If he wanted a legitimate evaluation of the Virgin Rail experience, he should not have announced that he was going to be on board. Virgin excels at free PR and they certainly laid it on thick for him so that they were presented in the most positive light.
Travelling First Class in a mostly empty carriage and being served nice food whilst 2 coaches down the economy class peasants are crammed in, being gouged £2 for a packet of crisps, and the toilet door doesn't shut properly... ah the legitimate Virgin Rail experience lol still, could be worse, could be a Northern Rail Pacer. I was getting those to and from work every day at my old job and was very glad not to have to get on one again when I left
In the Republic of Ireland, Irish Rail is nationalised and 100% owned by the Irish Government. Oldest Intercity trains are 16 years old. Oldest Commuter trains are 17 years old in Dublin, 20 years in Limerick, 26 years in Cork. Statistics on the Intercity service between the two largest cities, Dublin and Cork. Punctuality in 2018: 87.6% Reliability in 2018: 99.6% One way standard class ticket: €21.49 (£19.39) One way first class ticket: €53.99 (£48.72) Distance: 252 km (157 miles) approx. Average scheduled journey time: 2 hrs 41 mins And statistics on what I think is their busiest Commuter service, the Heuston Commuter in Dublin. Punctuality in 2018: 96.5% Reliability in 2018: 99.3%
Those are some pretty good prices. I took the bus from Dublin to Cork a couple of years ago because my friends insisted it was cheaper and faster. I regret that decision until this very day
Driving a Merc is irrelevant - many of my friends who are actually not rich by any means (and can be classified as low or working class) drive Mercs. However, being a friend of Maggie "the witch" Thatcher is definitely something reserved for the elites of society.
The trouble is that eight years on, things are no better. If anything they're worse than they were in 2015. This documentary has aged incredibly well. Well made too.
Now that Labour has announced its plans to re-nationalise the railways, I’m not sure that it will improve anything - I was coming back from visiting family in Ireland on SailRail having previously tried to amend my travel plans the week before to avoid the planned rail strike in October 2022, but I still ended up being stranded in Holyhead for 2 days, unable to get back to Manchester for work the next few days and I was frantic - I ended up paying double the original price of my SailRail ticket from Holyhead to Manchester and then they had a bus transfer from Lladnuo in Wales to Chester, stopping at every Welsh town enroute and other Welsh passengers at stops were furious as the coach was too packed - I ended up totally frazzled in Manchester Piccadilly at Midday after a nightmare journey
What's lacking in this documentary is an interview with Sir Humphrey Appleby who, I am certain, would have a very concise explanation for any and all shortcomings of the British Rail system. Btw for the price of 5000 pounds mentioned at the beginning of the film you can get one year's travel on almost all public transport in expensive Switzerland without any restrictions. And in first class.
Heck, for that price, you could get all-access yearlong passes for all transport forms in Belgium (the rail company SNCB and the regionally-operated public transportation companies) and could still buy yourself a nice ring.
@@NextSound170 nah more like 30-60 kmph, and it does not matter so much you can look outside and enjoy the scenery. You will not be bored trust me. Especially if you have never been on this route.
I know two posho’s who never use the train (let alone public transport) but will ‘give it a go’ are not the best people to tell a frustrating story experienced by millions of people They are FIRED😂😂😂😂
Thatcher knew privatisation was politically extremely difficult and so she fought shy of it. Major allowed it into the April 1992 Tory election manifesto and then against all the odds won the election so had to do it. It was a fight between Treasury, Dept of Transport and Government with BR almost entirely left out of the debate. The resulting British compromise, implemented quickly and arguably incompetently, was the worst of all worlds.
British rail was struggling they were not upholding high standards not to mention in the 1990s there fleet still had some older locomotives the class 101, 309 ect Lots of old First gen DMUS and EMUs also to mention MK1 and 2 coaches also the locomotive fleet.
To HM Government in London... Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland may as well not exist. They only like having them part of the UK for their tax money.
Don’t want to alarm you but the royal train is ran by network rail owned by the British goverment but the locomotives are leased from DB which I will admit is German but the royals are also of German descent Checkmate
Jimbob I think I said "being operated" in my comment. What did you not understand? Your comment is completely irrelevant. I know that the Royal Train is owned by Network Rail. It is being operated and maintained by DB Cargo. It’s in the first paragraph of its Wikipedia article.
As a retired railwayman with forty two years service under his belt I'd just like to say this about rail privatisation - WE TOLD YOU SO BUT YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE US. YOU NAIVE FOOLS REALLY DID THINK THAT THE FARES WOULD DROP AND THE TRAINS WOULD RUN ON TIME.
@@pauljohns8662 They privatized the entire UK. Natural resources, assets, services, homes and property, even fish (a Brexiter's wet dream), all sold to the highest bidder and is all going to shite. Who would have expected it!!
the problem with Britain's railways is the 50 year lack of repair to the network that is now being fixed by Network Rail and caught up with at great expense.
It's very interesting to compare this to what happened here in Germany after 1994, when the two former public railways (of East- and West-Germany) joined to form Deutsche Bahn AG (an "AG" is a company whose shares are traded at stock exchanges). Well, to make it short, the results were kind of similar. The "Pacer" is quite interesting too. In Germany, we did something like this too, but in the late 1950s. The resulting train was called "Schienenbus" (roughly: Railbus), or technically, the VT95.
Thank you! I have travelled quite often with DB. Often nice, sometimes very unpleasant. Here in DK we bought new trains, IC4, about 14 years ago. IC4 turned out to be a bit of a failure so now the the old IC3 trains are being renovated and shined up to run a little longer. Decades ago Denmark chose to continue with diesel instead of electrifying the rails and it is biting us in the bottom, as we are doing it now but it would have been cheaper to do back then. So until they are done electrifying and buy new trains we continue with IC3 and IC4.
@@Degofhas In Germany it really depends on where you live. I'm living in the Rhine-Ruhr area, where the DB operates the S-Bahn (= S-tog), which connects the dozens of cities with each other. The whole system suffers from a lack of maintenance, and delays are very common. Really, the DB and especially the S-Bahn are a running gag here. ( th-cam.com/video/uODtMWbG0SU/w-d-xo.html )
@@wuloki A friend of mine lives in Neuss and he jokes about the S-bahn all the time. It doesn't matter if it has anything to do with the bahn. If he is slow to reply to a message - blames the S-bahn. If he is lacking behind in a game - it the S-bahns fault. Got a speeding ticket in the car? - It's because of the S-bahn 😂😂 I lived in Hamburg for a while and took the train to Berlin. It was pleasant every time but when I went to Frankfurt it was a pain in the ass! The trains are nice to be in though! I have the impression that in many areas in Europe not enough money and effort is put in to train service. It really a shame because the population density and relatively short distances in Europe makes for conditions for trains and we should be much better at it!
@@Degofhas That asks for a long answer... In Germany, commuter trains (S-Bahn) and long-distance trains are two completely different things. The company in charge is Deutsche Bahn (German Railways), but they're split up into various subcompanies which handle the various parts of the system. The S-Bahn network is operated by it's own company, same as with the long-distance trains. The big problem - and that's my oppinion - is that we privatized the railway. Until the mid 1990s, all rail services were operated by Deutsche Bundesbahn ("German Federal Railways"), and even though they didn't make any profits (like few public transport services do), they did their job quite well. In the 1990s the German government hopped onto to the "let's privatize everything and let the free market handle it" bandwagon, and that's when things started to go downhill. The newly founded "Deutsche Bahn AG" (AG = joint stock company) postponed maintenance to make their books look good for the shareholders, and split up into a dozen or so companies to dilute responsibility.
Whoever decided to split the railway into bits and pieces and privatize them had no idea on the technical and economical necessities of rail traffic. While trains used to be seen as a public service in the "good old days" , they are now a means to extort money from those who have no viable alternative transport available!
It's like hearing and seeing the same proces we went through in the Netherlands. The government overhere has privitised about every public service you can imagine. Healthcare, Public Transport, Energy....you name it! And as it goes over in the UK, it doesn't work. It is a disaster.
I'm not sure I'd agree that having a state owned company from another country benefiting from the privately run railways in this country is "a success," it doesn't say much about the confidence our own government has in handling the finances of our own railways
Where we are now with our railways is the culmination of nearly fifty years of poor management and under investment. In my opinion it goes back to the modernisation plan, we should have gone directly from steam to electric traction which would have meant keeping steam for longer but instead we opted to use diesels as a stop gap and in doing so we scrapped an almost new steam fleet that never recovered its build costs we introduced a plethora of unsuccessful diesel designs and failed to standardise the fleet. The first major line to be electrified was the WCML and the rest of the network was supposed to progressively follow with the entire network being electrified by the late eighties which obviously didn't happen. Secondary routes were ripped up with indecent haste sometimes less than 24 hours after the last train whereas if they had been mothballed as in many other European countries they could have been reinstated giving the extra capacity that is now desperately needed. We then had nearly fifteen to twenty years of little or no investment in the railway infrastructure and very few new trains until the system was privatised and the private sector was then handed a system that had twenty years catching up to do and it is a sad fact of life that private sector enterprises have by definition show a profit and pay a dividend to shareholders. I feel a little sorry for some of the franchise companies because they have based projections for costs and service improvements based on promises of infrastructure and line speed upgrades made by the government and network rail that have either not been delivered on time or at all.
The UK is building HS2 at an extremely high cost. It seems to me that this is a poor decision especially, when the whole UK rail network is mismanaged by the private sector. I would have thought that it might be a good idea to re-nationalise the rail network and make it work for the nation not for the shareholders. It looks as though the Government is simply piling more shit on top of an already big pile of shit.
@@sydelton1289 I don't know why heritage railways would want more than one of them (one would be a good example as a lesson from history), but I guess "whatever floats your boat."
I think theyre preserving them to attract a few more people who are interested in pacers (im struggling to find why theyre interesting). Theyll be a nice filler in diesel galas and early in the year to save money before the peak season but thats about it
That was 5 years ago but still our railways are always as congested and trains always being delayed. And with more new trains coming into service will not make any difference to how we travel. And not forgetting the Coronavirus that has temporary stopped commuters from working from home.
Part of the issue is society’s obsession with working to rigid hours. If more companies allowed for flexible starting times within, let’s say, a 3 hour window between 8am & 11am then the peak rush would be more spread out.
Do you not remember? He caused a right outcry when he said that and ended up having to grovel to his secretary.. who alas took it in good humour and didn’t give him the knee to the happy sacs he rightly deserved.
“Has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?”― Tennessee Williams.
