Trains...why?

[100%JR]

Even if she returns home does it not occur to you she might actually enjoy the scenic drive?
Quite a few drivers do actually like driving.

Scenic? You're going out for festivities but will be back before dark!

You could be right, but my money is on "likes a quiet life".

We’re starting the walk at 9:30 will be done by 12-13:00,food and four or five pints- 15:00ish.
So it might just be getting dark as we get home.Do you think we’re going to stay out all night in sweaty walking gear?
You’re trying to find faults where there aren’t any.
If my wife didn’t want to do it she wouldn’t.

[Tiberius]

My shift is having a walk/meal/festive drinks in Castleton/Hope on Tuesday 11th.

OOOOOooooo.....You lucky devil living over that way.

10/20 years ago, three young kids, we had numerous holidays in 'The Peaks' camping in our trailer tent at Greenhill's campsie near Bakewell.

The last time that me and Mrs T were over your way was for a wedding in 2015. The wedding was at that lovely church in Edale......I drove down there but I wouldn't have done if I had known that Edale had a railways station....Dohhhh !!!!

Fabulous part of the world.......Time for another visit........

[Cyril Haearn]

Surely everyone knows Edale has a station
The line goes through a couple of very long tunnels too, great fun for children

[100%JR]

My shift is having a walk/meal/festive drinks in Castleton/Hope on Tuesday 11th.

OOOOOooooo.....You lucky devil living over that way.
10/20 years ago, three young kids, we had numerous holidays in 'The Peaks' camping in our trailer tent at Greenhill's campsie near Bakewell.
The last time that me and Mrs T were over your way was for a wedding in 2015. The wedding was at that lovely church in Edale......I drove down there but I wouldn't have done if I had known that Edale had a railways station....Dohhhh !!!!
Fabulous part of the world.......Time for another visit........

Luckily for us the part of Sheffield we live in is only about 16 miles from Castleton through some very nice Moorland.The Strines(Mortimer road)Bradfield loop is one of the finest cycling roads in the area

Surely everyone knows Edale has a station
The line goes through a couple of very long tunnels too, great fun for children

I think the Totley Tunnel is the 4th longest in England and the longest wholly underland Tunnel at 5,696m(6,230yards)?

[100%JR]

Well I'm going to have to go into rant mode yet again
Bowing down to pressure from the lads at work I was persuaded to join them on the train as "it makes sense as we really don't know what will crop up".
So I booked my tickets online and turned up at Chapeltown station for the 09:35 to Sheffield.The 09:15 was going to be 15 mins late but my train wasn't affected.So far so good.Went to collect tickets...machine broken.Caught train then got into a ahem,"discussion" with the Conductor who couldn't access my tickets as they were booked through Northern Rail.Basically he wanted me to repay for the two stop journey into Sheffield.Not a chance.He backed down when others confirmed the machine wasn't working.I collected my tickets from the machine at Sheffield and we went as directed to Platform 2B for the 10:14 Sheffield-Manchester.The tannoy was on fire with delays but ours was not mentioned...until we boarded.We were then informed we were delayed to allow a delayed Express service to leave before us.We finally left at 10:25.
Everything went well,nice walk,food,few pints in Castleton and Hope then back on the 16:38(on time) to Sheffield.It had been decided we'd have a couple of drinks in Sheffield as it was still early I checked times before leaving the station and trains left at :38 and :02.
Returned to the station for the 19:38...cancelled no explanation given.No great loss only just over 20 mins to the 20:02 leaving on Platform 4B.Got a coffee and sat at 4B.19:55 announcement came over the tannoy that it would now depart from 1B so went to 1B,train arrived and everyone boarded.20:05 bloke gets on the train and announces it is going to the depot so we have to get off and board the train on 1A 20:15 still not left station and driver informs us he has no conductor.Finally leave at 20:25

You will never convince me that this antiquated form of transport is viable.I ought to change the thread title from Trains,why? to Trains,how? as how they actually get away with this is beyond me.
I remember the ad with J**** S****** in the late 70s "This is the age...of the train".That might have been true 40 years ago but it certainly isn't today.
I said never again the last time but this time it really will be never again!

[661-Pete]

I said never again the last time but this time it really will be never again!

Suit yourself. Some people have no choice. Some people use the train to get to work - instead of the boozer.

[kwackers]

22 minutes from the centre of Warrington to the centre of Liverpool and nearly always on time (I can count on one hand the number of times in a year its been more than 5 minutes late).
50 minutes by car but with a -10 to +30 minute variability (and probably once a month you can add an hour and in one instance five after some buffoon crashes) and then you've got to find somewhere to park.

