LETTERS
were made up of all kinds of stock from the goods sector to the express passenger types. As efficiencies have been improved over the years with Diesel and Electric Multiple Units, there must be scope to widen the applications the railways can provide. Freight multiple units could take the lead from passenger types already in existence, not forgetting the Post Office four-car electric units as an example.
I can remember huge quantities of post being handled at my local station and this was literally sent on trains in all directions. The same could now be done with freight if regional and local terminals were to be introduced. Each major town could act as a distribution hub with local road deliveries taking goods to their final destination, thus taking huge congestion off our roads. Freight could be moved at night and passengers moved by day. The rails are in place; what about the infrastructure?
From: Martin Hogan Subject: ‘Perverse’ rail fares
Yes, they are odd but much is due to the structure put in place by Thatcher during privatisation, I still don’t have a choice of operators; I have to use the one that has the franchise for that line.
Unlike other countries in the EU, the UK has a plethora of operators, all with their own website and contact numbers (I have a list of nine at my local station). We only need one number, one livery etc, not this waste of money on new paintwork every few years when the operator changes - although I have seen a mix of operators’ carriages on some services, so it all seems pointless in any case.
The UK should adopt a central pricing model, stop paying a dozen chief executives and boards to run the one service, all of which
would help reduce costs. Pricing should be flat, with no more than a 10% surcharge for peak travel (I get called to meetings at very short notice, often for interviews for new work and I have to pay top fare).
The biggest problem facing the rail industry is the cost of real estate. Until land prices are brought under control, the sector will face an uphill struggle with controlling costs.
A further £85m is being wasted on a link in Manchester between two stations less than a mile apart, already serviced by a tram line, free bus services and taxis.
Intelligent spending costs down.
From: Neil Bradley Subject: Fares
Anything which makes it easy to get a fair deal out of our railways
helps keep
is preferable to what we have at the moment. European travel on the train is far cheaper and more convenient compared with the UK.
Trains to London have ridiculous prices compared to trains heading to the North of the UK.
Most people would prefer to travel by train to London than fly to Heathrow; it actually takes less time to travel by train to King’s Cross than to fly to Heathrow in cramped
conditions and then
travel by Tube to the centre of London! Let’s have a simplified way of booking and paying for economy train travel and don’t keep hitting the commuter.
From: Shaun O’Connell Subject: Jarvis to escape Potters Bar prosecution
Disgusting, there is nothing else to say!
From: John Howson Subject: Mobile ticketing article
Mobile phones have at least two other advantages, even in areas where smart cards like Oyster dominate at present. Firstly, they are one less thing for a traveller to forget or indeed find when approaching the gate line. Secondly, they can reduce the frustration of those ‘seek assistance’ messages where lines back up because a traveller didn’t know their card would not work. Thirdly, mobiles can give a visual signal that the ticket has worked, and display the remaining amount of credit left: both help to prevent the waste of mis-billed journeys; credit can also be automatically provided to travellers for delayed journeys
via their phones.
Current generation smart cards are already looking to be falling behind the game.
Correction:
In our story ‘A Big Haul’, in the Feb/March 2011 edition of Rail Technology Magazine, pages 20-21, we made some errors in the text we wish to correct.
David Spaven described freight as a “hidden, mysterious world”, not ‘mischievous’ as we reported.
And his statement on the impor- tance of inter-modal traffic on rail and loading gauge on Scot- tish lines should have read: “They cannot readily carry, for example, 9” 6’ containers on standard rail platform wagons, but there are proposals to create the capac- ity to do this on the East Coast Main Line from Edinburgh down through Newcastle towards the South East of England.”
We apologise to Mr Spaven for these errors and are happy to correct them.
© Network Rail
You can see the amended version of this article at:
tinyurl.com/6zve8ts
rail technology magazine Apr/May 11 | 25
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