56:36 If there is no direct line of action and accountability from the passengers to the operators, then the competition becomes not on merit but on existence. The fact that the process that chooses which operators gets a franchise has little to no impact from the actual users, negates the whole idea of competition before it has even started. Imagine the same for cars. You have no input on what car you get, and the one you got was decided based on a variety of factors were cost always seems to be the deciding factor anyway. A cost that is not fully known before the operation of the car begins, and might even have assumed there'd be some future improvement in efficiency. There would be little incentive to do anything *but* cut and underestimate cost.
in South Australia, the government owns the vehicles, infrastructures however companies bid to maintain the vehicles and service, they are then fined if the service is underperforming and if they are not doing the best to improve the service, they are nixed out the door... Serco was an operator here until their services... were no longer required.
Trains here are better than made out to be, i live in Rotherham and i can get a train to doncaster where i can then get one to london, so you can get almost everywhere on one
what a very well informed documentary, what with pointing out hs2 isn't just for speed, but for increased capacity on the original network, and for pointing out when a TOC is owned by foreign states.
I love how they gloss over the cost of renting a train off a bank. I mean it’s like renting a sofa from Brighthouse. But they politely refer to it as sweating assets! This is the problem. The public don’t get what’s going on because our news media are on the side of the companies. Not the public.
Some of it is. Hull Trains tend to be great, though can be expensive at times. But London and South East and Manchester metro area..... absolutely deplorable.
the fundamental problem is that the cost of the operation (laying and maintaining the tracks) is publicly owned, and thus the bill footed by the taxpayer, while the parts that make the money (the tickets and the rolling stock) are privately owned, very often by other governments' own publicly owned rail companies. the taxpayer pays the vast majority of the cost while money flows out of the country straight into the pockets of private owners and other countries' taxpayers
Not so much a reply as an agreement. This comment form ZLDL is totally true. One suspects that various British governments, of all types have cared less for the needs of the majority of the populace and more for the profits of their mates. Don't forget that Transport Minister Marples (at the time of the Beeching cuts) was a major part of a road building firm (See Wikipedia for more) and thus hardly a fan of railways.
European owned National rail companies are the ones who own most of the franchises. So we pay through the nose to subsidize European National rail companies. Who ever would have thought that's the way privitizaion would have panned out.
Just as highways are government owned and paid for, so should the alternative transport system, the railroads. Living in the US I have envied the British for having such an extensive passenger rail system, but I can see that it is attempting to operate well above capacity. I think the same is true of The Tube. Investment in upgrades may be hampered by the need for private operators to make a profit for their stockholders.
SailRail services between Manchester Piccadilly (platform 14) and Holyhead for the ferries to Dublin are a complete joke, involving changing trains at Chester (nightmare) Crewe or Lladnuo - there should be direct services from Hull, Leeds, Manchester Victoria (my nearest station) and Chester to Holyhead without the need to change trains enroute, timed to meet ferry check-ins at Holyhead and ferry arrivals at Holyhead - TfW, Avanti Trains and the Welsh Assembly need to do better
One thing I appreciated about this at the time was how Nick and Margret and all the people involved in this documentary broke it all down into fairly simple terms,
I used to regulary travel from the coast of Mid Wales to London, back in the 80s it was quite exciting, you never really knew what would happen or how you would get home. Now it's rather boring, the trains are seldom late and are always there. I could even know what time I would be walking through my front door after catching the train in Cologne.
The good old British tapping themselves on the back... The state was incompetent in running the train service (or to be more precise the Tories defunded it in order to justify privatization). The Tories sold it off to private companies for them to prosper while increasing subsidies. Privatized Railways hiked the prices because you know, no actual competition (which is supposedly the point of privatization). The railways remain shit but now the profits go to private hands. This sounds like a failed state, something you would expect from a third world country.
On top of that, we're meant to support the move as good for businesses too, but all the money is basically funneled overseas to other countries' rail operators who use our fares to subsidise their own trains.
@@Reddsoldier Although due to bid issues Abellio Scotrail is/was being subsidised by the Dutch government. Due to various factors a lot of franchises are actually losing cash and will soon be run as more of a contract to operate services with the government rather than the operator taking the revenue risk. Stagecoach stopped chucking everything at winning contracts when it could see that the conditions imposed by the government were unworkable.
This was just the beginning, wait and see, the working class and middle class that voted for Brexit will be surprised, it’s the same people that will benefit that benefit from privatisation of BR, Thatchers friend and the Merc man will love it, the rest not so much.
Everyone slagging off old British Rail but fail to examine WHY it was so riddled with problems. Simply, lack of investment and asset stripping by successive governments to sell off to their mates! First they took the docks, then the hotels, then the ferries, then the parcels. Anything that made money, gone to the fat cat at the back of the room with a stuffed envelope in his hand…
Well in Czech Republic we have state owned tracks , national operators but private companies could buy time slots for trains or compete for state subsidized contracts for routes.
BR took on a massive problem after the war. It didn't help that, like the United States, the British .government was more committed to the role of the motor vehicle which received massive infrastructure funding. No wonder with post war debt and a host of other problems the government mandarins of the time cut corners by modernising the rolling stock but not the infrastructure.
The only solution for the UK’s railways is to change all of the relevant laws to bring in an external body from a country like Japan, China or Taiwan and give them direct and complete control and not allow anyone else to interfere, including Network Rail and the U.K. trade unions, all of whom have been deliberately holding back progress on the railways for very selfish reasons for far too long given the failure of HS2 - standards would improve, fares would come down, there would be far less rail strikes nor disruptions, rail projects would be completed in half the time and for half the costs that they do now, while maintaining and repairing existing lines would be far easier, as would re-opening previously closed lines
@@andrewseddon7989There is far too much wastage in the existing rail structure - with all of the investment via taxpayers money and ever increasing rail fares, there is still nothing to show for it in terms of real improvements and this is down to mismanagement which itself should be a criminal offence (embezzlement and money laundering) - yet we want the railways to be a viable alternative to road transport and air travel - the continued suspension of the Chunnel style rail link under the Irish Sea between Holyhead and Dublin is a case in point - no private investor is ever going to commit funding to such mismanagement - the Irish railways by comparison have always been far more of a success than the U.K. and yet still, the Irish government are starting a massive investment programme to further improve the Irish rail network
I commuted in to the centre of London on a South Eastern line in 1968 and 1969. I remember the trains being quite crowded, but usually they were on time. I also remember travelling on steam trains from Kings Cross to the Midlands in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Again I recall the trains being quite punctual. The only problems I remember occurred in inclement weather conditions. Trains were hours late in the winter of 1962 - 1963. I also recall standing on Oxenholme station, I think in January 1972,when there had been some heavy winds. The night trains were still coming through at close to midday. Eventually I arrived in Birmingham many hours late.
they should have a meeting about a meeting about a meeting to decide wether a meeting is required before the meeting that could lead to a conclusion that the meeting is on the meeting of a meeting in which the meetings were decided. They will have a meeting about that that meeting first, though.
6:30 "... _it got so bad I went to see a behavioral therapist about it you know, and she just said "you have the wrong kind of anger", which unfortunately sounds a bit too much like..."_ Is it saying something that when he paused at that point, I immediately thought _"the wrong kind of snow"_ ... --and I've never once set foot outside North America? (P.S.: I actually did burst out laughing when he immediately proved me correct)
The host stands looking at a middle section of train, and says, "One train, split into two." (This enabled a through line to London by diverting, apparently, 1/2 a train--and took years to accomplish at untold expense.) Hilariously, as he struggled not to roll his eyes, the colossal theme music from 2001:A Space Odyssey swelled, presumably at the magnificence of the accomplishment. My guess is that fares are so high because, obviously, trains and infrastructure are aging badly and need replacement; but the simple decision to split a train into two cars? Taking years? During that costly interval, a lot of hours were logged, dragged on by a lot people who get paid a lot of money to fill their time doing something or other. The more time, the better. And who pays the cost? Those who pay train fares.
Funniest (and best) documentary I've seen in a long time. "We had peacocks at home, Margaret. And they took off like heavy bombers. And we never saw them again!" (Just one of the many gems in this witty, pithy exposé.)
Canadian trains are even worse. What are you talking about. 7 trains a day between Ontario and (fake)London. No electrification whatsoever. Bud cars made in the 1950s. Via rail is a disgrace. Amtrak is doing a better job and that’s something
No that's not true. The last of *Northern's* Pacers was withdrawn in late November 2020, but the Transport for Wales 142s and Great Western Railway 143s will remain in service until between mid-December to the 31st of December 2020, so another couple/few weeks, and TfW are trying to get permission for their 143s to continue briefly in early 2021 as not all of their 769s are/will be in service then.
@Miles Holder they're also getting /already have ex-Class 319 units, which will be reclassified as Class 769 as the units are being modified to fit a diesel engine to allow them to operate on nonelectrified tracks, but crucially still utilise the electric supply where available
At a tiny local station there were 4 lines running through. Platforms at the outside 2 lines and through traffic on the inside 2 lines for express and goods.
48:55, well, it’s not British tax money going into the infrastructure, it’s German tax money going into it and now the money is lacking for the German trains
Great cars though. I normally drive in small vans and rent a VW Polo once every so often but a friend has a good job now and bought/leased a Mercedes S class. Goddamn that thing drives smoothly
If privatisation is to succeed then the whole thing needs to becomeme open access (more competition and more services like Grand Central who have one of the best if not the best rated service in the UK and less red tape for service improvement like virgin faced) as well as a long over due modernisation project (this is needed either way as I have met lead engineers from networkrail who are trying to recruit computing graduates such as myself to fix the shit show of a signaling system we have here that for the most part hasn't been touched since the 60s/70s and this is from the houses mouth itself). Privatised is not the word id used to describe this as im a fan of the pre big for model (yes the model will need work to modernise it) I'd rather a competitive system like what Grand Central or Hull trains offer that this sham. Also there are few exceptions to the rule like Chiltern railways who are competing for all major stops en-route like Birmingham and Oxford I have lived along the route for the last few years and been doing the calc Oxford and Birmingham are far better value outta Marylebone than Euston or Paddington not to mention their amazing preservation of old facades at Wycombe, Birmingham Moor Street, Leamington and so on which we need more of.
