West Coast Main Line Deal Ditched (BBC)

[Anarcho-Socialist]

The bidding process for the West Coast Main Line rail franchise is to be re-run after the government admitted getting its figures seriously wrong.

The contract to run services on the line - one of Britain's busiest - was awarded to FirstGroup in August.

That decision was challenged in the courts by Virgin Trains, which lost out.

Now civil servants have found significant mistakes in the way they calculated the risks for each bid.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19809717

[enlightenment]

1. Wow.

That's intense - not to mention pretty embarrassing for a lot of people (I'd love to be a fly on the wall during the inquiries, that's for sure).

[T_i_B]

2. Wow, what a train wreck!

Unbelievable. Leaving aside my own views on Virgin & First Group I'm lost for words about this.

[LeftishBrit]

3. This government is about as incompetent as you can get.

If they applied 'performance related pay' to themselves, they'd have to get by on their large inheritances!

[non sociopath skin]

4. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!



Train wreck!!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!



Beardie was right all along!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!



Right royal fuck-up! The Kops strike again!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!



The Skin

[T_i_B]

5. Schadenfreude aside...

What about those of us who actually need to catch a train to Manchester or Glasgow? That's what I'm worried about.

The railways used to be run by people determined to show that nationalization will never work. Now it's run by people determined to show that privatization will never work.

[non sociopath skin]

6. You mean some of you guys can still afford to take the train?

I'm impressed!

Other than when I was on expenses, I haven't travelled by train for eight years.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

7. Last caught a train Tuesday night

It's still cheaper then a taxi, and quite a lot quicker!

The last time before that I was going from Sheffield to Huddersfield on the world's slowest train line. 90 minutes to get to a town that's only 30 miles away is pretty poor. The pricing for that journey is very odd. Pay about £11.00 for a return on the super slow direct line or change at Leeds and pay double!

Any journey of a fair distance needs to be booked online, and well in advance. The whole prcing structure for trains, especially for long distance journeys is pretty dire really.

[non sociopath skin]

11. Taxis?????? LOL

I guess I was being pedantic when I said "trains" as I don't think of the excellent Tyne and Wear Metro as a "railway". It's efficient, relatively cheap (especially as us Crumblies get buy an excellent value annual pass) and actually gets you where you want to go!

Beeching all but destroyed the railways in Northumberland - all that's left is a handful of stations on the London to Edinburgh line and a rattle-and-bang connection, through the Tyne Valley, from Newcastle to Carlisle. Pretty amazing for a large, predominantly rural county with poor road links.

Campaigners have been trying for years to get the line from Newbiggin and Ashington to Newcastle opened, so that commuters can link up with the Metro, but to no avail.

When we were in the Auvergne a few weeks ago, Mrs. Skin stood back in amazement at the fact that such a remote region had a cheap and effective rail system. Haven't seen her so gobsmacked since she experienced the Paris Metro and RER I guess, if you grew up with the New York subway, it's a bit of a culture shock!

Ah, Yoorp!

The Skin

[T_i_B]

12. I suppose I should have mentioned buses as well

But the buses are slower and less reliable.

Plus I'd been attending an even that was being held practically on platform 1 of Sheffield train station.

Continuing the glamorous lifestyle, I'm in Rotherham tomorrow. If you are traveling there by public transport then it's a choice of train to the recently rebuilt Rotherham station or buses operated by First. Whilst my experience of First Group's train services has been OK I have to say that I really don't rate them as bus operators.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. The train to neighbouring towns is cheaper than the bus, for me

off-peak, that is. £5.30 v. £6.20 in one direction; £4.30 v. something over £5 in the other.

[fedsron2us]

9. Trains can be cheaper than buses for short journeys

but in my experience they tend to be more expensive over longer distances unless you get the advance discounted fairs. Traveling across train company boundaries is also a bit of a lottery and quite often you find that you can do a journey cheaper by buying tickets for shorter individual sections or singles instead of returns particularly if you can use the Network Card discounts in the South East

[tjwmason]

10. It depends on whether you book in advance

Headline rail fare are scarily high, however if you know in advance when you'll be travelling then there are definitely much more reasonable fares available. I do, however, wonder whether this is a deliberate policy on the part of the operators - tell the regulators that they have myriad cheap fares, but make them so complex that few people can understand and so pay full-whack (particularly when on expenses).