Cycling UK Forum

paddler wrote:

mjr wrote:No hassle to get to a station. Buses from the stops 100m away go right there in 15-20mins.

You speak for yourself. If a person - and I'm one - say it's hassle then it is. As for driving being work, the same applies. It's not work for me,

Hang on. If the same applies, then if a person - and I'm one - says it's work then it is!

plus if I want to go somewhere else mid journey I can. Not so easy on a train.

Not that difficult if you add bikes or e-scooters to the train or at least the stations.

As others have said, the whole transport thing needs to change to make it attractive. As R2 says, no sign of that at the moment.

It's as much because travellers have been conned by adverts into thinking that car=easy than because the travel operators aren't innovating.

Trains work ok for main towns into the city. If it's a commuter route chances are it'll be ok for you if a little busy. If you're living near a station great you'll probably be ok by train if where you're going is near a station. Bus, train and bus is a real pain. Bike, train and bike is ok but not if one or both train journeys each day is on a busy train. Not great getting told you can't bring your bike on because it's too busy. I've seen that occasionally.

Not everyone can make work by public transport when the trains get in at inconvenient times. My future train route gets in too late to make my work start time. The earlier train gets in too early and work hasn't been opened up by the time I'd get there. I could take my bike and make work close enough to on time to avoid disciplinary issues. It works well in the morning because it's empty.

Evening train is full plus I have 45 minutes wait at the station for it if not more if I bike it. I might not get onto the train every day leaving me waiting a total of almost 2 hours to catch a train. Or a 1.5 hour ride home possibly longer when I'm knackered, hungry and low on energy. Oh and that's down narrow country lanes for most of the distance where the cars are driven by maniacs at times.

However, that's why folding bikes were invented right? N+1!!!

How are train operators innovating?

landsurfer wrote:And now the trains are empty .... a full service every day moving air around the country ..... !!! Thats it ... the case of spreading C-19 ... CONTAMINATED AIR BEING MOVED AROUND THE COUNTRY BY TRAIN !!!
Seriously though .... we are on depots and stations every day ... empty carriage after empty carriage .... how long is this sustainable ...

Until everyone is vaccinated?

I posit that the reason that the trains are all empty is because a stupid half baked government allowed a pandemic run amok amongst us!

pete75 wrote:From what you say farmers and landowners in your area decided to sell off their tied houses and to hell with the workers.
That doesn't seem to have happened here to any great extent.

We’ve just come a period of SFP where staff weren’t required to claim it there’s been no incentive to provide employment and no reason for them to move out and let anyone else in. Maybe changing days ahead. We have been seeing a huge demand for cottages mostly from people coming up from England. The estates have been milking this market for the last 15 years. Locals die or leave and the estate does them up and voila they’ve doubled the rent. Property for sale has also seen a huge demand, again selling to people from England, and this summer has been incredible. The last on the market in my village sold in two hours! Locals need to have a good job to compete against the wealth coming from the South and D&G is traditionally a low wage region. What I saw in my Yorkshire village as a child and has been seen for a long time in Cumbria is now creeping further North.

mjr wrote:

As others have said, the whole transport thing needs to change to make it attractive. As R2 says, no sign of that at the moment.

It's as much because travellers have been conned by adverts into thinking that car=easy than because the travel operators aren't innovating.

Or that rail travel is expensive,and disjointed with other public transport.Our nearest rail station is 21/2miles away and there's no bus service to it from where I live,which isn't some leafy isolated hamlet but a village(as was 50years ago)and now is a small town.

C19 aside,there's something seriously wrong with a rail service when it's cheaper to fly 2,000mile than travel by train less than half that distance.

landsurfer wrote:And now the trains are empty .... a full service every day moving air around the country ..... !!! Thats it ... the case of spreading C-19 ... CONTAMINATED AIR BEING MOVED AROUND THE COUNTRY BY TRAIN !!!
Seriously though .... we are on depots and stations every day ... empty carriage after empty carriage .... how long is this sustainable ...

Yep, pump your tyres up in tier three, go for a ride and get a puncture in tier one.....

landsurfer wrote:And now the trains are empty .... a full service every day moving air around the country ..... !!! Thats it ... the case of spreading C-19 ... CONTAMINATED AIR BEING MOVED AROUND THE COUNTRY BY TRAIN !!!
Seriously though .... we are on depots and stations every day ... empty carriage after empty carriage .... how long is this sustainable ...

WCML Usually no more than one person per carriage as they pass by me. Only sustainable as long as there is the handout.
I’d be a lot happier to ride one if you could open the windows but of course you can’t. There must be some sort of AC on board so do you know How often that air changes or is it predominantly the same air they are moving?

If its a Pendelino or Class 800 the air in the vehicle is constantly being recycled through high level filtration ..

So *no.new.air* from Glasgae to London? Like air supply on a spaceship?