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Until lockdown I commuted to Manchester on the Rochdale line in Leyland-branded Pacers[0]. Trains with an intended lifespan of "no more than twenty years", that

Until lockdown I commuted to Manchester on the Rochdale line in Leyland-branded Pacers[0]. Trains with an intended lifespan of "no more than twenty years", that are now 35-40 years old. The tickets cost £100 per month and in the years I did it, only managed to find a seat on a handful of occasions. I had to wait at the station because the train was too full more frequently than finding a seat - often they'd show up with only two carriages. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacer_(British_Rail) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacer_(British_Rail)

madaxe_again 5y ago
£100 a month? It’s £200 return for a day for Bristol to London - and that’s if the train gets you there, and doesn’t dump you somewhere outside of Chippenham because it’s the wrong kind of sunny today and the rails have buckled, or it’s cold and the rails have frozen, or it’s raining and the train is poorly with diesel cholera. All of these are acts of god, of course, so aren’t compensatable events.
- rich_sasha 5y ago
  There’s also “leaves on the track”, my personal favourite. Sometimes I struggle to believe trains were invented in the UK!
  - cosmodisk 5y ago
    This one,albeit sounding funny,is a pretty serious issue: leaves get crushed under the weight of a train and eventually form a teflon like film on the tracks, which makes it very slippery. Not an expert in this area,so no idea how it's dealt with in various countries. My favourite is: the carriage is deflated. People couldn't stop laughing when told so, but what it meant in reality is that the support cushions deflated and the carriage can't have passengers on board.
    - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
      Most systems with wet leaf problems use sand dispensers for added traction.
      - madaxe_again 5y ago
        And there’s the rub. Is that network rail’s problem, or the operator’s? Network rails’s rails... operator’s train wheels, leaves in the middle. The leaves are undefined, and are therefore probably nobody’s problem but the passengers’.
- slifin 5y ago
  Yep just wanted to echo this I live in Bristol and have been stung by outrageous tickets prices too many times It's buses or coaches only now, I'm not surprised everyone drives here
  - yakshaving_jgt 5y ago
    The last time I had to travel from London to Bristol and back, I rented a car from Heathrow airport and it cost me a quarter of the price the train would. It takes the same amount of time, but the car is more comfortable and worse for the environment. The system is so broken in the UK.
- petepete 5y ago
  £100 per month for six miles each way when bought as a season ticket. A Bristol to London season ticket is £1300 per month for ~120 miles each way. Bargain!
- thorin 5y ago
  Something like 160 pounds at peak time from Nottingham to London. Service is good but it's just inconceivable that private individuals would be paying that, all the travelers are on expenses or are self employed contractors/consultants. When I started working and up till about 2005 the same journey was about 40 pounds - a massive increase!
- 7952 5y ago
  Problem is that there is massive pent up demand. Cheaper tickets mean more people travelling longer distances to work when there isn't capacity. The last thing we need is even more regular commuting to London from outside greater London. This demand is caused by high house prices and lack of opportunities outside of the SE. Trains are a sticky plaster that gives lots of subsidy to middle class commuters whilst local bus services are cut. Distance is also environmentally problematic regardless of mode of transport.
bencollier49 5y ago
Ah yes, the Pacers - they were literally based on remodelled bus designs. Did yours smell strongly of mildew?
- petepete 5y ago
  To be fair they were clean and well-maintained. They also had the benefit of being flushed through with fresh air - a result of the doors not forming a seal around the edges.
  - bencollier49 5y ago
    We had ones which smelled like the seats had been left in a damp garage for a couple of years.
mjbeswick 5y ago
£100 a month not bad. My season ticket used to cost £4400, for a 25 minute ride to London waterloo, and tube to Hammersmith. Still cheaper than £28 for the day!
verytrivial 5y ago
Same here, but newer trains no-one was really asking for, and tickets about three x what you were paying (about £290/month and no seats from my stop in, 25 minutes.) The line -- Thameslink -- got so bad the government took over paying the compenstation rebates for distrupted customer journeys while letting the operators continue to trouser all the fares in addition to something a 4 billion pound operating payment regardless of how badly they performed. This is pure, Tory mansion-building stuff and apparently exactly what everyone who bothers to vote in this country wants. Yay.

