Are the railways fixable?

 If in the future, cars are able to drive themselves, at least on motorways and a-roads, then that selling point disappears.

If self-driving cars have the same per mile cost as at present, then the motorways will be absolutely rammed at all times. There will be an explosion of car usage as people can have longer commutes and take long journeys more frequently – you can just sleep through it and wake up at your destination. A weekend in Fort Bill every weekend…if you can get through the traffic jams…

I use avanti superfares where poss, half price but avanti nominate the train within your chosen time window, the day before. I reckon in 20 years of train travel i have been refunded 50% of journeys.

The trains in UK seem a bit of a lottery. Talking to my mum she has had refunds for her last 2 trips Edinburgh to London to seem my sister due to delays and the cost of tickets does seem high. The ticket system seems pants too with so many providers.

here in Ireland I have to say the trains, Irish Rail, seem pretty good. I used to commute 30km each way, train was every 30mins and reliable. I had a season ticket via work so got the tax back and it cost about €60 a month after tax relief. Station car park is only €30 a month too or €3 a day. My kids get a young persons fare (19-25] and each return trip is about €5. There seems to be decent investment in the train infrastructure going on with new platforms in Cork etc.

I commute into Manchester, £11 return for 2 x 20 minute trips. When the trains are on time and with seating available then you will get no complaints from me however this ideal is very rare. Mornings isn’t too bad as I live less than a 10 minute walk from the station so can check the times before I leave although this isn’t foolproof.

Evenings is another matter. Walking into Victoria and the number of trains late or cancelled far outweighs those on time. Actually getting on a train that leaves on time is a very, very rare event. Cancellations and delays are for the most ridiculous reasons. “A member of train crew not being available”, “more trains than expected needing repair”, “a passenger has fallen ill”. The train companies are being either by rank amateurs or crooks – change my mind.

Are the railways fixable? In my opinion, yes but it will need a strategic plan. Is there the will to do it? That’s an entirely different question.

Fixable, not sure.  Apparently Great British Railways will go some to address the issues.  Whether it does or not remains to be seen.  I worked as a Project Manager delivering projects between Paddington and Reading for almost 10years.  My biggest issue was track access; you either used mid week/week end blocks (no time tabled trains) which once you took the worksite and isolation would provide you anything from 30min to 3hrs work time; then consider I could be paying a min. of ~£15k for 30min work. Is this value for money?  If you manage to agree an extended block, that provides you for example a 52hr line block, compensation will be paid to the train operating company.  Significant compensation.  Again, value for money?

Following the introduction of the CR service from Pad to Reading, the relief lines (slow lines) became almost a metro service, with the volume of traffic increasing significantly, yet maintenance time reduced.  Hence, I think we are seeing so many faults between Pad and Reading.

If government would settle for long term sustainable investment and a better model for maintenance I believe this would see maintenance and capital investment projects become more economic.   Ticket prices, no idea how to fix this other that government needs to see this as a subsidised system and not a model that can sustain itself.