Re: More WCML Problems

On 10 jul, 13:07, Chris Tolley <cj...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Different modes have different benefits, but to state as "an unarguable
fact" that car is always cheaper than rail just makes you look
uninformed.

Then educate me, I'm all ears, which train journey not using a
concessionary fare of any kind is cheaper than me taking my car or
motorbike?



dirty

Trains, like most other modes of public transport, are cleaned
regularly, usually at the end of each daily duty cycle. My car, and most
others I know about, are not.

The level of cleanliness of my car or motorcycle is a level I choose
whereas the level of other peoples *** I have to sit amoungst in a
train is unacceptable and a thing over which I have no control, It's
one of the major reasons trainsets lack appeal. I don't think I'm
alone in not wanting to wallow in other peoples crap.

Nor am I, but that isn't what you said. Objectively, trains are cleaned
much more often than private cars. The fact that you choose to accept
the dirt because it's *your* dirt doesn't stop it being dirt, mate.

If something is dirty because of public usage then it's dirty, citing
the frequency of it being cleaned will not change the fact that, apart
form a short time immediatly after cleaning, it's dirty. As a customer
of one of the most expensive services on the planet I am entitled to
expect it to be clean at all times.




unreliable

Without knowing what aspect of reliabilty you mean, it's pointless to
attempt a response

OK how about this for an example, from many of my own, Book ticket on
Easy Jet from Luton, non transferrable. look in train timetable, check
out times for Sunday, allow an extra hour for train delays, go two
trains earlier than should be necessary, buy ticket, enter platform
where there was a chalk board saying between station X and stationY
there is a bus service because of work on the line.

This is vital information why do they wait until I have bought a
ticket before telling me? Get the train, then the bus, then another
train, using up the extra hour I had allowed, then problem at
Blackfriars, another bus, this one unheralded by chalkboards, Train
again from St Pancras got there just too late to fly.air ticket
invalid, distress purchase at fiull price another air ticket.

Add this extra cost to the extortionate price I had already paid to be
fucked around by the trainset and you now get an appreciation of why I
now make all my near European journies by car.

Yes, I get an appreciation of it. But you haven't made the general
point.

How many more stories of unreliability do you need? I have a catalogue
of them


Whilst I'm in whinge mode, what moron decided the Eurostar arrivals
from the UK are on another level from the Thalys and a fair walk away,
the time between the predicted arrival of ES and the departure of the
Thalys (needs to be booked so you need to get the right one) give a
fit man an opportunity to work up a sweat if he has any luggage with
him, *** knows how the elderly make it.

This is Brussels you're talking about, is it? Simple answer, I don't
know who is responsible for such decisions, nor what things need to be
taken into account when making them. In a similar vein, I posted the
other day here that I had driven into Reading, but was unable (by virtue
of not driving a bus or a taxi) to get to the front of the railway
station - indeed finding *any* reasonable route through the place was a
bit of a trial. Nobody had any answer to my question. So, I guess that
the "moron" who in your view mis-designed Brussels railway station (or
wherever it was) may well be in the same club as whoever has ruined the
centre of Reading. (And Birmingham, while I'm at it.)

So we can agree on some things, Reading is a planners wet dream, as
probably Bruxelles was, totally useless but all the boxes were ticked.
probably someone has a design award.

I never have to change cars when I drive anywhere.

You appear to have just contradicted yourself. Above, you say: "I now
make all my near European journies by car." Since obviously you would
never demean yourself by putting your car into a train to get across the
Channel, I am fascinated by how you manage these journeys.

Are you really that lacking in imagination, do I have to spell it out,
OK I have tried every possible way of commuting into near Europe, this
was one of the several attempts I made to evaluate Eurostar. I now
avoid it because to get less than sky high travel prices you need to
book too far in advance for me, ferries are a lot cheaper and more
flexible.

dangerous (from fellow travellers)

I've done about 400,000 miles by train in my life, and never once
suffered violence from any fellow passenger. In contrast, I have about
an eighth of that mileage in a car, and other road users have contrived
to collide with my vehicle three times, on one occasion putting it off
the road for a month, and on another writing it off completely. There
are countless occasions when the antics of some other road user have
caused me to take evasive action.

Then it sounds like you are a crap driver, it's as well you are in
love with the trainset as clearly you are a menace on the roads.

How does other people driving into me make me the crap driver? On one
occasion I was stationary at a junction and someone drove into the back
of me, on the other I was slowing down for queuing traffic ahead, and
was struck at about 60mph by the person behind me who wasn't paying
attention, and wrote off four other cars as well as mine.

Your record speaks for it's self.

inbuilt inability to collect me from where I maybe,

Unless you keep your car in your living room, that's equally true.

Don't be silly, I keep my car and motor cycle near my home, by near I
mean paces away whereas the nearest possible place to mount a train
requires a fair walk or a bus ride.

I'm not being silly. If this is to be a senisble discussion, it's got to
be about the general situation. It's no good arguing that because *you*
don't like the distance *you* have to walk to a station, that it's
always unsuitable.

For me it is unsuitable, end of story.


failure to deliver me to where I want to go

See above.

Seldom have I required to go to where there is a station close by
(airports excepted) normally it requires onward transit by taxi bus or
on foot, I suppose referring to your previous point you have a train
in your living room (seeing that you seem to be married to the
trainset I don't find that totally surprising).

Do grow up. There are many places where it is more convenient to use the
train to go. There are many places where it is not. If you genuinely
maintain that you never go anywhere (apart from airports) where the
train is more conveninent, then I'd suspect you have a distinctly odd
lifestyle.

If I need to enter the city centre I use my motorbike, find me a train
that will compete and I'll use it.


is more polluting,

Not since 1968.

There you are wrong, per passenger/mile a modern car is less polluting
than a train.

Ah, proof by assertion, as one of our posters would say. What's the
evidence?

There is sufficient evidence, all you have to do is google for it, but
being a trainset lover all will be dismissed because it fails to
enhance your creed.

About 6 months ago, I was listening to a scientific analysis of
pollution trends, and I was struck by one significant fact. You may be
aware that geologists identified the impact of a meteorite at the end of
the cretaceous period by virtue of discovering a very thin band of rock,
widely distributed, containing the element iridium? Well, whether or not
you are, it's a fact, and you can look it up. A related fact is that all
around the world there is a similar layer in modern sediments. Except
it's lead. Lead from petrol used in cars. And it's more significant than
any of the other traces of the whole of human industrialised society.

And?


But of course you're talking "modern" cars. So let's talk "modern"
trains. How much pollution per passenger mile comes out of a maglev?

Is that the Maglev that I could catch several times a day back home to
cornwall or the toytown experimental maglev in some asian airport or
other.
If I have to use a train to travel home it's usually a thirty five
year old diesel re engined a few years ago with new converted boat
engines there being no concessions whatsoever to environmental
pollution it disgorges. Every single one on cold mornings disgorges
clouds of blue gas from both ends all over Tescos car park as it pulls
away.


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