What they dont tell you is that when you buy in advance for off-peak travel, the UK prices are amongst the cheapest in Western Europe. Its mostly the commuters who get stung. A lot of people can now work from home or adjust their hours; if its possible for your job to be flexible or work from home but your employer doesnt offer it, change employer. As for the Unions, they are half the problem. Many rail staff still have their old government terms and conditions yet that's not enough for the Unions, they want more and more. I have started taking the bus from Somerset to London due to strikes, the Unions are running out of feet to shoot themselves in.
i still dont get why that myth that the pacer uses a wagon chassis is still around, their frame was derived entirely from high speed freight vehicle 1 which, dispite its name, was one of 4 vehicles for testing different high speed suspension designes, none of it was derived from an actual goods waggon. the pacer actually recieved the best suspension that BR had at the time as it had come directly from the vehicle theyd used to research it (the same suspension design was also used on the APT-E). pacers still had a bouncy ride though due to the lack of bogies
@@highpath4776 oh yeah it was a Leyland bus body, my problem is people saying it was a waggon chassis/frame and suspension, when that all in fact came from HSFV1
Singapore, despite it's small size, is the best example of how to run an efficient rail service, it is state owned with 1 state operator and 1 private operator, and the trains are always on time. It could be said that in the Victoria era Britain had a good public transport system with trolleybuses and railway's in most towns, of course, successive governments decided to focus more on car use, now it seems we are going the opposite way again 😀, can the government not just get behind improving public transport and stick with it, make it efficient or give the private companies that run services the incentive to build new railway lines and connect more towns to cities 🤔
Japanese rail is the best in the world and is privatised it's even run by monopolies. I think the British system needs some accountable they need to give companies the whole lot rail maintenance signals and trains not split up by other companies but all owned by one company split up by sections like Japan the British government can lease it and if the service is bad straight up get rid off the company and find another. The infastructer is bad just straight up bad
How I think it should work the government creates packages that have the train, railways, signals, minor stations. The government owns the major hub stations and maintains them. The packages are then leased to companies through a bidding war. The government then holds these companies accountable by cancelling the lease if they're trains are late by a certain percentage or by how people vote on what is the worse company through polls these can be ran by the government if the train service is exceptional that get a tax cut.
@@evan12697 Buying the international goods supports the international government. We don't want the international government, but we can't resist the international goods. Isn't there something rather hypocritical about that? GREAT BRITAIN!!! (but we all drive German cars).
I nearly saw my dinner again when I watched 'Tricky Dickey' Branson try to 'sell' awesomeness through his railway service. My God, didn't HE scarper when the Government wouldn't continue to replenish his begging bowl!!! That's capitalism for you!
As a kid in the 80s and 90s. I remember how awful British Rail was... It was so bad. At one point my mum, I and all other passengers travelled in freight carriages for mail standing in cages.. On a mainline railway! Once privatisation set in, within a year it all disappeared. Trains didn't break down, they were cleaner than before, overall awesome.
That is the fault of the government by deliberately not investigating enough in the railways so privatization would feel like an improvement. That kind of shit never happened in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden. Because the government runs his trains well. Tories hate the middle class and poor people. They don’t give a shit about you. They only care about their rich friend in the City and their base in the south east. Think about it. The French, Germans and Dutch all make money on the British network sponsored by the British taxpayer. The only thing privatization did was making a few blokes on top very rich by making the public coughing up the highest prices in the whole of Europe
I dont know what is wrong with that guy and the 7.29 train but you wouldn't go see a therapist over a train........ you'd just catch an ealier one if its that bad........
I am happy with privatisation. I am usually in Glasgow, but go back to Newcastle a lot. LNER is really good (it is owned by the DfT as a correction for a failed private franchise) and ScotRail is usually cheap. Different franchises can focus on different markets. I do think that some companies should buy their own trains more often. The rolling stock companies are a dubious middleman.
@@alexturlais8558 the east coast mainline works well nationalised. ScotRail works well privatised. To get from Glasgow to Edinburgh, then Edinburgh to Newcastle. Hence I am happy with the status quo.
Yeah that never made sense to me why it is split up into Network Rail, the rolling stock companies, and the operators. There can be the discussion on whether public or private ownership is better but to me this seems the railway system in Britain takes the worst of both worlds.
@@churroman183 they should have split it back into individual railways that each own, operate, and maintain their own track, rolling stock, and infrastructure, just like the big four...
Let’s call it out. It’s a very simple no brainer. Privatisation can only work properly if there is true competition and real alternatives for customers. Normally companies that don’t offer a good service get punished by customers deserting them and then they go out of business. It’s all about accountability. These train companies do not have true incentives to provide a good service and their profits are not attached to good customer experiences. Therefore , train companies are artificially protected from the harsh market forces that would normally create a good service. Basically , the business model is fundamentally flawed at a deep level. It’s faux competition and privatisation by name only because market forces do not hold providers accountable. It could never work and never will work. You simply cannot divorce the railways from taxpayer input and Government oversight , so you might as well nationalise it. In reality British Rail was more accountable and a much simpler model. It’s a Tory scam and we the British people fell for it.
Privatisation CAN work, just look at the Czech Republic - there are issues here and there, but still, nothing dramatic and the service keeps improving year by year.
I think the two presenters are actually being very closed minded and not delving fully into the reasons of the issues, the documentary is designed to make people think badly of the railway (I'm a producer)
@@sydelton1289 and half the track ripped up and half the stations shut since the 60s, despite a pathetically small number of reopenings. The problem seems to be at its biggest in Wales. You can't travel entirely by train between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen without it taking 4 times as long as it should, going via Shrewsbury in England. You can't even go from Mid Wales to Mid Wales (Newtown to Llandrindod Wells) without going via Shrewsbury. Some lines are also closed in England (such as in East Anglia and the East Midlands) and "East West Rail" between Oxford and Cambridge is only just being rebuilt... Not sure about Scotland.
11:27 I am astonished at why it was done like this, This was set up from the very start to fail. this system relies on a delicate chain of companies to keep even a single line running on time and efficiently. No wonder its so bad in Briton. This is fucked up beyond belief. Someone must have sat down and purposefully tried to divide the power the companies have over railway functions into an unmanageable mess. Why didn't they just look across the pond to America's system of a company owning its territory, maintaining its own line, owning its rolling stock, keeping its own schedules (for freight mostly), etc. It has worked there for many years. Its as if whoever shat this system out was so terrified of the slightest possibility of a rail monopoly that they practically crippled everything in the process to prevent it. The people who came up with this quagmire of interdependent companies needs to be tried in court, every damn one.
Never mind a monopoly I think the fear was of a later Labour govt. potentially reversing privatisation; it's much more difficult to do that when there are multiple legally binding contracts, all expiring at different times, and with multiple providers involved. That said John Major suggested it was because he remembered it being great in the days of pre-nationalisation when there were local monopolies in different areas, I'm inclined to disbelieve him; partly because pre-privatisation was actually pretty poor, partly because Tories often mislead their voters. In other words, in my opinion, it was a solely ideological move, and so one can conclude that the way they broke up the system had an ideological motive behind it too (perhaps influenced by a hint, only a hint mind you, of Major's nostalgia). There are similarities between this and the way the NHS is being partially privatised, bit by bit; multiple providers, multiple contracts. Even with Covid we see this; they can say NHS track and trace but in reality it is Serco track and trace, with multiple other private enterprises supporting them.
It’s works just they want it, it’s a transfer program of tax money to corporations, it’s not about completion or service. It’s the Tories plan plan to make their donors richer and the next step is Brexit, no one can give you a list of positives, except “taking back control” something they never lost. It’s a project to make the 99% to hand over their money to the elite “voluntary”. The Republicans in America is running the same scam.
Problem, migration has driven English and settled 2nd 3rd gen. migrants out of London to the suburbs. So the trains are now overloaded with commuters. Companies need to move out of London.
Sometimes Britain really does seem almost third world... some kind of Victorian banana republic. Every other country on earth, except America, knows that railways run at a loss but it's worth the investment because of the links they create are absolutely basic to any kind of economic or social activity. Railways are a public service, not a profitable business.
Don’t live near a station, never been on a train for forty years, how lucky am I? I can watch all the carnage from a distance, safe in the knowledge none of it affects me.
trains are expensive always late never on time what they don't tell you the staff tend to be mislabel they treat you like yore customer and we are staff no in between trains are filthy all the time
I live in UK but travel to Japan a lot for work & this is just one of many countries around the world which has an amazing train network that is very clean & amazingly punctual & when I say punctual I mean in Japan to the second. When I return home back to the UK I feel so embarrassed & annoyed about our train network. Over priced mostly dirty delayed trains. Compared to other countries with great train networks we live in a small country so why the hell for years have we had a terrible over priced service? The members of government here in the UK need to go to Japan & take so notes on how they run the train network there including having a bullet train (HS2) since 1964. If we had reasonably priced service on time thousands more people would use it for commuting to & from work which also has the green bonus of getting these people out of a lot of cars & on trains. Come UK give the people what they deserve. It will in return help the economy.🇬🇧👍
Comparing the systems is interesting. JR East is totally private, but they own the stations, rolling stock and infrastructure. They're accountable for everything, so it's in the best interests of the company to deliver a clean, efficient, punctual and safe service as there's nobody to pass the buck on to. On top of this in the centre of Tokyo there are lots of different train companies that often compete along similar routes, so there is a level of competition that exists here that isn't present in the UK. Three interesting side notes: 1) Generally speaking, your employer will reimburse your travel costs monthly as a post-tax addition to your salary. To the Japanese, paying £4.000 of your own money to get to work is insane. If your company doesn't cover your commuting costs, that's a good indicator that they're garbage and not worth working for. 2) Punctuality is important everywhere in Japan. If your train is delayed, you are entitled to a certificate of delay (chien shomei sho) to give to your boss. It's stamped by the train operator to say you are late because of their shortcomings and you are not at fault. 3) The bullet train is ridiculously expensive if you don't have a JR travel pass. A flight to Osaka from Tokyo is usually half the price of the bullet train.
So, to make uptime when trains are running behind by 3 minutes, to avoid any bottle necking & even more delays, stops are cut out. Fine. That makes sense. But as Nick said, the passengers at these stations will huff as their train will chuff past. Yet no mention of those passengers, who have also paid their fares, is made. Do they get compensation? They should do, but I suspect they are given the run around when trying to complain. And it's hardly fair either, that the 'country bumpkin' stations are the ones that are cut from a schedule, as you can bet it's the smaller towns/villages who have a service cut. Not to mention you'd be pretty annoyed if you were on that train, with that stop being your destination. Why should that passenger then have to pay even more, to go back in the other direction, to reach their destination, with no guarantee that the same won't happen again? Once again, compensation is probably available, but I bet it's made as hard as possible to get, with all the finger pointing & the shifting of responsibilities in the Blame Game. I know this is 8 years old, but is it any wonder that all those concerns about HS2 came true? And the cost almost tripled? And big chunks have now been axed. Many people who refused to move because their home was in the way, were forced out with compulsory purchase orders, against their will. They were effectively evicted from home. All that stress & trauma that must have caused to quite a few people is unimaginable. And now, they were put through all of that for nothing. They didn't need to be forced out of the homes they never wanted to leave in the first place. It wouldn't surprise me if some of those people have developed mental health illnesses, or attempted, or have committed, suicide, as a result.