madaxe_again 5y ago

£100 a month? It’s £200 return for a day for Bristol to London - and that’s if the train gets you there, and doesn’t dump you somewhere outside of Chippenham because it’s the wrong kind of sunny today and the rails have buckled, or it’s cold and the rails have frozen, or it’s raining and the train is poorly with diesel cholera. All of these are acts of god, of course, so aren’t compensatable events.

rich_sasha 5y ago
There’s also “leaves on the track”, my personal favourite. Sometimes I struggle to believe trains were invented in the UK!
- cosmodisk 5y ago
  This one,albeit sounding funny,is a pretty serious issue: leaves get crushed under the weight of a train and eventually form a teflon like film on the tracks, which makes it very slippery. Not an expert in this area,so no idea how it's dealt with in various countries. My favourite is: the carriage is deflated. People couldn't stop laughing when told so, but what it meant in reality is that the support cushions deflated and the carriage can't have passengers on board.
  - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
    Most systems with wet leaf problems use sand dispensers for added traction.
    - madaxe_again 5y ago
      And there’s the rub. Is that network rail’s problem, or the operator’s? Network rails’s rails... operator’s train wheels, leaves in the middle. The leaves are undefined, and are therefore probably nobody’s problem but the passengers’.
slifin 5y ago
Yep just wanted to echo this I live in Bristol and have been stung by outrageous tickets prices too many times It's buses or coaches only now, I'm not surprised everyone drives here
- yakshaving_jgt 5y ago
  The last time I had to travel from London to Bristol and back, I rented a car from Heathrow airport and it cost me a quarter of the price the train would. It takes the same amount of time, but the car is more comfortable and worse for the environment. The system is so broken in the UK.
petepete 5y ago
£100 per month for six miles each way when bought as a season ticket. A Bristol to London season ticket is £1300 per month for ~120 miles each way. Bargain!
thorin 5y ago
Something like 160 pounds at peak time from Nottingham to London. Service is good but it's just inconceivable that private individuals would be paying that, all the travelers are on expenses or are self employed contractors/consultants. When I started working and up till about 2005 the same journey was about 40 pounds - a massive increase!
7952 5y ago
Problem is that there is massive pent up demand. Cheaper tickets mean more people travelling longer distances to work when there isn't capacity. The last thing we need is even more regular commuting to London from outside greater London. This demand is caused by high house prices and lack of opportunities outside of the SE. Trains are a sticky plaster that gives lots of subsidy to middle class commuters whilst local bus services are cut. Distance is also environmentally problematic regardless of mode of transport.

bencollier49 5y ago

Ah yes, the Pacers - they were literally based on remodelled bus designs. Did yours smell strongly of mildew?

petepete 5y ago
To be fair they were clean and well-maintained. They also had the benefit of being flushed through with fresh air - a result of the doors not forming a seal around the edges.
- bencollier49 5y ago
  We had ones which smelled like the seats had been left in a damp garage for a couple of years.

mjbeswick 5y ago

£100 a month not bad. My season ticket used to cost £4400, for a 25 minute ride to London waterloo, and tube to Hammersmith. Still cheaper than £28 for the day!

verytrivial 5y ago

Same here, but newer trains no-one was really asking for, and tickets about three x what you were paying (about £290/month and no seats from my stop in, 25 minutes.) The line -- Thameslink -- got so bad the government took over paying the compenstation rebates for distrupted customer journeys while letting the operators continue to trouser all the fares in addition to something a 4 billion pound operating payment regardless of how badly they performed. This is pure, Tory mansion-building stuff and apparently exactly what everyone who bothers to vote in this country wants. Yay.