Why are Britain’s trains so bad - could nationalisation fix them?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- 2017 saw the most train delays in nearly 15 years. And as services seem to be getting worse, ticket prices are going up - leaving many passengers furious.
But why are Britain’s trains so bad and what can be done to fix them? Is nationalising the railways the answer?
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"Isn't that typically British. We were there first, and now we're the worst"
- Jay Foreman
Hazard of being an early adopter.
We actually have among the best trains in the world
ayy
@Antoni Sabala yes I have, but British railways are incredible
We Americans feel the same way
"Only a third of our network is electrified, which ranks us the lowest in the EU."
Well. You cannot be the worst in the EU if you are not in the EU. Smart move.
EU there refers to Europe mate.
Still they're!...
@@dorthusiast The EU stands _for_ the European Union, while Europe is a continent.
Anton Berglund Not really. EU stands for both European Union and Europe, referring to Europe most of the time.
Let me just prove my point. There’s no point in comparing Britain’s railways to only those in European Union, because it’s not a significant community. On the other hand, most countries in Europe are similar for culture, religion, background and so on. So there’s no point in segregating the non-European Union members. This video might’ve compared it to Union members only, but it’s pointless. In addition, for example when a game has an “EU Server” it refers to Europe continent yet again, as there’s no such thing in universe that a country’s people shouldn’t get to play just because they’re not in the union.
@@dorthusiast when people say "in the eu" its "the european union" not "the uk ranks the lowest in the europe" :D
and then there's Japan which apologizes for a delay by few seconds
The Japanese railways are privately run too.
But the Japanese culture is *very* strict when it comes to punctuality.
For drivers, the penalties for being late are *very* harsh. They face financial penalties, and are forced into harsh and humiliating "retraining programs", known as _Nikkin Kyoiku,_ which sees them removed from their normal duties and performing tasks such as cleaning and essay writing, while being yelled at.
There was a major derailment in 2005 once after a late-running train was driven too fast around a curve; the train slammed into a block of flats after derailing. The driver (who was killed in the derailment) had been through the "retraining program" once and was determined *never* to go through it again.
@@LordBruuh really? NMBS isn't like really good, however, it doesn't suck this much as well.
NMBS is owned by the government btw, so is all public transportation (as in de lijn, TEC and MIVB) People with low incomes get reduction on train tickets as well are able to use public buses, metro and teams for free. (Keeping it cheap and even free isn't possible by privatisation)
If you don't mind seeing the monthly salary man kill himself in front of you, then yeh it's alright
So true, I used to live in Japan up to the age of 14, and it was such a great country. Everything is clean, it's cultural, the weather's nice, and the community is so kind and honest. However, I used to be in a soccer team there, and I was 3 minutes late to training. In Britain, 3 minutes late doesn't matter, however in the Japan, you would be kicked off the team. Not to be arrogant or anything, but I was one of the best players on the team, and I was kicked off for being 3 minutes late. If any of you people are out there reading this, never be late in Japan.
@Harry Bell true, but just especially in Japan.
In sweden, in debates about railway privatization, we are using the privatization in the UK as a example of horror.
it's weird because in Italy the private railway company is much more popular then the government owned one.
Because it was made shitty! There are good examples, but also very bad examples.
@@bonda_racing3579 In Italy, are there any subsidiaries from state for private railway companies?
@@csocseszrocsesz No private railway companies like italo railways don’t get subsidies from the government like the UK because theirs already a state owned railway company called Trenitalia. Fun fact - the stated owned railway was fined $272,000 for by antitrust authorities for bad practices.
Italo has had crazy increases in annual profits between the years of 2016 to 2018 making 30 million euros to 93 million euros. Private sector railways in Italy are doing great with the competition it’s gets from state owned railways.
I bought a train set the other day,and when I opened the box it had a rail replacement bus inside!
Anagram of 'Central Station' = 'Cattle on trains'....
I like that one! 😂
Hahaha 🤣😂
Never buy a train set on a Sunday.
BRILL.
UK: "why are our trains so bad?"
US: "dude! you have trains?!?!?!"
@Robert Davies nationally? yeah. however, the boswash corridor (where one fifth of the us population lives) rivals/exceeds European densities and it's such an embarrassment that they cannot even get the Acela right.
@Robert Davies I'm saying we have areas that are actually highly suitable for trains and the BosWash (the Boston-NYC-Philadelphia-Baltimore-DC megalopolis) is extremely well suited (One-fifth of the US population, the right amount of distance, cities are in an approximately straight line, etc) and the best have is the Acela which is a friggin' joke compared to Europe or Japan. Amtrak turns a profit on the BosWash which is remarkable given how poor the service is.
@Robert Davies Haha! Guess what? We're building high speed rails and better train transportation in Cali, Texas, and Florida, as well as some other states!
Demand for Train Travel in the US is on the rise, mostly as an alternative to driving by car where soul crushing traffic just gets worse and worse year after year. If it wasn't for this damn virus I would be pretty optimistic about train travel in the US, there is actually one private rail line in Florida that's running at a profit with intentions to expand to LA -> Vegas. Also Amtrak (The government controlled for profit company that took over all passenger rail service in the US) would have made a profit this year (2020) if this virus didn't happen, something pretty much everyone thought impossible. We might actually be in a lot better shape then people realize over here, passenger rail service was never really profitable for railroads, it was always about freight, and as a result in the US we actually probably have the best rail system for transporting fright anywhere in the world, France and other E.U. countries on the other hand fall behind when it comes to freight. But with the incentives changing our railroad companies might start reinvesting in passenger rail and we might end up with a first class passenger rail system in less then a decade, fingers crossed.
Robert Davies nonsense the USA has the most extensive rail network on earth when you count freight trains therefore that’s not a valid excuse. Due to this the rail network can be upgraded to easily adapt passengers the tracks are there they just need to double or triple track existing lines and add advanced signals or even reduce regulation and get private rail to return. Some long distance lines can be rerouted and consolidated then upgraded to HSR service then boost regional lines
*why are Britain's trains so bad?*
USA: allow us to introduce ourselves
usa trains are shite
They have trains??
Outstanding.... This here is commie shiiite
@@steffanhoffmann8937 hungary should introduce itself too
Guys you joke? In Romania you make 300 km in 20 hours with the train...so uk is ok:) oh and also no hesying in winter
I choked on my Schnitzel when i heard the british train prices.
Trixxter wait until you see the Chinese prices/speed. German trains are a joke compared to them.
@@WorldEagleKW
well, the chinese pump in loads of mobey to keep prices low, in order to avoid the ppl getting a car fixation.
@@trazyntheinfinite9895 Careful now, you're saying that a more centralised authoritarian Government can be beneficial in some circumstances. Some mihgt accuse you of being a damned Commie.
@@johnperic6860 say what you like about Hitler. Those trains to the concentration camps were punctual asf.
@@chicofoxo It's much easier for Government to manage to build rails, motorways and other similer kind of construction when it's authoritarian and centralized. Hitler's autobahns or Chinese rails are very good example. Government is allowed just make a line on the map and build. They don't care about anything in the way very often. Human rights are the other side of the same coin.
"Why are Britain’s trains so bad?"
*Screams in New York*
@uh wot The fare of the trains in India are far way cheaper than any nation having railway transportation.
In Ukraine
@Ploke Newo78 you probably are because trains in a nation as big and, more importantly, as sparsly populated as the US is (for the most parts, at least), trains are simply unprofitable. I mean, why would someone go on a train from, let's say Miami to Dallas, which would take you a day or so with Jacksonville, New Orleans and Houston being the only major cities on the way, if you can just fly there which would probably just take 5 hours? The UK, on the other hand, is much smaller and much more densily populated, that's why comparing the US railway to the National Rail isn't really fair
@@johnperic6860 to be fair colonization fucked them over
"Comparing trains from the 80s to those of today is like comparing apples to oranges"
Yeah? Try taking a Northern train from Manchester to Liverpool, they've been using the same trains since the 80s
Roman Baranovichi Some parts of London also have trains built in the 80s, though being phased out, and tube trains built in the 70s.
You’re right. They just don’t want you to compare it to the past because not much has really changed and the conclusions make the case for not letting the government run it again.
lol try leeds
those Pacers (class 142/143) that I assume that your talking about are being withdrawn by Arriva and will be replaced with new trains.
Pacer anyone?
£23 million in profits
£20 million to share holders.
There's your problem right there.
they need to cut out the middlemen ie shareholders and the private companies !
the trains were running much better in the Southern Railways days long before the beeching axe and British Railways came in and ruined it all and so what if the train operator is turning a profit from the railways? that will mean that to make more money from the railway line, they need to attract more customers and they do this by improving the service on that railway line and maybe even cutting the rail fare in order to get more customers on the line.
@paul gough the middle man is the subsidizer which artificially makes the rail fare cheaper which is the tax payer, aka you and the government (thats if you pay tax to HMRC) so if we remove the subsidy then the fares will be at market rate and service will be improved.
