Why I no longer travel by train

It's not difficult to see why folk just give up with the all-round hassle & disappointment that goes along with travel by train, more often than not... I bought my discount card and now use the train for my commute. With discount, it's the same price as the fuel I'd use if I drove. However, there is rarely a day goes by when one or both of the trains aren't late, sometimes so late that they don't stop at certain stations, in order to make up time, I spose... which in my view is taking the mick. Fortunately I pack a Brompton so it's not really an issue, but how less mobile travellers fair when they do this, I do not know.
On the other hand, me & my chums often use the train to go out for our week-end trips to the country-side and most of the time (when they haven't withdrawn the service entirely so they can fix the creaking infrastructure...), we have a great time out, specially with a group travel discount, for which I don't think you need a rail card... :-) so it's not entirely gloom and doom.

pimento wrote: »

The train I commute to work on was built 30 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Anglia_(train_operating_company)#Rolling_stock

You'll see that they do have some rolling stock that is over 40 years old.

They feel older.

They do, but still way short of the 56 years the previous poster mentioned. The mk2 carriages they have are late model ones built in the early 70s but as the wiki page states there are only 3 of them and they only see limited use on one relatively lightly used line.

I'd love to know the age of the Northern Rail trains knocking about Crewe, Sandbach, Manchester, Cheshire etc..... Some of them are in dire need of repairs and modernisation.

They're always late. They seem to have regular cancellations due to mechanical issues. They're the only trains I use where the smell of urine appears to be impregnated into the actual cushions. Awful. The toilets are often broken, vandalised or severely damaged (but not out of order). Many of the doors don't work properly. They are absolutely shocking when compared to London Midland. I would even take East Midland trains over Northern.

I rarely take Northern, but when I do, it's never fun. Trains are awful in this country, but Northern are up there with the worst.

Stoke wrote: »

I rarely take Northern, but when I do, it's never fun. Trains are awful in this country, but Northern are up there with the worst.

That's Northern. Corporate slogan: It's grim on Northern.

Give Northern a fleet of shiny new trains to play with and it would be like Fred Flintstone driving a Bentley.

Trenau Wales have some pretty dated Sprinters tootling around but they manage to keep them running and the wifi working.

Northern in particular are poor although hopefully it's going to improve in the next couple of years once they get rid of all the Pacers and the 37 hauled services. The Pacers were meant to be a short term stopgap and as much as I like the class 37's, they are a long way past their prime and not suitable for mainline commuter services.

Northern are getting of the Scotrail Turbostars and we're getting short formed HST's so we'll see how that goes. I'd be more inclined to take the train if it was an HST rather than a turbostar but the fact it's such a huge premium to take a much less convenient service isn't appealing.