Train Enthusiasts

[GazzinderFox]

I'm not per say against the idea, I guess it's progress of sorts I just don't think the likes of me and you are really going to see the benefits of it. 

[The Railway Man]

35 minutes ago, GazzinderFox said:

Unlikely that you would be able to get to Manchester direct you will in all likelihood still have to change at Birmingham. Oh and by the way we will still need to get a train/car/bus/taxi to the new east midlands station. So once you have factored all that in how much more quickly will we get to these places anyway? And how much more are you going to have to pay for the privilege? Twice as much?   

Leeds would be doable within an hour almost on HS2 from Sheffield, at a glance now we'd be saving about 45 minutes to Manchester going from Sheffield. As for prices, can they really get any worse?  I don't understand people, they moan about lack of government investment and then when they do it they moan about it, this has huge potential and hopefully will eventually extend to places like Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh, it's the future.

 

Look at the luddites who opposed HS1, they would be laughed at now after what has been achieved.

[Fox92]

For me, the midland mainline should be electrified and that should take priority over the HS2 project. We've got big stations such as Sheffield, Derby and Leicester on the line ... It's about time it was electrified.

[GazzinderFox]

3 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

For me, the midland mainline should be electrified and that should take priority over the HS2 project. We've got big stations such as Sheffield, Derby and Leicester on the line ... It's about time it was electrified.

Absolutely it's disgusting that the line hasn't been electrified yet. Renationalise the railways if the franchises are waiting for the government to step in and pay for this stuff anyway! 

[The Railway Man]

2 minutes ago, GazzinderFox said:

Absolutely it's disgusting that the line hasn't been electrified yet. Renationalise the railways if the franchises are waiting for the government to step in and pay for this stuff anyway! 

Now we have left the European Union we could renationalise the railways properly if we wanted to, I hope we give some thought to it and if it's financially viable set a plan to do it.

It could work very well with the lines and franchises government owned but the staff employed privately so we get no strikes but money going back to the treasury.

[m4DD0gg]

16 hours ago, Fox92 said:

I visited that line when I was younger, can't remember that much but there were steam trains there.

The GCR is by far one of the best Steam railways in the country. Some of the plans they have are amazing such as the bridge to the future project where network rail are part funding a bridge over the midland mainline in Loughborough to join the two legacy railways together so you will be able to travel from Leicester North to the outskirts of Nottingham!

 

http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/

 

http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/unify/

[ousefox]

Is there a convincing argument that we shouldn't renationalise the railways? It's absolutely ridiculous when there is no true competition.

[GazzinderFox]

8 minutes ago, The Railway Man said:

Now we have left the European Union we could renationalise the railways properly if we wanted to, I hope we give some thought to it and if it's financially viable set a plan to do it.

It could work very well with the lines and franchises government owned but the staff employed privately so we get no strikes but money going back to the treasury.

We need to get rid of the franchise system altogether and go back to having a British Rail type organisation overseeing the entire system. We wouldn't have to buy the franchises out just wait for their terms to come to an end. Part of the problem with this though is that the different franchises have differing periods of time left to run. Some say it was done this way to make it much harder to take the railways back into public ownership. You are right though there is bags of unrealised potential in the railways for the government. 

[The Railway Man]

3 minutes ago, Watson said:

Is there a convincing argument that we shouldn't renationalise the railways? It's absolutely ridiculous when there is no true competition.

The only ones are really that it would cost a lot and British Rail was absolutely shit.

 

I wouldn't want it renationalised under someone like Corbyn as it would just become another industry where it's ran for the public sector staff rather than the public but under a competent government who agree pay conditions on the basis of inflation I see no reason why we can't manage it and as I've mentioned now we are out the EU we can actually do it legally.

 

Go for it.

[Webbo]

I think HS2 is a good idea but we need to work out whether the money it would cost would be worth it or whether it'd do more good spent elsewhere.