Its a whole lot better than giving the money to over paid train drivers who spend most of their time either on strike, finding non existent reasons to drive, having very long wee breaks and six weeks off at a time
... and we massively subsidise that from our own frikking tax payer money
I’m Japanese. I respect British trains because we learned a lot from UK when we built railways 150 years ago.
OUCH!!!
GAME!
Hajimemasite!
People forget the History of Rail.
Its true us British invented and pioneered early rail travel.
But you guys over there REALLY took it to the next level.
When i return i hope to travel on the Shinkansen :)
And we still live in the past whilst your country moved forward that is the problem.
I agree
私も同じ気持ちです
“Can’t have bad trains when you don’t have any at all” -Americans
Michael Lyga we actually have a lot of trains, they just are really, really bad. Not exactly sure what you’re talking about.
Michael Lyga At least we’re not Canada with no high speed rail at all lol
@@pblount340 yes but you're a huge country, so you need more anyways
I live in Yonkers, New York and have lived in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh where trains are common methods of public transportation and I can safely say that the U.S needs some serious improvement on their railways. Pittsburgh's rails were actually not that bad; they have one subway station that exist for no reason I can think of, which only goes to a very few places around and outside the city. I would actually like to see high-speed suspended magnetic monorails become the norm for cities; suspended magrails would cost less than laying railways or making subways, and would move right over traffic quickly.
@@Kehwanna yes they should rather spend billions of dollars in something like this than in a wall which is not gonna work anyways
Britain: “worst delays in 15 years”
USA: Hold my beer
USA: "What trains?" -Shoves Amtrack into a closet-
@yaggyplantationproductions and here I thought it was because americans use cars and planes rather than trains.
USA: “delays worse than 15 years”
Try Indian railways, almost free, mediocre comfort often late but each journey is an adventure.
While in Japan they have 4/5 private railways companies and they measure delays in seconds.
UK, we invented trains
ALSO UK, let's make ours terrible
UK: We invented x.
Later on..
Also UK: We are the worst at X
@@imeverywhere9633 true, same with football or cricket.
@@nitishsaxena1372 Haha..true bro...they're gonna lose this world cup too...😅
@@nitishsaxena1372 the UK has the world's best football competition the Premier League
@@thwalesproductions which shines only because of the foreign players. The quality of English players gets exposed with the English national team's performance.
Try living in Ireland where trains show up once every lunar cycle
😂😅🤦♂️
@Seaghán Ó Laochdha I think the Irish Republic was the second in Europe concerning withdrawal of the steam traction. The Netherlands was the first (8-1-1958, 1-8-1958), in (the former) West-Germany the steam lasted until October 1977 (!) (May 1975 for steam hauled passenger trains). Even in the Scandinavian countries the steam lasted until the early 1970's...
It's stupid how much trains cost in the UK, especially compared to buses
£5 to catch a First bus Return! Per day Greater Manchester!
It’s stupid how much buses cost
@@Dr23rippa £4.50 unlimited journeys on any bus in London for the whole day
And end up getting delayed anyway.
buses are worse plus the terrible road system and traffic
"At least 8% of Southern Rail trains were either canceled or more than 30 minutes late."
*Amtrak looking on with envy 😲*
Of course the USA are so good that the Government bought rockets from Russia.
And that is an undisputable fact..
In the Netherlands the National Railway NS has a trackrecord of 92.6% of trains on time, 94,8% chance of having a seat in rush hour and a 4,6% rise in passengers. I thought that were bad figures. But then I read that our train system is one of the busiest in the world. There are so many trains in one hour that there is no need for a timetable, every 5-10 min there is train between the major cities, it’s called “spoorboekloos rijden” it means timetableless driving. NS is also the parent company of Abellio UK with Scotrail, West Midlands and East Anglia. I don’t know how they perform, but seeing the UK figures I fear it won’t be good. Maybe it’s the infrastructure?
This is one sector that should be nationalised....
@@RealConstructor Abellio run Merseyrail which connects Liverpool with its suburbs. It has the best performance level of any UK train operator with 96.4% of trains running on time.
In terms of renstionalisation of UK rail, Corbyn if he was elected Prime Miniter was only looking to do it via the regional railways model (the precursor to privatisation introduced by Thatcher in the early 1980's), not BR with no regional names on carriages and locos with the running of the whole system from Whitehall like the original nationalised model until the early 1980's.
Local decisions made by local operators across the UK per regional railways are more efficaient than same decisions made 100's of miles away in London. Can certainly be done in nationalisation.
"A lot of the British public have had enough."
Guess that just about summarizes most UK politics in the past 10 years.
you missed a "0", i think you meant 100 years lol
shut up peasants we own you
@@Cd5ssmffan That is an interestingly new way to say: "I am an ingracious little incel."
The labour governments of the 70s and early 2000’s destroyed our future out of spite. Then they had to hand it over to the conservatives, who, I agree didn’t do a lot to help, we’re just left to pick up the pieces
@@user-mz3ig5oo3w ungracious? And be careful who you call incel, people might think you're projecting.
“Comparing trains from the 1950s” *shows the class 43*
@The Lost Railways Of East Anglia true
They said 50s-80s and the HST was built in the 70s soooooooooo.
The Lost Railways Of East Anglia - *Archive films* not 1973
Its cheaper to live in Barcelona and flying 5 days a week to london to work. Uk is becoming a joke.
Work remotely from home one day weekly. Save even more!
That's just not true is it
@@MrKiingpin th-cam.com/video/QNTInjTwsGQ/w-d-xo.html
Maybe not suitable for everyone.but that clip made sense
I live on the moon and take the space shuttle to work.
At $23,000,000,000,000 etc a trip it's much cheaper and cost effective.
I live in the 21st Century.
You'd think for a country that prides itself on the 19th century industrial age, they'd have the best train system on the planet.
Man O War yeah the funny thing is us English have been paying for other European countries infrastructure.
@@bangtidybird8284 Great British pride of all ! Car industry wrecked, rail industry wrecked, ... list goes on... and obviously it is everyones fault - mainly European fault.
@TW3 Yeah the first world war was not for the good of the planet. That was a sibling fallout for the European royals. Second world war we werent exactly the good guys either, seeing as we, you know, starved 4 million Indian people, who were fighting on our side... against the nazis. But we dont talk about that, cos Hitler killed 6 million Jewish people so he was obviously worse. We only went to war with them cos we realised they might pinch the title of most brutal empire on the face of the planet. but hey dude keep being proud of something you had absolutely nothing to do with, and something you obviously havent even bothered to learn about... Becuz you're british init!
Now look what you made me do, going off on this random world war rant! I came here to talk about TRAINS!
sumofighter666 Maggie thatchers fault actually, you're probably too young to know or too old to remember..
The only thing visible in N. Ireland funded by EU in Translink trains. They aren't bad but was no reason to be in the EU and have no democracy..
I used to live in England (I'm German) and was amazed who expensive traveling by train in Britain is. I commute 20 miles to work in Germany and pay around 800£ each year for train, bus and tram. In England, I used to travel more or less the same distance, but paid more than 3 times that money and was only able to use trains. How is that even possible? Not only that, but the trains are always full, they were beyond old and looked like we Germans missed them in the war. How come you pay around 3700£ for an unlimited season pass for the whole of Germany, but in England you can barely cover Greater London for the same price?
Don't forget that services in Germany are heavily subsidized. Depending on the region the taxpayer adds between 1-2€ for every Euro the commuter spends.
And without high speed trains...
@mjzyt I was referring to the subsidies for regional / commuter trains.
@@gfudkgkl Don't forget public roads are subsidized too - everywhere.
Sunny101190
Britain has seen an almost 20% increase in its population over the last few decades. With economic growth to match that population growth.
German on the other had has seen about a 10% growth but has seen economic growth to match that population growth. German has then been able to invest in its infrastructure through both private and government investment.
The only way the UK government could actually fund a nationalisation of rail would be to increase taxes which would actually hurt economic growth.
Important point, privatisation happened “gradually” take note on the NHS, don’t trust the tories.
If you see Sid tell him.
what do you think the HS2 will be?
Regionsl railways introduced by the tories in the 1980's would have been fine enough if they didn't go further by totally starving BR of funding, and then privatising it. Of course that wss their intention, just that most of us thought the introduction of Regional Railways early Thatcher was to give rolling stock identity and for local decisions to be made locally rather than at Whitehall and not being the first step towards privatisation. How badly wrong we were proven to be when it did grt sold off in 1995, the fact the regional railways early Thatcher happened a few years before the big sell off of most of the other former major nstionalised industried such as BT, British Gas, Electricity boards got privstised gave us a false sense of security that it wouldn't get sold off.
All local/regional decisions don't need to be done in Whitehall though even in a nationalised model. Regional railways could come back in a renationalised rail network, and in fact having come out of privatisation would prove be far better in practice than Regional Railways as a major step towards privatisation early Thatcher.
@freakin16
.
There's an assumption that privatisation of a service or an industry isn't happening because it hasn't happened. Yet!
