Virgin looses west coast main line

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Tilt wrote: »

Just proves what nationalising the railways has done. Cause confusion. But in any event, my comments about Virgin Trains still stands. Shambles.

But they didnt nationalise them, they privatised them. You seem very confused about things..

Money_Grabber13579

Livingthedream wrote: »

Some say that they might bid for the East Coast network, only time will tell.

Some say they might. Richard Branson says they won't.

LincolnshireYokel

they didnt 'loose' it, they 'lose' it, or 'lost' it

Why cant people on the internet spell that word correctly, it drives me up the wall.

LincolnshireYokel

Livingthedream wrote: »

What can be done? go back to the good old days of BR? with clapped out rolling stock, crumbling infrastructure and industrial action very couple of weeks. Nice

TBH I will miss Virgin trains, they brought a different approach to running a train company in the UK. Some say that they might bid for the East Coast network, only time will tell.

The misconception is that you can run a railway network as a profit making business, which has been proved time and time again to be a fallacy and a delusion. If you attempt to make a profit to pay the shareholders, the only way you can do it is to cut safety and cut investment.

As for the actual infrastructure, thats already been demonstrated to be impossible to make a profit with, we now subsidize the infrastructure to the tune of £2b a year, we might as well own it.

Im no socialist, but i believe the essential infrastructures of a country are too important to be handed over to people whos sole concern is to make money, and especially foreigners, who care not one jot for the people of this land. Thats why the Paddingto nTrain Crash occurred. Whilst the trains wer the property of the state, they were the safest in the world. which is far more important that making profit for the shareholders.

In my view the following shoudl be owned by the state and operated at break even for benefit of the citizens of this country:

Water
Gas
Electricity generation and distribution
Comms (telephone, internet)
Prisons
Ports
Roads
Health
Trains
Forensic Services
Military
Police
Rivers
Reservoirs
National Parks


There probably others, but none of these should be run as a business, or be in the hands of businesses or non-citizens.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

As for the actual infrastructure, thats already been demonstrated to be impossible to make a profit with, we now subsidize the infrastructure to the tune of £2b a year, we might as well own it.

.

In essence Network Rail is owned by us but the way it was set up with the demise of Railtrack it actually keeps it off the national books and therefore our debt sheet.


Oh and whilst people weep for Branson try not to forget that Virgin Trains was a consortium of 2 bodies - the other being Bus/Coach/Train service provider - Stagecoach who owend 49% of the business and were just as instrumental in running the services as were the Virgin group.

opinions4u

I think Virgin run the best rail service in the country.

While I don't hane any emotional attachment to them, and think their peak time fares are outrageous, the trains are clean, well run and reliable.

I do hope the new guys can match it service wise.

Livingthedream

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

The misconception is that you can run a railway network as a profit making business, which has been proved time and time again to be a fallacy and a delusion. If you attempt to make a profit to pay the shareholders, the only way you can do it is to cut safety and cut investment.

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

Im no socialist,

With the above statement, I think you should be employed as Bob Crow's speech writer.;)

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

Thats why the Paddingto nTrain Crash occurred. Whilst the trains wer the property of the state, they were the safest in the world. which is far more important that making profit for the shareholders.

Ladbroke Grove occurred due to human error and I do believe that the subsequent Cullen inquiry also stated that 'railway safety statistics had not worsened after privatisation'. As to the safest trains, you'll find that the present inservice trains are the safest, the Pendolino (these trains were ordered and funded by Virgin) that derailed at Grayrigg only had one fatality, if this train was a BR class 87 with a rack of mk2 coaches, I fear a different outcome.

The cause of Grayrigg was poor maintenance standards of Network Rail, which is a statutory corporation type of Nationalised company.

luckwudaveit

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

they didnt 'loose' it, they 'lose' it, or 'lost' it

Why cant people on the internet spell that word correctly, it drives me up the wall.

In the interests of pedantry, you are missing an apostrophe in 'cant':D

luckwudaveit

Livingthedream wrote: »

As to the safest trains, you'll find that the present inservice trains are the safest, the Pendolino (these trains were ordered and funded by Virgin) that derailed at Grayrigg only had one fatality, if this train was a BR class 87 with a rack of mk2 coaches, I fear a different outcome.

Indeed. Whilst the loss of any life is a terrible thing, the extent of the incident and where the carriages ended up, it was a testament to the Pendolino's design that the toll wasn't higher.

Tilt

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

But they didnt nationalise them, they privatised them. You seem very confused about things..

Sorry i've edited my post. we can't all be perfect.