How Do You Build An Efficient Train System?

Question

How Do You Build An Efficient Train System that meets all our needs - plenty of trains, clean, punctual, fast, affordable? What are your thoughts on choosing one type of regulatory system as opposed to another?

Answer 1

my friend, that a good question, but in my opinion efficiency going to take away from the bottom line, these trains are in business to make money whether private or city owned, i think you're pointing more towards customer service  -- in which case their not going to pay attention to you, yeah they may make it easier to purchase a ticket or find out routes but what is being done to answer the questions you asked -- not a d**n thing, all that is on their minds is getting more of your money

Answer 2

Make sure there's need/demand for one. Buy land for stations tracks, make it a long term plan. Charge enough to cover maintenance and other running costs, plough any profit back into the network. Expect to be making a profit in about 50 years.

If you want to know how to run a efficient train company ask a preserved/heritage railway. They don't get billions from any government department, true they are staffed by volunteers, but they own the rail they run on as well. Most train companies seemed to do fairly well when they owned their tracks as well.

Answer 3

These days impossible! There are to many rule and restrictions here to start from scratch! Mind we did build CTRL (Channel Tunnel Rail Link) and that will be opening to St Pancras Early & Below Budget next November, so use that as you base!

Answer 4

Did anybody listen to Dr Beaching and his Government in the 60s.

Like a lot of these people that scrapped the trams and dockland areas, the overhead railway system, the cobbled streets. The Cheshire Lines and devastated the railway system all over the country, cutting off links to obscure parts of the countryside in the name of efficiency. It saved short term money but cost a lot in peoples lives and isolation of rural parts of the country. Stupidity at it's greatest.

Answer 5

get plans and planning permission from the efficient train system council

Answer 6

Go back to British Rail circa 1992. It was the most cost effective railway system in Europe - and costs were actually coming down. It may not have been the best, but it was the most efficient. It now costs 3 times as much for a service which is frequently worse.  Most of this huge increase in costs goes straight into the pockets of shareholders and consultants. Think what BR would have achieved with that level of funding.

I blame John Major for this disgraceful state of affairs. Mrs Thatcher had decided that rail privatisation was impractical. She was right.

Answer 7

I have always regarded trains as rather stupid things, even though I like them.

Road technology is far more cost effective, as the blocked roads demonstrate.

Now if someone were to re-track the railways with paved roads, and have fly-by-wire, state-of-the-art, multiple-unit buses running on them, I'd like to bet that the costs would be a fraction of what they are now.  Rail technology is so extremely expensive, with rail maintenance, signalling, engine and carriage wear, it simply cannot compete with road vehicle technology.

Due to excessive weight of trains as compared to other, lighter forms of transport, the fuel costs are very much higher.

If a decent profit could be made, the private companies would be delighted to invest in such a project, and cost is the thing which dissuades them.

Answer 8

The infrastructure needs to be well maintained, with high line speeds, and four aspect signalling (or in cab signalling, even better).

For the rolling stock, electrification is a must, with better acceleration and higher top speeds.  Decent disc brakes, as well.

Both the trains and the infrastructure need to be operated by the same company, to avoid in-fighting and a blame culture.  It would encourage the different departments to work together.

Many trains run late, because there are too many of them.  One way round this (without reducing passenger capacity), would be to run longer trains, less frequently (the exact opposite of Virgin XC).

Answer 9

the most efficient train system would have no point to cross  and be long lengths of stright track , alowing trains to travel at high speed, with trains which travel at the same speed, Euro tunnel is the closest we have to this in the uk.

Answer 10

Capitalism is the best approach here. Government run trains are expensive in most places (costs are hidden through taxes). However, businesses are very good at minimizing costs, particularly fuel costs.

Answer 11

Long term franchises, with minimum government interferance. See Chiltern for an example of what could have been happening elsewhere on the network if the government had not embarked on a policy of short term franchises with little scope for growth and improvements...

GNER and First Great Western are showing where government micromanagement causes problems.

The Franchise specification for the New Cross Country is equally prescriptive