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> British people love to complain about the state of their railways I find people have a very different experience with UK rail on whether they're travelling f

> British people love to complain about the state of their railways I find people have a very different experience with UK rail on whether they're travelling for business or pleasure. People who commute have to take trains at peak time, at the absolute highest ticket prices, take hundreds of trains a year giving lots of opportunities to get delayed, might get yelled at for being late, and at the end of their journey is... work. On the other hand, my train travel is off-peak, not that frequent, and almost always taking me to a loved one, a party or a concert. Understandably, my feelings towards trains are very different to my commuter peers!

jotm 4y ago
When I lived in the UK, I thought 30 minute delays two days per week were the worst thing ever. After living in Germany... British railways seem like an enterprise level SLA. Tickets with a short expiration time (2 hours... why?), hour(s) long delays, sudden last minute platform changes (you need to use the underground passage full of people), trains just disappearing off the screen with no notice after being delayed several times (I mean, come on!), incredibly rude controllers who just seem like they really want to throw you in prison for not having a ticket (oh yeah, that's a thing, take that Brits!), shoddy rail and frequent stops in the middle of nowhere (or 100 meters from your station), trains that make the Pacers seem like Cadillacs (OK that was one time, not sure where they pulled that pos from)... I kinda see why Germans hate Deutsche Bahn :D
- bloqs 4y ago
  This literally describes my british rail experience. My local trains are operated by DB.....
- thinkingemote 4y ago
  I loved the Pacers there was something so democratic and comfy about the version with the rows of seats on them with no headrests. Lovely train.
  - pjc50 4y ago
    That seat arrangement was because they were converted British Leyland buses.
- pgorczak 4y ago
  It’s bad right now. In August only 57% of German long distance trains arrived less than 6 minutes behind schedule. 23% had more than 16 minutes delay. IIRC that’s not even counting canceled stops.
- ozim 4y ago
  Wait till you get to travel Polish trains - 120 minute delay suddenly becoming 240. It got better as personnel seems to be more friendly than 10-15 years ago. Train! You were lucky to have a train! We used to run on the rail, all twenty-six of us, no sitting spots, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.
  - lazyasciiart 4y ago
    I caught a train in Poland once, trip to Krakow in 2006 - the train froze to the track half a mile from the station at 3am, god knows where with nothing else in sight (may not mean much, visibility was very low), so we all had to walk to the station and wait until another train happened to stop at it going the direction we wanted.
traceroute66 4y ago
> British people love to complain about the state of their railways When British people go to Switzerland or Japan its like they've died and woken up in heaven. Japanese rail in particular is pure heaven compared to the UK. Trains are always punctual. Trains are always clean. Trains are always frequent. And that's before we start talking about the amazing food stores that are attached to main Japanese stations. In the UK you get a filthy station full of greasy horrible fast-food stores.
- imnotlost 4y ago
  The Tokyo subway during rush hour is anything but heaven.
  - sanitycheck 4y ago
    It's like London, but the overly-compressed people are more polite and the air doesn't get quite so.. thick because the carriages are much bigger. Also, the trains are on time, so there's no waiting on an overflowing platform for 10 mins of no trains then 30 minutes of trains too full to get onto. Having experienced both, I'd take Tokyo anytime.
  - traceroute66 4y ago
    > The Tokyo subway during rush hour is anything but heaven. I've done that. Its busy for sure. But it works. Even if crowded, its still punctual and high-frequency. Still preferable to a London rush-hour.
  - dagw 4y ago
    No public transport system is great at rush hour. Still having used the 'subway' in both London and Tokyo at rush hour, I much prefer Tokyo.
    - dustedcodes 4y ago
      You must be trolling. In London even during the rush hour you get a seat when you are disabled or pregnant. In Tokyo you end up pregnant when you enter the train: https://noisebreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/oshiya.jpg https://noisebreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/oshiya.jpg
SilverBirch 4y ago
> take hundreds of trains a year giving lots of opportunities to get delayed, The problem isn't taking lots of trains. The problem is N. About 20-50% of the trains I take are delayed, and another 20% are overcrowded due to... previously delayed or cancelled trains. If N is <10 that just menas I'm unlucky. If n > 200, that means I'm paying >£5000 a year for trains that don't work.
- michaelt 4y ago
  I based that on [1] which says in "2021-22 Q2" nationwide, 3.4% cancellations of trains were cancelled, 74.3% were within 1 minute of their scheduled arrival time, 90% were within 3 minutes and 98.9% were within 15 minutes. Which is obviously far from perfect - but good enough that a holidaymaker visiting the UK has a good chance of not encountering any severely delayed trains. [1] https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/popular-statistics/how-many-trains-arrive-on-time/ https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/popular-statistics/how-many-tr...
switch007 4y ago
I don’t commute for work but get equally annoyed. Off peak services are prime time for engineering works, cancellations, rail replacements (which aren’t even replacements), reduced service etc. Off peak tickets are hardly cheap either
pjc50 4y ago
Don't forget the rail replacement bus: having paid for a rail ticket, you now have to take a slow poor-quality bus service instead.
jen20 4y ago
I used to do both on the same line (Bath to London), and it ranged from so egregiously expensive that a small group of us who needed to travel looked into chartering a helicopter as potentially cheaper, to a very pleasant and very cheap trip. All depended on whether you were going on a weekend or not. Even a first class ticket is not a guarantee of a seat on a weekday morning…

