OT........Rail fare shake up | Vital Football

OT........Rail fare shake up

Agreed...same goes for all aspects of water, power and other areas of public transport...i.e. all essential services should be providing the best deal for the public, rather than the best deal for a small bunch of shareholders, imo.
 
ramAnag said:
Agreed...same goes for all aspects of water, power and other areas of public transport...i.e. all essential services should be provided with the best deal for the public, rather than the best deal for a small bunch of shareholders, in mind...imo.
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Including taxis and air travel? Starts to sound a bit like USSR

and what happens when those shareholders are your and my pension funds? it all starts to get a bit complicated....

If you want to throw in the excessive reqards for executives, I'll agree there though, totally obscene in some cases
 
I have often thought, as my wait for a Southern train enters its second hour, that a return to nationalisation would be a good idea. Then I remembered what it was like in during terrible travel era in the 80s and 90s.

I suspect renationalisation would simply be jumping back into the frying pan from the fire. Incompetence and union power (my route to London has been blighted with strikes for almost 2 years now) remain an endemic problem with our rail system, regardless of who runs it.

The rail unions are opposed to change (eg one man trains and technology) and use the excuse of "passenger safety" in the name of job protectionism and holding back development. Like the dock labour board, the print industry, and other controlled industries, the railways were and are counterproductive to development - and of course there has been grievous under investment in infrastructure at the same time.

Would renationalisation improve things - doubtful. It is not an issue with "who runs it" - it will still be the same people whosoever owns it - but rather it is recidivist attitudes to change and a disastrous pricing model. The latter can and should be radically overhauled without resorting to ownership change.

Finally, remember that it was a nationalised industry commissioned Beaching Report that decimated the rural rail services in the 1960's. Dont for one minute think that our public transport sector is safe in governmental hands
 
Andy_faber said:
air travel and taxis and include also buses are no different to the other forms of transport you mentioned.
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I would so love to see anyone try to nationalise London's black cabs!! It would be a sharp poke in the eye for the cockney w**ker cabbies who charge outrageous prices and have been instrumental in driving Uber out of London.

Another recidivist organisation that wants to block improved customer services and bang on about "the knowledge" when satnav technology makes that skill largely redundant.
 
Andy_faber said:
air travel and taxis and include also buses are no different to the other forms of transport you mentioned.
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I beg to differ Andy. Air travel is rarely of the essential daily commute variety and taxis operate under a system of private hire.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I travelled by taxi...possibly a post Test match ride from Edgbaston to Birmingham New Street when there were so many of us it actually seemed quite cheap.
I’m no expert on taxi travel but sympathise entirely with Roger’s view.
 
Funny how different folks views are flavoured by their use of 'public' transport. I think there's more of a sound theoretical argument for nationalising utilities (gas, elec, water) but it ain't gonna happen, there are simply too many vested interests. as a matter of interest, has anyone here actually drilled into their utility provision and got a cheaper deal?
 
In the EU most of the rail networks are owned by the state. Yet most of our network is owned by those very same operators in the EU. I wonder how this will work out after Brexit.
 
Andy_faber said:
Funny how different folks views are flavoured by their use of 'public' transport. I think there's more of a sound theoretical argument for nationalising utilities (gas, elec, water) but it ain't gonna happen, there are simply too many vested interests. as a matter of interest, has anyone here actually drilled into their utility provision and got a cheaper deal?
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Yep...when I moved in late 2016 I had to go with the existing supplier ...OVO Energy. Dreadful in my experience...changed back to Co-op Energy asap and saved ourselves about £25 per month.
The other money saver was ‘inheriting’ a water meter with the new property. Might not work if you’ve still got a house full of kids but we saved approaching £400 per year...mind you...we do stink, the garden’s died and I’m fed up of eating off dirty plates!
 
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ramAnag said:
Yep...when I moved in late 2016 I had to go with the existing supplier. OVO. Dreadful in my experience...changed back to Co-op Energy asap and saved ourselves about £25 per month.
The other money saver was going on to a water meter...might not work if you’ve still got a house full of kids but we saved approaching £500 per year...mind you...we do stink, the garden’s died and I’m fed up of eating off dirty plates!
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I wont name names because thats advertising, but I enrolled with a company that do all the checking for you, AND do all the work to change you onto the best rate, and my gas and elec absolutely plummeted. Then this year they knocked even more off. significant money. With water I got a shock when we went onto a meter, and I realised I needed to love my garden less. A LOT less!
 
