From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-digest) To: seven-seas-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-digest V6 #25 Reply-To: seven-seas@smoe.org Sender: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Precedence: bulk seven-seas-digest Friday, February 9 2007 Volume 06 : Number 025 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:30:45 +0000 From: "Peter Burnand" Subject: RE: seven-seas STOP THE GOVERNMENTS NEW ROAD TAX!! I disagree. I find the train pretty good, although admittedly expensive if you don't book in advance. Bear in mind there was sod-all investment under the Tories and there's been loads of track/infrastructure upgrades going on since 1997 when Labour came in. Not easy to upgrade track while keeping the system running so I think we have to be a little bit reasonable about the operational problems. National Express I always find to be efficient. My local rail network Merseyrail has vastly improved over the past few years. Of course if you live in London, that's your fault! Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 12:12:20 -0000 From: "Raj" Subject: RE: seven-seas STOP THE GOVERNMENTS NEW ROAD TAX!! All good and well to suggest alternatives to using your car but public transport in UK is generally over priced and crap (cancellations, over-crowded, late etc) _________________________________________________________________ Laugh, share and connect with Windows Live Messenger http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwme0020000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/default.aspx?locale=en-us&source=hmtagline ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **************Bunnymen Online Presence******************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.bunnymenlist.com * http://www.bunnymen.info http://www.bunnymen.com * http://www.fotolog.net/sgtfuzz/ http://www.villiersterrace.com/ * http://www.angelfire.com/wy2/discog/ http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevedoughty/index.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 12:52:32 -0000 From: "Raj" Subject: seven-seas British Commuters Cry, Once More Into the Aisles! Coincidentally, someone just sent this to me. February 9, 2007 Keynsham Journal British Commuters Cry, Once More Into the Aisles! By SARAH LYALL KEYNSHAM, England - Inside, they might be peeved; they might be indignant; they might feel like hitting someone very hard over the head with their umbrellas. But faced with the maddening challenges of their erratic railroad system, most British commuters do what they have been brought up to do: nothing. For a tiny moment in January, that changed. Angry because the commuter trains between Bath and Bristol are often so crowded that you cannot get on, let alone get a seat, a group of commuters surged illegally past the ticket collector at this suburban station, clutching fake tickets. Their ringleader, Peter Andrews, held his ticket aloft. "And then everyone else raised their tickets high," Mr. Andrews related afterward. "It was like something from 'Henry V.' " Train travel in Britain these days can indeed feel like a lopsided battle on hostile foreign soil. Fares are among the highest in Europe. Although cheaper off-peak tickets are available under certain conditions, the standard round-trip price for the two-and-a-half-hour trip between London and Manchester, for instance, costs $431; the standard round-trip fare between London and Bath, a 90-minute trip, is $238. Reliability has always been a problem, but things are looking up, according to the Office of Rail Regulation. Last year, just 14 percent of trains were delayed or canceled, the lowest rate since 1999. Still, the smallest things seem to cause paralysis across the network. In late January, a light dusting of snow fell on southeast England, wreaking havoc. "Inch of Snow Causes Chaos," reported The Evening Standard. [On Thursday, things got really serious, with four inches of snow falling in some parts of the country. Hundreds of schools closed. Trains were canceled and delayed, airport runways were closed and London's subway system experienced severe delays. The Highways Agency warned motorists who insisted on driving to dress warmly and travel with emergency packs containing food, boots, flashlights, spades and a de-icer.] Alex Forrest, 39, is a storm veteran. When trains were ordered to slow down during a recent windstorm, he recalled, many reduced their speed to zero. Setting off on his customary half-hour commute from London to Sutton that evening, he might as well have been embarking on a doomed Antarctic expedition. "Every train seemed to be badly delayed or canceled," said Mr. Forrest, a member of the Sutton Rail Users' Forum, a passenger advocacy group. "I finally got on a train that was packed full of people that said it was going to Sutton." But at the next stop, the driver announced that, actually, it was going nowhere. The passengers milled around the station for a while, but no other train arrived. Of all the unhappy train passengers, the commuters are the unhappiest, and their biggest complaint is that there is nowhere to sit down. Huddling with the other commuters under the shelter at Keynsham, between Bath and Bristol, Lucy Carpenter, a 32-year-old administrative assistant, sounded surprised that there was even a question. "No, I never get a seat," she said. The protest in January was organized by More Trains, Less Strain, an impromptu advocacy group that handed out fake tickets on which the printed destination was not Bristol, but "To Hell and Back." Meant to draw attention to local overcrowding, the demonstration stirred up nascent anger among other commuters, particularly in London, where passengers say that some trains are too full to board and that on others, they sometimes stand for trips as long as 60 miles. It did not appease anyone when the senior civil servant in charge of the railroads declared, basically, that commuters traveling into London did not deserve a seat. "The chances of people being able to travel in the commuter peak into London and be guaranteed a seat is not realistic," the official, Mike Mitchell, told a parliamentary committee on Jan. 8. Britain's train system is almost comically complicated. With 2,500 stations and more than 10,000 miles of track, it serves nearly three million passengers a day. Twenty-three train companies are responsible for the actual service. A separate company, Network Rail, is responsible for the infrastructure. Every year, the intricate schedules are worked out, somehow, by a team of people who work for the train companies, Network Rail and the transportation department. On the Bath and Bristol line, where all the trouble began, extra cars and the completion of engineering work have alleviated the problems, said Adrian Booth, a spokesman for First Great Western, which operates the service. But the company has also been criticized for overcrowding on its London commuter lines. Asked why it does not just add more trains, Mr. Booth said, "People very often don't realize the complexity of making changes to the timetable." That may be so, but legislators in the House of Commons recently competed to describe the horrors endured by their constituents. Edward Vaizey, a Conservative from Wantage, said that when his constituents did manage to fight their way on to a train, "they are packed like sardines," making it impossible for the drinks cart to make its way up the aisle. "Some people are even being forced to stand three to a lavatory," he said. People having a bad trip can at least be thankful that they were not on the 1:05 a.m. Waterloo-to-Southampton train, via the middle of nowhere, on a frosty morning recently. The train got as far as Woking, just outside London, where track work forced the passengers onto a bus. Soon afterward, the bus broke down. The train's employees then took a taxi, leaving the passengers behind to make their own arrangements. "I can understand why the passengers would be upset," a spokesman for South West trains told The Evening Standard at the time. "Once you get to the end of the night, you just want to get home." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **************Bunnymen Online Presence******************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.bunnymenlist.com * http://www.bunnymen.info http://www.bunnymen.com * http://www.fotolog.net/sgtfuzz/ http://www.villiersterrace.com/ * http://www.angelfire.com/wy2/discog/ http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stevedoughty/index.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-digest V6 #25 *******************************