Scotrail

[invergowrie arab]

Looking forward to being on the #ladzladzladz carriage. 

[Dan Steele]

Would be nice if one of the examples of 'best practice' Transport Scotland look at is something like, I dunno, every passenger having an available seat for the journey instead of the regular 'pay to stand' scenario on many trains. Mind you, they might want to have a look at the concept of 'many trains' first.

[GNU_Linux]

The trans on trains argument should be good fun.

Train exclusionary reactionary feminists

[Hammer Jag]

12 hours ago, virginton said:

Ah yes, India and Dubai, those true enlightened trend-setters for gender equality. 

I see that Scotrail sneaked in another utter nonsense speed restriction on certain routes last night and early this morning, on the grounds of, err, it was dark and had been raining for a bit. f**k knows how many services these chancers will deign to run from Wednesday onwards, as part of their post-pandemic belief that running a public transport service is an optional extra. 

 

Network Rail are responsible for imposing speed restrictions, not ScotRail. 

[gannonball]

Given the absolute shit state of train services in Scotland (even before Covid) the amount of social media posts blaming ‘wee nippy’ for every delay is going to be rather tedious.

[mac.i]

17 hours ago, virginton said:

Ah yes, India and Dubai, those true enlightened trend-setters for gender equality. 

I see that Scotrail sneaked in another utter nonsense speed restriction on certain routes last night and early this morning, on the grounds of, err, it was dark and had been raining for a bit. f**k knows how many services these chancers will deign to run from Wednesday onwards, as part of their post-pandemic belief that running a public transport service is an optional extra. 

 

After the major incident at Stonehaven and a few others where drivers have had near misses with trees striking the front of a train its not unreasonable that there's a bit more caution..... 

14 hours ago, The Skelpit Lug said:

Would be nice if one of the examples of 'best practice' Transport Scotland look at is something like, I dunno, every passenger having an available seat for the journey instead of the regular 'pay to stand' scenario on many trains. Mind you, they might want to have a look at the concept of 'many trains' first.

The only way to ensure everyone has a seat is to make all services reservation only which means you loose the ability to just walk-up and go.... and if you miss your booked train you can't just jump on the next one either.... 

[craigkillie]

The only way to ensure everyone has a seat is to make all services reservation only which means you loose the ability to just walk-up and go.... and if you miss your booked train you can't just jump on the next one either.... 

However, they can and do ensure that most people have to stand by consistently underinvesting in staff, carriages and infrastructure.

[Scary Bear]

1 hour ago, gannonball said:

Given the absolute shit state of train services in Scotland (even before Covid) the amount of social media posts blaming ‘wee nippy’ for every delay is going to be rather tedious.

Worse than Mussolini!

[mac.i]

16 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

However, they can and do ensure that most people have to stand by consistently underinvesting in staff, carriages and infrastructure.

The rolling stock is set by government as part of the franchise so not Abellio.... You get no argument from me regarding investment in staff (numbers and training) or infrastructure but the money has to come from somewhere.

Network Rail is being told to do more with less just now, look as the fuss over HS2 spend which is badly needed, the fuss over spending on re-opening the line to Tweedbank before it opened and exceeded all expectations; infrastructure is expensive and not "sexy" 

 

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, mac.i said:

After the major incident at Stonehaven and a few others where drivers have had near misses with trees striking the front of a train its not unreasonable that there's a bit more caution..... 

If trains are no longer expected to run properly because of the lowest category of warning for rain - in fucking Scotland - then they will hardly run at all. There was absolutely no credible safety justification for restrictions on Sunday evening and yesterday morning: it was just bog-standard February conditions. 

The Stonehaven incident occurred under completely different conditions and advice. 

Edited February 15, 2022 by vikingTON

[mac.i]

5 minutes ago, virginton said:

If trains are no longer expected to run properly because of the lowest category of warning for rain - in fucking Scotland - then they will hardly run at all. There was absolutely no credible safety justification for restrictions on Sunday evening and yesterday morning: it was just bog-standard February conditions. 

The Stonehaven incident occurred under completely different conditions and advice. 

I tend to agree there are often times when they can be too cautious now but many of those making decisions about safe running of trains will have been involved on the day or in the aftermath so can understand why. 

 

[Scary Bear]

On 11/02/2022 at 00:14, Clown Job said:

Scotland considers women only train carriages to boost safety

SNP ministers will consider the introduction of female-only carriages on Scotland’s trains after they vowed to use their control of the network to improve women’s safety.

Jenny Gilruth, the SNP transport minister, said on Wednesday there was a “systemic problem” of women feeling too scared to travel on public transport “because of men’s behaviour”.

As part of new measures to be rolled out once ScotRail services comes into public ownership on April 1, she vowed to “fix” the problem and will consult with women’s groups about how to make train travel “safer and more enjoyable”.

Ann Moulds, chief executive of the charity Action Against Stalking, said she would take part in the review and strongly encourage Ms Gilruth to introduce carriages in which all men are banned.

Make the problem worse

The idea has previously been floated by Jeremy Corbyn and has proved controversial, with some suggesting that “segregation” would make the problem worse and prove “insulting” to women.

However, Ms Moulds said the move would offer choice and denied female-only carriages would prove a “backwards step”.

