BBC news said if you spend £1 of a railway ticket ,only 4 pence is for fuel.
The road haulage industry could not run like that , and what are fuel figures for freight trains ?
I saw that and also wondered how it was just 4%. Maybe for electric trains that might be the case (although still low) I imagine diesels will be more.
A friend of mine used to work at a railway depot and he told me that diesels run on the cheapest crappiest fuel going, you wouldn’t want to put it in anything else, not even a dumper truck.
What taxes are the train operators paying on fuel, if its red by the full tanker load or better still pipeline it’ll be stupidly cheap.
so you pay for your RAIL fare and get a bus instead
12 Dec 2017 - Commuters travelling from Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough to Bedford or Luton during peak times will be forced to use a coach service until 2020
apparently its a bus an hour in and out of Wellingborough TRAIN station , instead of an actual train. shame when they redesigned the station , they never thought of how to get a bus in and out.
allegedly its to make the line better , eventually.
How far do you travel for your pound and how many others are also paying?
Why do night time works on the railway line over run the time they were supposed to end?
You hear it daily on traffic reports, over running works and delays to commuters .
A majority of the over inflated ticket is spent on wages/staff/maintenance and repairs so what work at night are they actually doing, nothing except looking at their phones all night, playing cards with 100 ■■■ and coffee breaks .
Their You have been Tangoed bright orange two piece PPE is never dirty when they clock off.
toby1234abc:
Why do night time works on the railway line over run the time they were supposed to end?You hear it daily on traffic reports, over running works and delays to commuters .
A majority of the over inflated ticket is spent on wages/staff/maintenance and repairs so what work at night are they actually doing, nothing except looking at their phones all night, playing cards with 100 ■■■ and coffee breaks .
Their You have been Tangoed bright orange two piece PPE is never dirty when they clock off.
How often do you sit all night watching them?
As mentioned above, fuel is not taxed like DERV so very cheap.
The rest of the ticket price goes to keep ASLEF drivers happy (just done a 5 year wage deal fro 28.5% increase), wages for all the other rail staff, depreciation/lease costs for all the rolling stock, track maintenance (largely done by contractors who don’t do it as a non-profit operation) and fat salaries for the top bosses.
Regarding the ‘rolling stock’ cost, a few days ago it was reported that the average age of trains is 21 years, older than it has been since 2002. You would have thought they’d be fully depreciated by now, but no doubt the excuse is “well, they need a lot of maintenance and repairs”
I have long ago given up hope of a really fair deal for the ordinary working guy, government, local and national, simply wastes taxpayers cash, a drunken sailor couldn’t do much worse.
The rot set in when it became a profitable career serving to be a councillor or MP, any thought of serving the voters was secondary to making money.
toby1234abc:
Why do night time works on the railway line over run the time they were supposed to end?You hear it daily on traffic reports, over running works and delays to commuters .
A majority of the over inflated ticket is spent on wages/staff/maintenance and repairs so what work at night are they actually doing, nothing except looking at their phones all night, playing cards with 100 ■■■ and coffee breaks .
Their You have been Tangoed bright orange two piece PPE is never dirty when they clock off.
Yeah but the money,not as good as it used to be…is still way above what most can earn in hgv, 
GORDON 50:
I saw that and also wondered how it was just 4%. Maybe for electric trains that might be the case (although still low) I imagine diesels will be more.
A friend of mine used to work at a railway depot and he told me that diesels run on the cheapest crappiest fuel going, you wouldn’t want to put it in anything else, not even a dumper truck.
I do work for a train maintenance company but unfortunately don’t know what we pay for fuel. One thing it is not is cheapest crappiest fuel, it is red but then it’s not for road use. We have on average six fuel deliveries a day (6 tanker loads) so would hope they get it at a good price.
The trains average 800-1200 miles per day much of it at high speed and do require a lot of maintenance.
toby1234abc:
BBC news said if you spend £1 of a railway ticket ,only 4 pence is for fuel.
The road haulage industry could not run like that , and what are fuel figures for freight trains ?
Train - 1,000 ton of freight for about 2.5 gallon per mile (400 ton mile per gallon)
Waggon - 28 ton freight for about 9 mile per gallon (252 ton mile per gallon)
sml Van - 1 ton freight for 50mpg (50 ton mile per gallon)
Bicycle - 25kg for 40 calories per mile (equiv: 25 ton mile per gallon)
of course the train figures are misleading as you need lorries to lead the friegt to and from the train - so may be it could be argued the artic could come out on top - I guess the train becomes more efficient the longer the journey, works best America / Aus / Russia.
Buckstones:
As mentioned above, fuel is not taxed like DERV so very cheap.The rest of the ticket price goes to keep ASLEF drivers happy (just done a 5 year wage deal fro 28.5% increase), wages for all the other rail staff, depreciation/lease costs for all the rolling stock, track maintenance (largely done by contractors who don’t do it as a non-profit operation) and fat salaries for the top bosses.