We only know ts happened once its officially announced at tory party conferebce, but by then it's far too late to do anything. All the deala are going on behind closed doors between tory governmsnt ministers snd various 3rd parties. Indeed privatisation is gradual, so gradual that hardly anyone notices eny changes even though chsnges have proven to be significant change over time - before the privatisation actually happens - and its been staring us all in the face all this time. It is being privatised. The tories don't ever do privatisations rapidly because they are desperate to maintain voter support come the following general election or 2. Most of those who despise provatisation who votng for the tories because they don't think the NHS is being privatised becauee it hasn't happened, the tories won't want to complete the privatisation yet because they are desperate to keep those voters for the 2024 general election. Once the tories been in office for 3 or 4 then lose popularity among those voters regardless of privatisation, and labour are so far ahead the tories won't win the next once they feel they have nothing to lose by officially announcing the privatisation so close to the general election even though they could have done it sooner, and the privatisation done the way it is that by labour renatlnalising after winning the general election that it would "bankrupt the country". I recall Blair saying (in fact promising it in the manifesto before the 1997 general election would renationalise the railway), but after the election pulled away from doing so as it cost the tories billions to privatise it, but even more by hundredfold to renwtionalise it and indeed would have bankrupted the country had he done so snd as spending is such a sensitice issue to much of the electorste he probably would have lost the next general election even though nstionalisrd railway is a much better railway than a private railway. Ok, Trump just lost the US election, it has saved the NHS from going private for now, but let's not rest too much it will juet tske the tories longer to sell it off completely, we only hsve one general election to save the NHS now. If the tories win next election (but then lose popularity (including among too many who should never thought about voting for the tories, hope they sll finally come to their senses before 2024 anyway) as labour rise again), they will do to the NHS what they did to the railways in 1995 too close to the general election so they claim a labour rnationalisation of the NHS after the election will bankrupt the country even though a nationalised health service is better than a private health service.
The trick for labour is to catch the tories onawares win the next general election before the tories officially completely sell the NHS off so they don't have the impossible situation to either keep it private or renstionalise it and bankrupt the country with the economy being such a sensitive issue. Even if private healthcare proves unaffordable for most in the same way that train fares have shot through the roof since privatisaton, sadly judging by opinion polls too many people don't seem to care about that above out of control ever rsing house prices, strong pound, higher FTSE100 index prices and whatnot.
they are failing because their business model is from the stone age.
They only became a thing in the 19th centuary... The buisness model is the same a most privateised railways money. It's called capitalisim. The first railways were built for money, then the Big Four era of high quality services, it wasn't till WW2 that the camels back was broken. The Mainland european trains had the' lucky' effect of mostly being destroyed so they were rebuilt in the 50's and 60's to higher standards than lines dating from the earliy 1900's. Now give Network rail the money it needs and the suppervision it needs and the costs would go down.
AND any PLC has the heavy burden of shareholders, and extortionately expensive management...
I was a Train Driver for 25 years, some with BR, the rest in the private sector, the whole privatization process was flawed from the outset, the companies bidding for the licence to run the old BR services were ill equipped to run trains within the confines of the franchise parameters. Money still flowed into the railways from the taxpayers, this money worked it's way through and ended up in the pockets of private companies, staff were cut, management increased, moral hit the floor, all this and more made working very difficult, unresponsive management would never listen to staff so staff stopped listening to management. The main problem is Britain's railways are a 21st century railway running on a 19th century system, no amount of new track and signalling will bring the paths needed to run more trains, what is needed is massive investment in new track lines but in this country that will never happen, £100+Billion on new high speed won't solve the problem either, the railways still suffer from the same old problem, political football between the two main parties, a new third way is needed, but don't hold your breath.
Shameful...... Brits should expect (and deserve) more than this disaster of a rail network.
It's interesting that the common consensus is that the current infrastructure is woefully outdated and in dire need of replacement into more durable and electrified rail gauges suitable for high speed trains, but nobody in Britain is committed to overhauling this very important dilemma.
You did ok out of it though, stop whinging
In the end of the day it’s all about money
Terry Higgins yes very true, Kevin which pay packet would you sooner have? BR or privatised?
*laughs in japanese*
FBI how do you laugh in a different language???
@@RinCooks It's a joke
Raughs*
Fufufu...
This is how: ハハハハハ
Train Delay? Really!! In India, they come when they want to...
And people sit where ever they want! On top of each other. On top of the train, under the train, near the train driver...And everything works still to this day! lol.
✌🏻💀
You are talking about the past. Travelling on top of trains in India is unheard of these days. Yes there are delays, but prices are very low.
@@Crazytesseract Absolutely! Trains have changed in India so much that the issues like regular delays, extremely crowded space, etc. aren't that common now. There might be some places still struggling, but sure a lot has changed now.
But some people have this habit of living in past or just defaming, don't mind that.
Tf are you on about?
Uk : train carries passengers.
India : passengers carry train.
Britain used to aspire to being the best, now it looks to other countries that do things worse than it as a feeble excuse. That is classic low self esteem. Have some pride and have a system as good as the Dutch, or French, or German.
Blimey, Indian people must be kryptonians then
That's no longer the case, and it is rare. Looks like you have never traveled by train in India for the past 10 years.
The privatization model fails to recognize one basic fact. Railroads are a system. Rolling stock and trains are but one piece. Once you divorce ownership of the trains from the rails you create silos of interest. The owner of the roadway has no financial interest in making the trains run better.
The public then pays penalties to private owners and they don't even have to run their trains to make money. Then there's none left to fix the infrastructure. Capitalism at its finest.
@EpiDemic117 "There isn't any problem besides all of the problems"
Amtrak sucks specifically because they don't own any rails. When you own the rails you decide when anyone leasing those rails gets to wait. Surprise, surprise, Amtrak has a massive delay problem caused specifically by leased rail. Their OTP is significantly better on the one tiny part of the network they actually own.
plus commuting city to city by rail just isn't a thing in the US like it is in europe. there's little demand and less supply because the culture doesn't support it.
where i live getting the train is by far the fastest way to get to any major city in the UK. it's faster than plane to get from here to france. if the rails suffer and fail it actually damages my ability to make choices on how i travel but thats not true for the majority of the US.
@@nostromov7892 you're confusing capitalism with corruption my friend.
Ben Jervis not really seeing how capitalism and corruption are inseparable
I wish the people running these train companies in the UK would take a trip to Japan to see how the national JR system there is run to military precision. In Tokyo they have 10 carriage trains every few minutes that can carry up to a thousand people each time. They are spotless and always on time. The train drivers and conductors wear classy pilot style uniforms with white gloves and are incredibly well disciplined and professional. This is not to mention that Japan has also had high speed rail (Shinkansen) like the upcoming HS2 since 1964! All a massive success. We in the UK are so far behind.
See. It's a nice thought but culture plays a MASSIVE role. Japan and England are nothing alike when it comes to culture.
@richard3015......the taxi drivers in Tokyo [and probably all over Japan] are the same. Immaculately dressed in smart uniforms and caps the drivers stand OUTSIDE their taxis waiting for the next passenger!
Here in Hong Kong, you are more likely to contract lung cancer from the vile stench of stale cigarette smoke in the vehicle. [even though smoking in taxis is banned in HK - I have never seen a taxi driver reprimanded for it].
In addition, Japanese are incredibly polite, courteous and helpful - especially in their service industries. Indeed, in an extensive study by the 'Economist' magazine on 'customer service' Japan were ranked number 1 in the entire ASPAC region!
Conversely, Hong Kong was joint worst [with Singapore] and THE worst when it came to rude and uninformed customer service staff! Perhaps Hong Kongers can find work in the British railways industry?
Our railway system is actually ridiculous. The most needlessly complex yet non functional system, like many things in Britain, it clearly is not working yet no one wants to do anything about it. Met a guy who had a season ticket from Kettering to LDN which was £9000...... and then they wonder why people feel discontent in this country.
Instead of paying 9k a year maybe they should just live closer to work.....
@@mydevices5503 Don't try to justify a frankly ridiculous system. Speaking of housing, not sure if you've noticed but we currently have a long-running housing crisis in the SE so he'd be exchanging exorbitant transport for expensive housing. Great deal there.
@@mydevices5503 True, but housing in the UK is super expensive as well, especially in London.
As a German I would like to work and live in London, but if I compare my income and basic living expenses, it sadly doesn't make sense for me to do so. Even though we are catching up with housing costs right now. If anything, it will get as bad here as in London. Probably not going to improve over there.
£9,000?! That's outrageous! For that kind of money he should be getting daily massages on his trip- happy ending included!
Maybe his wife has a well paid job in Kettering. People no longer wish to live in Londestonia.
What is wrong with the Railway is the same as what is wrong with the country. It is small mindedness. Like closing 1/3rd of the system in the '60's without considering the long term effects. Looking for a quick profitable result and damning future generations. All the good times are past and gone. The only way to get them back, & don't expect it to happen overnight, is to completely change the mind set of all the governments we have in the future. Here's an idea for starters; just like you get a leaflet detailing where your Council Tax is going, how about one showing where your Income Tax is going. Then go and see your MP.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29898083
Your thoughtful comment applies equally well to the new and troublesome political mindset in the United States today, we don't build for the future like preceding generations did not so long ago.
