From Anne Williams

Monday, 11 August 2014

But of course this increase is completely justified by the truly wonderful service Northern run on their lovely, state of the art trains.  I expect they recognise the need to encourage "customers" (sic) not to travel on peak services (not like they will have anywhere they need to be at those times, is it?), and it would be utterly unreasonable to suggest that capacity should be increased to meet demand. If shareholders get a bit more from the lowly likes of me, well I'll just doff my cap and thank them for the opportunity to add to their coffers.   

From Andy G

Tuesday, 12 August 2014

I strongly suspect that these draconian restrictions are being introduced in response to the government's insistence that Northern Rail accept a hefty reducton in the subsidy that they receive from the taxpayer for being allowed to run the franchise for an extra two years, while receiving no finance or authorisation whatsoever to order any new trains or even refurbish and modernise the existing ones.

In British Rail days (pre-privatisation in 1997), there was a certain degree of cross-subsidisation which allowed loss-making regional services such as the Calder Valley Line to receive a degree of cross-subsidy from profit-making InterCity and freight routes. Unfortunately, all that has been thrown to the wind by the previous Tory government's botched and cynical fragmentation of the railway industry which was hurriedly introduced by the John Major and his cronies in the absolute certainty that were going to lose the 1997 general election.

Before anyone accuses me of political point scoring, I should add that Labour are almost as much to blame for the mess on the railways because of their abject failure to honour the promise in their 1997 election manifesto to re-nationalise the industry.

From Eleanor Land

Tuesday, 12 August 2014

Rail transport in this country is left to the same "rip the public off and fill your pockets regime" that infests many of our utilities these days. They were all privatised under the lie that they would be more efficient and cost effective, the reality is that they are more inefficient and vastly more expensive than comparable services in the rest of Europe. No doubt if the Tories and Lib Dems get back into office in 2015, they will be picking our pockets again via more privatisation, e.g. the NHS.

From Kez Armitage

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

It appears that the desired effect of these new restrictions is to raise money, but I wonder if they really will.

Take Metro's Train Day Rover tickets for example. They use to promote unrestricted travel in West Yorkshire after 9.30 on weekdays. Now it appears that on weekdays you can have that unrestricted travel provided a) you're home before 16.01, b) you hang around for an hour and a half between 16.01 and 18.29 waiting for your ticket to be valid again or c) you pay extra for travelling between 16.01 and 18.29.

For a lot of people, this will make the Day Rover messy, ludicrously impractical for a ticket supposedly covering travel in the whole of West Yorkshire, and not really worth bothering with. I imagine that most people use Day Rovers on a discretionary basis - i.e. it's travel that they don't need to undertake and is usually recreational.

I am disappointed that this has been sprung on us with little warning or consultation. Why have our representatives, the Passenger Consultative Committees, been so quiet on this? The only outcome of this ill thought out decision will be to drive people off the trains onto buses and/or into their cars. Well done Metro and Northern!

From Myra James

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

As a member of the former Calderdale Passenger Consultative Committee (now re-named District Consultation sub-Committee) I can tell you that we had no prior knowledge of this development. I have learned of it over the past week or so, same as everyone else. I am sure that the issue will be raised at our next quarterly meeting in October but we have no power other than to voice our opinions.

From Myra James

Thursday, 21 August 2014

Campaign for Better Transport has a petition about the evening peak fares.

From Nina Smith

Friday, 22 August 2014

Please sign the Passenger Focus petition. It hasn't got many signatories yet. Also, please get your friends and family to sign. Thanks. Nina

From Kez Armitage

Monday, 25 August 2014

One of the justifications for raising fares is to pay for better trains.

However, we now are being told (Telegraph and Argus, 25 August) that Pacers (the old bus style 30 year old units, known unaffectionately as 'Nodding Donkeys' or 'Bouncy Castles') are now likely to be refurbished, and kept in service for at least another 10 years. This is despite promises by the government that they were to be phased out by 2016 - especially as they don't conform to current disability discrimination legislation.

So it looks as though we'll be paying more and getting nothing in return.

From Kimmie D

Tuesday, 26 August 2014

It would also seem, from the same news items, that the best we can hope for in the Northern region is hand-me-down diesel trains left over from the electrification of routes that have received investment. Yet again the North is the poor relation.

From Martin F

Saturday, 30 August 2014

Yet more justification for our line being called the Cinderella Line rather than the Calderdale Line.

From Adrian Riley

Sunday, 31 August 2014

Actually it is called the Caldervale line, which is a much better attempt and less hard alliteration than Calderdale Council's attempt. In the older books our valley was always referred to as Calder Vale.