Re: News on HST2

Pete_uk wrote:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2070299,00.html

Intercity 125s to be replaced by greener machines
Dipesh Gadher, Transport Correspondent
<snip>
The replacement trains, which could come into service in time for the London
Olympics in 2012, will have a more upmarket feel, with scope for
airline-style seat-back entertainment systems and broadband internet access.

The former would be a bit of a waste of money, given that affordable
high-capacity handheld video players will undoubtedly have made fixed
airline and railway entertainment systems obsolete by 2010. Hopefully
this is Mr Gadher's ignorance rather than that of Mr Darling and his
minions.

Another piece of selective use of facts in the article:
"A return ticket [for the first HST service from London to Bristol in
1976) cost £5 - a quarter the cost of the cheapest available fare
today."

....except that even just using inflation rates, £5 in 1976 is £23.90
in 2005. An Apex return is £20.50 (as the Times grudgingly admits),
representing a saving even ignoring earnings growth. Including earnings
growth, £5 in 1976 is £45 now - which is more than the £39 cost of a
walk-on Supersaver. Alternatively for £44, you could get a first-class
Apex return.

I guess "a return ticket cost twice as much as the cheapest available
fare today" doesn't fit as well with Murdoch's
only-losers-use-public-transport mindset.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

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