We made the same mistake in France when during the nationalization, as soon as 1938, 1/4 of the railway network got sacrified. I mean no less than 13400 kms. So today that still remains, including high speed lines, about 25000 kms open to passenger travel (barely more than Japan's 23000 in a country 3 times smaller in size) under constant threat, with 5000 kms more either for freight trains only either completely abandoned. Things didn't get better after the war with only a few suburrban lines extended or reopened (and yet another 6500 kms lost between 1969 and 1974). On the other hand the TER and RER systems set by the Regions proved to be a success for the remaining provincial and Parisian lines. Situation would have been even worse without them.
Juju
You MUST be the first in line to be cleared out!
Come to Croatia! Here you buy a train ticket and you end up on a bus :D
is it the transfer-free ticket？
@@lancetrident3484 yes, and as of late, the bus takes around 40% less time to >any< destination in croatia xD
TO BE FAIR... 80% of my train tickets end up with a replacement Bus service, in Southern Railway UK too no doubt :(...
*Northern, Southern and Arriva Trains:* allow us to introduce ourselves...
Believe it or not, same here in Sydney.
I am Japanese & I've been planning trips to many places in both Wales & England for us in this coming summer by train & bus ,but I was so shocked by the prices & travel routes / time tables.Very frustrating that time tables between two trains ,or bus / train don't really match & many stop serving early if it's in the countryside ,or rural areas .And often, a lot easier/ faster & cheaper if we take the train from london. Even if it's a lot closer from Wales ! And a lot of those train tickets are $40-$80 for an hr.trip !! If for 1 to 2 ,3 hr.travelling .In my country ,Japan that's like 3 to 4 hr trip fees !! It is disappointing !! I was wondering how Brits felt about this ,so thanks !! Now I know ! Lol. I found that in Britain ,or U.K.it runs a good system of transportations in the cities ,but awful in the countrysides/ rural regions !! Even if in the high tourist areas !! That ,we hardly see in Japan !! Privatization fails in many things !! A great example is here ,U.S. !! Lol. Whenever we get blackouts ,it takes forever to get lights back on !! In Japan, the electricity & gas are operated by the government, so in a brief period ,it'll come back on !! Trains are ,too ! They are always on time ,or early .Rarely late ! Buses come on time ,too ,or a little late !! Lol.💜🥁🐉🎤🚞🚈💞
There are some things just better run being government owned. British Rail often had trains running late, but they got you there. There was real service at the stations. It seemed every employee knew the train timetables by heart, whether ticket seller or porter. Trains had a baggage car where you could put your bicycle or your bulkier baggage.
@@rockykoast7065 HI. Thanks so much for your reply ! I have to agree with you on the government owned train companies so on are better !! I totally agree with you ! But,in Japan, that's why ( & our discipline. Our nature .Lol. ) all the trains come on time !!! Lol. Unless there are accidents like derailing ,or suicides ,freak accidents. And they're usually decent prices !! I just got back from Wales & England. I was very frustrated by many delays/ changes ( ex. It was a direct train to my destination ,but became non direct ,so I had to change ! And a couple of times I heard announcements that passengers needed to move to another cars as they were going to different directions ! Brits ,I mean here ,English & Welsh were so confused themselves!! Lol. Imagine how confused I was !! Lol. ) & not to mention the ticket prices !! Yes ,the workers knew their timetables by heart ,but that's the same in Japan ! I was very very impressed ,though that many workers at each station were SUPER nice !!! That ,I have to mention here !! Both Welsh / English !! I got a lot of help w/ my heavy carry on luggage ( 2 ) & directions from them !! Welsh female workers were so tough & kind beyond anybody's limits !! One of them followed me on my train to catch up w/ me ( I was not aware at all !! ) to help me putting my heavy luggage on the rack !!! Nobody does this ,but them ,or her in the world !!! I believe !! There were some very rude staff at subway & train stations in London & Newport ,Wales ,though ! But overall ,85 to 90% ,their services were superb !! Very very kind !! I had a blast regardless in both Wales / England 🇬🇧 !!! Thank you so much for your reply !! 👍💜🥁🐉🎤🎶🚈💞
I hope you enjoyed your visit anyway. I enjoyed my visit to Tokyo, Kamakura, Nara and Osaka on your wonderful trains 🚂
Oh ..! I did !! I did have lots of fun & blast !! So~many beautiful ,kind people there !! Are you a Brit !? That's so fantastic to know you loved train travels in Japan !! Kamakura is my fave ,too !! Lots of nice cool cafes are there !! You didn't mention of Kyoto ,didn't you go to Kyoto !!? You should the next time ,if you haven't !! My No.1 fave in Japan is Kyoto although I am originally from Tokyo !! Thank you so much !! Thank you so much for your reply ,too !! 👍👍💜🥁🐉🎤🎶🚈💞
@@spark_6710 I am glad you enjoyed Britain! Yes I am from North East England 🇬🇧 yes I took the train to Kyoto but didn't see much of the city as I had a meeting 😓 I wanted to see a Maiko wandering around 😅. The train I took to Osaka was very cool it was old fashioned with retro windows and it has its own mascot at the station.
We in Germany also had a record in delays this year mostly causes by poorly privatized routes sold by the Deutsche Bahn.
You're the first honest person from outside the UK I've read on this comment section.
Surprised you would have this problem in Germany of all places!
Corporate mismanagement and greed is universal unfortunately
I have been commuting around Germany for the last three month. Trains/Networks are much better and cheaper than the UK, but punctuality is far worse than UK. I have traveled 37 times using ICE,IC,RE in the last 2 month alone, they rarely ever came on time. 30min+ delays were the norm for almost half the cases.
On the other hand, the Dutch also privatized their railways and are ranked #3 in the world (after Japan and Switzerland) of countries with trains arriving on time; while Dutch railway networks are among the busiest in the EU. They chose however a semi-privatized construction, whereas NS (Dutch Railways) is a private company but 100% state owned and it provides all services on the main infrastructure. Services on the lesser infrastructure are performed by other private companies like Arriva and Veolia and it has proven to be pretty successful. How? Railway companies have to sign contracts with the government in order to provide services and the government only accepts a certain amount of delays and failure. If the companies do not meet the criteria, they are forced to pay serious fines. So I guess privatisation doesn't necessarily mean worse railways, it's just about how you do it.
Some seriously idiotic comments here. Just because the UK invented the darn things doesn't mean they'll be any better at it today. It's part of inventing things, you invent something, and then you fall back on it. The title of the video is very miss leading - the UK trains are not ''so bad'' - they are just poorly managed and the video questions wether or not the current system is working well or not.
It's TH-cam. What do you expect
I say let the Japanese run them
Britain: Our trains are so bad! Spectacularly.
USA: Hold my beer
hahaha
If hating on America was an occupation,the whole world would be employed.
@@daybreak1239 ok boomer
Both UK and USA are prime examples of privatization and deregulation run amock!
Techfluid USA: Hold my engine
The fruits of neoliberalism.
A reply that stinks of the overeducation of simpletons.
@@hedydd2 pot? Kettle?
@@bbaggins68
Banjo? Bassoon?
*laughs in japanese*
*laughs in french*
*laughs in german*
*laughs in south korean*
*Cries in American*
*Cries in Polish*
Cries in Canadian
laughs in Chinese
laghs in londonese
I'm from Australia but I see your problem. Your ticket prices are criminal. If you've bought an annual ticket, they've already got your money. They don't care what sort of service they provide. It seems going to and from work can cause you to live beyond your means. Privatisation doesn't always work.
@NakedMoleRat 43
"always doesn't work." Fixed that for you.
NakedMoleRat 43 Um Japan’s system is private and it does work. And Britain’s main industry was heavily nationalised during the 70s and it was a disaster
matt ede in communism in soviet it worked)
Your wrong britian is one of the best countries in the world and even better than everybody think it is
the problems are caused by the nationalised Network Rail which took over from the private Railtrack which owns all the railway infrastructure and often fixes tracks too late causing trains to not run from the main railway terminus or at a massively reduced frequency during the weekday when it was scheduled to finish on the sunday which almost never happened under railtrack without them being blamed. because Network Rail is state owned, they are unaccountable when it comes to a train crash or when the track maintenance isnt finished on time.
Looked to book a train ticket yesterday to go to Manchester in March. That is quite far in advance but it still cost £80!!!!
Nationalise it now. The fact that you can fly into Europe, get a connecting flight to Newcastle, and it works out cheaper than if you got a train direct from London, shows how these private companies are getting away with murder.
£80 to travel to Manchester by train in 2 months time??
Where you traveling from? the Isle of White?
yeah lets use taxes instead that way we can see 40 on the price tag while 80 is taken in taxes, that way we can be delusional and feel good about it.
the africans dont pay anything, just get under the trains, get cushy and drop on the tracks on destination, Next day they go to Merkel and she issues a german passport and housing, and health care and loads of money
Natizonalisation won't make the ticket prices magically less, that's not how it works, The private companies already paid lots of money just to operate, the money they 'make' is only returns on what they spent just to get it.
