An Evening With... Jeremy Corbyn

ukcarper

Malthusian wrote: »

Almost a coffee / keyboard moment.

Ok, you don't have NHS staff sleeping through a 12 hour shift (although if some of the managers and bureaucrats did spend their entire time sleeping, it would work more efficiently). But the fact that the NHS is the fifth biggest employer in the world (after the US and Chinese militaries, Walmart and McDonalds) suggests that either Britain is the sickliest nation on the planet or it is massively, massively overstaffed.

Could be tha health care is provided by a number of smaller companies but the total number of employees is in excess of NHS.

ruggedtoast

westernpromise wrote: »

Amusingly C2C, the train operator that's publicly-owned, came 23rd out of 26 in the most recent National Rail customer satisfaction survey

http://d3cez36w5wymxj.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/29162541/TF-NPRS-Spr16-pages-ALL-WEB-v4.pdf

(see page 13)

Toastie probably thinks it's a disgrace that some services are better than others and would like them all made equally bad.

C2C is owned by National Express. But don't worry, youve been reliably wrong for the last 24 pages so there's no need to break the losing streak, impressive though it is.

The last rail company to be in public hands was Eastcoast Mainline, which was very successful financially as well as in customer satisfaction.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/11085643/State-owned-train-company-returns-217m-to-taxpayers.html

Or, I mean it was. According to your own document customer satisfaction has declined precipitously since it was taken over by Branson and Stagecoach. I wonder why.

CLAPTON

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Railtrack was taken over because after the Paddington rail disaster it became obvious that the private sector was incapable of running the railways safely.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/470318.stm

Privatisation of rail has been a disaster that has cost lives. The idea that that a company of such rank incompetence as Southern is allowed to continue crippling the South East's economic dynamism, should be allowed anywhere near track and signal maintenance is laughable.

The reason that trains have stopped crashing into eachother is because the public sector is in charge of them when the rail operators can actually pull their heads out of their a$$es and make them run.

Wherever rail operators have been taken back into public ownership they have outperformed their private "competitors".

doubtless you could provide the accident figures for the period before privitisation and the figures after privitisation and the figures after re-privitasation of rail track
I'm sure we would all be interested to see the failures of the private sector on open display.

kinger101

ruggedtoast wrote: »

C2C is owned by National Express. But don't worry, youve been reliably wrong for the last 24 pages so there's no need to break the losing streak, impressive though it is.

The last rail company to be in public hands was Eastcoast Mainline, which was very successful financially as well as in customer satisfaction.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/11085643/State-owned-train-company-returns-217m-to-taxpayers.html

Or, I mean it was. According to your own document customer satisfaction has declined precipitously since it was taken over by Branson and Stagecoach. I wonder why.

It's true that East Coast Mainline was well run in public ownership, but I haven't noticed any perceivable different in service since Virgin took over.

Apparently, these were the overall ratings from customers;

Spring 2011 = 87%
Autumn 2011 = 87%
Spring 2012 = 89%
Autumn 2012 = 92%
Spring 2013 = 86%
Autumn 2013 = 91%
Spring 2014 = 91 %
Autumn 2014 = 90%
Spring 2015 = 94%
Autumn 2015 = 89% (Private)

So the spring 2015 figure was something of an anomaly.

I have nothing against the rail being nationalized if the investment in the railways can be protected. It's too easy a target for cuts. It was in a complete mess toward the end of the 90s.

BobQ

posh*spice wrote: »

In what world do people just expect to walk on to an airplane and get a seat? Yet JC expects trains to be run like this?! The guy's a !!!!.

I expect trsins to be run with spare capacity just in case my old saggy !!!! gets on and needs to sit down

The converse is that it is OK to run a train with the capacity needed to meet average usage and accept that when it is not averagely used there is space or standing room only.

It would provide a much better service if standing was not allowed and everyone had to pre-book. The present mis-mash seems to ensure people are treated like cattle at peak times. By encouraging train operators to be more efficient we have allowed them to offer a more reliable service but a worse experience. The next thing will be no toilets and wooden bench seats!

ruggedtoast

BobQ wrote: »

The converse is that it is OK to run a train with the capacity needed to meet average usage and accept that when it is not averagely used there is space or standing room only.

It would provide a much better service if standing was not allowed and everyone had to pre-book. The present mis-mash seems to ensure people are treated like cattle at peak times. By encouraging train operators to be more efficient we have allowed them to offer a more reliable service but a worse experience. The next thing will be no toilets and wooden bench seats!

Most Southern commuters would rather have no toilets and wooden bench seats if it meant the service actually ran to schedule.

You honestly have no idea of the utter misery of commuting into and out of London every day using this useless company unless you have tried it.

Its not just a few minutes on either side, its hours of delays, being thrown off direct trains at unscheduled platforms, drivers but no trains, trains but no drivers, walking into the office an hour or more late or frantically calling daycare trying to explain that you can't collect your children until after they close.

I've seen people in tears, people surrounding train staff like angry villagers confronted with Frankenstein's monster. Its a national embarrassment.

posh*spice

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Most Southern commuters would rather have no toilets and wooden bench seats if it meant the service actually ran to schedule.

You honestly have no idea of the utter misery of commuting into and out of London every day using this useless company unless you have tried it.

Its not just a few minutes on either side, its hours of delays, being thrown off direct trains at unscheduled platforms, drivers but no trains, trains but no drivers, walking into the office an hour or more late or frantically calling daycare trying to explain that you can't collect your children until after they close.

I've seen people in tears, people surrounding train staff like angry villagers confronted with Frankenstein's monster. Its a national embarrassment.

And a lot of it is the fault of the railway unions. You can expect more of this in life under Corbyn's LP.

Sapphire

posh*spice wrote: »

And a lot of it is the fault of the railway unions. You can expect more of this in life under Corbyn's LP.

Personally, I think nationalisation of the railways would be a terrible idea. We would be back to the massive strikes of the 1970s, with the nation held to ransom by the unions (many people today don't realise the enormity of the strikes – not just on the railways – that crippled Britain at the time).

BobQ

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Most Southern commuters would rather have no toilets and wooden bench seats if it meant the service actually ran to schedule.

You honestly have no idea of the utter misery of commuting into and out of London every day using this useless company unless you have tried it.

Its not just a few minutes on either side, its hours of delays, being thrown off direct trains at unscheduled platforms, drivers but no trains, trains but no drivers, walking into the office an hour or more late or frantically calling daycare trying to explain that you can't collect your children until after they close.

I've seen people in tears, people surrounding train staff like angry villagers confronted with Frankenstein's monster. Its a national embarrassment.

On the whole I prefer not to use trains and have to agree that being treated like cattle is a most unpleasant experience. Why people choose to waste their life commuting has always bemused me. I realise that some do have no choice but some do and still choose to commute.

My experience is that trains are mostly on time but the experience is stressful. If the trains are also late I can see it makes the experience even worse. But what is the solution?

I guess you will say re-nationalisation? If we could afford it I am not opposed to that but I doubt that will solve the problem. I probably travel more on European trains and they seem to sped less time cultivating an image and more on delivering a cost effective service.

BobQ

Sapphire wrote: »

Personally, I think nationalisation of the railways would be a terrible idea. We would be back to the massive strikes of the 1970s, with the nation held to ransom by the unions (many people today don't realise the enormity of the strikes – not just on the railways – that crippled Britain at the time).

Actually if we did re-nationalise them, the power of the trade unions to affect the service is much less, and would be even less if the trains were converted to being automatic and so driverless.