Trains are a brilliant way of getting around, where they fail it's because of a lack of investment and/or imagination.
Cars on the other hand have investment in the hundreds of billions both in vehicles and roads along with an un-quantifiable amount of cost in health both directly in terms of KSI's and indirectly in terms of pollution and lack of exercise.

Pretty much every passenger on a train is a car that's not on the road.
Imagine how brilliant things would be for both passengers and drivers if we spent anything like the amount we do on cars on public transport.
You don't need to reduce traffic by too many percentage points before traffic starts to flow properly, nor do you need to increase it by much to stop it flowing. So far we've staved off a lot of congestion as more and more companies have introduced flexible working allowing some folk to take a more optimum time to travel but that only works for so long.

If there's an antiquated system it's the concept of personal transport. It's an expensive, unreliable and anti-social 'thing'.

[100%JR]

I said never again the last time but this time it really will be never again!

Suit yourself. Some people have no choice. Some people use the train to get to work - instead of the boozer.

I would suggest you read my posts.
We were using the train to get to the Peak District to walk.Having a few drinks after a walk is not "using the train to get to the boozer"
As for "no choice" there is always a choice

[mjr]

So I booked my tickets online and turned up at Chapeltown station for the 09:35 to Sheffield.The 09:15 was going to be 15 mins late but my train wasn't affected.So far so good.Went to collect tickets...machine broken.Caught train then got into a ahem,"discussion" with the Conductor who couldn't access my tickets as they were booked through Northern Rail.

That's a bit odd. Isn't Chapeltown to Sheffield one of the awful Northern's trains?

[...] 10:14 Sheffield-Manchester.The tannoy was on fire with delays but ours was not mentioned...until we boarded.We were then informed we were delayed to allow a delayed Express service to leave before us.We finally left at 10:25.

Yet https://www.opentraintimes.com/schedule ... 2018-12-11 shows the 1014 leaving at 1019 not 1025, although it does lose time (which sounds like being delayed to let an express in front) end up in Manchester 12 minutes late. That discrepency in times is a bit strange, as my journeys have always been recorded with the correct times on that site.

Everything went well,nice walk,food,few pints in Castleton and Hope then back on the 16:38(on time) to Sheffield.It had been decided we'd have a couple of drinks in Sheffield as it was still early I checked times before leaving the station and trains left at :38 and :02.
Returned to the station for the 19:38...cancelled no explanation given.

I can't see that a 1938 from Sheffield was ever scheduled to go anywhere other than Norwich. Is it possible that you may have misread?

No great loss only just over 20 mins to the 20:02 leaving on Platform 4B.Got a coffee and sat at 4B.19:55 announcement came over the tannoy that it would now depart from 1B so went to 1B,train arrived and everyone boarded.20:05 bloke gets on the train and announces it is going to the depot so we have to get off and board the train on 1A 20:15 still not left station and driver informs us he has no conductor.Finally leave at 20:25

Which is strange as https://www.opentraintimes.com/schedule ... 2018-12-11 shows the change of platform but records it as leaving at 2011. The one leaving at 2025 https://www.opentraintimes.com/schedule ... 2018-12-11 was timetabled to leave 2018 so of course it was still there at 2015 - looks like it didn't call at Chapeltown, though.

Did anyone look at the destination board on the front of the train before boarding the empty depot one? In some other countries, you would have been left to walk back from the depot!

You will never convince me that this antiquated form of transport is viable.I ought to change the thread title from Trains,why? to Trains,how? as how they actually get away with this is beyond me.
I remember the ad with J**** S****** in the late 70s "This is the age...of the train".That might have been true 40 years ago but it certainly isn't today.
I said never again the last time but this time it really will be never again!

Why On the way there, you were about ten minutes behind schedule - most people are used to being delayed ten minutes in a car, yet you're ranting "never again" about that sort of delay on a train. Just think of the extra time you've had to do all sorts of stuff that drivers shouldn't do, or at least that a passenger would struggle to do in the confined space of a car.

On the way back, I'm not sure what happened, as a northbound 1938 never existed AFAICT and the 2002 should have got you to Chapeltown at 2025, again about ten minutes behind.

Neither are within the 5 minutes target but both are less than the refund delay (30 minutes) and that's with Northern, who are one of the worst, as I wrote back on the first page. So, remember that most other trains are better than yours, plus you don't have to faff with driving or parking and I think that makes it pretty easy to see why trains are more popular than ever now.

[Cyril Haearn]

I said never again the last time but this time it really will be never again!

Suit yourself. Some people have no choice. Some people use the train to get to work - instead of the boozer.

