hexbin010

> The leaves are actually a big deal because...

Because of the substandard, cost-cutting line-side vegetation mismanagement coupled with the NIMBYs and save-the-planet warriors getting up-in-arms. Plus high wages making proactive vegetation management not cost-effective due to the extent. Network Rail is well aware of the issue but due to budget cuts, can't do much.

Behind every excuse on the railway, if you peel back just a tiny bit of the layer, you'll see the real reasons. In the UK it's usually "we need to spend that money on the NHS and welfare" and "ROSCO profits are not put back into the railway"

Not true in the slightest in the UK. You can walk into many shops and get a SIM for £1 in cash, no ID, as easy as buying a Mars bar

For now

Did you really just blame immigration for the German railway's issues...?

3 hours!! Unbelievable. In the UK we would smash the doors/windows open these days after an hour or two. We got sick of the railway having no contingency plans for getting people off stuck trains in bad conditions

> Season ticket prices are under 20p/mile into London

False, as per my other comment

I agree with your other points though

I've taken trains regularly in England for 25 years. I disagree.

What's your experience?

And it's taken a massive turn for the worse since 2020

England is definitely worse than Scotland and Wales I grant you that. And fwiw, in Scotland, they have far less powers to prosecute compared to England, which is why they seem like they are more lenient

As I responded in another thread, not all operators are 15 minutes. Not that 25/50% often isn't really that much compensation...

And that taxi is far from gaurenteed.

I get the sense you had one or two good experiences and extrapolated?

> UK rail is privatized

50% of operators are now state owned

Not that it's a guarantee for things to get better...

Some operators begin at 30 minutes

And some operators love to ignore their obligations

Our protections are good on paper but in reality quite poor. London is of course better than the rest of the country though.

I don't consider having to message a faceless social media team on "X" to get a taxi refunded good customer service at all. And they are definitely pushing for you to pay first and then get a refund, which is not in the spirit of the contract. My mother doesn't have "X" and wouldn't know where to start

Cool so one single example that doesn't support your claim and zero interest in discussing it on a wider basis.

Most people will commute ~19 days a month, given vacations and sickness.

From my example, that's ~794 miles (corrected) a month, £255, £0.32/mile. Not as expensive as some other routes but still can be as as high as 12% of your take-home wage given the low salaries in that city.

Moving onto London... /under/ 20p a mile? Which route is that??

Just some random examples I picked:

Alton to Waterloo: £529, 1786 miles, £0.29/mile.

Guildford to Waterloo: £453/mo - 1140 miles a month, £0.39/mile.

Gravesend to London Bridge: £436/mo, 836 miles a month, £0.52/mile.

Brentwood to Liverpool St: £336/mo, 706 miles a month, £0.47/mile.

St Albans to Thameslink: £440/mo, 756 miles a month, £0.58/mile.

(Mileages from https://www.scotrail.co.uk/carbon-calculator )

> We're currently building the most expensive bit of high speed rail in Europe

Largest most expensive jobs programme in Europe perhaps more accurately... lots of pigs' snouts in the trough.

> Why they don't help at all?

If it's anything like the UK, the staff have incredibly secure jobs and recently secured some good changes to their working conditions/pay. It's probably not in their contract to announce in other languages, so they do exactly what their contract says

When comparing to the UK you have to also factor in how absurdly expensive it is. Eg a monthly ticket to the nearest city ~25km away is 292 EUR (nowhere near London. A city with not very high wages either). And the train is just 2.5 carriages and full every day.

Deutsche Bahn seems very similar to most of the railway in England. Customer service is non-existent; delays are highly normalised.

The UK government hates how expensive it is to operate, so they are reducing subsidies and massively prioritising the most profitable routes and raising prices.

Staff got nice condition/pay bumps during COVID and all have the attitude that they are doing us a favour. I don't mean that lightly or that I've had one bad experience with a member of staff on a bad day. They are work-shy, offensive, rude, lacking training and plain bad tempered.

I'm very pro car now these days, which is exactly what the Government wants.

Digital euro aka digital currency total surveillance and control

"Digital euro" sounds cute and modern though doesn't it. It'll fool many

If you criticise it you're obviously pro America and pro Visa/MasterCard or pro Russia because you obviously want the EU to fail!! It's clever to bundle it all up in one initiative

That's egregiously bad, and malicious.

You're not just translating though

I wouldn't count on that passive ventilation...!

Ventilation for accommodation in the UK is extremely poorly regulated, or not at all, from what I can tell. I've been given rooms with a hermetically sealed window and no A/C unit.

I stayed at a brand new Hyatt the other day and the A/C had no "fan" only option (ie to avoid dry throats), and when off, provided no passive ventilation as far as I could tell. No opening window. And this was an aparthotel with a cooker etc. Absolutely ridiculous.

Premier Inn's budget 'Hub' brand chain have sealed windows and just wall-mounted A/C (not fed fresh air from a central duct). Should be illegal

I think legally they're allowed to use the 1 inch space under the door as ventilation...

You actually need a lot of ventilation in hotels because they often use very harsh chemicals especially in the linen

> Cars are a private privilege

People might actually not laugh at this when the government builds public transport, walkable cities, jobs within walk distance etc

Perhaps payback for tourists using the word 'dollars' in London :P

For real. Loads of places in the UK are in desperate need of wider paths. Some probably haven't changed for 100 years except for making them narrower with stupid full height advertising screens (a travesty and civic vandalism by the councils)

I see you're doing Reddit level discourse. I'm out

Firstly Ryanair don't fly the routes Qantas and Emirates do, so you have no idea what you're on about comparing them

Second, Ryanair et al have dragged all the previous decent airlines down with them into the gutter and even paying more doesn't really get you service of years gone by. The only way they could compete was by slashing costs and prices to appear near the same ranking in the search results. You don't really get what you pay for flying short haul in Europe. Even business is mostly "low cost economy plus" rather than true business class in Europe

New "we got fined" fee

Ryanair weren't just a bystander in this race to the bottom, they were primary drivers of creating it, along with Easyjet, undercutting competition and forcing everyone else to become a low cost carrier.

They're a total success commercially you can't deny it, but my god what a horrible experience for everyone involved, passengers and staff alike

They'll contest it and won't pay it. Post again when they actually transfer the money lol

Germany is definitely a standout. I was taking issue with the blanket reference to the EU

The UK when it was in the EU for example had no problem basically doing whatever it liked, relying on exceptions for preventing crime and disorder. I'm sure there are other countries

Or like a sibling comment about Italy, who said that the government just ignores the privacy laws

Exactly, great quote from the ECHR. Massive blanket exceptions for the prevention of crime or disorder

You're not being unfair. You're showing wisdom.