Re: The North is : Sat Nov 15, 2014 7:15 pm  

King Street Cat wrote:

On the high speed mainline it's fairly sufficient until you have to slow down for the inevitable local service chuggers which themselves are akin to Victorian rail travel.

I'm a massive fan of rail travel and try to use it whenever I can living about a minute walk from Wakefield Westgate station, but on some of the UK rail routes it would still be beneficial to carry a copy of Bradshaw's Guide.

I agree, I think rail travel is both vital for the country and is very useful in some cases. But it desperately needs updating to the 21st century. Things like better, quicker, city links. Higher capacity. More branch lines etc etc.
It also must be accompanied by big investment in roads and have a much better link between the 2. Making it easier to access the rail network.

Re: The North is : Sat Nov 15, 2014 8:54 pm  

wigan_rlfc wrote:

I don't know what rail travel is like in Yorkshire but on this side of the Pennines it is very slow on outdated rolling stock.

King Street Cat wrote:

On the high speed mainline it's fairly sufficient until you have to slow down for the inevitable local service chuggers which themselves are akin to Victorian rail travel.

I'm a massive fan of rail travel and try to use it whenever I can living about a minute walk from Wakefield Westgate station, but on some of the UK rail routes it would still be beneficial to carry a copy of Bradshaw's Guide.

The problem is the "Sprinter" rolling stock used on most cross-country services.

These things are basically 'buses on rails', introduced as a cheap option in the 1980s. Powered by a hefty 5.9 litre Cummins 'B' Series engine, they should all have already been retired but the private operators can't afford to replace them. By the look of it, neither can the government because they've offered an extension to the Sprinter's life and grants to refurb them.

The fact that hardly any of the existing stock meet EU regulations on wheelchair access is simply yet another reason for the "swivel-eyed loons" to come up with yet anothe anti-EU rant

Re: The North is : Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:36 am  

I got the last train from Liverpool Lime Street to St. Helens tonight (terminating at Wigan). It's always the same story at the weekend. They put an old, crappy 2 carriage train on. Too many people try to get on so the train can't leave so they have to couple it up to another train. People complain that it's taking too long so there are arguments. Eventually they attatch the other train and it leaves half an hour behind schedule. They are currently working to electrify the line which should be finished soon but we're not even sure that they will even get the electric trains.

Re: The North is : Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:55 am  

wigan_rlfc wrote:

I got the last train from Liverpool Lime Street to St. Helens tonight (terminating at Wigan). It's always the same story at the weekend. They put an old, crappy 2 carriage train on. Too many people try to get on so the train can't leave so they have to couple it up to another train. People complain that it's taking too long so there are arguments. Eventually they attatch the other train and it leaves half an hour behind schedule. They are currently working to electrify the line which should be finished soon but we're not even sure that they will even get the electric trains.

The last train out of Leeds to Sheffield on a Saturday night is EXACTLY the same, yet it still turns up every week with the same old two carriages and the station staff have the same problem of too many drunks trying to get on not enough carriages. I always try to get the one before the last as it's a slightly more pleasurable experience.

Now that the German Christmas market is running in Leeds the last train becomes pretty much a no go area. I've caught it a few times when a gig has run over and missed the previous train. The sick and the dying all slumped in seats, covered from head to toe in scraps of fast food, alpha males giving it the big one to get the extra carriage round as quick as possible, there's always a couple or if you're lucky (or unlucky) two couples who have been out all day and have realised that they actually hate each other's company, and then there's the token annoying guy who's realised this is a 'situation' and needs to put himself onto everyone to have a good time, he's a kind of living Keep Calm and Carry On poster but with bad dress sense and 8 pints in him. It's what I imagine the last train out of a nuclear dystopia to be like. Hell.

Re: The North is : Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:38 pm  

King Street Cat wrote:

The last train out of Leeds to Sheffield on a Saturday night is EXACTLY the same, yet it still turns up every week with the same old two carriages and the station staff have the same problem of too many drunks trying to get on not enough carriages. I always try to get the one before the last as it's a slightly more pleasurable experience.