I would suggest you read my posts.
We were using the train to get to the Peak District to walk.Having a few drinks after a walk is not "using the train to get to the boozer"
As for "no choice" there is always a choice

Walking to the boozer
Do you always go to the same place? Other railway journeys are available, towards Penistone for example

What I really want to know: why do you spend free time with colleagues from work? Surely you know them well enough already? Who pays? I spend more time with colleagues at work than with friends and family, there are several colleagues I would cross the street to avoid

[100%JR]

Walking to the boozer
1.Do you always go to the same place? Other railway journeys are available, towards Penistone for example

2.What I really want to know: why do you spend free time with colleagues from work? Surely you know them well enough already?
3.Who pays? I spend more time with colleagues at work than with friends and family, there are several colleagues I would cross the street to avoid

To answer your questions:-
1.This a new Winter thing once a month.In Summer we tend to have a couple of rides a month.The reason we are concentrating on the Hope Valley area is it's a starting point for those who haven't done any walking there and the choice is good.We may move onto the South Pennines at some point.It makes no difference to me but some of the lads want to explore the Hope Valley.

2.There are 10 of us on my shift and we all get on.I consider them friends as well as work mates(might be a Steel works thing?)only 6 of us regularly ride/walk/go out for a beer.We also have an annual weekend(usually mid-week on our shift pattern) away(London,Dublin,Lakes etc).Barcelona is our next planned trip.It makes work less of a chore when you have a laugh outside work.Three or four of them also go to Football matches and we've done a few Music gigs.
Yesterday two ex-work mates(retirees) also came with us This is why I like what I do.It reminds me of the community feel of growing up in a mining village.

3.Pays?
I presume you don't mean who buys a round but on a social level?
Well as it's only once a month my immediate family hardly miss out.I've not seen or spoken to my parents in almost 12 years(long story) and I gave up on my brothers and sister when it occurred to me that none of them have ever been to my house and the only time I saw them is if I got in the car and drove over to them
I've not seen some of my "friends" in years as we all work very different shifts,some live in Lincoln,Ilkley,Los Angeles,Spain and Australia and sadly 5 of my childhood friends are no longer with us.We had a Class of 84 reunion a couple of Saturdays ago and some of my best mates from school were there.Most of them I haven't seen since.....1984
So really no one "pays" as due to my shift pattern I spend a lot of time not working and doing stuff with my family(especially cycling stuff with my son).I typically have 14-18 days off a month so we have plenty of family time
Yesterday was a one-off as we were including a few extra Xmas drink.Usually the walks are done in School hours so I'm back in time for my lad getting home.

@mjr.
The times I stated are correct whatever it says on the rail website.I actually arrived at Chapeltown at 20:35.
RE the Norwich train.When I first read it it said Huddersfield but I could have misread (or the Hudds train had left earlier)as you are correct as it then changed to Norwich,
The train we boarded and had to leave had "Leeds" on the front.Even the driver got on and looked bewildered to have to change trains!

[661-Pete]

I would suggest you read my posts.
We were using the train to get to the Peak District to walk.Having a few drinks after a walk is not "using the train to get to the boozer"
As for "no choice" there is always a choice

I did read your post. I did note that you mentioned the walk as well as the pub. But the very fact that you mentioned the pub at all, indicates that this was a leisure trip. That you can't deny!

I was making the point that trains are for commuters too. I was a rail commuter for some years. Mrs P was one for even longer. No choice. And not particularly pleasant. For the last few years that she was working in London, it was standing room only for Mrs P - every day. But she endured it - as do millions of others - just about!

Being retired, we now use the trains for leisure trips - as you do. We have Senior Railcards, which helps to keep the fares down for us. Sometimes the trains work out fine for us. Sometimes they don't. Southern Rail doesn't have an exemplary record...

I had a colleague once, also a neighbour of mine - and for some years we did the same train journey to work. In the end he said something like "stuff the trains" (I think he used a stronger word than "stuff"). But of course he had a choice: he was a petrolhead into fast cars...

[100%JR]

I did note that you mentioned the walk as well as the pub. But the very fact that you mentioned the pub at all, indicates that this was a leisure trip. That you can't deny!

A Walk/Hike/Scramble/Cycle is always a leisure trip and for blokes of a certain age will usually finish up with a couple of pints in a nice pub

[Cyril Haearn]

Model and miniature railways are great fun for children of all ages
Going to a model railway exhibition tomorrow, but not by train, I shall cycle there
A model railway enthusiast described why he loves his hobby, it is so different from work
'Hobby: maximum work for minimum return'
+1

[Cyril Haearn]

The db deutsche Bahn has problems with punctuality, as the media just discovered

A quality offensive has been started, the menus in the griddle cars have been updated