jotm 4y ago

When I lived in the UK, I thought 30 minute delays two days per week were the worst thing ever. After living in Germany... British railways seem like an enterprise level SLA. Tickets with a short expiration time (2 hours... why?), hour(s) long delays, sudden last minute platform changes (you need to use the underground passage full of people), trains just disappearing off the screen with no notice after being delayed several times (I mean, come on!), incredibly rude controllers who just seem like they really want to throw you in prison for not having a ticket (oh yeah, that's a thing, take that Brits!), shoddy rail and frequent stops in the middle of nowhere (or 100 meters from your station), trains that make the Pacers seem like Cadillacs (OK that was one time, not sure where they pulled that pos from)... I kinda see why Germans hate Deutsche Bahn :D

bloqs 4y ago
This literally describes my british rail experience. My local trains are operated by DB.....
thinkingemote 4y ago
I loved the Pacers there was something so democratic and comfy about the version with the rows of seats on them with no headrests. Lovely train.
- pjc50 4y ago
  That seat arrangement was because they were converted British Leyland buses.
pgorczak 4y ago
It’s bad right now. In August only 57% of German long distance trains arrived less than 6 minutes behind schedule. 23% had more than 16 minutes delay. IIRC that’s not even counting canceled stops.
ozim 4y ago
Wait till you get to travel Polish trains - 120 minute delay suddenly becoming 240. It got better as personnel seems to be more friendly than 10-15 years ago. Train! You were lucky to have a train! We used to run on the rail, all twenty-six of us, no sitting spots, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.
- lazyasciiart 4y ago
  I caught a train in Poland once, trip to Krakow in 2006 - the train froze to the track half a mile from the station at 3am, god knows where with nothing else in sight (may not mean much, visibility was very low), so we all had to walk to the station and wait until another train happened to stop at it going the direction we wanted.

traceroute66 4y ago

> British people love to complain about the state of their railways When British people go to Switzerland or Japan its like they've died and woken up in heaven. Japanese rail in particular is pure heaven compared to the UK. Trains are always punctual. Trains are always clean. Trains are always frequent. And that's before we start talking about the amazing food stores that are attached to main Japanese stations. In the UK you get a filthy station full of greasy horrible fast-food stores.

imnotlost 4y ago
The Tokyo subway during rush hour is anything but heaven.
- sanitycheck 4y ago
  It's like London, but the overly-compressed people are more polite and the air doesn't get quite so.. thick because the carriages are much bigger. Also, the trains are on time, so there's no waiting on an overflowing platform for 10 mins of no trains then 30 minutes of trains too full to get onto. Having experienced both, I'd take Tokyo anytime.
- traceroute66 4y ago
  > The Tokyo subway during rush hour is anything but heaven. I've done that. Its busy for sure. But it works. Even if crowded, its still punctual and high-frequency. Still preferable to a London rush-hour.
- dagw 4y ago
  No public transport system is great at rush hour. Still having used the 'subway' in both London and Tokyo at rush hour, I much prefer Tokyo.
  - dustedcodes 4y ago
    You must be trolling. In London even during the rush hour you get a seat when you are disabled or pregnant. In Tokyo you end up pregnant when you enter the train: https://noisebreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/oshiya.jpg https://noisebreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/oshiya.jpg

SilverBirch 4y ago

> take hundreds of trains a year giving lots of opportunities to get delayed, The problem isn't taking lots of trains. The problem is N. About 20-50% of the trains I take are delayed, and another 20% are overcrowded due to... previously delayed or cancelled trains. If N is <10 that just menas I'm unlucky. If n > 200, that means I'm paying >£5000 a year for trains that don't work.

michaelt 4y ago
I based that on [1] which says in "2021-22 Q2" nationwide, 3.4% cancellations of trains were cancelled, 74.3% were within 1 minute of their scheduled arrival time, 90% were within 3 minutes and 98.9% were within 15 minutes. Which is obviously far from perfect - but good enough that a holidaymaker visiting the UK has a good chance of not encountering any severely delayed trains. [1] https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/popular-statistics/how-many-trains-arrive-on-time/ https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/popular-statistics/how-many-tr...

switch007 4y ago

I don’t commute for work but get equally annoyed. Off peak services are prime time for engineering works, cancellations, rail replacements (which aren’t even replacements), reduced service etc. Off peak tickets are hardly cheap either

pjc50 4y ago

Don't forget the rail replacement bus: having paid for a rail ticket, you now have to take a slow poor-quality bus service instead.

jen20 4y ago

I used to do both on the same line (Bath to London), and it ranged from so egregiously expensive that a small group of us who needed to travel looked into chartering a helicopter as potentially cheaper, to a very pleasant and very cheap trip. All depended on whether you were going on a weekend or not. Even a first class ticket is not a guarantee of a seat on a weekday morning…