bikes on trains

Andrew Richardson said:

On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 21:41:05 +0100, davek <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

JohnB said:

Or in many cases on my line where the train's 2 bike space has been
comandeered by standing passengers.

Here's the nub of the problem - if the train companies provided an
adequate service then everyone would be able to sit down and there would
be no issues with space for bikes.

Unfortunately, the issue is usually line capacity: there isn' t any.
Providing a better service often implies building more railways, which
doesn't really happen much any more.

More than two carriages would help too.

John B

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 21:40:25 +0100 someone who may be Andrew
Richardson <[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Here's the nub of the problem - if the train companies provided an
adequate service then everyone would be able to sit down and there would
be no issues with space for bikes.

Unfortunately, the issue is usually line capacity: there isn' t any.
Providing a better service often implies building more railways,

Not necessarily. It can be done with longer trains, in many cases
restoring the trains to the length they used to be. The people
responsible for replacing three coaches by two are the party
politicians.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

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David Hansen said:

Not necessarily. It can be done with longer trains, in many cases
restoring the trains to the length they used to be.

Indeed.

There was a piece in my local paper not long ago about a woman who has
retired after commuting to London for something like 50 years.

When she first started, the journey took under an hour. By the time she
retired, the scheduled journey time was 1hr 20mins - and the trains
rarely manage to keep to schedule.

What is more, when she retired she was still riding in the same rolling
stock as when she started her job. They have since introduced swanky new
Electrostar trains on our line (which keep breaking down, of course) but
that hasn't made the journey any quicker, and they still run the smelly,
dirty, draughty, noisy old slam-door trains for some peak services.

It seems to me that line (and train) capacity - on my line, at least -
could be improved considerably if there were competent people running
the network.

d.

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden]
says...

Quoted message said:

It seems to me that line (and train) capacity - on my line, at least -
could be improved considerably if there were competent people running
the network.

Here you demonstrate your lack of understanding. We don't have a
"network". We have a set of occasionally intersecting competing private
services. ;-)

Jon

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 09:40:01 +0100 someone who may be davek
<[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

They have since introduced swanky new
Electrostar trains on our line (which keep breaking down, of course) but
that hasn't made the journey any quicker,

That is because when one part of the disintegrated railway decided
to buy new trains it did so. It was only some time after
construction of the trains started, after repeated questioning, that
another part of the disintegrated railway was told how fast these
new trains would make the electricity meters spin round [1].

In fact the new trains would blow the fuses [2] and a rushed
programme to upgrade the power supplies was introduced. At the end
of this the new trains can run, but only at the performance of the
old trains. Higher performance will mean upgrading the power
supplies even more, but there is no money in the piggy bank.

The above description ignores the fact that the new trains are
heavier than the ones they replace.

Before privatisation the much maligned BR introduced new trains on
some of these lines. This went fairly smoothly, because the railways
had yet to be disintegrated.

[1] artistic licence, the sort of electricity meters concerned tend
to be solid state rather than having a little wheel.

[2] more artistic licence, there are few fuses in such systems.
Rather there are (very big) circuit breakers).

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

Jon Senior said:

Here you demonstrate your lack of understanding. We don't have a
"network". We have a set of occasionally intersecting competing private
services. ;-)

Heh. Yes, fair point.

d.

David Hansen said:

That is because when one part of the disintegrated railway decided
to buy new trains it did so. It was only some time after
construction of the trains started, after repeated questioning, that
another part of the disintegrated railway was told how fast these
new trains would make the electricity meters spin round [1].

Yes, I just heard on the news yesterday that they are going to be
allowed to continue running the old slam-door trains for another year
because they haven't finished upgrading the line yet (despite the fact
that you haven't been able to use the line at weekends, and past 11pm
most evenings, for about the last year due to "engineering works"😉.

Quoted message said:

In fact the new trains would blow the fuses [2] and a rushed
programme to upgrade the power supplies was introduced.

I foresee another year - at least - of not being able to travel by train
at weekends.

d.

In message <[email hidden]>

davek said:

Yes, I just heard on the news yesterday that they are going to be
allowed to continue running the old slam-door trains for another year
because they haven't finished upgrading the line yet (despite the fact
that you haven't been able to use the line at weekends, and past 11pm
most evenings, for about the last year due to "engineering works"😉.

Cant help wishing that they would keep slam door trains (with cycle
storage) and ban slam doors on cars which are more a significant hazard.

Paul Luton

--
CTC Right to Ride Representative for Richmond upon Thames

JohnB said:

Andrew Richardson wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Unfortunately, the issue is usually line capacity: there isn' t any.
Providing a better service often implies building more railways, which
doesn't really happen much any more.

More than two carriages would help too.

Yeah that would probably do it. FGWL have a nasty habit of doing this
come to think of it.