Amazing Train Service

AccyJay · 20-10-2006, 16:20

My girlfriend & myself had to go to Skipton last night for a business meeting. As we have no transport of our own, we had to travel by either train or bus. My first thought was to go by train, so i checked the times on the internet. I looked at the timetable & decided that we would catch the 4:20pm Accrington to Skipton service with a change at Leeds, this would make our arrival time approximately 6:30pm. We couldn't travel any earlier as my girlfriend was working until 4pm.

So far, so good (or so i thought).

I worked out that the meeting would take about 3 hours, so i then looked at the times for the return journey, thinking that we'd need a train back about 9:30pm. I was amazed when i noticed that the last train from Skipton to Accrington was at 7pm. We would have been charged £37.50p (return) each for this fantastic service.

Obviously we opted for "plan B", the bus. I phoned my boss, & luckily he organised an overnight stay at Heriots hotel for us. The bus journey cost us £12.40p (return) each, & we arrived at our destination 4 minutes before the train did.

Needless to say that, "Plan B" is now "Plan A" for any future journeys.

semihere · 20-10-2006, 17:49

Public transport has never been the same since the Tories privatised it.

Labour always said they'd sort it out as a matter of principal if they ever got back into power... we're still waiting for NooLabour (with your Tory policies!) to honour their word.

It's a sad state of affairs when your only viable means of travel beyond mainline stations or town centres is a car (be it private or a taxi).

Have you noticed the sad irony of Blackburn's new 'car-dealer disctrict'. Based on Whitebirk Drive, you need to have a car to get to it. So how does somebody looking for a first car get there? Ridiculous.

Where I live there used to be 6 different bus routes which would get me within a couple of minutes walk of home for a reasonable fare and with so many buses I could more or less guarantee not having to wait more than about 10 or 15 minutes to catch one. These days there's a single bus service which runs around an amalgamation of at least 3 of the old routes (the others no longer being served at all) - taking about 1 hour to get from the town centre to my nearest stop (it's only a 25 minute walk anyway!!!) and you're lucky if you can catch a bus after 5pm - I think there's about 1 every 2 or 3 hours perhaps.

The excuse given for there being a reduction in services is that there's nobody using the buses. The problem is that nobody uses them because the service is so bad. The worse the service gets, the fewer passengers they get, so they reduce the services further, driving more people away from the buses... it's a vicious circle that, like I initially said, started with the privatisation of public transport.

Go pretty much anywhere in Europe and you'll see publicly owned and run transport systems that are clean, cheap and efficient - so there's no reason it can't be done here. Otherwise start getting somee exercise, because when the oil runs out or the roads reach complete gridlock (whichever happens first) we're all in for a lot more walking - especially with most shopping facilities being built further and further from town centres.

jaysay · 20-10-2006, 17:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by AccyJay

My girlfriend & myself had to go to Skipton last night for a business meeting. As we have no transport of our own, we had to travel by either train or bus. My first thought was to go by train, so i checked the times on the internet. I looked at the timetable & decided that we would catch the 4:20pm Accrington to Skipton service with a change at Leeds, this would make our arrival time approximately 6:30pm. We couldn't travel any earlier as my girlfriend was working until 4pm.

So far, so good (or so i thought).

I worked out that the meeting would take about 3 hours, so i then looked at the times for the return journey, thinking that we'd need a train back about 9:30pm. I was amazed when i noticed that the last train from Skipton to Accrington was at 7pm. We would have been charged £37.50p (return) each for this fantastic service.

Obviously we opted for "plan B", the bus. I phoned my boss, & luckily he organised an overnight stay at Heriots hotel for us. The bus journey cost us £12.40p (return) each, & we arrived at our destination 4 minutes before the train did.

Needless to say that, "Plan B" is now "Plan A" for any future journeys.

Come on Accyjay you really didn't expecr the train service, which ever one it is, to provid a service that helps the traveller did you, this 2006 for gods sack. The motto is why be hopeless when with a little effort you can be bloody imposible.

AccyJay · 20-10-2006, 18:00

It's a very good point about needed a car to get to Whitebirk. What gripes me the most, is the fact that the Government say they are trying to get more people to use public transport. It would have probably been cheaper to hire a car for the day, than it was to go on the train.

andrewb · 20-10-2006, 18:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by semihere

Public transport has never been the same since the Tories privatised it.

Indeed.

bullseyebarb · 20-10-2006, 20:39

I've stood at many a cold, wet bus stop, waiting for a bus that was late - or never came at all. Last time I took a train there, had to drive to Preston in order to get a direct train to London. Wasn't an inexpensive fare either - and that's been at least 20 years ago. Definitely room for improvement. Didn't I read somewhere that Richard Branson was going to start a train service?

entwisi · 20-10-2006, 21:07

I get train to london when on courses. ~£150 a pop for an open return(Work pay).

I work about 2 miles south of Knutsford and I have to be in work before 10 (flexitime). If I catch the first train out of accy, it gets me to Knutsford at 10:30 then I have a £8 taxi ride each way to the site.

SPUGGIE J · 20-10-2006, 21:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaysay

Come on Accyjay you really didn't expecr the train service, which ever one it is, to provid a service that helps the traveller did you, this 2006 for gods sack. The motto is why be hopeless when with a little effort you can be bloody imposible.

Thats a bit harsh! Not all services are that bad are they. Mind you I have the advantage of having access to the Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Perth lines so I cant complain as during the day I can go to Glasgow or Edinburgh every 15 mins up to 19:00 and then every 30 mins untill midnight.

garinda · 20-10-2006, 23:18

I spent the last twenty years travelling up from London, and down from Glasgow, to get back to Oswaldtwistle.

It's become a progressively worse service, and relatively more expensive.

Compared with the trains I've travelled on in France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, ours is a terrible service.

harwood red · 20-10-2006, 23:20

The trains in france and the holland are fantastic, quick, cheap, clean and on time!!!

SPUGGIE J · 20-10-2006, 23:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by garinda

I spent the last twenty years travelling up from London, and down from Glasgow, to get back to Oswaldtwistle.

It's become a progressively worse service, and relatively more expensive.

Compared with the trains I've travelled on in France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, ours is a terrible service.

Maybe I am lucky then I have had no real trouble with trains during my 16 years of toing and frowing from Falkirk to Accy and at £28.50 to £35 I aint complaining as on my first trip back in '91 it was £24.

garinda · 20-10-2006, 23:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPUGGIE J

Maybe I am lucky then I have had no real trouble with trains during my 16 years of toing and frowing from Falkirk to Accy and at £28.50 to £35 I aint complaining as on my first trip back in '91 it was £24.

You get the east coast line, I think?

The west coast line is definetly the worst of the two.

Good for you understanding the pricing system, and getting a good deal.

I travelled on exactly the same trains every month, and the pricing policy seemed to fluctuate as to whether there was a vowel in the month or not!

SPUGGIE J · 20-10-2006, 23:32

No I come down the West Coast.

garinda · 20-10-2006, 23:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPUGGIE J

No I come down the West Coast.

I appologise.

Perhaps I really had a wonderful twenty years travelling on the trains, and got mixed up with the prices seeming expensive, because twenty years ago I qualified for child prices.

SPUGGIE J · 20-10-2006, 23:40

Scotrail have a great service and modern up to date trains. The Voyegers and Pendilino's of Virgin trains are comfy airy clean and have plugs for laptops etc and I can listen to the radio from the point at my seat.