I wanted to know why don’t they dig a tunnel and do an extension for the main line Train so they extend the unused abandoned underground stations. Why couldn’t they use the part D78 Stock train doors on the sides and also restructure the front face of the A60 and A62 stock and remix and make them all together and also redesign them overhead line and also make them into 5 cars per unit and also having 2 Disabled Toilets on those 5 cars per unit A60 and A62 stock trains and also convert the A60 and A62 stock trains into a Scania N112, Volvo TD102KF, Volvo B10M, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 8LXB Diesel Engines and also put the Loud 7-Speed Voith Gearboxes in the A60 and A62 stock and also modernise the A60 and A62 stock and make it into a 11 car per unit so it could have less doors, more tables, computers and mobile phone chargers. A Stock Trains and also having 8 Disabled Toilets on those A stock trains. why couldn’t we refurbish and modernise the waterloo and city line Triple-Track train tunnel and make it more bigger and extend it to bank station, making it into a Triple-Track Railway Line so those 4 European countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden to convert the waterloo and city line Triple-Track Train tunnel into an High Speed train. The Third Euro tunnel Triple-Track Train line to make it 8 times better for passengers so they could go from A to B. then put the modernised 11 car per unit A Stock and put them on a bigger modernised waterloo and city line Triple-Track train tunnel so it could go to bank station to those 4 European countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden. The modernised refurbish 11 cars per unit A stock could be a High Speed The Third Triple-Track Euro Tunnel Train So it is promising and 37 times a lot more possible to do this kind of project that is OK for London Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden. oh by the way, could they also tunnel the Triple-Track Railway Line so it will stop from Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex so that the Passengers will go to Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden and also extend the Triple-Track Railway Line from Bank to Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex Stations so that more people from there could go to Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden Easily. Why couldn't they extend the Piccadilly line and also build a brand-new underground train stations so it could go even further right up to Clapton, Wood Street and also make another brand new tunnel train stations in Chingford and could they extend the DLR. All of the classes 150, 155, 154, 117, 114, 105, 106, will be replaced by all of the Scania N112, Volvo TD102KF, Volvo B10M, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 8LXB Diesel five carriages to disabled toilets are air conditioning trains including Highams Park for extend doing roots which is the Piccadilly line and the DLR trains. Could you also convert all of the 1973 stock trains into an air-conditioned maximum speed 78 km/hours (48 MPH) re-refurbished and make it into a 8 cars per unit if that will be alright, and also extend all of the Piccadilly train stations to make more space for all of the extended 8 car per unit 1973 stock air condition trains and can you also build another Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive Companies and they can order Every 17 Octagon and Hexagon shape LNER diagram and unique small no.11 Boilers from those Countries such as Greece, Italy, Poland, and Sweden, can they make Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive speeds by up to 117MPH so you can try and test it on the Original Mainline so it will be much more safer for the Passengers to enjoy the 117MPH speed Limit only for HS2 and Channel Tunnel mainline services, if they needed 16 Carriages Per units can they use those class 55’s, class 40’s and class 43HST Diesel Locomotive’s right at the Back of those 16 Carriages Per Units so they can take over at the Back to let those Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive’s have a rest for those interesting Journeys Please!!, oh can you make all of those Coal Boxes’s 16 Tonnes for all of the 117MPH Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive’s so the Companies will Understand us PASSENGER’S!! so Please make sure that the Builders can do as they are Told!! And Please do something about these very important Professional ideas Please Prime Minister of England, Prime Minister of Sweden, Prime Minister of Germany, Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister of Poland and that Includes the Mayor of London.😉😅😅😀😀😅😀😀😅😅😀😀😀😀😀😉😉
I use ScotRail regularly and seldom have any gripes. ScotRail are much better than GWR which I sufferred five years ago on holiday in Devon/Cornwall. I don't know why you've excluded them from your list of good companies. I'd also rate Trans-Pennine in terms of customer service, although the trains can be overdrowded after some of them were pinched by southerners to run the new service from Oxford to London.
@@edwardmortimer2150 Hi Edward - ScotRail was one of the last to be privatised in 1997 due to complications with the Strathclyde PTE funding in the Greater Glasgow area. National Express were the first franchisees, but they hardly set the heather on fire (as we say in Scotland) and were replaced by First ScotRail when their time expired. First were certainly more dynamic, although at times showing an aggressive attitude towards passengers! About five years ago they were replaced by Abellio, the current franchise holders. Transport is devolved and therefore contracts are handled by the Scottish Government, and their policy has been rail development with new lines opening and electrification schemes. British Rail tended to see their Scottish Region as a retirement plan for rolling stock near the end of its life.
15:50 "If you had it so people could travel on any train at any time and it was a fixed fare" As it is on every rail line the length & breadth of Japan.
September 12th 2021. Croydon some one jumped on the track train to Portsmouth cancelled Hastings train to Brighton cancelled someone jumped on the track Chichester train cancelled some one jumped on the track. Really ? All in one day ? An epidemic of suicides? Or is there a shortage of drivers?
*Sir Alex Ferguson really took all the time to set out and see the horrific of privatisation of railways. Time to bring Man U under pubic ownership as well.*
To me commuting is the worse thing anyone can do to waste their life. Sure, one can read/listen to a book, or find other productive ways to not totally waste the commute, it can still be soul crushing. Only one of three things can solve this: - *Companies should not concentrate in big city centres, and should hire people from their local area* (or allow WFH as a policy and covid19 showed us it is possible). Education should be equally provided to all so finding skilled talent in a small village or surroundings should not be a problem. Adequate infrastructure can also be made available in remote places. Basically, we go back 400-500 years to an agrarian style society, but without all the feudal horrors. - better cycling routes. - invent teleportation.
@@MrJimheeren Yes, we both agree. London was allowed to become this big because 'The City' was the centre of commerce of the whole country, heck all of Europe, and companies wanted to be there. If they followed my suggestions and companies were encouraged (read forced) to open in other cities, you would have seen London much smaller and other cities become larger. Maybe a metro area in the north to include Bolton, Manchester, and Liverpool (which by the way are still smaller than Greater London area wise). That would be preferred. Someone living in Liverpool wouldn't need to commute every day to Manchester like some do into London, because both cities to have enough variety of jobs on offer. You see this is European countries. The difference between the largest city and the next largest one is much lower than in the UK.
I always think if they put more money into the railways, there will be less congestion and they will get more profit and maybe they wont have to charge so much for fares. Idk, just my opinion.
![Inside King's Cross: The Railway (Episode 4) [FULL EPISODE]](/img/n.gif)
If he wanted a legitimate evaluation of the Virgin Rail experience, he should not have announced that he was going to be on board. Virgin excels at free PR and they certainly laid it on thick for him so that they were presented in the most positive light.
Travelling First Class in a mostly empty carriage and being served nice food whilst 2 coaches down the economy class peasants are crammed in, being gouged £2 for a packet of crisps, and the toilet door doesn't shut properly... ah the legitimate Virgin Rail experience lol
still, could be worse, could be a Northern Rail Pacer. I was getting those to and from work every day at my old job and was very glad not to have to get on one again when I left
Agreed. He's make a useless mystery shopper.
I rather think he was trying to make a point.
In the Republic of Ireland, Irish Rail is nationalised and 100% owned by the Irish Government.
Oldest Intercity trains are 16 years old.
Oldest Commuter trains are 17 years old in Dublin, 20 years in Limerick, 26 years in Cork.
Statistics on the Intercity service between the two largest cities, Dublin and Cork.
Punctuality in 2018: 87.6%
Reliability in 2018: 99.6%
One way standard class ticket: €21.49 (£19.39)
One way first class ticket: €53.99 (£48.72)
Distance: 252 km (157 miles) approx.
Average scheduled journey time: 2 hrs 41 mins
And statistics on what I think is their busiest Commuter service, the Heuston Commuter in Dublin.
Punctuality in 2018: 96.5%
Reliability in 2018: 99.3%
Those are some pretty good prices. I took the bus from Dublin to Cork a couple of years ago because my friends insisted it was cheaper and faster. I regret that decision until this very day
Yeah well BR was so badly run something had to be done
I don’t think any country should take ROI as a good example of how to run a nationalised railway
England would do anything for Stats like that
Taking Ireland as a example of a functional railway is pretty funny lol
"Man of the people" drives a Merc and keeps peacocks.
Exactly.
He is either deluded or taking the piss, he probably doesn't even drive the Mercedes and has a driver most of the time.
being wealthy and enjoying it as he pleases; and being empathic with 'the people' isn't exactly one-or-the-other.
Driving a Merc is irrelevant - many of my friends who are actually not rich by any means (and can be classified as low or working class) drive Mercs. However, being a friend of Maggie "the witch" Thatcher is definitely something reserved for the elites of society.
xd
The trouble is that eight years on, things are no better. If anything they're worse than they were in 2015. This documentary has aged incredibly well. Well made too.
Not the exact same focus but I feel like this acts as a similar companion piece and modern update: th-cam.com/video/ZHjPeC1dGv4/w-d-xo.html
I used the train lately and they were terrible so going back to car
Now that Labour has announced its plans to re-nationalise the railways, I’m not sure that it will improve anything - I was coming back from visiting family in Ireland on SailRail having previously tried to amend my travel plans the week before to avoid the planned rail strike in October 2022, but I still ended up being stranded in Holyhead for 2 days, unable to get back to Manchester for work the next few days and I was frantic - I ended up paying double the original price of my SailRail ticket from Holyhead to Manchester and then they had a bus transfer from Lladnuo in Wales to Chester, stopping at every Welsh town enroute and other Welsh passengers at stops were furious as the coach was too packed - I ended up totally frazzled in Manchester Piccadilly at Midday after a nightmare journey
What's lacking in this documentary is an interview with Sir Humphrey Appleby who, I am certain, would have a very concise explanation for any and all shortcomings of the British Rail system. Btw for the price of 5000 pounds mentioned at the beginning of the film you can get one year's travel on almost all public transport in expensive Switzerland without any restrictions. And in first class.
Heck, for that price, you could get all-access yearlong passes for all transport forms in Belgium (the rail company SNCB and the regionally-operated public transportation companies) and could still buy yourself a nice ring.
I had a 2hr journey on a train north from Bangkok cost me 40p not £155! 😆
Train from Belgrade in Serbia to Thessaloniki in Greece costs around €25 and takes 15.5 hours.
