'The Trouble with our Trains' - BBC Panorama, 7 November 2016

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Missed the show but get the drift.

I was sitting in Flensberg station for two ****ing hours because the (always on time?) German train was 10 minutes late, and the connection on into Denmark only allowed four - which goes to prove that we don't have a monopoly of problems in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Oh and of course the staffed information and ticket area that had locked the door just at the time the train to Denmark left (still people inside being served, but no help for the new arrivals!) and the station Bistro which did a stonking trade for the first hour of the wait then chucked all its customers out because they (staff) had to go home.

Still on the train ... started from Hoek at 08:26, now into destination at 01:04. Perhaps I should have flown!

I started reading your post and thought to myself 'perhaps easy jet from Bristol to Copenhagen might've been an awful lot easier', especially considering your other thread regarding the mysterious station of 0650!

I'm flying back ... 'twas always the plan.  But different airline and airports to the ones you suggest.  Good reasons for doing it each way ... will follow up during the week but my final train's just making its way into the place I'm staying (not Copenhagen; that's like assuming everyone who comes to England is coming to London!).   Current problem is a dusting of snow on the lines which needs a leaf-fall timetable, I think.  Very gentle starts.  But excellent power and WiFi on this Danish train.

[Spaceship]

Trains in the Bath area all running late this morning. Kind of ironic with last nights programme!

[TaplowGreen]

I think they're assumptions on social media are wrong. Its so easy/quick to post a complaint there, pretty much everyone's doing it, many for trivial things one wouldn't waste their time to write in about.

So of course, numbers of negative tweets will always exceed written complaints. Doesn't mean rhings are necessarily any worse than before social media/privatisation

Completely subjective comment. If people feel strongly enough to express dissatisfaction (via whichever media they choose) it isn't "trivial" to them, and it's the customers feelings that matter. A "negative tweet" can be just as representative of a complaint as a letter, and if the platform is provided by the Business then it's just as legitimate to use it to complain.

Most organisations which practise excellent customer service value instant feedback as it allows them to address issues and spot trends far more quickly - give it a few years and webchat/twitter etc will have largely taken the place of written correspondence for these purposes. Generation Y.

[a-driver]

I found it at last reassuring that the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) have finally discovered who is responsible for the state of our railways, the Department for Transport. 

From a commuter's perspective, when you see images of overcrowding and conditions onboard other train operating companies services, do you not realise that changing the operator of the franchise won't solve any of the issues on that particular route?  The government needs to start increasing line capacity, both infrastructure and seated capacity.  By using the current stock more intensively and trying to cram more services onto the current network will only lead to a deterioration of the quality of the service.

[Red Squirrel]

I found it at last reassuring that the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) have finally discovered who is responsible for the state of our railways, the Department for Transport. 

Exactly!

Almost all the problems discussed were down to government policy and interference. The cynic in me suggests that the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) are very happy that customers focus their anger on the 'fat-cat' franchise operators, and the massive amount of money (3%, isn't it?) they cream off for shareholders (aka your pension fund!).

[Noggin]

I found it at last reassuring that the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) have finally discovered who is responsible for the state of our railways, the Department for Transport. 

From a commuter's perspective, when you see images of overcrowding and conditions onboard other train operating companies services, do you not realise that changing the operator of the franchise won't solve any of the issues on that particular route?  The government needs to start increasing line capacity, both infrastructure and seated capacity.  By using the current stock more intensively and trying to cram more services onto the current network will only lead to a deterioration of the quality of the service.

I only caught the second half of it, but in many ways it seemed fairly balanced - the c2c debacle was in part due to timetable changes unleashing extra demand, new trains were on order for c2c, Crossrail was going to add 10% to London's rail capacity, rail usage had grown dramatically due to demographic changes and immigration and was set to double etc. Not sure if anyone mentioned that the Pacers were being replaced with new trains though. 

If anything, towards the end I started to wonder whether it hadn't been actively encouraged by NR^» (Network Rail - home page) and RDG^‡(resolve) in order to encourage the Government to be generous with the CP6^▸ (Control Period 6 - The five year period between 2019 and 2024) funding settlement. 

[a-driver]

I found it at last reassuring that the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) have finally discovered who is responsible for the state of our railways, the Department for Transport. 

From a commuter's perspective, when you see images of overcrowding and conditions onboard other train operating companies services, do you not realise that changing the operator of the franchise won't solve any of the issues on that particular route?  The government needs to start increasing line capacity, both infrastructure and seated capacity.  By using the current stock more intensively and trying to cram more services onto the current network will only lead to a deterioration of the quality of the service.

I only caught the second half of it, but in many ways it seemed fairly balanced - the c2c debacle was in part due to timetable changes unleashing extra demand, new trains were on order for c2c, Crossrail was going to add 10% to London's rail capacity, rail usage had grown dramatically due to demographic changes and immigration and was set to double etc. Not sure if anyone mentioned that the Pacers were being replaced with new trains though. 

If anything, towards the end I started to wonder whether it hadn't been actively encouraged by NR^» (Network Rail - home page) and RDG^‡(resolve) in order to encourage the Government to be generous with the CP6^▸ (Control Period 6 - The five year period between 2019 and 2024) funding settlement. 

c2c had in principle an agreement to hire in additional trains.  This agreement fell through, either because the operator withdrew the offer and/or the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) refused to sign off the additional expenditure.  The trains were rumoured to be the 360's from Heathrow Connect or the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) 387's.

CrossRail, in my opinion, is a shortsighted project in that it will help with capacity in the short term but going forward 5-10 years, there's next to no room for adding additional capacity to the route.   

Anything to get more money from the government would be welcome!

[devonexpress]

Myself I thought it was a good typical BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) programme to fill in a 30 minutes time slot,  basically using everyone's complaints, a few shots of overcrowded trains, rail companies are evil, and only care about profits blah blah blah, job done.

Its exactly the same with the god awful Watchdog programme the other week "Watch out your car may catch fire", go to the website and its sends you straight to the manufacturers website which lists the specific models affect, now imagine elderly people who don't have access to the internet, the must have been messing their pants!

Anyway back to the Panorama documentary, I think they should have mentioned the fact that Virgin and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have new trains coming into effect from 2017/2018, actually showing a clip of them! I have to say that overall the BBC's journalism has become more of a tabloid style in recent years and it irritates me extensively!