Transport Scotland last night did not rule out female-only carriages, saying it would look at “other examples of best practice” as part of a "wide-ranging national conversation".

Female train or metro carriages are used in other countries including India, Japan and Dubai.

“If women feel unsafe, fearful or threatened by being on a train or a mixed carriage, they should have the choice of going into a women-only carriage.” Ms Moulds said. “We’ve got to deal with reality and not ideology. There are predators and opportunists who are part of our society.

“In an ideal society it would be nice not to have them. But until men behave better, women don't really have a choice. To be forced to share a carriage when they feel threatened or frightened is unfair on women.

“I will be making the case for this as part of it because I feel very strongly about it. Some women might not choose it, but it should be an option available for those who do.”

In a statement at Holyrood yesterday, Ms Gilruth said she had personal experience of feeling unsafe on trains as a woman.

The former teacher, who represents Mid-Fife and Glenrothes, spoke about making sure not to get the last train back to Fife “because it’s full of drunk men” who would “squeeze in beside you despite the fact that you're surrounded by empty seats”.

She added: “I want our railways to be safe places for women to travel. We need to identify as a government where it is that women feel unsafe on our public transport systems, and then identify how we're going to fix it.

Consulting with women's organisations

“We will be commissioning and consulting with women and women's organisations across the country to better understand their experiences of how we can improve our public transport system to make it safer and more enjoyable for them to use.”

The Dutch company Abellio will stop running Scotrail trains at the end of March when an “arm's length” Scottish Government company will take over.

The rail network is facing challenges as a result of declining passenger numbers since the onset of the pandemic. Ms Gilruth said some people were still “scared to return to using public transport” because of Covid-19.

She said the Scottish Government needed to “work on” its messaging so that people were encouraged back onto trains.

However, opposition parties raised fears that the SNP was unprepared for taking over Scotrail and called for a commitment to lower fares.

Asked about the prospect of women only carriages being introduced, a Transport Scotland spokeswoman said: “While it is too early in what we expect will be a wide-ranging national conversation to comment on any specific measures, we will look at other examples of best practice and take a variety of views on such initiatives into consideration.”

On the face of it, it looks like the usual government solution of getting the media involved, suggesting another blanket policy that probably will never be delivered, being told of the problems with this approach, such as limited capacity on late night trains, giving up. Saying that, if the government are operating the trains, maybe it will happen.

Could they not just have the police at stations or on trains to target actual sex offenders / abusive drunks. That would be the sensible thing to do.

Transport Scotland don’t rule out female-only carriages. My experience of Transport Scotland is they leave everything to the train operator and getting one additional carriage added to the busiest train in Scotland was beyond them. 

 

[Todd_is_God]

@virginton NotRail again tomorrow

[vikingTON]

Because nothing says keeping people safe quite like arbitrarily shutting down the country's public transport network at, err, 4pm on a weekday. 

I'm sure that workplaces and the education system across the country will just magically adjust all their hours to suit Scotrail management's self-interest! 

[Todd_is_God]

5 minutes ago, virginton said:

Because nothing says keeping people safe quite like arbitrarily shutting down the country's public transport network at, err, 4pm on a weekday. 

I'm sure that workplaces and the education system across the country will just magically adjust all their hours to suit Scotrail management's self-interest! 

I don't remember the trains being off (or restricted) anything like as frequently as they have been recently any time prior to March 2020. Wind isn't new, so what else has changed?

It's almost as if removal of vital services at the drop of a hat has become completely acceptable because "well you coped during covid, so you can cope now." Again, of course, the WFH mob are unaffected so it's obviously not a real concern.

If the SG are serious about getting people to use public transport, then finding a way of having a network in place that is actually capable of reliably running in Scottish weather is going to be needed.

 

[craigkillie]

Because nothing says keeping people safe quite like arbitrarily shutting down the country's public transport network at, err, 4pm on a weekday. 
I'm sure that workplaces and the education system across the country will just magically adjust all their hours to suit Scotrail management's self-interest! 

They've said it might not reopen until halfway through the morning on Thursday too.

[Bairnardo]

Scotrail are a perfect example of a company who are going to use the pandemic to completely rewrite what they offer and to try and rewrite expectations of them.

Downwards, in both cases obviously

[Smurph]

45 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

I don't remember the trains being off (or restricted) anything like as frequently as they have been recently any time prior to March 2020. Wind isn't new, so what else has changed?

I agree with the rest of your post, but I'm not sure it's the pandemic to blame. The incident at Stonehaven was due to a landslip after heavy rain which was in August. Perhaps there was an issue between March and August, but I would imagine that's where most of the concern is coming from.

[Todd_is_God]

7 minutes ago, Smurph said:

I agree with the rest of your post, but I'm not sure it's the pandemic to blame. The incident at Stonehaven was due to a landslip after heavy rain which was in August. Perhaps there was an issue between March and August, but I would imagine that's where most of the concern is coming from.

Perhaps you are correct with this specific event, however I stand by my general opinion that there is a much greater acceptance of just dropping vital services since March 2020.

A public service which stops as a precaution for a yellow weather warning for wind is not fit for purpose IMO.

[Wile E Coyote]

I am booked on the Central Station tour tomorrow.

Ironically I will have to go by bus as I wouldn't be able to get home due to the early stoppage of trains

Edited February 15, 2022 by Wile E Coyote