@@xBatboys4 Speed of 15km/h
@@NextSound170 nah more like 30-60 kmph, and it does not matter so much you can look outside and enjoy the scenery. You will not be bored trust me. Especially if you have never been on this route.
2:08
Nick: To be honest I must confess neither of us uses the trains every day.
*Me, who uses the train every day:*
Me. I used to drive them. I always got a seat.
@Joseph Turner, Really? Cool! And I never get a seat 😂
I know two posho’s who never use the train (let alone public transport) but will ‘give it a go’ are not the best people to tell a frustrating story experienced by millions of people
They are FIRED😂😂😂😂
Thatcher knew privatisation was politically extremely difficult and so she fought shy of it. Major allowed it into the April 1992 Tory election manifesto and then against all the odds won the election so had to do it. It was a fight between Treasury, Dept of Transport and Government with BR almost entirely left out of the debate. The resulting British compromise, implemented quickly and arguably incompetently, was the worst of all worlds.
British rail was struggling they were not upholding high standards not to mention in the 1990s there fleet still had some older locomotives the class 101, 309 ect Lots of old First gen DMUS and EMUs also to mention MK1 and 2 coaches also the locomotive fleet.
Are rail systems as broken down over 30 years by sell off not work over price ticket slow late
I calculated that East Midlands Railways is 3x as expensive to take as the Dutch state railways for the same distance.
"Across the UK"-shows a map of England lol
To HM Government in London... Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland may as well not exist. They only like having them part of the UK for their tax money.
scotland and wales do there own thing anyway
@@williamg209two Scotland and Wales have partially devolved governments, meaning that they can control some things themselves but not others
@@RWL2012 I know
@@williamg209two OK
Even the royal train isn’t being operated by a British company.
Don’t want to alarm you but the royal train is ran by network rail owned by the British goverment but the locomotives are leased from DB which I will admit is German but the royals are also of German descent
Checkmate
Jimbob I think I said "being operated" in my comment. What did you not understand? Your comment is completely irrelevant. I know that the Royal Train is owned by Network Rail. It is being operated and maintained by DB Cargo.
It’s in the first paragraph of its Wikipedia article.
@@GeorgiaOverdrive At least it's not DR Congo!
As a retired railwayman with forty two years service under his belt I'd just like to say this about rail privatisation -
WE TOLD YOU SO BUT YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE US. YOU NAIVE FOOLS REALLY DID THINK THAT THE FARES WOULD DROP AND THE TRAINS WOULD RUN ON TIME.
@@pauljohns8662 They privatized the entire UK. Natural resources, assets, services, homes and property, even fish (a Brexiter's wet dream), all sold to the highest bidder and is all going to shite. Who would have expected it!!
The NHS is the biggest prize of all!
The old service would have been better if you'd not always been striking.
PENZANCEPETE ….. stop BLOODY STRIKING !! £60K a year is ample enough stop being greedy
Thatcher
the problem with Britain's railways is the 50 year lack of repair to the network that is now being fixed by Network Rail and caught up with at great expense.
It's very interesting to compare this to what happened here in Germany after 1994, when the two former public railways (of East- and West-Germany) joined to form Deutsche Bahn AG (an "AG" is a company whose shares are traded at stock exchanges).
Well, to make it short, the results were kind of similar.
The "Pacer" is quite interesting too. In Germany, we did something like this too, but in the late 1950s. The resulting train was called "Schienenbus" (roughly: Railbus), or technically, the VT95.
Thanks for sharing. I thought DB was a successful story
Thank you! I have travelled quite often with DB. Often nice, sometimes very unpleasant.
Here in DK we bought new trains, IC4, about 14 years ago.
IC4 turned out to be a bit of a failure so now the the old IC3 trains are being renovated and shined up to run a little longer.
Decades ago Denmark chose to continue with diesel instead of electrifying the rails and it is biting us in the bottom, as we are doing it now but it would have been cheaper to do back then. So until they are done electrifying and buy new trains we continue with IC3 and IC4.
@@Degofhas In Germany it really depends on where you live. I'm living in the Rhine-Ruhr area, where the DB operates the S-Bahn (= S-tog), which connects the dozens of cities with each other.
The whole system suffers from a lack of maintenance, and delays are very common. Really, the DB and especially the S-Bahn are a running gag here.
( th-cam.com/video/uODtMWbG0SU/w-d-xo.html )
@@wuloki A friend of mine lives in Neuss and he jokes about the S-bahn all the time. It doesn't matter if it has anything to do with the bahn. If he is slow to reply to a message - blames the S-bahn. If he is lacking behind in a game - it the S-bahns fault. Got a speeding ticket in the car? - It's because of the S-bahn 😂😂
I lived in Hamburg for a while and took the train to Berlin. It was pleasant every time but when I went to Frankfurt it was a pain in the ass! The trains are nice to be in though!
I have the impression that in many areas in Europe not enough money and effort is put in to train service. It really a shame because the population density and relatively short distances in Europe makes for conditions for trains and we should be much better at it!
@@Degofhas That asks for a long answer...
In Germany, commuter trains (S-Bahn) and long-distance trains are two completely different things. The company in charge is Deutsche Bahn (German Railways), but they're split up into various subcompanies which handle the various parts of the system. The S-Bahn network is operated by it's own company, same as with the long-distance trains.
The big problem - and that's my oppinion - is that we privatized the railway. Until the mid 1990s, all rail services were operated by Deutsche Bundesbahn ("German Federal Railways"), and even though they didn't make any profits (like few public transport services do), they did their job quite well.
In the 1990s the German government hopped onto to the "let's privatize everything and let the free market handle it" bandwagon, and that's when things started to go downhill. The newly founded "Deutsche Bahn AG" (AG = joint stock company) postponed maintenance to make their books look good for the shareholders, and split up into a dozen or so companies to dilute responsibility.
Whoever decided to split the railway into bits and pieces and privatize them had no idea on the technical and economical necessities of rail traffic. While trains used to be seen as a public service in the "good old days" , they are now a means to extort money from those who have no viable alternative transport available!
It's chaos
It's like hearing and seeing the same proces we went through in the Netherlands. The government overhere has privitised about every public service you can imagine. Healthcare, Public Transport, Energy....you name it! And as it goes over in the UK, it doesn't work. It is a disaster.
I'm not sure I'd agree that having a state owned company from another country benefiting from the privately run railways in this country is "a success," it doesn't say much about the confidence our own government has in handling the finances of our own railways
Where we are now with our railways is the culmination of nearly fifty years of poor management and under investment. In my opinion it goes back to the modernisation plan, we should have gone directly from steam to electric traction which would have meant keeping steam for longer but instead we opted to use diesels as a stop gap and in doing so we scrapped an almost new steam fleet that never recovered its build costs we introduced a plethora of unsuccessful diesel designs and failed to standardise the fleet. The first major line to be electrified was the WCML and the rest of the network was supposed to progressively follow with the entire network being electrified by the late eighties which obviously didn't happen. Secondary routes were ripped up with indecent haste sometimes less than 24 hours after the last train whereas if they had been mothballed as in many other European countries they could have been reinstated giving the extra capacity that is now desperately needed. We then had nearly fifteen to twenty years of little or no investment in the railway infrastructure and very few new trains until the system was privatised and the private sector was then handed a system that had twenty years catching up to do and it is a sad fact of life that private sector enterprises have by definition show a profit and pay a dividend to shareholders. I feel a little sorry for some of the franchise companies because they have based projections for costs and service improvements based on promises of infrastructure and line speed upgrades made by the government and network rail that have either not been delivered on time or at all.
The UK is building HS2 at an extremely high cost. It seems to me that this is a poor decision especially, when the whole UK rail network is mismanaged by the private sector. I would have thought that it might be a good idea to re-nationalise the rail network and make it work for the nation not for the shareholders. It looks as though the Government is simply piling more shit on top of an already big pile of shit.
I remember this airing originally and thinking things weren’t great then. Now though we really are in the absolute pits.
2020 and the pacers are still running
They are on the way out. To Chase water etc
@@sydelton1289 I don't know why heritage railways would want more than one of them (one would be a good example as a lesson from history), but I guess "whatever floats your boat."
are they ?? where?? id love to get a final ride on one.
November and the Pacers are almost gone!!!
I think theyre preserving them to attract a few more people who are interested in pacers (im struggling to find why theyre interesting). Theyll be a nice filler in diesel galas and early in the year to save money before the peak season but thats about it
That was 5 years ago but still our railways are always as congested and trains always being delayed. And with more new trains coming into service will not make any difference to how we travel. And not forgetting the Coronavirus that has temporary stopped commuters from working from home.
8:14 Disappointing? More like des... des...
Disgraceful!
Disgusting!
Despicable!
Sodor did it right
Part of the issue is society’s obsession with working to rigid hours. If more companies allowed for flexible starting times within, let’s say, a 3 hour window between 8am & 11am then the peak rush would be more spread out.
"at one moment in the day for the ... typists"
"The typists"? Was he speaking in the 1990's or the 1890's?
1990s, unfortunately.
Do you not remember? He caused a right outcry when he said that and ended up having to grovel to his secretary.. who alas took it in good humour and didn’t give him the knee to the happy sacs he rightly deserved.
"cheap and cheerful" service. ha!
“Has it ever struck you that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?”― Tennessee Williams.
56:36
If there is no direct line of action and accountability from the passengers to the operators, then the competition becomes not on merit but on existence. The fact that the process that chooses which operators gets a franchise has little to no impact from the actual users, negates the whole idea of competition before it has even started.
Imagine the same for cars. You have no input on what car you get, and the one you got was decided based on a variety of factors were cost always seems to be the deciding factor anyway. A cost that is not fully known before the operation of the car begins, and might even have assumed there'd be some future improvement in efficiency. There would be little incentive to do anything *but* cut and underestimate cost.
in South Australia, the government owns the vehicles, infrastructures however companies bid to maintain the vehicles and service, they are then fined if the service is underperforming and if they are not doing the best to improve the service, they are nixed out the door... Serco was an operator here until their services... were no longer required.
As an American what is it like to have trains? Cause i live right across the street from a station (and a CSX freight yard) and see 1 train a day.
Trains here are better than made out to be, i live in Rotherham and i can get a train to doncaster where i can then get one to london, so you can get almost everywhere on one
what a very well informed documentary, what with pointing out hs2 isn't just for speed, but for increased capacity on the original network, and for pointing out when a TOC is owned by foreign states.
I love how they gloss over the cost of renting a train off a bank. I mean it’s like renting a sofa from Brighthouse. But they politely refer to it as sweating assets!
