Quote: “Except in the UK of course where rail travel is an ongoing farce that seems perversly determined to be slower and more expensive than a Cessna 152 with engine trouble.”
The above seems to be rather unfair. Give credit where it is due!
Over the past three or so weeks a significant item in both UK and International news has been the need for five new high speed rail lines in the UK to cope with ever increasing pax traffic. Over the past decade rail pax numbers have increased over 40% to 1946 levels, about the highest ever annual total. This is expected to increase by a further 30% over the next decade, plus of course any additional traffic diverted from UK internal airlines by the actions of some of the clowns above.
Another current article confirmed the need by pointing out that at peak times now each UK rail pax often has less space on crowded coaches than is legally required for animals travelling by rail. Since the mid-1960s the UK railways have been a great success story. To some extent they have been a victim of their own success in attracting new customers; thus the need for new lines and other actions to cope with the huge traffic increases.
Carrier and Mrs C used the UK rail system fairly extensively on several visits to England during the past three years. With or without BritRail Passes we considered it great value for money. It was fast, comfortable and convenient - except on Sundays when “Engineering” wrecks the system. We had none of the wasted time associated with air travel, there were no security hassles, no having to book ahead, no check-in hassles and nobody was concerned with how many pieces of luggage we had or what they weighed. Catering was good, both on trains and at major stations. We often made an early start and had breakfast on the train. It was good on Midland Mainline but less desirable and pricier on Virgin Trains. Overall, what a pleasant way to travel! The airline industry could learn a lot from the UK rail system.
Of the services we used Midland Mainline was definitely the best, followed by Central Trains, then there was a gap to Southern and South Eastern. Bringing up the bottom in customer service, inconvenient provision for luggage on long-distance trains, insolent and evasive staff attitude, poor time-keeping and predatory pricing was Virgin Trains. We could not help commenting that the anti-customer attitude and customer service levels of most airlines have been faithfully replicated in Virgin Trains. It’s almost as if it is run by airline “management” or those who wish to ape it!