trains with pete waterman

[wheresmyplacebo]

on channel just finished now, was interesting and showed the history of our railways and why its so difficult to update and modernise, and best of all showed the flaws of BR and some of the sucesses of privitisation

[Senor Miguel]

on a different note, my god i cant stand pete waterman he could be reading the football scores and id fall asleep........

[Braineater]

You can chuck all the money you want at transport, it still fucks up.

Look at First Great Western and their Adalante trains.:mad: You wait for 2 hours at Cardiff Central in near darkness then a fucking 5 car train packed with people rolls in, you suffocate between Cardiff and Bridgend then "get off" whether you like it or not.

Then theres those people with the roller-suitcase things.....and people who "reserve a seat for their bag" :mad:

[Kermit]

The new trains are crap.

If you want someone to blame, you'd best be looking at GEC Alsthom (or whatever they are called now). They own the designs to the HST, and WILL NOT build any new ones. Even though at least three TOCs have said they'd buy new HSTs straight away, and pay more for them.

The Voyagers are just as crap for long-distance journeys. As is shown by Midland Mainline's new trains, which are Voyagers but long and good.

[sadsong]

first great western trains suck big time! i completely understand about getting on a packed train at Cardiff (although i travel in the opposite direction to Bridgend!)

[Kermit]

Originally posted by sadsong
first great western trains suck big time! i completely understand about getting on a packed train at Cardiff (although i travel in the opposite direction to Bridgend!)

What can they do if none of the train builders will build trains that are suitable?

The HSTs are life-expired, that is a fact beyond question.

[JsT]

Originally posted by Kermit
What can they do if none of the train builders will build trains that are suitable?

The HSTs are life-expired, that is a fact beyond question.

The HST's are past it now, but we need someone to make something with a similar design, none of this fancy electronic bollocks that Siemens etc are designing.

[sadsong]

ok, fair enough.

i just hate trains in general!

[Kermit]

Originally posted by JsT
The HST's are past it now, but we need someone to make something with a similar design, none of this fancy electronic bollocks that Siemens etc are designing.

And that brings me back to the point of GEC (I think now owned by the Canadian conglomerate Bombardier) who won't build any new HSTs.

Virgin looked into it before buying the Voyagers, and Chris Green was quite scathing. First looked into it for their Great Western franchise, and Midland Mainline looked into it before buying both the 170 Turbostars and their Voyager derivatives.

[stargalaxy]

Originally posted by sadsong
ok, fair enough.
i just hate trains in general!

I thought the train service in Britain finished years ago.

[Aladdin]

Yes, 1995 to be precise.

[Kermit]

:lol:

I love all this harking back to the "good old days" of British Rail.

Leaving aside the infrastructure (which should never have been privatised) the railways are in better shape now than they were in 1990.

[stargalaxy]

Originally posted by Kermit
Leaving aside the infrastructure (which should never have been privatised) the railways are in better shape now than they were in 1990.

Agreed, but surely you'll agree there's still a lot of work needed to be done on the railways?

[Kermit]

Originally posted by stargalaxy
Agreed, but surely you'll agree there's still a lot of work needed to be done on the railways?

Yes.

But to say that Big Bad Privatisation "ruined the railways" is to be simplistic and to wear rose-tinted glasses.

Railtrack should have remained a state body, but the TOCs being privatised hasn't made much difference, it any.

The thing that pisses me off about privatisation is the one thing nobody knows: who owns the trains.