You do realise that when you fly, you use private jets not commrade Corbyn jets. The issue isn't private, its the companies and shareholders
British Railways: Our trains are so bad!
Deutsche Bahn: Allow me to introduce myself!
aCup0fBlackTea_ well deutsche bahn is much better than britains trains, yes they may have more delays than them but everyone in europe looks up to deutsche bahn As a good service
@@norwayspotter26 Lets talk Arriva northern a DB company
Britain: my trains are so bad.
US: Check your privilege.
Video is about britain's trains,why bring America up.Obsessed with hating America.
Daybreak123 oh get a grip
Take your own advice,dude.
Daybreak123 i mean, you’re the one saying ‘always hating on america’😂
I mean the comment section clearly bears that out.
Britain is the laughing stock of the western world. Nevermind just how shite our trains are, but also that our biggest international airports can be crippled for days by a bloke with an RC helicopter.
haha
Lol why didn't they just shoot it down straight away.
Wtf?
At least London has multiple functioning airports...the Berlin airport...haha.
Or maybe there wasn't one after all
Watching this as a Hong Kong person be like
lol we complain even if the metro is a few minutes late and metro gets fined millions
In the UK:
When a train is late, National Rail (who owns all of the rails in the UK as well as big stations like Waterloo) will Fine the Organisation. But this is obviously not enough
So, how many fines are there, and who pays them, to who?
@@prpjustice the metro company is operated privately so the MTR pays it last time it was fined 9 million hkd
@@jonathanng5218 And who pays that 9m Hkd?
@@prpjustice MTR company
2019: British trains are so bad
2022: Hold my beer
UK trains : I am horror to my passengers.
Mumbai local: ha ha h a ha lol.
Dhaka: Mu ha ha ha mo gambo Khush hua😂
Mumbai: Life threatning
Since Henry got bricked into the tunnel things have never been the same... :'(
Comment of the year
Haha xD Thomas is so mean
UK: I have the worse trains in the wooooorrrrlllddd.
USA : *Watch your profanity.*
louis marquet Canada: Both you guys actually have high speed rail?
Sweden: dElAy.
Pakistan: *sits in the corner while silently crying*
Problem is shareholders being the first priority and customer the last.
It's interesting that in Germany we have just the same problems. A lot of people, and that includes me, would say it's due to the privatization of the DB (Deutsche Bahn - German Rail) in the mid 90s and the ongoing efforts to get DB listed at the stock exchange. From this time on, maintenance funds were cut down to the absolute minimum. Today the infrastructure is in a very bad shape and inadequate for the amount of traffic it has to support, while tickets are insanely expensive (it's often way cheaper to take a plane!).
In the 1960s, DB had the slogan: "Everyone is talking about the weather. We don't." ("Alle reden vom Wetter. Wir nicht.") Today we get delays when it's too hot, too cold, when it's fullmoon, when leaves are lying on the tracks in autumn, plus due to a plethora of other reasons. It basically became a running gag.
_laughs in American_
_cries in American_
_What trains?_
This made me chuckle
Trains in the United States > UK
Retro Swagger well i agree but only on the northeast and in big cities
Nafees Ahmad and they SUCK in the Northeast
Japan has privatised rail and that works amazingly. The problem is the people running the companies.
Many of the Japanese rail routes are half-public, half-private.
It didn't privatise the same way the UK did. JR Group controls the lion's share of passenger rail. It's like if one TOC owned all the franchises in the UK under subsidiaries and provided nearly all passenger rail services, apart from a few urban networks and Grand Central style niche franchises.
The fact there is no franchising helps. If a company feels as though they have full control of their assets, it *can* make their services more reliable.
Still, Japan is always a special case scenario due to their collectivist society that prioritises efficiency and high quality over profits. And the West is all about profits.
The best train systems in the world are privately run, not public, Tokyo, Hong Kong.
@@luism5514 and the best European in Switzerland, Norway or France are not. Esp. Switzerland has the same quality as in Japan. Stupid sentence.
Being British and living in Hong Kong with multiple visits to Japan all I can say is the UK is in the dark ages
Rick Reeder flip the tables , have you seen coronavirus 😂😂
I was expecting them to interview Thomas.
Realistically, Thomas would have alot to say about the current state of the British rail system.
Thomas the tank engine
@@Trainlover1995 So would Gordon and Percy =P
“You have cause confusion and delay”
@@Trainlover1995 Who is Thomas?
“Providing worst possible service at the highest possible profit” - Noam Chomsky quoting Milton Friedman on Capitalism
Noam is brilliant I'm a Left Libertarian if regulated less state more society was able to run things the way they should be for a service first not profit the lines would run cutting a service because too few use is pointless why don't we sell of empty shops then to housing associations?
Aizaz Ali Friedman would never have approved of the British system though. The way to stop this is more competition, if there is more competition then companies need to both provide a good service and invest money that would otherwise be paid into dividends.
In capitalism though, those companies have competition. So you can go elsewhere if the price or service is bad. Under this broken system, the train operating companies are a local monopoly.
@Hairy Chinese Kid Do you have any evidence for that? The computer, the internet, shipping containers, the radar, GPS are the most consequential inventions of the last decades and they literally all came out of the government system.
Reading Chomsky for economics, is like taking a bible into a physics exam.
British think their system is bad. They need to come and see our system. Amtrak is a major joke. I can not take a train from Savannah, Ga to Houston, Tex. A quarter of the trip is on a bus!
That is because rail will never be a viable option in the United States. Population density is too low and the distances too great.
Coast to coast in twelve hours? You do not understand my country, very well. Even still, it is still far less time consuming to fly. I am not sure about energy efficiency, but it is doubtful. By a per seat basis, planes in this day and age are pretty efficient. The real issue is cost. It would cost trillions to build what you claim we Americans need. Just to give you an example, billions have already been wasted on high speed rail in California with no rail to show for it. You cannot just take property; government has to pay for it. One of the problems in California is property owners who have already have had their property taken have yet to be paid for it. Anyway, that is "un-American" to you. We have a good transportation system in this nation, between our roads, automobiles, planes, buses etc. Trains are a boondoggle. If they were so superior, passenger rail would still be alive and well.
Apparently taking the plane is cheaper and quicker
Never thought we were getting ripped off as much until now 🤣🤣🤣
I'd say that's deliberate! The private companies don't want us to know that there's an alternative.
@@katy3901 that's not going to solve anything sorry 😂 making a list of what needs to be improve and getting people to sign that list like a petition to get this approved then sign it off to government with an idea of how we can improve the train and the service that's just my idea anyway 🤷🏾♂️
@@kaziourblue8410 I'm completely in favour of nationalisation personally. The whole pretence of private rail relies on money being funnelled to shareholders and CEOs. If we're going to treat public transport as a necessity rather than luxury then nationalisation is the sensible option.
The private companies are only going to be incentivised by profit.
@@katy3901 I dont personally know alot about this bit have been looking into it how would you do make this happen?
@@kaziourblue8410 I don't think the policy is the issue? The tracks are publically owned and private companies largelly compete for the contracts. I'd assume it would make sense to wait until the contracts expire and then simply establish the nationalised system.
The trains aren't bad. They're great, but it's a private monopoly business and they've become a huge rip off.
The trains are transactionally expensive to the individual rail passenger, but it would cost more over all in terms of tax to support nationalising the railways. It would inevitably lead to uncompetitive and inefficient management (like all socialised systems eventually do) and we'd end up paying billions each year in tax. Just look at the billions of euros in debt the (nationalised) French SNCF railways rack up each year, and all the rail workers strikes...
@@GJ-ol5ev Solution is driver less trains. We have the technology now
Have you been up north?
@Otto Skorzeny very true, if the government wanted to run the rail service in the interest of the passengers they could & would but they would rather private companies heavily profit from it. The government's motto is anything that can make lots of money should exist to make lots of money instead of providing a good reliable service.
It’s an oligopoly not monopoly
I used to live in Switzerland and thought their train system was horrifically overpriced. Although in hindsight its actually tremendous value for money. Trains are never ever late and if they are its very well communicated why and when. A year long ticket to travel anywhere in the country would only set you back like 2,000 pounds to ride the most efficient, clean and quiet trains ive ever traveled. Excellent - state owned system they have... 10x cheaper and more efficient than that of the UK which is a disgrace...
The UK train lines are owned by the public (government) the problem is there simply is not enough line to facilitate the trains. So this means in highly dense populated areas that rains will be really slow and never on time and full up with passengers.
If people want nationalization maybe they should demand that the government puts their own trains on the lines but not at the expense of the trains that are already there.
UK government expenditure on rail sits at about 30 billion per year. The problems with UK rail is far beyond what you are seeing being reported.
Switzerland uses a small government approach which is broken down into regions. The UK uses one big central government approach which means it is highly political. The last time the UK had nationalized its industries including rail it bankrupted the country and meant it had to go to the IMF and borrow money.
I agree.. Switzerland just has the best train system in the world. Yeah its expensive but its so efficent that you dont mind paying for it !!