Now that the German Christmas market is running in Leeds the last train becomes pretty much a no go area. I've caught it a few times when a gig has run over and missed the previous train. The sick and the dying all slumped in seats, covered from head to toe in scraps of fast food, alpha males giving it the big one to get the extra carriage round as quick as possible, there's always a couple or if you're lucky (or unlucky) two couples who have been out all day and have realised that they actually hate each other's company, and then there's the token annoying guy who's realised this is a 'situation' and needs to put himself onto everyone to have a good time, he's a kind of living Keep Calm and Carry On poster but with bad dress sense and 8 pints in him. It's what I imagine the last train out of a nuclear dystopia to be like. Hell.

I went through a phase a couple of years ago of catching the Leeds/Birmingham x-Country service quite frequently which involved me having to catch the 7am-ish local shunter service into Leeds from where I live, its only three stops up the line but in all the times I had to use it I never got a seat, in fact I never got more than three yards into the carriage, would hate to have to use that service every day.

I'd been insulated from the horrors of local train journeys on the X-Country service where I always had a reserved seat etc, but someone in the office once booked me onto a return journey that wasn't going through Leeds, it involved a change at Sheffield and just before that stop the guard advised that a local service was waiting on the next platform to take us on to Leeds - was just about to get on that when the guard of that local train asked if we (about 20 of us) really wanted to take that service when if we waited for 20 minutes another X-Country train would be along, our tickets were valid for it and we'd be in Leeds long before this local service would be - then he showed us the running order for his train - it was going to Leeds via every stop in the five towns area and was scheduled as a 90 minute journey time - I could have walked to Leeds quicker.

Re: The North is : Sun Nov 16, 2014 4:15 pm  

For all the "right wing " apologists who post on these forums.

Where is the competition?

Why are this right wing, anti government interference, spiv government funding road building etc all to the hilt yet preventing "free enterprise" (you know the one that works) from investing for the " benefit of the consumer" with efficiency and lower prices .

Does the word HYPOCRISY raise its head AGAIN!!!.

Those who voted tory have got a transport system they deserve so stop whinging!!

Re: The North is : Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:31 am  

JerryChicken wrote:

:CLAP:

I went through a phase a couple of years ago of catching the Leeds/Birmingham x-Country service quite frequently which involved me having to catch the 7am-ish local shunter service into Leeds from where I live, its only three stops up the line but in all the times I had to use it I never got a seat, in fact I never got more than three yards into the carriage, would hate to have to use that service every day.

I'd been insulated from the horrors of local train journeys on the X-Country service where I always had a reserved seat etc, but someone in the office once booked me onto a return journey that wasn't going through Leeds, it involved a change at Sheffield and just before that stop the guard advised that a local service was waiting on the next platform to take us on to Leeds - was just about to get on that when the guard of that local train asked if we (about 20 of us) really wanted to take that service when if we waited for 20 minutes another X-Country train would be along, our tickets were valid for it and we'd be in Leeds long before this local service would be - then he showed us the running order for his train - it was going to Leeds via every stop in the five towns area and was scheduled as a 90 minute journey time - I could have walked to Leeds quicker.

I once had the misfortune to travel from Leeds to Meadowhall on a local train. I've lived in Yorkshire almost all of my life, but I had no idea there were so many stations !

Re: The North is : Mon Nov 17, 2014 9:56 am  

vernon wrote:

I once had the misfortune to travel from Leeds to Meadowhall on a local train. I've lived in Yorkshire almost all of my life, but I had no idea there were so many stations !

I once caught a train with the same route as the one below from Leeds to Manchester. Never again.

14:26 Leeds
14:34 Morley
14:39 Batley
14:42 Dewsbury
14:48 Mirfield
14:59 Brighouse
15:09 Sowerby Bridge
15:14 Mytholmroyd
15:18 Hebden Bridge
15:25 Todmorden
15:28 Walsden
15:34 Littleborough
15:37 Smithy Bridge
15:42 Rochdale
15:45 Castleton
15:50 Mills Hill
15:53 Moston
16:02 Manchester Victoria

Re: The North is : Fri Nov 21, 2014 3:53 pm  

King Street Cat wrote:

I once caught a train with the same route as the one below from Leeds to Manchester. Never again.

14:26 Leeds
14:34 Morley
14:39 Batley
14:42 Dewsbury
14:48 Mirfield
14:59 Brighouse
15:09 Sowerby Bridge
15:14 Mytholmroyd
15:18 Hebden Bridge
15:25 Todmorden
15:28 Walsden

Reads like a modern Dante's Inferno.