Update: train pain – our railways are stagnating while prices soar

The overall situation is a total shambles – as many others have explained already – and Secretary Grayling has a Track Record (Ha Ha!!) of deep Incompetence yet fails to take responsibility for the mess travellers regularly experience. He should GO and take his daft Brexit ideas with him!!!!.
The mess persists despite the dedication of staff who clearly do their best despite lousy Management who fail to listen to them whilst blaming Unions for the troubles directly linked to their own failures.
How many more travellers have to suffer higher prices for deteriorating Services – or worst still be killed and/or injured as a result of deliberately fragmented structures???
I am appalled as a Citizen of the Country which invented Railways!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I travelled from York to Sheffield at around 5.00 on the 4th of December. The train was grossly overcrowded, but I was lucky to get on early enough to bag one of the few seats available. At 83, I’m no longer good at standing for more than half an hour at a time. The centre aisle of the coach was packed, mainly with people returning home from a day’s work. Many looked very tired, some were middle-aged and the rest were all younger people. All had paid the same fares as those lucky enough to have a seat. The train operators must know that this train is overcrowded at this time on every week-day. So, why not another coach? The train was a through train from Newcastle to Plymouth and, I’d guess, that it would be overcrowded for much of its journey. In fact, it was so overcrowded that nobody came to inspect my ticket. I could have taken a chance and travelled for nothing! I’m afraid the answer lies in the incompetence and greed of the operating companies who have to hire the coaches. So, if you can pack ’em all into 5 coaches, why go to the expense of having 6 where everybody can have a seat?

Chris Grayling tells us that although he is Minister of Transport, he’s not in charge of the railways, which, in a way, is probably a mercy, but in his absence, who is? It’s now time to nationalise and try to piece back together the railways which have suffered so much from a lack of government interest and who, foolishly, caused an integrated, co-ordinated system able to sort most of its problems in house and even build it’s own coaches and locomotives to degenerate into the uncoordinated mess we have today. I have no faith that a tory government will do this, and even doubt the intentions of the Labour party who always cite waiting until franchises expire. Clement Attlee managed to get much needed nationalisation through parliament in less than three years, so, what’s so difficult about taking the industry back into state control when we live in an age of short cuts and computers.

sheffield to loughborough in October, had no idea if there was gonna be a train till 2 days before when a timetable appeared it was a limited and restricted service

The Secretary of State for Transport MUST be releived of his ministerial duties because of his gross incompetence. If he was employed in the private sector he would have been sacked well before now. Yet another incompetent masquerading as as responsible person. Open question: how are politians whose performances fall far below the standards required able to hold on to their jobs with little or no consequences for their ineptitude?
Time for change.
Bern

I’ve been let down quite a lot over the last 6months by SWT TRANS Eather they are late, delayed or just canceled at the last minute there have been times when I’ve had to wait between 20 – 40 minutes sometimes more for a train driver or guard to turn up I’ve no choice but to use the train’s to get to work, i am a porter at a very busy hospital so i have to get into work how would they feel if i kept them waiting 40 minutes or an hour before i picked them up to go the operating theater for an operation, I’ve sent SWT my season ticket at least 7 times over the last 6 months with my details did i get any refunds of any Kind not licky I’ve got a better chance of getting a wining line on a lottery ticket .

I am a third generation railwayman and joined British Railways in 1958 and the comments made by David Bacon closely mirror my experiences.

We have to wake up to the fact that successive governments, particularly the Thatcher administration, have completed the job initiated by the Luftwaffe in 1941 and as a result our railway industry has been destroyed. They are now a stagnant, fragmented, dysfunctional and completely unmanageable shambles. My biggest fear is that it has now gone beyond the point of recovery and there are not enough competent railwaymen under the age of 65 to even begin to tackle recovery and even if there were, it would still take decades to achieve. Clearly the case for renationalisation is now overwhelming. However it can only be considered as a start, because our system of national corporate governance, accountability and the competence of our politicians need to be sorted out first.

To confirm the magnitude of our dismal and disgraceful failure, I note the Luxembourg government have just announced they are to make public transport free at the point of delivery and funded from the public purse.

We used a train a few times while on holiday in Spain. It was very cheap, very clean & always ran on time. For a country much poorer than UK they have a brilliant train service. The train companies here are all about profit. We need to take it out of private ownership & give it back to the public sector.

We had ALL our trains cancelled two weeks ago, with a replacement bus to cover some of the trains. the train is the lifeline of our village. Many of us have written to our MP Seem Kennedy but to no avail. We are now back to a part train / part bus replacement. It is not fair on the guards and staff who have to bear the brunt of the complaints of the public.