@@vishushams it may be expensive but is honestly still cheaper than tickets here in the UK. The prices don't fluctuate so you can buy a ticket and get on any time train as you wish and the price wont change whether you bought it weeks ago or on the day... the system is just much better
@@perc30mg
Switzerland does not have public healthcare liabilities like the UK. Switzerland uses a public insurance model combined with locally owned and run hospitals.
The UK spends about 150 billion a year on health. It cannot be expected to add trains on top of that.
@Monsieurturmoil You might be right about the nearly bankrupt sent after the both world wars, but we must not forget the British, along with the other Allied forces, liberated the Continent (or Europe, like some Britons say.. ;-)) from the Nazis! Yeah it is off topic, but we should not forget we in Europe had the benefits of the British war efforts in WW1 and WW2! Greetings from the Netherlands. Happy New Year and a healthy 2019 with a lot of train travel.
UK: we have the worst trains
USA: I am a joke to you?
The reason your train system sucks isn't because its privatized, its because two separate entities own the trains and the rails. The best train systems in the world are privatized, Hong Kong, Tokyo.
More videos like this please :)
Well it was alright. Which is high praise for C4 news. Needed more about France though. Why are there trains so good and cheap? We all know why England's are bad.
There’s plenty or subject matter here😄😄
@me hee shut up
"We came there first, and now we're the worst."
-Jay Foreman.
Why? Because this is Britain, and its suppose to be a little terrible to give people something to complain about.
Hahahahahaha brilliant
hahhaha very true
That's the spiri-
You mean britrain? Haha ha
ok sorry
Brilliant and very British :)
Meanwhile where I live in Canada:
“You guys have trains?”
Once privatised the great unwashed have paid through their nose for second class services, the shareholders must have their dividends before the great unwashed get their comfort..
Gabriel Swift Average profits are only in the single digits across the operating companies. Several have made a loss and that makes dividend payments less likely. Would you put your life savings in a scheme where you won’t get a return?
Privatisation has provided investment for railways that the government would struggle to do alone
@@chrisj9700 would struggle to do alone because some politicians want it to struggle
Chris Eden-Green's Gauge The Issue on youtube
-look it up. It gives the not-so-simple context we were left out in this video!
you're being a bit harsh on glasgow celtic fans there Gabriel 😂😂
It's not the operating was outsourced to private firms but the day to day is still state run
Cause it doesn't pay to fix things when you literally have people held captive. Why would they care? We don't protest like the French, we just look at our shoes and moan...
Poeticmic we’ve got the Labour Party. With an actual socialist at the helm instead of some pro-establishment careerist. The European left would kill for someone like Corbyn in their ranks.
@@jonathancooper4914 As much as I would hope your right Jon I highly doubt it. Labour are the worst with money by a long shot. I tar them all with the same Brush, not enough of them actually care about the well being of this nation, they just quee up to line their own pockets. That's whats really wrong with Brexit, the people that voted out were counting on politicians to do right by them. So much for that...
Jonathan Cooper If Blair or even Ed Miliband were leading labour, they’d be 20 points clear of the tories by now but they’re still behind because labour can’t be trusted with the economy, nationalisation will mean higher taxes to manage costs and giving in to greedy union demands, not to mention the anti semitism scandal
Both parties spend money, just look at the data. With Labour you get social welfare, and with the Tories you get corporate welfare. I'd rather the money was spent on society than helping out corporations, but that's just me. Each to their own.
Christopher Jennings the MSM, special interests and establishment talking heads wouldn’t be smearing Corbyn as much as they have if they thought he wouldn’t be able to pull off building a country that treats life in it with dignity and respect. The fact that they smear him and his is indicative of him being onto something. Also, if you honestly believe the antisemitism smears hook line and sinker, you’ll believe anything.
Everything always goes up in the UK except the wages of the low class
Not true. The "lower class" has it better today than at any point in history. Every house has running water, electricity etc etc... The majority have a car on the drive or two or three. etc etc...
SDE ENT. Very true
You are telling the people of the UK that people working on the railroads have low wages? 0.0!
Why do you think ticket prices are so damned high?
UK Minimum wage per hour in 1999: £3.60
UK Minimum wage per hour in 2019: £8.21
Also if you're referring to the whole "make britain great again", back when great britain really was a great empire, back when the railways were first built, if a lower class working man got sick, his whole family starved. Literally. That's where the saying "put bread on the table" comes from, back then if you did not work you did not have bread, you did not eat. Is that what we want to go back to?
Don't get me wrong, the elite still earn way too much money, and there's plenty of room for imporvement. But it could also be worse. It's not a simple subject, the world is a very different place to what it used to be, if we are to progress it needs to be done intelligently.
UK: we have bad trains
USA: hold my burger
Canada: you guys have high speed rail?
Also Canada: Your trains run on electricity?!
Mexico :
"Wait...why are you asking are my country train are so bad if I didnt have Passenger Train ?
"2017 saw the most train delays in nearly 15 years"
Yeah, wait until 2020 and then sob into your tea…….
When I lived in the UK I had absolutely no problems with the quality of trains or safety of the trains (imo the regional trains were better than the ones we have in Germany but I do know this depends on what area you live). The issue is private companies ruling different services. This results in people not having the same experience and high ticket prices. The UK's trains aren't bad at all it's the companies ruling them in some cases. Germany is sadly following this...
The other issue is the fact the UK invented railways, this means they are running on anixent lines and have more issues upgrading services.
Germany invented cars, yet they do not drive Benz Patent-Motorwagen, do they?
Hunter owen1 a lot of the U.K. Railway tracks are curved which meant high speed rail was difficult ,Britain tried to make to train to go fast around curves but failed due to poor passenger experience but trains in the U.K now do have similar technology which bank slightly around a corner
We had exactly the same problems when they planned to privatise it fully. Investment declined, the working-climate reportedly weakened, and delays raised up. And the CEO even boasted "It has to be this way; who would buy it, either?!"
Now they are still working to repair the spoilt rail-networks. With tax-money, because there had been created such a build-up on damages that the ordinary profit-reinvestment wouldn't be enough anymore...
Could have been avoided, hadn't there been this greedy juvenile impulse to privatise everything! ...
@@nffctv184 well thank god we have those pendolino's that have like no problem of curves
LNER Fan are you being sarcastic
Come to America, Amtrak travels at 55 MPH / 88.5 KMPH top speed. Want to get somewhere fast, try walking.
Adolf Hitler Acela Express? Yeah paying 1st class airliner ticket riding Chinese D train equivalent and traveling at the speed at Chinese T train be like. Laughs in Chinese(sarcasm 100)
Well the gov't props it up, what do you expect?
I did in fact get out and walk alongside the train in America , 20 odd years ago when I was still a smoker as they had banned it . and the doors weren't locked as the Train crawled along I could rejoin at the last carriage . I also noticed not only was a the only foreigner but often the only white person using the service
Very old tracks. Sharing with freight trains. There's your problem.
The ONLY thing the USA can do very fas is bomb and kill millions of people in sovereign land and then steal their resources by inserting their own puppet in their Government who will be paid handsomely.
Won't have the worst railways in the EU when we're not in the EU anymore
*pats finger on head*
The main issue is in one word 'Corruption'. Politicians are there to be bought and with that, it's not about the best service, but the biggest kickback. We've had a string of ministers that are incompetent Nicky Bedford MP, then we have the man who has bought failure to every department he has worked at MP Chris Grayling. These people aren't there to the best for the public, they are there in order to the best they can for themselves. Until we start getting in politicians that think about the public and remember that they are 'PUBLIC SERVANTS', you will never get anything fixed. Case in point Seaborne Freight, which won a £13.8m contract to operate a Ramsgate to Ostend route, yet doesn't own any ferries or has any experience running a ferry service, now tell me someone didn't get a massive bribe for that contract?
Politicians have always been like this, sadly. 'Representative democracy' is a flawed idea and it has seldom worked, and probably never will. I could be naive here, but direct democracy deserves a chance, surely that would be a step up.
Lobbying/bribing = legal corruption unfortunately. Most politicans are preparing to have a stable income when they get kicked out of politics so they start to accept offers by big companies like money or a good paying job once they arent politicians anymore.
@Vlodec Thank you for replying Mr Grayling. Have a lovely day.
Is it corruption, or simply Tory ideology? Incompetence is probably more likely to blame.
Google India political corruption. Your problems will feel light.
Train Operating Companies: We've got delays up the wazoo!
Amtrak: Hold my beer.
Amtrak it's run by the government. And has never been profitable
Amtrak has to share with goods trains right? Same problem in the UK.
@@deputyVH Other than along the east coast, the mostly freight US railroads own the tracks, and Amtrak is a very minor source of income for them, but a major pain in the rear at times.
It's costs me more to get the train the airport than my flight to Norway from Manchester...
I find that strange. I took a flight from Phoenix, Arizona US to L.A., California US and that cost me 150 USD and that only one way. However I also recognize the EU is different then US when it comes to travel and peoples willingness to travel.
Ayy a Worlds fan
Your flight to Norway was less than £5.40???
