Byers admits lying over Railtrack

[stackpole]

This is bullcrap. The railways have huge fixed costs and they struggle to break even i this country without subsidy because too few people travel on them. Sadly British railway companies don't seem to want customers -- look at the price of peak time London tickets from Brum to London to understand that the price is used to supress demand. The higher the price goes the less people travel, and the less people travel the bigger the shortfall in revenues.

The end result is this -- peak time trains are overcrowded and at other times trains are empty: they should be giving away tickets on those just like Easyjet does, but they prefer to keep prices high to deter customers.

Alexie, I don't understand your argument here.

You say peak time rail tickets are pricing people off the trains, then admit that they don't by saying that peak time trains are overcrowded.

Well, I have to use the buggers and I'll agree they are overcrowded, so the high prices are not suppressing demand enough. People still pay the higher prices, the London commute is still packed, and still the railways lose money.

If you want low prices for off-peak travel or little-used routes you've got it. And there are loads of deals to get people on the trains. But, quite simply, that isn't when people want to use them.

Get rid of the railways, I say. What is the bloody attraction of them these days anyway?

[AtW]

Alexie, I don't understand your argument here.

You say peak time rail tickets are pricing people off the trains, then admit that they don't by saying that peak time trains are overcrowded.

There is no contradiction here -- they use high price to keep people away, if price was lower then overcrowding would have been much worse.

What they lack is serious capacity

Get rid of the railways, I say. What is the bloody attraction of them these days anyway?

I would agree -- people can actually save money by switching to cars, if you get two people in the car then its cheaper to travel pretty much anywhere, certainly at peak time which is the main issue. Additionally those people would actually contribute taxes by paying duty for petrol rather than consume taxes in subsidy.

All good, but small size of this country makes it ideal for properly run trains -- make trains run at 200mph and suddenly they are much faster than cars, thus being preferable, certainly increase of capacity will be needed to break even or ideally make profit.

[WageSlave]

I would agree -- people can actually save money by switching to cars, if you get two people in the car then its cheaper to travel pretty much anywhere, certainly at peak time which is the main issue.

What about parking? Finding a parking place in central London is a nightmare. Very few companies have sufficient spaces available.