hello from australia… when i last visited the uk i wanted to travel by train and when i got on the web i had approx 20 diferent fares for the same journey very confusing it seamed that every train had its own price for a seat and when two companys were involved the price was very expensive… i cought one train to manchester airport and got as far as shefield and the train stopped and would not go any further they had cancelled the train because of slow running and didnot want to pay a penalty for running late… had to hire a mini cab to get to airport very expensive and no compensation… so service not allways good…
I can only apologize for you having a bad experience last time you were here. In my opinion , If they stopped your train early they should of put you in a taxi at their expense. I can only speak for today’s trains which are very punctual, Here is a quote I found for the company I work for.
Virgin’s improved punctuality - last month the London-Liverpool route was Virgin’s most punctual West Coast route with 92% of trains arriving on time, or even early! - has increased the number of passengers using all of Virgin’s West Coast services. Numbers have increased by around 40 percent from 14 million to 20 million since 2003.
I think the rules need to be changed. At present Train Operators in Britain cancel trains becuase cancelled trains are classed as on time! Instead they should be classed as infinitely late and given a stiffer penalty. I’ve been caught out twice when a last train has been cancelled with no alternative transport arranged.
It’s interesting that rail in UK is so futuristic now compared to the 70’s when I lived in England. North American trains haven’t seemed to change as much. At least not where I live.
I was gonna ask you if you ever do any switching over ther in the UK? All the UK trains look like permantly coupled types. Do you ever do any switching as a train crew or is it all running?
I still do the odd switching move, dragging the new electric trains over non electrified line’s ( as in my photo) but nowhere near as much as we used to do. There is still switching done on the freight side of thing’s.
One or two passenger trains still divide/combine here and there. For example Southern trains from London Victoria to Bognor Regis and Portsmouth now divide at Horsham. Previously they did so at Ford, the junction for the Bognor branch. Now that they split at Horsham, the Portsmouth portion runs non-stop between Horsham and Ford while the Bognor portion calls at all stations.
In Mid Wales, trains from Birmingham to Aberystwyth are generally formed of 2 x 2 car dmus with the rear unit being detached at Machynlleth and then forming the next to train Pwllheli (pronounced “Poo-fell-ee” - in Welsh the letter “w” is a vowel as is “y”).