This is the problem. The public don’t get what’s going on because our news media are on the side of the companies. Not the public.
the higher costs are probably from backhanders and boardroom "performance" bonuses. Oh, and for snazzy paint schemes on the trains.
Yeah, why the whacky paint and advertising? Who's not using trains to commute? Paint them all one colour, much cheaper.
I always thought UK had a good rail system. Seems I was misled all these years.
It has but it also has a problem with overcrowding due to increasing passenger numbers, particularly at peak times.
Some parts work well others are utter dreadful to use
in my experiance southern is proububly the crappyest
Some of it is. Hull Trains tend to be great, though can be expensive at times. But London and South East and Manchester metro area..... absolutely deplorable.
lovely service if you dont use it then one do not see the problems first hand.
the fundamental problem is that the cost of the operation (laying and maintaining the tracks) is publicly owned, and thus the bill footed by the taxpayer, while the parts that make the money (the tickets and the rolling stock) are privately owned, very often by other governments' own publicly owned rail companies. the taxpayer pays the vast majority of the cost while money flows out of the country straight into the pockets of private owners and other countries' taxpayers
Not so much a reply as an agreement.
This comment form ZLDL is totally true.
One suspects that various British governments, of all types have cared less for the needs of the majority of the populace and more for the profits of their mates. Don't forget that Transport Minister Marples (at the time of the Beeching cuts) was a major part of a road building firm (See Wikipedia for more) and thus hardly a fan of railways.
European owned National rail companies are the ones who own most of the franchises. So we pay through the nose to subsidize European National rail companies.
Who ever would have thought that's the way privitizaion would have panned out.
Just as highways are government owned and paid for, so should the alternative transport system, the railroads. Living in the US I have envied the British for having such an extensive passenger rail system, but I can see that it is attempting to operate well above capacity. I think the same is true of The Tube. Investment in upgrades may be hampered by the need for private operators to make a profit for their stockholders.
I can't believe they've got the username and password on the monitor and showed it on TV... and people wonder how infrastrcture gets hacked...
Yikes!!!
SailRail services between Manchester Piccadilly (platform 14) and Holyhead for the ferries to Dublin are a complete joke, involving changing trains at Chester (nightmare) Crewe or Lladnuo - there should be direct services from Hull, Leeds, Manchester Victoria (my nearest station) and Chester to Holyhead without the need to change trains enroute, timed to meet ferry check-ins at Holyhead and ferry arrivals at Holyhead - TfW, Avanti Trains and the Welsh Assembly need to do better
One thing I appreciated about this at the time was how Nick and Margret and all the people involved in this documentary broke it all down into fairly simple terms,
I used to regulary travel from the coast of Mid Wales to London, back in the 80s it was quite exciting, you never really knew what would happen or how you would get home.
Now it's rather boring, the trains are seldom late and are always there.
I could even know what time I would be walking through my front door after catching the train in Cologne.
51:20 but you went back to Northern Ireland and said the passenger numbers there had doubled, BUT THAT THE SUBSIDY STAYED THE SAME!!!
The good old British tapping themselves on the back... The state was incompetent in running the train service (or to be more precise the Tories defunded it in order to justify privatization). The Tories sold it off to private companies for them to prosper while increasing subsidies. Privatized Railways hiked the prices because you know, no actual competition (which is supposedly the point of privatization). The railways remain shit but now the profits go to private hands. This sounds like a failed state, something you would expect from a third world country.
On top of that, we're meant to support the move as good for businesses too, but all the money is basically funneled overseas to other countries' rail operators who use our fares to subsidise their own trains.
@@Reddsoldier Although due to bid issues Abellio Scotrail is/was being subsidised by the Dutch government. Due to various factors a lot of franchises are actually losing cash and will soon be run as more of a contract to operate services with the government rather than the operator taking the revenue risk.
Stagecoach stopped chucking everything at winning contracts when it could see that the conditions imposed by the government were unworkable.
This was just the beginning, wait and see, the working class and middle class that voted for Brexit will be surprised, it’s the same people that will benefit that benefit from privatisation of BR, Thatchers friend and the Merc man will love it, the rest not so much.
For three years from 1979 I rode a return service from Manchester to Euston every two weeks. It was usually on time, and sometimes early in to Euston.
Everyone slagging off old British Rail but fail to examine WHY it was so riddled with problems. Simply, lack of investment and asset stripping by successive governments to sell off to their mates! First they took the docks, then the hotels, then the ferries, then the parcels. Anything that made money, gone to the fat cat at the back of the room with a stuffed envelope in his hand…
Well in Czech Republic we have state owned tracks , national operators but private companies could buy time slots for trains or compete for state subsidized contracts for routes.
BR took on a massive problem after the war. It didn't help that, like the United States, the British .government was more committed to the role of the motor vehicle which received massive infrastructure funding. No wonder with post war debt and a host of other problems the government mandarins of the time cut corners by modernising the rolling stock but not the infrastructure.
You think British trains are never on time Come to the US 😂
4 days late isn’t uncommon.
Now look at Hong Kong's MTR
And on top of that, 2 states don't have ANY rail service, and neither does Las Vegas.
We have trains?
@@andyjay729 but that sweet sweet monorail!
FOUR HUNDRED POUND A MONTH??!! That's my fucking rent.
And having to stand the entire time as well
The only solution for the UK’s railways is to change all of the relevant laws to bring in an external body from a country like Japan, China or Taiwan and give them direct and complete control and not allow anyone else to interfere, including Network Rail and the U.K. trade unions, all of whom have been deliberately holding back progress on the railways for very selfish reasons for far too long given the failure of HS2 - standards would improve, fares would come down, there would be far less rail strikes nor disruptions, rail projects would be completed in half the time and for half the costs that they do now, while maintaining and repairing existing lines would be far easier, as would re-opening previously closed lines
I totally agree with your points
@@andrewseddon7989There is far too much wastage in the existing rail structure - with all of the investment via taxpayers money and ever increasing rail fares, there is still nothing to show for it in terms of real improvements and this is down to mismanagement which itself should be a criminal offence (embezzlement and money laundering) - yet we want the railways to be a viable alternative to road transport and air travel - the continued suspension of the Chunnel style rail link under the Irish Sea between Holyhead and Dublin is a case in point - no private investor is ever going to commit funding to such mismanagement - the Irish railways by comparison have always been far more of a success than the U.K. and yet still, the Irish government are starting a massive investment programme to further improve the Irish rail network
you had your chance in 2017 and 2019, Britain. smh 🤦♂️
8:02 Trains never arrive on time
Indian Railways: Allow me to introduce myself 😂
Or Amtrak enters the room
Via rail Canada joins the chat
It because they're so heavy due to all the clingons. Weighs them down and makes them slower lol.
And this my friend Japan....!
I commuted in to the centre of London on a South Eastern line in 1968 and 1969. I remember the trains being quite crowded, but usually they were on time. I also remember travelling on steam trains from Kings Cross to the Midlands in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Again I recall the trains being quite punctual.
The only problems I remember occurred in inclement weather conditions. Trains were hours late in the winter of 1962 - 1963. I also recall standing on Oxenholme station, I think in January 1972,when there had been some heavy winds. The night trains were still coming through at close to midday. Eventually I arrived in Birmingham many hours late.
£400 per month just to get to and from work. That's just mind-blowing.
This comment did age well. 2022 with fuel prices for cars through the roof.
they should have a meeting about a meeting about a meeting to decide wether a meeting is required before the meeting that could lead to a conclusion that the meeting is on the meeting of a meeting in which the meetings were decided. They will have a meeting about that that meeting first, though.
same as watch out for notices notice or till further notice
6:30 "... _it got so bad I went to see a behavioral therapist about it you know, and she just said "you have the wrong kind of anger", which unfortunately sounds a bit too much like..."_
Is it saying something that when he paused at that point, I immediately thought _"the wrong kind of snow"_ ...
--and I've never once set foot outside North America?
(P.S.: I actually did burst out laughing when he immediately proved me correct)
It’s funny how the pacer is still running on a newly state funded line
The host stands looking at a middle section of train, and says, "One train, split into two." (This enabled a through line to London by diverting, apparently, 1/2 a train--and took years to accomplish at untold expense.) Hilariously, as he struggled not to roll his eyes, the colossal theme music from 2001:A Space Odyssey swelled, presumably at the magnificence of the accomplishment. My guess is that fares are so high because, obviously, trains and infrastructure are aging badly and need replacement; but the simple decision to split a train into two cars? Taking years? During that costly interval, a lot of hours were logged, dragged on by a lot people who get paid a lot of money to fill their time doing something or other. The more time, the better. And who pays the cost? Those who pay train fares.
Cue 2001: A Space Odyssey--had me rolling!
Funniest (and best) documentary I've seen in a long time. "We had peacocks at home, Margaret. And they took off like heavy bombers. And we never saw them again!" (Just one of the many gems in this witty, pithy exposé.)
What is the song at around 29:30?
What misery...Glad my family emigrated to Canada...Britain invented the railway and used to lead the world...
From 'first' to 'worst' in a lot of things, not just railways.
Canadian trains are even worse. What are you talking about. 7 trains a day between Ontario and (fake)London. No electrification whatsoever. Bud cars made in the 1950s. Via rail is a disgrace. Amtrak is doing a better job and that’s something
Here we are in December 2020 and the last of the over 100 Pacer trains have finally been withdrawn
No that's not true. The last of *Northern's* Pacers was withdrawn in late November 2020, but the Transport for Wales 142s and Great Western Railway 143s will remain in service until between mid-December to the 31st of December 2020, so another couple/few weeks, and TfW are trying to get permission for their 143s to continue briefly in early 2021 as not all of their 769s are/will be in service then.
@@RWL2012 the Northern Pacers were what I was talking about, here, we had the vast majority of them, over 100 of them
@Miles Holder they're also getting /already have ex-Class 319 units, which will be reclassified as Class 769 as the units are being modified to fit a diesel engine to allow them to operate on nonelectrified tracks, but crucially still utilise the electric supply where available
At a tiny local station there were 4 lines running through.
Platforms at the outside 2 lines and through traffic on the inside 2 lines for express and goods.
48:55, well, it’s not British tax money going into the infrastructure, it’s German tax money going into it and now the money is lacking for the German trains
Of course it's British tax money. Why would German taxpayers be paying for British railways?
You stick to driving around in your Mercedes.
Great cars though. I normally drive in small vans and rent a VW Polo once every so often but a friend has a good job now and bought/leased a Mercedes S class. Goddamn that thing drives smoothly
Would be interesting to see an updated 6 years later report.
i worked in train maintenance for over 22 years and if you really knew what went on you'd never hand another penny over to these crooks
Tell us!
