I agree HS2 is madness.  Instead of always trying to get places faster, why not organise business better so less travel is actually needed?  In these days of super fast internet, meetings can be held without anyone moving from their desk.

Not sure about guards, Archie.  I think a train should have a member a staff to assist passengers, act in an emergency, discourage bad behaviour, fare dodging, etc.  We have a lot of people.  If we keep doing away with jobs, what employment will be left?  Machines can, of course, do lots of things, but humans still have a role to play.  Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

I don't see how HS2 could "free up capacity"? It seems that all it would do is to move passengers to another "line", a very expensive line anyway. Like I said already, no sooner has a HS train got up to full speed and it's time to slow down again. HS2 will be a massively expensive White Elephant construction project which will run massively over budget, that is, if it ever gets built.

Why on earth do people want to regularly travel long distances? Why don't they obtain work closer to home? If it's less money, well, it's also less travelling time and less cost?

Rather than encouraging travel, I think unnecessary travel should be discouraged.

I’m not sure people want to travel a long way to work, but housing issues force them to.  That said, it should be discouraged where possible, IMV.  Commuting hardly adds to the sum totol of human happiness ... except for transport shareholders, I suppose. 

Have you been on a train recently?  Standing all the way from Manchester Piccadilly to Euston is no fun 😞

The whole network is severely short of capacity - we need new lines not only between London, the Midlands and the North but from East to West as well.  If new lines are going to be built then they might just as well be built to the latest specifications.

The idea of building lines above motorways sounds good in principle but the reality is that such plans would disrupt traffic for years and cost the country a fortune - much better to build alongside them where possible and go underground, (like Crossrail), near city centres.

We need the Railways renationalised now - they are a total disaster

We don't need to buy out the companies, we just wait and don't renew franchises, then pick up their rolling stock on the cheap, so getting some of our Tax money they have gobbled up.

Grayling should be Jailed for His wilful actions against network rail, which he wants to fail. Thats why He always blames them for His and Private Rail companies disasters e.g. New Northern rail timetables, they were told by Network Rail, that the system couldn't handle them and that NR didn't have the staff to implement them, they brought them in anyway. 

Why should the Tax payer totally subsidise  our roads, but not our railways,

good railways take 100ks of people off of our congested road network

Scotrail something we were always proud of, is now a joke. The owners Dutch company Abellio, even told the people back home, that the money taken out of Scotland will help subsise their rail ticket prices in the Netherlands - right now theres over 30 cancelations EVERY day in Central Scotland alone

We the Tax payer made a lot of money from the East Coast line, after it was taken back under Public control, Grayling nearly broke His neck, getting a deal done (at a loss to Us) just to get it back under private owners

Maybe the answer is private ownership, but with a cap on the amount that can be skimmed off by shareholders and investors.  Plus, essential services, eg water, transport, could only be sold off by governments to companies run and owned within the country concerned.   Yes, it would reduce the attraction ... but also the likelihood of money being skimmed off and taken out of the country as profit whilst the service concerned is strapped for running/investment costs.

or maybe regional co-operatives could work.  Local people would have a stake in local services. 

The idea of public ownership of vital services such as transport, power, water, food and so on is fine in principle - it falls down though when you look at what that actually means.

Does anyone really think that those voted into Parliament, half of whom have never done a real days work in their life, are really the best people to be in charge of running those businesses- I don’t.

I’m old enough to remember the complete mess that was British Rail, The British Leyland Motor Company, British Steel, British Gas, etc.  I remember the over staffing, the under investment, low productivity and decisions based on political need rather than the needs of the customer.  I’m not naive enough to believe any of that would change in the case of renationalisation now.

If nationalisation is such a good idea then maybe we should nationalise farming and have a minister deciding what crops should be planted and when - I’m sure that wouldn’t cause any problems.

*sits on the British Rail memory step with Creeky*

If Labour do renationalise it all, I hope they do not reinstate the former catering standards.  I’m still trying to digest a BR sandwich I consumed in 1975!

"If nationalisation is such a good idea then maybe we should nationalise farming and have a minister deciding what crops should be planted and when - I’m sure that wouldn’t cause any problems."

 Most farms couldn't survive withoput a subsidy,either from the EU or our own government

I never had the pleasure of making many trips by train but I used to have to go to stations in BR days as part of my job but always travelled by road! (Why? Because it was quicker!)

One day I was at Selly Oak station and met, for the first time a coloured man! He was sweeping the platform and just brushed the sweepings straight on to the tracks which were covered in litter!

Also in the Birmingham area was Hockley Goods station/Depot. A massive place, loads of people all mucking about but not seeming to be actually doing anything.

I can't now remember where it was but I once had to go to a BR office, an amazing place seemingly in two parts the "rough" part and the sumptuous part. The thing was, there was nobody there. I had to fix what I'd gone there for and that was that.

My dealings with BR staff were fraught with "couldn't-care-less" attitudes. 

Indeed!  BR staff were not customer-orientated, to say the least.  In contrast, I went on a train a couple of months ago and had an issue with the machine devouring my return ticket and refusing to spit it back out.  Two members of staff were by my side in seconds and could not have been more helpful, dismantling the machine’s innards and searching through dozens of tickets to find mine.  I was well impressed.

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@joe_bloggs* wrote:

 

"If nationalisation is such a good idea then maybe we should nationalise farming and have a minister deciding what crops should be planted and when - I’m sure that wouldn’t cause any problems."

 

 Most farms couldn't survive withoput a subsidy,either from the EU or our own government

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Farms would survive just fine - the subsidies may in the first instance go to the farmer but ultimately it is us, the consumer, who is being subsidised.

I wonder if the privatised rail companies would survive without aid ?

"Britain’s privatised railways have been getting around £5 billion on average in government support over the last five years. In the last five years of the 1980s—the earliest period we have figures for before privatisation—it was an average of £1.6 billion in today’s money"

https://fullfact.org/economy/government-funding-rail-industry-bbcqt/