@@AymanTravelTransport u probably paid for the ticket like a year early. and u dont know where she got the train from.
@@randomyoutubechannel2470 £5.40 is the price for a flexible turn up and go (on the day) train ticket from Manchester (city centre stations) to Manchester Airport
Considering the complicated rail network of the UK rail system, especially near London, I think they overall run pretty well . Its just the stupidly high prices that is the killer.
09:13 how is it possible to spend so much for so long on the infrastructure and yet still say it would cost a fortune to fix! They keep saying it's expensive - well yer obviously, that's why we've spent so much, so where has the money gone? 20, 10 or 5 years ago, did they say 'we will spend X billions each year and the end result will be a reliable system that works.' Does ANYONE in power actually work out what needs doing and put in a realistic (and expensive) plan to get it fixed properly within a specific time, or are we just going to continue shoveling money out for decades on a bad rail system hoping that a future generation will sort it? (I guess it's more exciting for MPs to spend £56 billion on the brand new HS2 link that will eventually cost ten times the estimated cost plus a fortune to maintain.)
And the train companies can win a contract by promising a great service, but do a bad job, take millions in profits and then 'lose' (ditch) the contract. The commercial 'competition' is who can win the contract and squeeze out a profit, not who can maintain a good service year after year.
Shareholders
Tories pocket offshore accounts
As the report said 60% of delays are caused by infrastructure that is owned and operated by public Network Rail. Only recently NR was told off by MPs for ordering expensive style overhead power masts for electrification on GWR. Must other stuff costs that are not necessary.
@TW3 German Rail are publicly owned but the service over there is increasingly bad with delays become normal. In France the regions paid for new works and trains which UK regions could never afford. Even the French are opening up their market to private companies. EU rules will force it on everyone soon.
It's really hard to fix a really old washing machine when it is WASHING.
A lot of people from different countries didn't get the video. The UK trains aren't bad, the UK was rated the most safest when it comes to trains in all of Europe. What brings them down is how much train fare cost and the way they are managed.
USA be like:
if Britain trains aren't good
Then what am i?
What American trains? All I see are headlining disasters.
USA: am I a joke to u???
@@sagishpreman7644 yes.
Sagish Preman nah we’re a complete joke to them tho... I’d rather have freedom than trains, wish we could trade but America would politely decline lol.
@@YusuphYT I assume by freedom you mean automobiles?
British trains aren’t that bad compared to American trains.
lolololololol come to south africa...
Better than the US maybe, but not as good a trains or as cheap a train journeys as over in the continent, or in Japan and China. HST's all running at in excess of st least 150mph vs only 125mph here in the Uk. Plus you can sit upstairs on trains over in the near continent, China and Japan, but you can't do so here in the UK because they are sll single decker trains.
Over in the continent, trams operate as the equivalent of our suburban train services (apart from Greater Manchester), and coaches operate in the continent instead of commuter trains.
Turning branch heavy rail lines into tram-train lines in Northern England using new tram-trains would be better than still using the heavy rail Pacers in places.
The superTrams in Sheffield could be upgraded to tram-train services and divert on the heavy rail lines (if overhead electrified) into the train stations instead of stopping outside the station in the street. Edinburgh trams likewise could be upgraded to tram-train services too. Edinburgh Tram-trains inside Waverley and Haymarket stations would be a wonderful thing.
That is like saying getting punched in the face isn't that bad compared to getting shot.
@@dvidclapperton The UK doesn't have double decker trains because the tunnels are too small. It would cost huge amounts to rebore all the tunnels to take double decker carriages.
@@sunset-inn That’s true but Amtrak, basically the only nationwide passenger service train we have, has been going bankrupt for years now
Here in Denmark - we have a card that works for everything and everywhere and it is super cheap! A zone 2 ticket in Copenhagen using: metro, busses or trains will only set you back 1.5£ and it lasts an hour. The country also invests heavily into public transportation and infrastructure. And it is NOT PRIVATISED.
Lucky you, here in Norway a 5-minute bus ride will set you back £5, 3-hour train is £70, except when the system is down and you’ll have to take a 20 minute £60 taxi ride to the bus, which will cost you another £30. Not just that, the railway system will become privatized later this year and the British won the bid. Future looks great over here lol
Only really works for residents unfortunately. It's rather pricy as a visitor. I don't really understand why they made the anonymous cards so restrictive and expensive.
Anonymous cards don't charge you any more than a regular card does, it's the same between the two. Only difference is that on anonymous cards you need to have a fair bit of money on it if you plan on going between a lot of zones, as to prevent people from buying the cards and then throwing them away when their balance goes negative.
@john m And why are Japans trains better? Because they are faster? We can't have super highspeed trains here - the country simply isn't big enough as the distance between Copenhagen and Ålborg is only about 300km/250miles apart (Ålborg would is the that is the furthest away from Copenhagen that has a somewhat decent population). You would never be able to reach those speeds at such short distances as the two other large cities in between Copenhagen and Ålborg also would have to have a stop, which makes it less than 100km between each city - meaning you would never be able to get the trains up to the same speed as in Japan. The country simply isn't big enough. And with just under 6mill people we just do not have the population for it. Besides Japans government is funding most of their trains, just like most other countries, even the UK, but in the UK taxpayers pay for the systems and tracks, but let the companies take all the profit.
@@xJonathan6405 They cost much more than the other cards, require a higher deposit and cannot be recovered if lost or stolen. Most other places don't have such a big difference on anonymous cards, and they can be registered later, no matter your residency.
I hope the same thing happen in Sweden. Our system is on the edge of breaking. Back in the days all of railway network was owned by the state under the name Statens järnvägar. Nowadays it's different. Well everything has happen a bit gradually. Banverket took over the control of the rails and SJ (statens järnvägar) continued to drive the trains. Banverket and SJ was under control by the state. The problems started earlier but during 2010 Banverket was closed down and replaced by, yet a state-owned and limited company, Infranord. They were the worst because they outsourced all maintenance to private companies with rookies behind the wheels. SJ was still driving most of the trains but during this time many privately owned companies started using the tracks. And suddenly Sweden got their own problems, especially in the region where they procures the traffic to the lowest bidder. In 2007 the Danish and Scottish owned DSBfirst won the traffic for the regional Öresunsdtåget. They also won the traffic in the west region around Gothenburg. The traffic started in 2009/2010 and they managed to drive the trains for one and a half year before the pulled the plug and left the deal. Since then a company called Transdev took over the traffic. Things like this have happened all over the country. SJ is still trying to do there best but they are riding on badly maintained tracks. They also have to squash themselves threw the crowded tracks that they now share other companies. When something bad happens SJ always get the blame from people not knowing how it works. "All delays are SJ:s fault" but no it isn't. I've tried not to be political but the latest degradation of the railway is the fault of the conservatives. It seems that they believe that all the free market is good. But it's not. Especially when space is an issue. The conservatives also appointed an investigation in hope of solving the railway problems. However, the investigation had a catch: "The solution to all the problems were not allowed to be nationalization". I don't remember what the investigation led to but the system is still very bad. Everyone blames everyone and nothing is happening. All problems after the Swedish election in 2018 doesn't bring me more hope. I don't know what's happening in Sweden and rest of Europe but the right winged parties seems to think more about themselves than the best for country. We'll see, we'll see. I just wanted to share my believes over the Swedish system. Thanks for a good story!
FredrikBeingt I have travelled on Swedish rail and found absolutely no problems whatsoever when I went between Göteborg och Stockholm
Arbiter50 productions Clearly you don’t live here. I do and the original comment is accurate. Sweden has an AWFUL train system. I commute daily between Uppsala and Stockholm and, no exaggeration, the trains run on schedule only about 50% of the time. They are also extremely overcrowded. One is incredibly lucky to get a seat (or even a stair to sit on between the bottom and top levels). And Gothenburg is by far the worst transit system in Sweden. Nothing but delays and cancellations in that town.
They aren't bad. Just a tiny bit terrible for us to moan about.
I am czech, we have had a national rail service here since the start, and only very recently have private companies been allowed to start competing on this market. The national rail still remains as the main operator. It relies on subsidies, mainly due to running many non-profitable lines in remote areas that need to be maintained as public service (lately private companies can also apply for these subsidized lines, though they rarely do, understandably, little money to be made there apart from the subsidies) and is widely regarded as mediocre at best, BUT it sets a standard. They run an acceptable, affordably priced service all over the whole network. The private companies are now welcome to enter this market, and either pay for slots on a track or compete for an entire line, but at any given time they are competing against the minimal standard set by the national rail. So in order to get customers or indeed the subzidized contract for the line, they need to start one-uping the national rail and subsequently each other. This has in a recent years led to a stark improvement in quality of rail service across the country and absolutely massive leaps in services on the most lucrative lines where up to 3-4 companies can be fighting for customers at the same time. Amidst the fierce competition the national rail continues to run and pose the looming threat of losing your bussiness should you fall below its standard.
