Study how the Swiss run their railways
Having travelled to Switzerland for work and holidays for nearly 30 years, I believe that the UK can learn from the Swiss how a railway can be run and keep passengers happy.
For all those years I have used the early morning flight from Manchester to Zurich, connecting into the rail system at the airport’s rail station.
The train I use onward to Bern has departed at 40 minutes past each hour for all of those years. All that has changed is the length of the train from six to eight coaches, and latterly to eight double-deck coaches as demand has increased.
If the UK’s Northern rail commuters, of which I am one, were to be given a choice of yet another timetable change or for longer trains, then 100% would plump for the latter.
Currently, two-coach Pacers trundle into Bolton station, already full at the peak of the morning rush hour, leaving many fuming passengers unable to board them. As Nigel Harris pointed out in his
RAIL 855 Comment, too much politicking has gone on for far too long on our railway. As long as the current number of ‘fingers in the pie’ continues (DfT, NR, ORR, RDG, TOCs, ROSCOs and so on) then little or nothing will change for the better.
Whether privately operated or publicly run, our rail system has to be run by one entity accountable for everything, to eliminate the current buck-passing culture.