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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Getting a sense of proportion over rail fares: the overwhelmin

Map by Ian Warren of @Election_data
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The markets say it is for the Copeland by-election.
Sadiq Khan is getting a right royal fucking in our WhatsApp group as well because season ticket prices have gone up after promising no fare rises.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/10/02/article-1217571-06A7BEE6000005DC-875_470x505.jpg
Nobody talks about nationalising buses. For outlying villages in rural areas that would make far more of a difference.
Mr. Eagles, you're about as working class as the Queen of Bithynia.
Edit: I see @CarlottaVance has already made the same point.
When people argue for fares to be frozen, they're arguing for taxpayers who don't use trains to subsidise those who do. That's a legitimate position to hold, but the money has to come from somewhere.
But I had no idea that so few people outside of London used trains to get to work.
On a personal note... I dislike the bulging maps and much prefer the dot based ones that aim to scale for population.
Mr. Urquhart, if Morris Dancer were mayor, bikini pics would be free to delight the eye and arouse the consumer's interest.
Of course, this all varies by TOC:
http://tinyurl.com/z8rvemf (statistical release)
http://tinyurl.com/z379xv3 (data)
If you travel on Southern (note: this is now part of GTR so will get absorbed into the super TOC), you are paying the government 6.2 pence per mile you travel.
Meanwhile, rail users in Wales are subsidized 13.1 pence per mile, in Scotland the subsidy is 10.2 pence per mile and Northern users are subsidized 10.7 pence per mile.
Mr. Max, .... luxury.
Mr. Mark, pictures would be permitted. Advertising types who approved them would be flung into the North Sea by trebuchet, as reason dictates.
Miss Vance, never use trains, but if I do I shall have to remember to ask advice on that sort of thing.
13:30 Musselburgh Proud Gamble
14:10 Newcastle Glorious Politics
Trains and trams is the way to go.
Perhaps I'm just channelling my inner Thatcher when it comes to busses.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38408296
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4082864/Man-shot-dead-police-sliproad-M62-pre-planned-operation.html
http://tinyurl.com/d8pjcwx
Note: when this is taken into account, only SWT and Southern (as it was) were net contributors to the government coffers.
1 - The subsidies have not been dropped to "almost nothing". In 2014-15 the rail subsidy was £5 billion:
http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/18842/rail-finance-statistical-release-2014-15.pdf
And does that include values for emissions etc as are included in calculations about road transport?
2 - AFAIK rail investment in London is approximately 5x per head of that elsewhere. Needs attention.
London commuters don't know they are born.
At my local London mainline station - Alfreton Parkway - disabled people in wheel chairs have had to commute 20 miles to Nottingham and back again to cross to a different platform for the last several decades.
3 - It was a wonderful exhbition of faked-up statistics forming fake news this morning. The Times headline claim about "fares are six times higher than Europe" and was Guardian's "workers spend 14% of their wages on a rail ticket" seem to be based on Action for Rail's theoretical claims about a single worker commuting from Luton to London.
As far as I can tell the other parts of the media - BBC et al - swallowed the fake news without it touching the sides.
What price some factual data?
And then there's the simple fact that rail services are far more concentrated in London and the SE than in nearly all the rest of the country.
No, think those figures are well off.
Mertolink is now carrying about 35m passengers / year, having risen from about 20m / year 5 or so years ago before the massive expansion of the network.
I may be wrong, but doubt the Manc heavy rail network carries anything like 70m passengers / year, on the whole the heavy rail services in and around Manc are awful, other than the London trains.
https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/travel-for-under-18s/zip-oyster-photocards
Indeed, in August I got rid of my car as I now commute on the newly opened Manchester Airport Metrolink tram line to work which was not possible a couple of years ago.
Because they are massively successful at getting people out of their cars and stimulating economic activity probably. Wythenshawe (huge council estate in south Manchester) got a new tram line 2 years ago, it is now seeing some of the fastest house price rises in the country.
I have got rid of my car as a result of a new tram line.
Metrolink have converted heavy rail lines to trams, Altrincham and Bury 25 years ago and the Rochdale loop in the last 10 years, those conversations have driven huge increases in passengers on those lines.
If you think a tram is akin to a bus I think it highlights how rarely you use either a bus or a tram to be honest.
And to add to Ms P's earlier comment - For 5p you could buy a 'Transfare' ticket which allowed you to travel bus-metro-bus or bus-train*-bus all on the one ticket.
*Newcastle - Sunderland line.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/11/first-class-allocation-on-trains-could-be-reduced-to-ease-overcrowding
The paradox is that by the time that I am eligible to travel free, there will be no buses to travel on...
Does that map include light rail and trams on rail?
And have they finished the Edinburgh one, yet?
If you have ever been to Manchester you'd know the last thing it needs is even more buses on the main routes.
I last visited in 2007 and the Metro had gone right down hill - grubby, and unloved. The stations were the same and felt like passengers were unwelcome fare dodgers, especially the awkward football stadium style barriers. I was really rather sad.
I reckon if Sol Campbell had been the Tory candidate, you'd have campaigned for Sadiq Khan.
Manchester trams seem plagued by delays and people driving onto the tracks and getting stuck.
https://twitter.com/business/status/816267386139607040
https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/816260360172896256
On Judas Campbell, I probably would have. The idiot started up his campaign in Hackney as well iirc, lots of doors slammed in his face hopefully.
It isn't though - couldn't give a hoot if it means people think I'm poor or whatnot.
As to no one cares about the freeze... It seems that most people do not reach the travelcard limit - so will pay less?