This is where I see the largest problem of the british rail. You lack this sort of standard. This line that cannot be crossed. Once the private company secures their contract they can do more or less as they please. So naturally they will put profit first. And you can hardly blame a private company for that. Rail service and public transportation are the responsibility of the government and the british rail is a major case of mismanagement that goes dozens of years back.
I can take the 170km, 2.5 hour ride from prague to my birthtown, in a clean, air-conditioned carriage with free on-board wi-fi, for the price of roughly 10 pounds. Comparing this to my experience with british rails, I am simply baffled how can that be tolerated.
You can tell privatisation is pure ideology because its adherents believe it can be applied to any industry, irrespective of real-world complexity. They're trains ffs, they travel along one rail, how would dividing up the timetables on certain rails (and rail maintenance) to a gamut of smaller companies makes sense? Who goes to the train station to make a consumer choice? people just want to get somewhere. Someone people are applauding a system with choices 'slow and cheap, a bit quicker expensive, or fast and extortionate', I guess some sad souls need to qualify their existence based how much they get to spend on a faster train journey, in 2018. Ripping every off yet reassuring the self-declared well-to-do they're a class above the rest.
Yes the money wasted on different branding,trains, timetables and ticketing is so confusing and wasteful. A single system everywhere makes sense but Grayling would've been able to have brought in guardless trains easily without any notice of unions who would've brought the entire network of the country to a standstill
Meaning Grayling getting MORE power fancy that?
Well said. Capitalism by definition cannot work when there is a monopoly since there is no competition. Railways, electricity, water, internet etcetera are all natural monopolies.
Japan's rail system is privatized, and that includes their high speed railways. It's well run and profitable, and even still maintains trains to small towns just for 1 or 2 school children. It's a pipe dream to pretend that these issues will be fixed just by nationalizing it.
Yep. There are some things that capitalism is good at: providing consumer goods in a free market. Railways are not one of them. Railways and public utilities (gas, water, electricity) are natural monopolies with no competition, so it makes more sense for them to be state owned.
Public transport shouldnt be a profit based business, the end
The Swiss National Railway 'SBB' knows that they are more focused on reliability, price and comfort than profit...
"When it goes wrong, it goes SPECTACULARLY wrong!"
What do you mean? The train explodes?
Amtrak doesn't go wrong, it goes completely off the rails.
You get stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours on a freezing winter night because two inches of snow fell.
I work on the Railway and the biggest single problem is that it is fragmented with Network Rail responsible for the infrastructure and the train operating companies responsible for running the trains - there is currently a disconnect between the two that leads to every delay being bickered over, drivers and signallers are pitted against each other to apportion blame when they should be working together as a team... on top of which Network Rail (the company I personally work for) waste money hand over foot in a way that was proved to be unsustainable when they were originally privatised as Railtrack - an experiment that proved to be a total failure... and one which ended with the government having to bail the company out and rebrand it (and continue to part fund it) as Network Rail...
Bringing the industry back under full government control would be incredibly expensive, but it could be done one train operator at a time as many of them are failing to make the profits they projected when they won their contracts and are often operating with government subsidies and bailouts.
I agree, nobody is willing to take the actual responsibility when something goes amiss.
I wouldn't want to say nationalisation is the solution (as the Dutch can surely attest for) but more strict government control and/or a clear contractual description of who is exactly responsible for what would be a great improvement.
Also, although it will be expensive, they should upgrade and universalise the infrastructure across the country. That way it will be much easier, and likely also cheaper, to maintain.
This is so true ! I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve been refused to do maintenance because train companies want to run there trains. There more interested in money than the lives of their passengers.
@@CarthagoMike It might surprise you, but the Dutch rail network is *not* nationalized!
1) the infrastructure is owned by a semi-Gov't entity, including track, signalling and platforms, which falls completely under the responsibility of the Minister of Transport
2) rolling stock is owned by the TOC it operates for (one national TOC, NS, with only regional railway lines tendered out for "privateers" ;-) )
3) stations (bar the platforms) are owned by a subsidiary of the national TOC, NS Vastgoed (real estate branch)
Dutch national TOC NS, which is a 100% owner of Abellio, is *not* owned by the State, hence it's not nationalized. But the State owns _all_ shares in the entity that owns NS. That's not the same, mind! It does mean the Dutch Treasury gets an annual dividend and has the right to demand a special dividend payment should NS build up too much financial reserves. It happened shortly into the last crisis, robbing the company of several bn euro of reserves. (note: the long distance part of NS is actually quite profitable, as is the real-estate branch, which now provides for more then 50% of annual profits!)
IMO the Dutch system would work for the UK, provided you Brits finally decide to get out of the Victorian era ;-)
@@dutchmaster7790 I see, thank you for the elaboration!
I'd rather prefer the dft civil servants NOT directly control all aspects of the transport industry, and instead adopt the 100% gov shareholder structure of the Dutch etc. Look no further than the Thameslink ironing board, may '18 tt fiasco, and now the unwillingness to continue electrification and large scale upgrades to infrastructure in Manchester etc., all where dft in responsible. So too is now visible in the incomplete devolution of TfN.
Also, the VTEC franchise required payments to gov of £200m upwards annually (hence no bailouts as money for remainder of franchise not paid yet), and also greater anglia now asking Dutch gov through Abellio to support them for franchise payments to UK gov. So who is losing out most?
*Britain- Trains are bad..*
*India- Hold my beer*
Actually Indian trains are good, may not be in hygiene but they run on time, they are improving a lot day by day.
Dehli Metro is much better than London Underground
As an Indian ours are even worse!!
No. Indian train is not best. But it was better than british. India the only country have more employees in railway. India is one of most longest railway system in the world
I'm from India, our trains are owned by Indian government.... But we have our own problems to talk about.
But we all have one thing in common..
"we all love to hate our railway systems"
We're not allowed to sit on top of the train .
@@yiyodder you are not allowed to have bullet trains either.
USA: Trains can be electric?!?!
I've been living in China for the past number of years. The rail system here has really developed and improved with their new high speed rail. Puts many other countries systems to shame.....
@keirfree senior uneducated western media getting into your brain
@keirfree senior Chinese railway is better im Chinese and i go every year on the high speed trains so fast and so comfortable
@keirfree senior Hi, I tell you something you don't know. Huawei uses technology the Chinese stole from your country. I don't know where you come from but yes they did steal and I am 100% sure. If you come from Europe, they stole it from Europe, if you come from Africa, they stole it from Africa. BTW, North Korean is actually a country with most population and labour in the world. I think they have 2 billion people and that's why Chinese need to buy people from North Korea.
China is a communist country basically, so of course they use forced labour and what not to build theirs. It's why they've surpassed the Western world in terms of trains. I would urge that's only true for some parts of China, Chinese trains are awful in many areas.
@@tig3662 Further, in China there are no nasty spats about acquisition of private property for railway right of way.
Just 8 percent! US and Canada would love to have those numbers
Britain is one of the wealthiest places on earth, yet its citizens get financially mugged off on a daily basis. How is this even acceptable? Taking a train in England/Britain sometimes feels like taking them overcrowded trains in Mumbai but without daredevil passengers on the roof.
FYI India has developed it's own High speed Rail, meanwhile Britain seeps into irrelevance day by day.
Oh please, for god sake, it's not that bad! It depends purely on where you live in the UK. UK ranks as the safest trains in all of Europe - they just have a problem in terms of the system that runs them. India's problems with their trains is something else...
Having been a visitor to Britain several times, and travelling the length and breadth of the nation entirely by rail I do not accept that Britain's trains are bad. Some are certainly better than others, and some are pretty budget class, but they do provide at least a satisfactory service. The problem we observed developing over the years is that they are under increasing pressure to cope with the sheer growth of passenger numbers. The network is becoming more and more inadequate and needs to be expanded to cope with demand.
The The suggestion that nationalisation could fix it is nonsense
A visitor..? Try actually living here long term and commuting for your daily work 🤦♂️
Nationalisation could not possibly do any worse than how things are currently (provided the Tories aren't in charge; they would deliberately seek to sabotage it as they are doing to the NHS so as to make privatisation seem better)
In NYC, a 5 minute delay is considered on-time
5min is not to bad
You need to send your drivers to Japan for training and testing.
@@JChang0114 its not the drivers fault. Its the dated systems fault.
A 20 minute delay on NYC subways is not unusual. Now a new guy is in finally in charge who is a great manager, originally from London. Of course as was obvious a big part of the solution is a lot of money. The rest is actual management.
@Abstractt -
NYC copied from "Deutsche Bahn AG" = everything under 6 minutes late is on time in the statistics
A large part of it is because the UK's rail network is just so old. It's cheaper to start afresh, but it was easier to do so in the 50s/60s/70s as many other nations did (or for many started). Nowadays there are far more obstacles (some just, some not).
As for the train operators owning the trains - they don't. They lease rolling stock (trains) from ROSCOs (rolling stock operating companies), who buy the trains. Yes, the UK rail system is an utter mess of different companies doing all sorts of stuff.
yes and the old stations and lines became housing estates and out of town retail new housing development and population increase hasn't meant a rise in demand for new stations however there is for some but it's easier to keep the current system