Andy_faber said:
I wont name names because thats advertising, but I enrolled with a company that do all the checking for you, AND do all the work to change you onto the best rate, and my gas and elec absolutely plummeted. Then this year they knocked even more off. significant money. With water I got a shock when we went onto a meter, and I realised I needed to love my garden less. A LOT less!
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I think you should ‘name names’ - might be advertising or it might just constitute ‘recommendation’ - either way, it’s also the truth and told in the public interest. I’m all for that.

As regards the water meter...in all seriousness we haven’t cut back at all.
I think I was paying ST £75 per month for eight months of the year in the last property. We moved to a slightly bigger one with a meter and our bill for last year was around £200.
Tbf we are away for approaching three months of the year so I guess the £200 was for nine months really but it’s still a saving of about £400 over the year.
 
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I pay about 700 a year, but with 4 adults (two "young adults" included who, sort of sadly, are not of the room reclusive smelly variety) in the house, I hate to think what it might be under a meter. I also have a wife that feels that if you so much as look at a towel, then it has to go back in the washing machine. This yields maybe a dozen to 15 loads of washing per week.

Then there is 1/3rd acre of garden and countless hanging baskets and other assorted shite. Oh, and a thirsty guinea pig!

So I will leave the meter switch for a while I think. I did do the gas/electric one a while ago. Saved some money but the saving was soon swallowed up by a price increase. Haven't been bothered to look since.
 
ramAnag said:
Yep...when I moved in late 2016 I had to go with the existing supplier ...OVO. Dreadful in my experience...changed back to Co-op Energy asap and saved ourselves about £25 per month.
The other money saver was ‘inheriting’ a water meter with the new property. Might not work if you’ve still got a house full of kids but we saved approaching £400 per year...mind you...we do stink, the garden’s died and I’m fed up of eating off dirty plates!
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OVO. An acronym guaranteed to raise hackles in the Soul World. Original Vinyl Only. A term thought up by and enforced by the Soul Police, a self appointed vigilante group who get on everybody else's nerves trying to dictate which release of which record you may play at a gig because they have decided that the whole scene should be OVO. All other legitimate releases are deemed to be the great unwashed. Not as bad as illegal bootlegs but in the same ball park.

There is a group of Soulies who want just rare and underplayed music played to keep the scene "pure and on the edge" and old c lassics are frowned upon. Some rare and underplayed stuff is that for a reason...... ;)

For me it's all about the music and dancing. I play originals, in the main but I have no aversion to legitimate reissues and play them happily.

Sorry for going off topic but it wasn't me who mentioned OVO and I have a suspicion rA had a totally different acronym in mind :)
 
OVO - something that I simply loved as a child. There's nothing quite like Ovaltine's delicious 'chocolatey' malt taste. It's the perfect, comforting hug-in-a-mug.

The Ovaltine story began almost 120 years ago in a humble Swiss laboratory with a Swiss chemist by the name of Dr. George Wander. It was 1904 and Dr Wander was investigating the nutritional qualities of barley malt. He made a very happy discovery. His research showed him that barley malt was full of complex carbohydrates and naturally occurring vitamins. The scientist then decided to combine the healthy barley malt with other nutritious ingredients like milk, egg, and cocoa. The result of this combination was named Ovaltine.

Sorry for going off topic but it wasn't me who mentioned OVO and I have a suspicion rA had a totally different acronym in mind :)
 
Roger Ramjet said:
I pay about 700 a year, but with 4 adults (two "young adults" included who, sort of sadly, are not of the room reclusive smelly variety) in the house, I hate to think what it might be under a meter. I also have a wife that feels that if you so much as look at a towel, then it has to go back in the washing machine. This yields maybe a dozen to 15 loads of washing per week.

Then there is 1/3rd acre of garden and countless hanging baskets and other assorted shite. Oh, and a thirsty guinea pig!

So I will leave the meter switch for a while I think. I did do the gas/electric one a while ago. Saved some money but the saving was soon swallowed up by a price increase. Haven't been bothered to look since.
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We had a similar property and occupation level RR, we changed to a meter and reduced our water bill down to just over £400. Remember, once you have a meter installed, you have 12 months to change your mind. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised within a couple of months of changing. We've just moved house and had a meter installed straight away.
 
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