Following the successful application of market principles to their running.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMetro
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Following the successful application of market principles to their running.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMetro
State run companies in Europe such as Dutch Railways(NS), Deutsche Bahn(DB) and SNCF are private companies, with the majority of shares owned by the state. They operate much more flexibly, hence why you see some state run companies in the UK. My local operator, Northern Rail is half owned by Abellio, who are the international division of NS.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
True.Quote:
Originally Posted by BDunnell
Trains were late, dirty, over staffed by lazy bolshy union members, food was awful, stations dirty and cold. It was an utter joke. Why did so many UK comedians of the time rip the piss out of BR if it was oh so wonderful, it wasn't. Just rose tinted spectacles and nostalgia muddling people's views. It was run for the staff's benefit not the passengers.
Why should I the taxpayer pay for something I don't use? If a line is not economically viable why should it be kept open?
The worrying thing these days is not the trains, timetable, or fares it is safety (all in the name of profit plus pikey scum robbing cables of course).
Who knows more — you or rail industry experts and historians who have written on the subject?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight
I would add that many of the same comedians by whose views you apparently set such great store were also doing jokes at the time about Margaret Thatcher, something for which you would presumably castigate them.
Now please leave this discussion to the grown-ups who were previously debating an interesting issue in a civilised manner despite some opposing points of view.
Who'd more likely to have rose tinted specs me or some train spotting anoraks?Quote:
Originally Posted by BDunnell
Talking of which, this chap looks like a deffo train spotter doesn't he, what a freak.
Ben Dunnell takes up editor position on Aircraft Illustrated magazine | Smart Moves | Journalism.co.uk
The Thatch wasn't everyone's cup of tea no, the lazy, the feckless etc probably didn't like her much. Best PM the UK has ever had mind.
Who made you the boss, freak.
When stumped, insert insult.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight
Who would be likely to actually know something about the subject in hand? You or an expert?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolton Midnight
That, in a nutshell, is the problem. Governments of all colours are fixated on winning the next election, not planning for decades down the line when they'll all be retired (or on fat directorships of privatised companies).Quote:
Originally Posted by Rollo
An eye-watering sum invested in transport infrastructure has the potential to pay for itself many times over in the course of 50 years, but nobody will invest on that basis.
Quite, but it's far from a new problem. Reading any history of the British railways shows that successive governments going back decades have failed to recognise the value of a properly organised, well-run, suitably-resourced rail network. There have been long periods of under-investment punctuated by sudden splurges of resourcing directed at the wrong areas.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave B