities are often too slow, unelectrified and served by outdated stock. The solution to all of that is an absolute shedload of cash.
We keep paying them substantial fare increases every year, the reasons they give is to provide improve the service. It obviously isn't going into improvements:- same 1980s diesel sheds on wheels. Suspect it all gone to the SE. Privatisation has been an utter failure on the railways.

denphone 02-01-2020 12:00
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Northern rail to be stripped of franchise, says Grant Shapps.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...s-grant-shapps

Quote:
Grant Shapps told the BBC he had started the process that could result in removing the firm’s routes, calling its service “completely unacceptable”.

heero_yuy 20-01-2020 15:23
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Quote from The Sun: Controverial high-speed rail network HS2 is facing fresh problems as predicted costs sky-rocket.

New forecasts for the rail project said it could cost £18bn more than it was expected to last year.

A leaked report into the spiralling costs and delayed timeline to build HS2, forecast the project could cost as much as £106bn, according to the Financial Times

The original forecast for the project was £34bn.
Last year, it was projected to cost around £88bn.
A complete waste of money now and who's to say that the costs won't keep escalating?

The money should be spent on more modest infrastructure projects that would be of immediate benefit to the North like trans-Pennine improvements.

heero_yuy 23-01-2020 12:02
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Quote from Financial Times: Hundreds of employees at HS2, the state-funded body responsible for delivering the contentious high-speed railway line, have been told their jobs may be cut as uncertainty grows over the fate of the project.

Companies working with HS2 have also been told to slow down work, according to two contractors involved.

The moves came as the Treasury’s Infrastructure Projects Authority examined how to lower the cost of the high-speed railway line, which has more than doubled since its inception a decade ago to a projected £106bn.

The potential jobs cuts are part of a wider restructuring as HS2 moves towards either starting construction — or some or all of the project being scrapped.

Several hundred employees have been given 90 days notice and told to reapply for their jobs or similar roles within the organisation. Although 9,000 people are working on the project, HS2 employs just 2,250 permanent staff, with consultants and contractors making up the remainder.

HS2 insisted the jobs notices were “entirely unrelated to, and predates, the Oakervee Review”. It added the notices were “standard practice for infrastructure delivery bodies as they move from the planning stage to delivery”.
Standard practice eh?

Chris 23-01-2020 12:21
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Actually it is.

One of the reasons they use large numbers of freelance consultants and contractors is that it gives them flexibility to hire and fire according to the highly variable timescale of a project like this.

Hugh 23-01-2020 12:31
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris (Post 36023456)
Actually it is.

One of the reasons they use large numbers of freelance consultants and contractors is that it gives them flexibility to hire and fire according to the highly variable timescale of a project like this.
Also for the different resource requirements at each stage of the project (not so many planners and designers required at the implementation stage).

heero_yuy 16-03-2020 11:54
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Quote from The Sun: Thousands of “ghost trains” are standing idle in railway sidings despite years of chronic overcrowding, a probe found.

Carriages with a combined length exceeding 20 miles are rotting away — yet passengers paying top dollar often cannot get a seat.

Researchers found that the unused trains, being held in at least six depots, contain more than 110,000 seats.

Many are sent to scrap to avoid storage costs.

Investigators say the electric-only trains have been rendered useless by the failure to electrify lines across the country.

Fewer than 40 per cent of lines in Britain are electrified — among the lowest level in Europe.

In 2017, three long-planned electrification projects were scrapped, including the Midland Main Line.

Campaigners say the idle trains represent billions of pounds of wasted cash — funded by the public twice over, through taxes and ever-rising rail fares.
What a waste.

denphone 16-03-2020 12:01
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by heero_yuy (Post 36027554)
What a waste.
Indeed what a waste and on a more current note given the shockwaves that are affecting all transport carriers there is a fair chance that many will either go bust or require state help in my view.

denphone 23-03-2020 09:43
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Rail franchise agreements suspended to avoid company collapses.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavir...apses-11962186

Quote:
Department for Transport said it will suspend normal rail franchise agreements and take over all the risks and revenues for operating trains for at least 6 months.

jfman 23-03-2020 10:11
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by denphone (Post 36028464)
Rail franchise agreements suspended to avoid company collapses.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavir...apses-11962186
We've done it Den, nationalised railways! :D

denphone 18-09-2020 17:15
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman (Post 36028465)
We've done it Den, nationalised railways! :D
Updated news.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...9-rescue-deals

Quote:
Train operators and the government are locked in talks to extend the £3.5bn rescue deal that kept the railways running through the pandemic, which is due to expire on Sunday night.
Quote:
The Department for Transport’s operator of last resort is on standby to take over rail franchises should fresh agreement not be reached.

denphone 21-09-2020 10:42
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman (Post 36028465)
We've done it Den, nationalised railways! :D
It is now.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...ft-franchising

Chris 21-09-2020 12:56
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman (Post 36028465)
We've done it Den, nationalised railways! :D
Nationalised/privatised has always been a bit simplistic when it comes to the way British railways are run.

All the key paths have always been subject to franchise, with the details controlled by government. Rolling stock is mostly privately financed and leased to operators but that’s frequently the case with large public buildings these days. Railtrack was the one, practically irreversible privatisation that occurred on the railways, because the railway itself was sold off and by any normal measure should have been far too expensive for any government to contemplate buying back. The nation should quietly be thankful to Stephen Byers for orchestrating the effective confiscation of it from the private owner and handing it to the publicly owned Network Rail (quietly, because like so many things Byers did in office, the way it came about was somewhat irregular and may have been affected by Byers’ sometimes casual acquaintance with the expression of facts).

The status of the British railway as “privatised” has in truth been only paper-thin since Railtrack gave way to Nework Rail, and now even the franchises have now gone, and I don’t see anyone protesting too hard. It may only be a temporary suspension on paper but it’s difficult to see them coming back. Any new system based on management contracts or concessions to operate will only further expose the level of involvement government has (arguably, has always had) in our “privatised” system.

I see the RMT kicking off this morning, hankering after a return of British Rail, however this has to be resisted if only because the present structure of railway operations makes it illegal for them to orchestrate a national strike based on a dispute in one part of the network. I have no doubt they would absolutely love to have the level of influence they once had; that should not be allowed to happen.

Halcyon 20-05-2021 14:34
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
So rails services are for the first time in many years going in the right direction....back to a nationalized system, where it should have always been.
Not everything, but it is a start.



Let's hope this is the start of great things.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57176858

Chris 20-05-2021 14:49
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
“Nationalised” and “privatised” are binary states that have never been helpful in describing the state of the railway - certainly not since Railtrack was forcibly bankrupted in 2001 by withholding of government support, and replaced by National Rail, which is state owned but still subject to an independent regulator, similar to the privatised utilities. Most of the services that run on the state-owned tracks only do so because they hold a franchise awarded by the government.

heero_yuy 20-05-2021 14:53
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
A national rail system is susceptable to national strikes where powerful unions hold the government and people to ransome. Welcome back to the '70's.

Chris 20-05-2021 15:02
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
That’s possibly why they’re retaining a network of private operators to run the services, though I suspect in future they will be given management contracts rather than franchises. As long as train staff are employed by a variety of local operators, an industrial dispute in one of them can’t lead to a national strike.

Halcyon 20-05-2021 17:15
Re: Train Spotters Corner
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by heero_yuy (Post 36080201)
A national rail system is susceptable to national strikes where powerful unions hold the government and people to ransome. Welcome back to the '70's.



Plenty of people to fill jobs if others don't want to work.

The government need to balance a fair salary for the workforce yet fair and decent services to the public too.


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