If privatisation is to succeed then the whole thing needs to becomeme open access (more competition and more services like Grand Central who have one of the best if not the best rated service in the UK and less red tape for service improvement like virgin faced) as well as a long over due modernisation project (this is needed either way as I have met lead engineers from networkrail who are trying to recruit computing graduates such as myself to fix the shit show of a signaling system we have here that for the most part hasn't been touched since the 60s/70s and this is from the houses mouth itself). Privatised is not the word id used to describe this as im a fan of the pre big for model (yes the model will need work to modernise it) I'd rather a competitive system like what Grand Central or Hull trains offer that this sham. Also there are few exceptions to the rule like Chiltern railways who are competing for all major stops en-route like Birmingham and Oxford I have lived along the route for the last few years and been doing the calc Oxford and Birmingham are far better value outta Marylebone than Euston or Paddington not to mention their amazing preservation of old facades at Wycombe, Birmingham Moor Street, Leamington and so on which we need more of.
What they dont tell you is that when you buy in advance for off-peak travel, the UK prices are amongst the cheapest in Western Europe. Its mostly the commuters who get stung. A lot of people can now work from home or adjust their hours; if its possible for your job to be flexible or work from home but your employer doesnt offer it, change employer.
As for the Unions, they are half the problem. Many rail staff still have their old government terms and conditions yet that's not enough for the Unions, they want more and more. I have started taking the bus from Somerset to London due to strikes, the Unions are running out of feet to shoot themselves in.
i still dont get why that myth that the pacer uses a wagon chassis is still around, their frame was derived entirely from high speed freight vehicle 1 which, dispite its name, was one of 4 vehicles for testing different high speed suspension designes, none of it was derived from an actual goods waggon. the pacer actually recieved the best suspension that BR had at the time as it had come directly from the vehicle theyd used to research it (the same suspension design was also used on the APT-E). pacers still had a bouncy ride though due to the lack of bogies
Possibly as the body is bulit on the basis of the leyland national bus. as were other railbuses of the mk1 dmu era.
@@highpath4776 oh yeah it was a Leyland bus body, my problem is people saying it was a waggon chassis/frame and suspension, when that all in fact came from HSFV1
The last one just disappeared I believe, last week. They're finally gone!
@@richardwills-woodward they're still around in Wales and the west, and I believe the northern 144s are still going
@@Trainman10715 Just checked - you maybe right about Wales and the West Country. Northern's last one has just been withdrawn last week.
Singapore, despite it's small size, is the best example of how to run an efficient rail service, it is state owned with 1 state operator and 1 private operator, and the trains are always on time.
It could be said that in the Victoria era Britain had a good public transport system with trolleybuses and railway's in most towns, of course, successive governments decided to focus more on car use, now it seems we are going the opposite way again 😀, can the government not just get behind improving public transport and stick with it, make it efficient or give the private companies that run services the incentive to build new railway lines and connect more towns to cities 🤔
Japanese rail is the best in the world and is privatised it's even run by monopolies. I think the British system needs some accountable they need to give companies the whole lot rail maintenance signals and trains not split up by other companies but all owned by one company split up by sections like Japan the British government can lease it and if the service is bad straight up get rid off the company and find another. The infastructer is bad just straight up bad
How I think it should work the government creates packages that have the train, railways, signals, minor stations. The government owns the major hub stations and maintains them. The packages are then leased to companies through a bidding war. The government then holds these companies accountable by cancelling the lease if they're trains are late by a certain percentage or by how people vote on what is the worse company through polls these can be ran by the government if the train service is exceptional that get a tax cut.
they did then not enough money being made
2:46. Mercedes, BMW, Audi. All these German cars. But still they want Brexit. Cake & eat it?
What does wanting international goods have to do with wanting international government?
@@evan12697 Buying the international goods supports the international government. We don't want the international government, but we can't resist the international goods. Isn't there something rather hypocritical about that? GREAT BRITAIN!!! (but we all drive German cars).
I nearly saw my dinner again when I watched 'Tricky Dickey' Branson try to 'sell' awesomeness through his railway service. My God, didn't HE scarper when the Government wouldn't continue to replenish his begging bowl!!! That's capitalism for you!
As a kid in the 80s and 90s. I remember how awful British Rail was...
It was so bad. At one point my mum, I and all other passengers travelled in freight carriages for mail standing in cages.. On a mainline railway! Once privatisation set in, within a year it all disappeared. Trains didn't break down, they were cleaner than before, overall awesome.
That is the fault of the government by deliberately not investigating enough in the railways so privatization would feel like an improvement. That kind of shit never happened in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden. Because the government runs his trains well. Tories hate the middle class and poor people. They don’t give a shit about you. They only care about their rich friend in the City and their base in the south east. Think about it. The French, Germans and Dutch all make money on the British network sponsored by the British taxpayer. The only thing privatization did was making a few blokes on top very rich by making the public coughing up the highest prices in the whole of Europe
7:29 train, also known as "that somewhere after 7 train, maybe".
I dont know what is wrong with that guy and the 7.29 train but you wouldn't go see a therapist over a train........ you'd just catch an ealier one if its that bad........
I am happy with privatisation. I am usually in Glasgow, but go back to Newcastle a lot.
LNER is really good (it is owned by the DfT as a correction for a failed private franchise) and ScotRail is usually cheap.
Different franchises can focus on different markets.
I do think that some companies should buy their own trains more often. The rolling stock companies are a dubious middleman.
Youre happy with privatisation yet go on a nationalised service?
@@alexturlais8558 the east coast mainline works well nationalised.
ScotRail works well privatised. To get from Glasgow to Edinburgh, then Edinburgh to Newcastle.
Hence I am happy with the status quo.
Yeah that never made sense to me why it is split up into Network Rail, the rolling stock companies, and the operators. There can be the discussion on whether public or private ownership is better but to me this seems the railway system in Britain takes the worst of both worlds.
@@churroman183 they should have split it back into individual railways that each own, operate, and maintain their own track, rolling stock, and infrastructure, just like the big four...
@@rufusfromjohto7515Appreciate this is an old comment but how do you feel now ScotRail is also under public ownership? Genuine question btw.
Let’s call it out. It’s a very simple no brainer. Privatisation can only work properly if there is true competition and real alternatives for customers. Normally companies that don’t offer a good service get punished by customers deserting them and then they go out of business. It’s all about accountability. These train companies do not have true incentives to provide a good service and their profits are not attached to good customer experiences. Therefore , train companies are artificially protected from the harsh market forces that would normally create a good service. Basically , the business model is fundamentally flawed at a deep level. It’s faux competition and privatisation by name only because market forces do not hold providers accountable. It could never work and never will work. You simply cannot divorce the railways from taxpayer input and Government oversight , so you might as well nationalise it. In reality British Rail was more accountable and a much simpler model. It’s a Tory scam and we the British people fell for it.
De Dutch railway is getting a fine from the ministry of transportation for every delayed train.
In several levels off delay.
Funny in the days of steam everything ran on time and snow didn't stop anything, now it is a farce, an expensive one at best.
now 2 inches of snow and cant open the doors to get a snow plough out.
That Virgin Trains boss looks far too relaxed to say he runs such a shoddy service!
Virgin Trains hasn't operated the West Coast Main Line for a year now.
1:22 John Major,I hope you are pleased with yourself.
Privatisation CAN work, just look at the Czech Republic - there are issues here and there, but still, nothing dramatic and the service keeps improving year by year.
Look at the US, the railroads are all private and doing quite well for themselves.
I think the two presenters are actually being very closed minded and not delving fully into the reasons of the issues, the documentary is designed to make people think badly of the railway (I'm a producer)
Actually it was pretty interesting. Wasn't full of detail. Fast forward 5 years. TOCs haven't improved. Train tickets still continue to sky rocket.
@@Paradice4Life New trains sitting in the sidings, waiting for the passengers.
@@sydelton1289 and half the track ripped up and half the stations shut since the 60s, despite a pathetically small number of reopenings.
The problem seems to be at its biggest in Wales. You can't travel entirely by train between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen without it taking 4 times as long as it should, going via Shrewsbury in England. You can't even go from Mid Wales to Mid Wales (Newtown to Llandrindod Wells) without going via Shrewsbury.
Some lines are also closed in England (such as in East Anglia and the East Midlands) and "East West Rail" between Oxford and Cambridge is only just being rebuilt... Not sure about Scotland.
11:27 I am astonished at why it was done like this,
This was set up from the very start to fail.
this system relies on a delicate chain of companies to keep even a single line running on time and efficiently.
No wonder its so bad in Briton.
This is fucked up beyond belief.
Someone must have sat down and purposefully tried to divide the power the companies have over railway functions into an unmanageable mess. Why didn't they just look across the pond to America's system of a company owning its territory, maintaining its own line, owning its rolling stock, keeping its own schedules (for freight mostly), etc. It has worked there for many years.
Its as if whoever shat this system out was so terrified of the slightest possibility of a rail monopoly that they practically crippled everything in the process to prevent it. The people who came up with this quagmire of interdependent companies needs to be tried in court, every damn one.
Never mind a monopoly I think the fear was of a later Labour govt. potentially reversing privatisation; it's much more difficult to do that when there are multiple legally binding contracts, all expiring at different times, and with multiple providers involved.
That said John Major suggested it was because he remembered it being great in the days of pre-nationalisation when there were local monopolies in different areas, I'm inclined to disbelieve him; partly because pre-privatisation was actually pretty poor, partly because Tories often mislead their voters. In other words, in my opinion, it was a solely ideological move, and so one can conclude that the way they broke up the system had an ideological motive behind it too (perhaps influenced by a hint, only a hint mind you, of Major's nostalgia).
There are similarities between this and the way the NHS is being partially privatised, bit by bit; multiple providers, multiple contracts. Even with Covid we see this; they can say NHS track and trace but in reality it is Serco track and trace, with multiple other private enterprises supporting them.
It’s works just they want it, it’s a transfer program of tax money to corporations, it’s not about completion or service. It’s the Tories plan plan to make their donors richer and the next step is Brexit, no one can give you a list of positives, except “taking back control” something they never lost.
It’s a project to make the 99% to hand over their money to the elite “voluntary”. The Republicans in America is running the same scam.
‘Your friend Maggie Thatcher’ tells me everything I need to know.
Problem, migration has driven English and settled 2nd 3rd gen. migrants out of London to the suburbs. So the trains are now overloaded with commuters. Companies need to move out of London.
Sometimes Britain really does seem almost third world... some kind of Victorian banana republic. Every other country on earth, except America, knows that railways run at a loss but it's worth the investment because of the links they create are absolutely basic to any kind of economic or social activity. Railways are a public service, not a profitable business.
