Massive passenger rail boost re Glasgow!

[rjhowie]

I picked up a wee newpaper article today which said that between 2006 and 2010 passnger numbers rose betwween Glasgow and London by a whopping 85.8%. Air travel fell by 23.4%. At this time the airline BMI has annouced it is withdrawing it's service betwen the two cities and will leave the skies to BA. Seems it was losing £1,000,000 a month!

Virgin Trains which operates 13 Pendolines a day (eat your heart out US inter-city travellers!) has of course welcomed the change in travel patterns. Quite a while back I intimated that Glasgow and Edinburgh must be the only 2 cities in the world with 4 different rail lines between them via different towns providing rail services. Betwen that and the inter-city service I mentioned just shows how great rail travel is still today?

Yours, a smiling Glaswegian rail fan....

 

[wholbr]

Hi rjhowie And Everybody.

I picked up a wee newpaper article today which said that between 2006 and 2010 passnger numbers rose betwween Glasgow and London by a whopping 85.8%. Air travel fell by 23.4%. At this time the airline BMI has annouced it is withdrawing it's service betwen the two cities and will leave the skies to BA. Seems it was losing £1,000,000 a month!

Yours, a smiling Glaswegian rail fan....

Once more great news from the British rail industry. At long last people are learning that rail travel can be as quick as air travel if you include the check-in times needed at airports etc.

People are also able to work while they travel on railways by using their laptops and iPhones through the Internet, making their travel time as productive as time spent in their offices.

European countries are now showing the rest of the world how to develop modern rail commuter travel alongside casual off-peak travel for leisure and those in retirement at reduced cost.

I believe what is really needed now is not billions spent on high-speed rail but improved stations, longer trains with more comfortable seating (for everybody) and the continued push for punctuality. It makes little difference to the average passenger if you arrive in London at 8:40 AM or 8:50 AM as long as you arrive at the time stated.

Once more, great news and let's hope we hear much more like it in the near future

Bill

NB:- I still believe we need a separate subsection of the forum to discuss real train travel, events and news as I feel it would benefit Trainz in general by the production of more prototypical modern routes

 

[Euphod]

I'm sure the rising cost of fuel, aviation and otherwise is a contributing factor.

 

[rjhowie]

Yes, wholbr it is good that rail has been going up in Great Britain by leaps and bounds. I have just got hold a a rail map of Britain and Ireland in 1909 and the railways saturated the thing. Post Beeching in the 1960's much lost but still a credible 11,000 miles? With lines up here in Scotland reopened after 50 years it goes to show. Even in local services I have seen much improvement. Barely 3 minutes from my door I have 3 bus services. One every 7 minutes and the other two are 20 and 30 minutes but I often walk the 10 minutes to my station for a more comfortable ride into the city and do well time-wise.

I never did get anyone who could beat our local passenger rail here re Glasgow-Edinburgh for example and it is very unique to find two cities with 4 different rails services between them! One of them was one of those closed in the 1960's and now back on track. The worst place in the UK for rail closures in the 60's was N. Ireland yet even there with a very truncuated system passnger numbers have went away up. New trains, better stations, etchave proved that rail is still there for modern travel. Generally on longer routes rail is ever pressing air now and Euphod does have a point about fuel. Occasionallly going over to Belfast from Glasgow I have used both Belfast airports - the city and the International. Flybe does the City but rarely do you get a cheap flight. Alternatively going to Belfast International time drags. You have to be at Glasgow airport a couple of hours before the flight. If you get to Belfast Inter you are considerably out of the city and there is an hourly coach. Miss that and you find the gap with the alternative train and ferry narrows. On the ferry you have none of this taking shoes, off, belts, stuff on trays going through a machine, etc. Now if there was only a tunnel under the Irish Sea!

 

[Euphod]

In the US the administration would like to make the cost of fuel artificially high to get people to stop using their cars, and/or buy a Chevy Volt instead. Unfortunately, the cost of fuel on the open market now does not need an artificial reason to skyrocket. Amtrak would have you pay twice as much as taking an airplane, and add twice as much (or more) time to the trip.
If rail in the UK is blossoming naturally (without help from the politicians), then I think it's wonderful!

 

[Klinger]

Gas prices are going up either way. Its called peak oil, we passed that point back in the late 70's

While we don't push up the price with taxes like they do in Europe, we will catch up eventually, like it or not. Oil is not a renewable resource, unless you print out all the money the oil company's make, bury it for about a millions years, and you have a new oil field!

 

[pfx]

When I lived in Scotland, I always took the train over the plane to London. Taking into account the time for travel to the airport, check-in, security, flight, baggage claim, travel from the airport into London, the train was within minutes of the same time, point to point.

Despite the fact I'd been sitting on the same train for over 4 hours, it was always a very relaxing time especially as I tended to get that 1st class apex!

Now I'm resigned to the trials and tribulation of air travel. Until they build that tunnel...

 

[rjhowie]

And it is wonderful Euphod! Big pounds are being invested and it is much the same in Europe as a whole so we are fortunate!

Well, pfx, maybe when I finish building the whole of N. Ireland Railways I could build a tunnel from where you now live, ha, ha....?!