21–30 of 143 posts
I read an article[0] just this morning (dated yesterday), that due to reduced seats on HS2, passengers may need to be "encouraged" to NOT travel by train at certain times "if at all". With the war on drivers, and years of trying to convince us to travel by train, despite ludicrous prices and appalling service, they're now going to tell us _not_ to travel by train? Complete and utter insanity, I mean seriously, the pl…
I read an article[0] just this morning (dated yesterday), that due to reduced seats on HS2, passengers may need to be "encouraged" to NOT travel by train at certain times "if at all". With the war on drivers, and years of trying to convince us to travel by train, despite ludicrous prices and appalling service, they're now going to tell us _not_ to travel by train? Complete and utter insanity, I mean seriously, the pl…
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I mean, net immigration absolutely soared under the Tories, while they incessantly railed against immigration in the media - it’s hard to see any other explanation.
Laber needs to get off its ass and reorganize this. The way the whole HS2 thing is organised is braindead. Throwing all the costs for everything from stations to trains into the same semi-private company. Not learning best practices from Japan rail station operation. Building way to many tunnels because of a few braindead Nimbys. Simply recreate BritishRail, make the railroad public, including things like rolling sto…
Nationalising the rail is one of their targets. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/24/labour-prom...
Not clear message of recreating BritishRail outright. They should go back to full uniform marketing strategy. NetworkRail should be rolled back into BritishRail.
Their proposal is mostly adding more unneeded stuff, to the complex organizational chart. You don't need a 'Passenger Standards Authority', what you need is a public rail company that works for the public and has good funding.
The rolling stock companies are literal cancers, the need to be burned down. In fact they should be disowned, the profit they made over the last decades should be removed from the price. They basically got a sweetheart deal and profit off the public since then. Its almost as fucking stupid as Chicago selling its own roads, almost.
They also promised very little beyond that. Britain desperately needs a rolling electrification program and a rolling station access compliance program. No commitment to anything other then just 'nationalization' as a pretty abstract thing.
There is no commitment to roll HS2 into BritishRail either.
But we don't seriously beleive the labour government agree with this plan. We know it's going to change. So at some point in the next 12 months you can pretty much guarantee that a new rail strategy is going to be unveiled, and until that point there isn't really a whole lot worth talking about with the current strategy. The only thing to say is that I doubt HS2 is going to be a core part of the strategy going forward, you're more likely to see some big plans for regional rail and the details on HS2 will likely be "Well let's just tidy up this mess and draw it to a close".
Laber needs to get off its ass and reorganize this. The way the whole HS2 thing is organised is braindead. Throwing all the costs for everything from stations to trains into the same semi-private company. Not learning best practices from Japan rail station operation. Building way to many tunnels because of a few braindead Nimbys. Simply recreate BritishRail, make the railroad public, including things like rolling sto…
I read an article[0] just this morning (dated yesterday), that due to reduced seats on HS2, passengers may need to be "encouraged" to NOT travel by train at certain times "if at all". With the war on drivers, and years of trying to convince us to travel by train, despite ludicrous prices and appalling service, they're now going to tell us _not_ to travel by train? Complete and utter insanity, I mean seriously, the pl…
I guess it's true what they say: for those accustomed to privilege, equality is aggression.
I was reading the newspaper a few weeks ago and there were two articles that amused me: The first one was about Dutch high speed trains having to reduce speed to 80kph because the construction company fucked up the bridge construction. The second article was about the new high speed train in Indonesia. Every once in a while you're reminded that this is Asia's century.
Unlike HS2, the Indonesian high speed train does not attempt to go to the city center. Instead, there is a slow feeder train to get to the terminal on the outskirts of Bandung that takes almost as long as the high speed train itself. So, Asia has not solved this particular problem either. The main problem with HS2 is that it goes underground through rural areas for political reasons.
Laber needs to get off its ass and reorganize this. The way the whole HS2 thing is organised is braindead. Throwing all the costs for everything from stations to trains into the same semi-private company. Not learning best practices from Japan rail station operation. Building way to many tunnels because of a few braindead Nimbys. Simply recreate BritishRail, make the railroad public, including things like rolling sto…
They've been in charge for about 3 weeks. Did you want them to come up with plans for a national strategy on rail for the next 25 years within the first 3 weeks?
To be honest I think with a lot of policy issues in the UK at the moment you need to just give the government a bit of time to breath. Sunak's decision making on HS2 was bizarre bad long term/short term/pragmatic/polcitical. It was just one of those bizarre moments where he had sort of a correct aim and then changed that aim into "How can I cause as much damage as possible". So the current policy is extremely expensi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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It’s not insane if your desired outcome is to stir up hatred against immigrants, and to use them as a political pawn for electioneering and personal gain. Ship ‘em in, simultaneously cut services, policing, remove initiatives aimed to aid integration, and all the while loot the country while blaming the “swarm” - or was it “tidal wave”? I forget. “Stop the boats!”, they howl, while opening the floodgates. I mean, net…
That sort-of violates the principle that you don't attribute to malice what can be explained by plain incompetence. People who really dislike immigrants won't vote Tory anyway, Reform UK is there to catch their vote (and sink the Tories in the process of doing so).
Most of the immigration influx is legal anyway, not boat travellers.