How many high speed trains do they have in America compared to Britain?
It IS a third world country now.
They should take a look at the train system in northern spain.
They’ve got it sussed !
Don’t live near a station, never been on a train for forty years, how lucky am I?
I can watch all the carnage from a distance, safe in the knowledge none of it affects me.
How in earth did you manage never in your entire life set foot on a train. But yeah British trains are the worst but so is everything in England
trains are expensive always late never on time what they don't tell you the staff tend to be mislabel they treat you like yore customer and we are staff no in between trains are filthy all the time
I live in UK but travel to Japan a lot for work & this is just one of many countries around the world which has an amazing train network that is very clean & amazingly punctual & when I say punctual I mean in Japan to the second. When I return home back to the UK I feel so embarrassed & annoyed about our train network. Over priced mostly dirty delayed trains. Compared to other countries with great train networks we live in a small country so why the hell for years have we had a terrible over priced service? The members of government here in the UK need to go to Japan & take so notes on how they run the train network there including having a bullet train (HS2) since 1964. If we had reasonably priced service on time thousands more people would use it for commuting to & from work which also has the green bonus of getting these people out of a lot of cars & on trains. Come UK give the people what they deserve. It will in return help the economy.🇬🇧👍
Comparing the systems is interesting. JR East is totally private, but they own the stations, rolling stock and infrastructure. They're accountable for everything, so it's in the best interests of the company to deliver a clean, efficient, punctual and safe service as there's nobody to pass the buck on to. On top of this in the centre of Tokyo there are lots of different train companies that often compete along similar routes, so there is a level of competition that exists here that isn't present in the UK.
Three interesting side notes:
1) Generally speaking, your employer will reimburse your travel costs monthly as a post-tax addition to your salary. To the Japanese, paying £4.000 of your own money to get to work is insane. If your company doesn't cover your commuting costs, that's a good indicator that they're garbage and not worth working for.
2) Punctuality is important everywhere in Japan. If your train is delayed, you are entitled to a certificate of delay (chien shomei sho) to give to your boss. It's stamped by the train operator to say you are late because of their shortcomings and you are not at fault.
3) The bullet train is ridiculously expensive if you don't have a JR travel pass. A flight to Osaka from Tokyo is usually half the price of the bullet train.
more money to share holders
So, to make uptime when trains are running behind by 3 minutes, to avoid any bottle necking & even more delays, stops are cut out. Fine. That makes sense. But as Nick said, the passengers at these stations will huff as their train will chuff past. Yet no mention of those passengers, who have also paid their fares, is made. Do they get compensation? They should do, but I suspect they are given the run around when trying to complain. And it's hardly fair either, that the 'country bumpkin' stations are the ones that are cut from a schedule, as you can bet it's the smaller towns/villages who have a service cut. Not to mention you'd be pretty annoyed if you were on that train, with that stop being your destination. Why should that passenger then have to pay even more, to go back in the other direction, to reach their destination, with no guarantee that the same won't happen again? Once again, compensation is probably available, but I bet it's made as hard as possible to get, with all the finger pointing & the shifting of responsibilities in the Blame Game.
I know this is 8 years old, but is it any wonder that all those concerns about HS2 came true? And the cost almost tripled? And big chunks have now been axed. Many people who refused to move because their home was in the way, were forced out with compulsory purchase orders, against their will. They were effectively evicted from home. All that stress & trauma that must have caused to quite a few people is unimaginable. And now, they were put through all of that for nothing. They didn't need to be forced out of the homes they never wanted to leave in the first place. It wouldn't surprise me if some of those people have developed mental health illnesses, or attempted, or have committed, suicide, as a result.
As a current railwayman of 37 years service, i can tell you it was better managed when BR ran it, privatisation has been a failure.
PENSIONERS GETTING TOGGGING UP money for their pensions whilst being share holders 🙄🙄🙄🙄
I wanted to know why don’t they dig a tunnel and do an extension for the main line Train so they extend the unused abandoned underground stations.
Why couldn’t they use the part D78 Stock train doors on the sides and also restructure the front face of the A60 and A62 stock and remix and make them all together and also redesign them overhead line and also make them into 5 cars per unit and also having 2 Disabled Toilets on those 5 cars per unit A60 and A62 stock trains and also convert the A60 and A62 stock trains into a Scania N112, Volvo TD102KF, Volvo B10M, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 8LXB Diesel Engines and also put the Loud 7-Speed Voith Gearboxes in the A60 and A62 stock and also modernise the A60 and A62 stock and make it into a 11 car per unit so it could have less doors, more tables, computers and mobile phone chargers.
A Stock Trains and also having 8 Disabled Toilets on those A stock trains. why couldn’t we refurbish and modernise the waterloo and city line Triple-Track train tunnel and make it more bigger and extend it to bank station, making it into a Triple-Track Railway Line so those 4 European countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden to convert the waterloo and city line Triple-Track Train tunnel into an High Speed train.
The Third Euro tunnel Triple-Track Train line to make it 8 times better for passengers so they could go from A to B. then put the modernised 11 car per unit A Stock and put them on a bigger modernised waterloo and city line Triple-Track train tunnel so it could go to bank station to those 4 European countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden. The modernised refurbish 11 cars per unit A stock could be a High Speed The Third Triple-Track Euro Tunnel Train So it is promising and 37 times a lot more possible to do this kind of project that is OK for London Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden.
oh by the way, could they also tunnel the Triple-Track Railway Line so it will stop from Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex so that the Passengers will go to Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden and also extend the Triple-Track Railway Line from Bank to Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex Stations so that more people from there could go to Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden Easily.
Why couldn't they extend the Piccadilly line and also build a brand-new underground train stations so it could go even further right up to Clapton, Wood Street and also make another brand new tunnel train stations in Chingford and could they extend the DLR.
All of the classes 150, 155, 154, 117, 114, 105, 106, will be replaced by all of the Scania N112, Volvo TD102KF, Volvo B10M, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 8LXB Diesel five carriages to disabled toilets are air conditioning trains including Highams Park for extend doing roots which is the Piccadilly line and the DLR trains.
Could you also convert all of the 1973 stock trains into an air-conditioned maximum speed 78 km/hours (48 MPH) re-refurbished and make it into a 8 cars per unit if that will be alright, and also extend all of the Piccadilly train stations to make more space for all of the extended 8 car per unit 1973 stock air condition trains and can you also build another Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive Companies and they can order Every 17 Octagon and Hexagon shape LNER diagram and unique small no.11 Boilers from those Countries such as Greece, Italy, Poland, and Sweden, can they make Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive speeds by up to 117MPH so you can try and test it on the Original Mainline so it will be much more safer for the Passengers to enjoy the 117MPH speed Limit only for HS2 and Channel Tunnel mainline services, if they needed 16 Carriages Per units can they use those class 55’s, class 40’s and class 43HST Diesel Locomotive’s right at the Back of those 16 Carriages Per Units so they can take over at the Back to let those Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive’s have a rest for those interesting Journeys Please!!, oh can you make all of those Coal Boxes’s 16 Tonnes for all of the 117MPH Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive’s so the Companies will Understand us PASSENGER’S!! so Please make sure that the Builders can do as they are Told!! And Please do something about these very important Professional ideas Please Prime Minister of England, Prime Minister of Sweden, Prime Minister of Germany, Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister of Poland and that Includes the Mayor of London.😉😅😅😀😀😅😀😀😅😅😀😀😀😀😀😉😉
Chiltern railways, virgin trains (before avanti), GWR and grand central are probably the only decent rail operators in the uk
I use ScotRail regularly and seldom have any gripes. ScotRail are much better than GWR which I sufferred five years ago on holiday in Devon/Cornwall. I don't know why you've excluded them from your list of good companies. I'd also rate Trans-Pennine in terms of customer service, although the trains can be overdrowded after some of them were pinched by southerners to run the new service from Oxford to London.
@@Clivestravelandtrains oh sorry I have never been on scotrail but sounds good its owned by first instant it?
@@edwardmortimer2150 Hi Edward - ScotRail was one of the last to be privatised in 1997 due to complications with the Strathclyde PTE funding in the Greater Glasgow area. National Express were the first franchisees, but they hardly set the heather on fire (as we say in Scotland) and were replaced by First ScotRail when their time expired. First were certainly more dynamic, although at times showing an aggressive attitude towards passengers! About five years ago they were replaced by Abellio, the current franchise holders. Transport is devolved and therefore contracts are handled by the Scottish Government, and their policy has been rail development with new lines opening and electrification schemes. British Rail tended to see their Scottish Region as a retirement plan for rolling stock near the end of its life.
15:50 "If you had it so people could travel on any train at any time and it was a fixed fare"
As it is on every rail line the length & breadth of Japan.
As if he thought preserved buses where in a graveyard
The trouble with Britain's railways is politicians.
September 12th 2021. Croydon some one jumped on the track train to Portsmouth cancelled Hastings train to Brighton cancelled someone jumped on the track Chichester train cancelled some one jumped on the track.
Really ? All in one day ? An epidemic of suicides? Or is there a shortage of drivers?
*Sir Alex Ferguson really took all the time to set out and see the horrific of privatisation of railways. Time to bring Man U under pubic ownership as well.*
Does anyone remember the serple report like beaching the 2nd
To me commuting is the worse thing anyone can do to waste their life. Sure, one can read/listen to a book, or find other productive ways to not totally waste the commute, it can still be soul crushing.
Only one of three things can solve this:
- *Companies should not concentrate in big city centres, and should hire people from their local area* (or allow WFH as a policy and covid19 showed us it is possible). Education should be equally provided to all so finding skilled talent in a small village or surroundings should not be a problem. Adequate infrastructure can also be made available in remote places. Basically, we go back 400-500 years to an agrarian style society, but without all the feudal horrors.
- better cycling routes.
- invent teleportation.
Do you realize how big London is. And a lot of people don’t want to live in a big city
@@MrJimheeren Yes, we both agree. London was allowed to become this big because 'The City' was the centre of commerce of the whole country, heck all of Europe, and companies wanted to be there. If they followed my suggestions and companies were encouraged (read forced) to open in other cities, you would have seen London much smaller and other cities become larger. Maybe a metro area in the north to include Bolton, Manchester, and Liverpool (which by the way are still smaller than Greater London area wise). That would be preferred. Someone living in Liverpool wouldn't need to commute every day to Manchester like some do into London, because both cities to have enough variety of jobs on offer. You see this is European countries. The difference between the largest city and the next largest one is much lower than in the UK.
I always think if they put more money into the railways, there will be less congestion and they will get more profit and maybe they wont have to charge so much for fares. Idk, just my opinion.