4 ms·

I agree that it's a dire , expensive mess. But it doesn't seem like low hanging fruit at all... Anything that will improve the situation will be expensive and/

by sksksk 2y ago

I agree that it's a dire , expensive mess. But it doesn't seem like low hanging fruit at all... Anything that will improve the situation will be expensive and/or take a long time to achieve.

HPsquared 2y ago
And "short-term cost, long-term benefit" is kryptonite to the average politician. "We get the blame, the next guy takes the credit"
- mattigames 2y ago
  One of the reasons China gets things done.
  - tehjoker 2y ago
    china has elections you know
    - dijit 2y ago
      Any elections in the People's Republic of China occur under a one-party authoritarian political system controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It's not the same, and as a consequence of being one-party; means (like the parent suggests) they can be more long term focused, which seems to be working.
      - PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago
        There's still blame, but it is attached to people, not "the party" (at least not in terms of action taken to enforce blame).
      - tehjoker 2y ago
        prefer this to allowing conservatives to have any power. why should guys doing the heil hitler salute get a turn at the wheel
    - mattigames 2y ago
      Sure, "elections", that's why Xi has been president for how many years already? I lost count
      - InitialLastName 2y ago
        When the key criteria for leadership selection is alignment with a specific ideology, and that ideology is defined by a specific person, it's almost tautological that said person will end up in charge for as long as they'd like to be.
      - thaumasiotes 2y ago
        Mao Zedong: 1943 - 1976 (various titles?). He was sidelined around 1959 and staged a successful coup, retaking actual power, in 1966. Hua Guofeng: 1976 - 1981 Hu Yaobang: 1981 - 1987 Zhao Ziyang: 1987 - 1989. Removed from office for reasons related to the Tiananmen protests. Jiang Zemin: 1989 - 2002 Hu Jintao: 2002 - 2012 Xi Jinping: 2012 - present ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_Chinese_Communist_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_Chinese_Communis... ) So far he's in third place for length of service.
- thayne 2y ago
  Which is why the mess of American healthcare won't be fixed anytime soon.
crowselect 2y ago
I mean there’s pretty low hanging fruit mentioned in the article. If rail strikes are frequent enough to feature in the formula, end the strikes by paying the workers well.
- Ray20 2y ago
  You don't understand how this works, do you? By paying workers because of strikes, you are increasing the number of strikes.
  - crowselect 2y ago
    Any evidence for that, or is this entirely opinion?
- sksksk 2y ago
  Paying train workers what they are demanding is expensive
  - Symbiote 2y ago
    British train drivers are the best paid in Europe by a staggering amount. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/12/23/train-strikes-these-are-the-countries-that-pay-train-drivers-the-most-and-the-least-in-eur https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/12/23/train-strikes-the...
    - oniony 2y ago
      And the average UK citizen seems to have a huge problem with that, but seems to be completely happy with private train company executives getting paid obscene amounts and train companies paying out huge dividends when the services are so bad. Why do people resent train drivers getting paid well?
      - pbhjpbhj 2y ago
        Because the media tells them to. When train workers demanded inflationary pay maintenance the highest train driver pay was splashed all over the media in an attempt to get workers to hate one another and ignore the execs and shareholders walking off with all the money.
0xbadcafebee 2y ago
> Anything that will improve the situation will be expensive and/or take a long time to achieve Only if you do it properly.
isaacremuant 2y ago
That's why we focus on the important stuff like spending several million to call lines suffragette and lionness.
cameronh90 2y ago
There is some low hanging fruit, like the ticketing system. Might be possible to improve satisfaction without costly infrastructure upgrades by ensuring you have a seat for long trips and being more aggressive with discounts at quiet times. Plenty of times I’ve been one of like 30 people on a 12 car train despite the ticket having cost £60. The train is going to run anyway, so may as well price more aggressively.

by sksksk 2y ago

I agree that it's a dire , expensive mess. But it doesn't seem like low hanging fruit at all... Anything that will improve the situation will be expensive and/or take a long time to achieve.

HPsquared 2y ago

And "short-term cost, long-term benefit" is kryptonite to the average politician. "We get the blame, the next guy takes the credit"

mattigames 2y ago
One of the reasons China gets things done.
- tehjoker 2y ago
  china has elections you know
  - dijit 2y ago
    Any elections in the People's Republic of China occur under a one-party authoritarian political system controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It's not the same, and as a consequence of being one-party; means (like the parent suggests) they can be more long term focused, which seems to be working.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago
      There's still blame, but it is attached to people, not "the party" (at least not in terms of action taken to enforce blame).
    - tehjoker 2y ago
      prefer this to allowing conservatives to have any power. why should guys doing the heil hitler salute get a turn at the wheel
  - mattigames 2y ago
    Sure, "elections", that's why Xi has been president for how many years already? I lost count
    - InitialLastName 2y ago
      When the key criteria for leadership selection is alignment with a specific ideology, and that ideology is defined by a specific person, it's almost tautological that said person will end up in charge for as long as they'd like to be.
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      Mao Zedong: 1943 - 1976 (various titles?). He was sidelined around 1959 and staged a successful coup, retaking actual power, in 1966. Hua Guofeng: 1976 - 1981 Hu Yaobang: 1981 - 1987 Zhao Ziyang: 1987 - 1989. Removed from office for reasons related to the Tiananmen protests. Jiang Zemin: 1989 - 2002 Hu Jintao: 2002 - 2012 Xi Jinping: 2012 - present ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_Chinese_Communist_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_Chinese_Communis... ) So far he's in third place for length of service.
thayne 2y ago
Which is why the mess of American healthcare won't be fixed anytime soon.

crowselect 2y ago

I mean there’s pretty low hanging fruit mentioned in the article. If rail strikes are frequent enough to feature in the formula, end the strikes by paying the workers well.

Ray20 2y ago
You don't understand how this works, do you? By paying workers because of strikes, you are increasing the number of strikes.
- crowselect 2y ago
  Any evidence for that, or is this entirely opinion?
sksksk 2y ago
Paying train workers what they are demanding is expensive
- Symbiote 2y ago
  British train drivers are the best paid in Europe by a staggering amount. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/12/23/train-strikes-these-are-the-countries-that-pay-train-drivers-the-most-and-the-least-in-eur https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/12/23/train-strikes-the...
  - oniony 2y ago
    And the average UK citizen seems to have a huge problem with that, but seems to be completely happy with private train company executives getting paid obscene amounts and train companies paying out huge dividends when the services are so bad. Why do people resent train drivers getting paid well?
    - pbhjpbhj 2y ago
      Because the media tells them to. When train workers demanded inflationary pay maintenance the highest train driver pay was splashed all over the media in an attempt to get workers to hate one another and ignore the execs and shareholders walking off with all the money.

0xbadcafebee 2y ago

> Anything that will improve the situation will be expensive and/or take a long time to achieve Only if you do it properly.

isaacremuant 2y ago

That's why we focus on the important stuff like spending several million to call lines suffragette and lionness.

cameronh90 2y ago

There is some low hanging fruit, like the ticketing system. Might be possible to improve satisfaction without costly infrastructure upgrades by ensuring you have a seat for long trips and being more aggressive with discounts at quiet times. Plenty of times I’ve been one of like 30 people on a 12 car train despite the ticket having cost £60. The train is going to run anyway, so may as well price more aggressively.