Reversing Dr Beeching- TONIGHT

[Early_Out]

Maybe the U.K. should just contract out the whole thing to the Swiss. Their train service is nothing short of spectacular!

[Antonius_Block]

*Originally posted by I Know Lots *
**Personally, I can only think sending a robot back in time to kill Beeching would do the trick. Apparently that’s the plot of the forthcoming Terminator 3. **

[Ah-nold, preparing to bury an axe in Dr Beeching’s skull]
Axe-ta la vista, baby!
[/Ah-nold, PTBAAIDBS]

[Rainier Wolfcastle, standing nearby for some reason]
Now tha-at’s what I call burying the hatchet.
[/Rainier Wolfcastle, SNFSR]

*Originally posted by Gary Kumquat *
**Perhaps the great and good of the SDMB can explain why a country so well suited to a good train network (geographically small, almost linear in shape, large number of users, etc) seems cursed to having the worst system in the world? **

Because we Brits invented railways/railroads. For other examples of the curse, see Football (soccer), Cricket, Rugby, Lawn Tennis, etc. Invent the damn things, then bollix 'em up
(OK, there are exceptions.)

*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose *
(Good general explanation of Amtrak)

There are a few regions of the USA where Amtrak works well.

1. By far the most important is the Northeast Corridor (Boston-New York-Washington DC, including Providence, Philadelpha and Baltimore). This 457-mile route, with New York almost exactly in the middle, is within a few miles of a sizeable chunk of the US poulation, and is distributed in such a way as to make rail travel highly competitive with the airlines (this was true even before September 11, 2001 and the increased time required for air travel due to heightened security). The NE Corridor also sports the Acela trains on some runs, these being the only ones in North America remotely resembling European high-speed service. The major cities on the route have pretty good local transit networks, removing DDGs problem of being stranded at the depot, and several local commuter networks run more tightly-knit service from the respective Amtrak stations.

2. California, the Mecca of the automobile-worshipping culture, actually has a couple of Amtrak routes where the double-digit-trip-per-day train schedules make a significant dent in the traffic congestion: the Capitols between the San Francisco Bay Area (including San Jose / Silicon Valley) and Sacramento, and the Surfliners between San Diego and Los Angeles (some go through to Santa Barbara). These trains run with all-new coaches, and are generally on time.

The above would fit in quite well on most European rail networks, unlike Amtrak trains in most of the rest of the US – and a lot of the US is a loooong way from the nearest railroad passenger depot.

[diffdam]

The only good rail systems are the subsidised ones. In the UK the system started falling apart when Thatcher decided it wasn’t a service needed for the nation, but a business to make money from.Thats why even the French have better trains than we have.
This is like owning a car & expecting someone else to pay for it.

[jjimm]

*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose *
once you get where you’re going, you don’t have a car for further transportation

This is a major problem with trains (planes too). My modest proposal is a ticket that includes hire of a vehicle (the cheap option being an electric vehicle with a 50 mile radius) at the other end.

[smiling_bandit]

Hey, be glad you HAVE a rail system, and thus have a starting point from which you can adjust its level of suckitude. Most of the USA doesn’t have that privilege. The nearest passenger rail station to me is a 150 minute drive away, and doesn’t go many places on top of that. Especially with the farcical new “security” regulations to air travel, there’s great need for transporation in the economy/speed scale between bus and airplane.

Yeah, but most of America isn’t populated enough (thank God) to justify a passenger route.

[jjimm]

*Originally posted by smiling bandit *
**Yeah, but most of America isn’t populated enough (thank God) to justify a passenger route. **

Not to mention the distances are so HUGE. However, if y’all got those hi-speed TGV, shinkansen, or intercity 125s, it might make a transcontinental journey a lot more pleasurable and safer than driving.