Great we're all talking about public transport. Nowhere on this planet does a mass transit system make any money.they are all subsidised. Where they aren't subsidised they don't exist, like in Lagos. So what kind of business man owns shares in a public transport system ? , one who expects public funds. (Can't be bothered with the constant media vilification and dirty tricks on the ' outsider' leader of the opposition party. Seems the establishment are very scared he might become PM, he's very popular with the great unwashed)
Branson pays a premium to run both East Coast and West Coast services. Standard fares and timetables are set by the DfT. He has to sell more seats to make a profit on top of the premium payment, if he doesn't he loses money. Virgin is better at marketing / selling tickets than civil servants, who (not surprisingly) are not very good at selling stuff to people. That's where Virgin makes its margin, by being better at doing the job.
But I'm already paying for the rolling stock, track , infrastructure , etc etc via taxable income...this is a subsidy...even if I don't ever buy a ticket from some flashy marketeer? I only buy a ticket when I need one, I have no choice to go Euston to Lime Stree by another train route. This isn't free market enterprise, it's a stitch up. I'm locked into paying for some high born type to make profit. IMHO the east coast line was run better than the West coast line. Better service.
FFS no. Pretty much EVERYBODY's pensions are funded by investments such as these. The notion that it's Tarquin or Tamzin who get hurt by big business failing is simply not accurate. It's majority foreign owned companies we should chase, UK ones mostly pay their taxes. Back on point...the railway model is different to the road network how? All transport is subsidised (sometimes overly) by public funds.
Let's stick to the subject High born....... Branson was born in Blackheath, London, the eldest of three children of Eve Branson (née Evette Huntley Flindt; born 1924), a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson (1918–2011), a barrister.[8][9][10] Branson has two younger sisters.[11] His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justiceand a Privy Councillor.[12] Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a prep school in Berkshire, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex.[13] His third great-grandfather, John Edward Branson, left England for India in 1793. His father, Harry Wilkins Branson, later joined him in Madras. Through intermarriage, Branson is part Indian.[10] Branson attended Stowe School, an independent school in Buckinghamshire until the age of sixteen.[13] Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student, and on his last day at school, his headmaster, Robert Drayson, told him he would either end up in prison or become a millionaire.[13] Branson's parents were supportive of his endeavours from an early age.[14] started out selling hooky gear down Peckham market, not. Your tax pays for the railways. Then You pay again for a ticket, a portion of which goes to Virgin, based in the British Virgin Islands.
The state and private sectors are intertwined and interdependent. Banning all profit from anything to do with state expenditure (even though the money being spent comes in from the private sector) means Nationalising the whole economy. Clearly some people think that this is a good idea, Corbyn is probably one of them, but it's a system that has failed everywhere it's been tried and not an experiment that I particularly want to be a part of.
Strangely, and importantly - he doesn't own all the shares. If you have anything other than a state pension, more than likely YOU do own shares in companies that posh knobbers run/setup/profit by - just as your pension does. We are all part of the problem.
Back on track (can you see what I did there).... If most of the seats were reserved with very few people actually sitting in them, as they are on most of the trains I travel on, then maybe the rail companies can invest in technology that can check if a reserved seat has someone sat it it.....if after 5 mins there isn't, then free the thing up. The antiquated card on the tops of seats is plain daft in a world of online booking, camera phones and QR code stickers surely. In rush hour, the trains are madly overcrowded - in that he has a point - the drama of sitting on the floor by the bogs is OTT, mainly because there isn't room to luxuriously sit on the floor on most trains, there isn't the space.
the money they get from fares is quite complex - for example the east coast is divided up according to percentage of traffic - say on the east coast 80% is virgin and transpennine is 2% then tp gets 2% and virgin gets 80% then if you get a train specific cheap ticket they get that
the newer trains coming along have electronic displays - most of the reserved seats on the east coast are for passengers with el cheapo tickets however they are not forced to sit in their reserved seats if they were it would show a lot a spare seating capacity
Regardless of a stunt or who owns what, unfortunately our whole transport system needs a massive reconfiguration. The few times I have to get a train, it's late nearly every single time. Motorways are fouled up by one accident or breakdown causing hours of jams. Either huge redevelopment needs to take place or the way we travel or get ourselves to work needs to change. Unfortunately either way it will cost unbelievable amounts of money and disruption.
The west coast Virginia trains have the electric displays, but they don't free up if no one sits there.
This is what needs to happen but unfortunately the sandal wearers got their unproven green issues on the agenda about 25 years ago and now nothing ever gets built
For the rail system to work efficiently , it requires it to be successful on freight too ,and that is certainly not happening . Everywhere you look you see Hugh warehouses going up next to motorways and big A roads ....Argos and the like, all for van and large trucks to easily pick up . And from then on there is no return to the rail . One massive mistake made in the past when the rail network and road haulage were both nationalised ...was they never worked together properly , both could have worked well together taking advantages of both of there abilities . What i find really quite disappointing is when you open any ordnance survey map of ANY area , you will always see loads of old disused railway lines snaking all over the map .
I'm n the south east and can't understand why the river Thames isn't used extensively for commuting or goods transportation?
're freight, I'm sure the Flying Arse will be pressed into service soon once they work out how to not crash it
