cravensdmufan Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 BBC2 this Wednesday 29th April at 9pm. "The Trouble With Our Trains" Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer finding out "who is profiting most from the network". Pick of the Day according to The Sunday Times TV listings. Should be interesting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Welly Posted April 29, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 29, 2015 I hope to see Nick Hewer suck lemons on a Pacer! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
faulcon1 Posted June 27, 2015 Share Posted June 27, 2015 It's on you tube where I watched it. I found it odd that a link line had been built over 12 months ago but no trains have run on it yet as the signaling is not up to current standards. That's like building a car but not being able to drive it because you don't have an engine under the bonnet. Another was a bird strike on trains. They have a committee to decide who to apportion blame too. Was it the train drivers fault that he hit the bird? Was it the birds owner at fault that allowed his bird to get onto Network Rail property? Is it Network Rails fault for not having a securer property which would exclude birds from getting onto their property?. I was sitting in front of my PC with tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing at the absurdity of it all. Apparently there are thousands of cases like this to go before this committee. They also said that the government is subsidising the private operators who use part of that money to pay shareholders a dividend. So I suppose one should buy shares in all the private operators to get ones money back, or part of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Every train delay of 3 minutes or more has to be attributed to (ie blamed on) on some sector of the rail industry. These delays are part of the measuring of their performance, and incur costs for the sector deemed responsible. There is therefore a natural desire not to accept blame wherever possible, which leads to the need for dispute resolution as described in the programme. Mr Branson said the other day that 90% of delays to Virgin trains are caused by Network Rail, what he failed to mention is the proportion of such delays caused to Virgin Trains by external incidents, eg fatalities, trespass, bridge strikes, level crossing misuse, etc (I do also wonder whether the 90% includes delays caused by other Train Operators). I should mention that Train Operators are also responsible for certain incidents beyond their control, such as passengers falling ill or fighting on trains. I have long believed that train delay statistics should have three categories: Network Rail, Train Operators (as now) and External, the last to include the types of incident described above, and also such things as extreme weather, and yes, bird strikes ! This would surely give a clearer picture of the performance of each sector of the rail industry. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted June 28, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 28, 2015 Every train delay of 3 minutes or more has to be attributed to (ie blamed on) on some sector of the rail industry. These delays are part of the measuring of their performance, and incur costs for the sector deemed responsible. There is therefore a natural desire not to accept blame wherever possible, which leads to the need for dispute resolution as described in the programme. Mr Branson said the other day that 90% of delays to Virgin trains are caused by Network Rail, what he failed to mention is the proportion of such delays caused to Virgin Trains by external incidents, eg fatalities, trespass, bridge strikes, level crossing misuse, etc (I do also wonder whether the 90% includes delays caused by other Train Operators). I should mention that Train Operators are also responsible for certain incidents beyond their control, such as passengers falling ill or fighting on trains. I have long believed that train delay statistics should have three categories: Network Rail, Train Operators (as now) and External, the last to include the types of incident described above, and also such things as extreme weather, and yes, bird strikes ! This would surely give a clearer picture of the performance of each sector of the rail industry. The original idea of allocating to Railtrack delays caused by external factors made quite a bit of sense -especially when Railtrack became a 'commercial company' because in many instances the 'external factor' could be controlled or mitigated by their giving attention to matters under their control - e.g. properly maintained fencing normally prevents all but malicious trespass, bridge strikes are mitigated and should be avoided by proper notices and other precautions - and so on. In my view some of that still applies to NR as it still has a measure of control and mitigation over such things - but not all. And delays caused by other operators, including reactionary delays, should be allocated to them (and originally were) although it can involve some knowledge of railway operating and a bit of work to do so wholly adequately and i wonder if that still happens. Branson as ever muddies the waters as such bald statements can be very misleading - which is, of course, your point - and regrettably there are always some around (including many politicos) who are naive enough to believe his nonsense. To me anyone who talks a Driver 'steering his train to safety' should be relegated to an uninhabited island without any outside communication and with a rigorous climate - South Georgia would seem more appropriate than somewhere warmer (with due apologies to the resident animal and marine populations). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted June 28, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 28, 2015 It's on you tube where I watched it. I found it odd that a link line had been built over 12 months ago but no trains have run on it yet as the signaling is not up to current standards. That's like building a car but not being able to drive it because you don't have an engine under the bonnet. Another was a bird strike on trains. They have a committee to decide who to apportion blame too. Was it the train drivers fault that he hit the bird? Was it the birds owner at fault that allowed his bird to get onto Network Rail property? Is it Network Rails fault for not having a securer property which would exclude birds from getting onto their property?. I was sitting in front of my PC with tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing at the absurdity of it all. Apparently there are thousands of cases like this to go before this committee. They also said that the government is subsidising the private operators who use part of that money to pay shareholders a dividend. So I suppose one should buy shares in all the private operators to get ones money back, or part of it. This sounds like 'The Daily Mail' on speed, and then some. The panel's hearing and decisions are - as they have always been - a matter of public record and they haven't even got into the hundreds, let alone tens of hundreds in the past decade. The very simple fact is that the basic criteria for allocation of delay responsibility is pretty simple and straightforward and only those of a particularly argumentative or avaricious nature are likely to argue with the vast majority of allocations made every single day of operations - and the statistics would seem to be very clear proof of that. (I was incidentally a member, and latterly Deputy Chairman, of an ADRC committee from 1994 to 2000) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dibber25 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Oh, Lord! The BBC doing a programme about railways. That'll be something to avoid, if only for the sake of the blood pressure! I await the day when fairness - and the law - requires that all organisations panned by the 'Holier than thou' BBC, (over the course of time that must be everyone) produce a similar programme about the BBC. 'Auntie' is SO judgemental about everyone but herself. CHRIS LEIGH Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 4630 Posted June 28, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 28, 2015 Oh, Lord! The BBC doing a programme about railways. That'll be something to avoid, if only for the sake of the blood pressure!... CHRIS LEIGH Unfortunately we're forgetting the rules of BBC journalism as explained by John Humphries - "First you simplify, then you exaggerate". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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