Tag Archives: network rail

Opinion: Not inevitable but not surprising either

By Chris White | Mon 29th December 2014 - 12:15 pm

I was one of the ‘victims’ of the Network Rail engineering fiasco of 27 December.

I won’t over-encumber you with details but the experience has certainly shaken my faith in railways as a means of long distance travel. No doubt there will be equivalent experiences with roads and airlines to bring me back into line as well as the usual desire not to wreck the planet with my travel arrangements.

In fact my family of five (including 80 year old mother) escaped the train at Peterborough (unscheduled stop to offload some passengers who had boarded ‘by accident’) and used a taxi to get to the East Midlands line. Not cheap but much better than the active maltreatment waiting for us at Finsbury Park. But we had Twitter, which was more than East Coast railways seemed to have.

Posted in Op-eds | 25 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes… Liberal Democrats have convinced other parties about High Speed Rail

By Julian Huppert | Tue 10th January 2012 - 10:23 am

Today’s announcement that the Government will go ahead with HS2 is a huge win for the Liberal Democrats, the first UK party to commit itself to a national high speed railway.

Back in 2004 we announced ambitious plans for the UK’s first high speed network. We argued that faster train lines would reduce carbon emissions in the long-term and ensure a reliable train service available to all.

In contrast it took Labour 13 years of Government to announce their commitment to a high speed network, conveniently not in time to actually start doing anything about it. And while the …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged HS2 | 28 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes: High Speed Rail no longer the transport of the future, but a logistical imperative

By Julian Huppert | Tue 18th October 2011 - 11:53 am

Birmingham in 49 minutes, Leeds in 80, and 45 minutes shaved off the journey to Scotland’s major cities. For some, this is reason enough for the Government’s new High Speed Rail line (HS2) – stretching from London in the South, to Manchester in the North-West and Leeds in the North-East.

Many, including myself, would love to see the line extended all the way up to Scotland, providing a real boost to domestic tourism and sustainable growth.

But in amongst the disputes over cost benefit analyses and NIMBYism, there are some startling figures which remind us why High Speed Rail is vital …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged coalition agreement, east coast mainline, general election manifesto, HS2 and nimbyism | 31 Comments

Baker: time to refund passengers forced on to rail replacement buses

By The Voice | Wed 27th January 2010 - 6:50 pm

Ah, the joy of train travel – you buy your ticket, possibly costing you a small fortune unless booked in advance, only to discover you’re chucked off the train and onto a bus if there are repairs being made to the line. Well, no more, says Norman Baker, the Lib Dems’ shadow transport secretary.

Stormin’ Norm is proposing that the Lib Dems would radically overhaul Network Rail, replacing its executives with a ‘Public Interest Board’ made up of representatives of customer watchdog Passenger Focus, the Local Government Association and independent experts. They would be charged with putting the interests of passengers …

Posted in News | Also tagged norman baker, trains and transport | 4 Comments

At least the trains are running on time (Or are they?)

By Stephen Tall | Wed 27th May 2009 - 1:18 pm

The news isn’t all doom ‘n’ gloom, y’know – even in the Telegraph:

Trains are more punctual than ever, Network Rail has claimed, with more than nine out of 10 arriving on time over the past year. The figures are the best since the industry started collating punctuality statistics in 1992. Last month the performance was even better than the yearly average, with 93.5 per cent of services classed as running on time. The industry’s definition of punctuality is based on commuter services operating within five minutes of the timetable and for longer distance trains, 10 minutes.

However, Lib Dem …

Posted in News | Also tagged norman baker, trains and transport | 7 Comments