Regarding the ‘rolling stock’ cost, a few days ago it was reported that the average age of trains is 21 years, older than it has been since 2002. You would have thought they’d be fully depreciated by now, but no doubt the excuse is “well, they need a lot of maintenance and repairs”
I have long ago given up hope of a really fair deal for the ordinary working guy, government, local and national, simply wastes taxpayers cash, a drunken sailor couldn’t do much worse.The rot set in when it became a profitable career serving to be a councillor or MP, any thought of serving the voters was secondary to making money.
Allegedly, a huge chunk of the profits from “British” train companies go to subsidise train companies in France Germany and the Netherlands, and the people of these countries would like to thank the British tax payer and passengers for their generosity!
tonyj105:
so you pay for your RAIL fare and get a bus instead12 Dec 2017 - Commuters travelling from Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough to Bedford or Luton during peak times will be forced to use a coach service until 2020
apparently its a bus an hour in and out of Wellingborough TRAIN station , instead of an actual train. shame when they redesigned the station , they never thought of how to get a bus in and out.
allegedly its to make the line better , eventually.
I think you will find that it is for the electrification from Bedford to Corby, also AFAIK, EMT hasn’t got any electric trains lined up (Might be wrong on that)
toby1234abc:
BBC news said if you spend £1 of a railway ticket ,only 4 pence is for fuel.
The road haulage industry could not run like that , and what are fuel figures for freight trains ?
Possibly so. The infrastructure costs are humongous. Indeed there is a case for closing the railways altogether as they cost so much.
However if we did so the country would come to a halt in south east England. It would be a firking nightmare.
The most sensible thing is to get more passengers onto rail and trunk haul freight too. It makes sense. However the freight companies have shown themselves largely inept at so doing and the government viz a viz England are impotent regarding opening railways so the whole lot becomes an ongoing bugger’s muddle.
The one good thing about the rail industry is that the RMT have shagged over everyone for donkeys years so their members enjoy good salaries. Meanwhile the rest of us pay an exorbitant amount for rail fares
and a grand a year to park your car. so glad we got residents parking after a 30 year fight with the council. couldn’t move outside my house for commuters abandoning cars. I actually feel sorry for them now, umpteen thousands a year to ride a train (or bus) to work and a grand on top to park your car
toby1234abc:
Why do night time works on the railway line over run the time they were supposed to end?You hear it daily on traffic reports, over running works and delays to commuters .
A majority of the over inflated ticket is spent on wages/staff/maintenance and repairs so what work at night are they actually doing, nothing except looking at their phones all night, playing cards with 100 ■■■ and coffee breaks .
Their You have been Tangoed bright orange two piece PPE is never dirty when they clock off.
Because possession work is a complex matter involving lots of different parties. In essence they are projects often involving ballast trains, re-railing trains, rail freight companies, track maintenance companies, track renewal companies and their myriad of staff. Say there was a possession (line closure) from 2200 till 0600 and a ballast train was due in at 0205. Say that train was delayed an hour owing to a points failure before it got to the work site, it could very easily give rise to an over-run of the possession. Often work is cancelled in such situations. But say it was a 48 hour bridge replacement. You can hardly say “Right guys and galls, down tools, bugger off now we’ve got to hand the railway back” and it’s still not safe to do so because we have new bridge parapets not fully secured in… that is how you get over-runs.
weeto:
Allegedly, a huge chunk of the profits from “British” train companies go to subsidise train companies in France Germany and the Netherlands, and the people of these countries would like to thank the British tax payer and passengers for their generosity!
British taxpayers are subsidising European train fares and it's nothing to do with the EU - Mirror Online
Over-sensationalised, exaggerated crap. But then, given the source, and its cosy left-wing politics, it’s what I would expect from the Mirror.
The profit margins earned by train operating companies are about as low as those in the haulage industry. They have (literally) billions ■■■■■■■ in the large franchises for a meagre return and that’s why a typical franchise ‘competition’ now attracts two or three serious and compliant bidders. The alternative is to return everything to public ownership, although nobody has an answer for the tricky question of how to deal with taking rolling stock back into state ownership, given that it is almost entirely owned by the banks. It would be British Rail all over again, and I can remember how efficient that was.
weeto:
Allegedly, a huge chunk of the profits from “British” train companies go to subsidise train companies in France Germany and the Netherlands, and the people of these countries would like to thank the British tax payer and passengers for their generosity!
British taxpayers are subsidising European train fares and it's nothing to do with the EU - Mirror Online
Blimey the Europhile Daily Mirror moaning about us being ripped off by Europe they couldn’t make it up. 
As for freight trains using red diesel.If their fuel consumption figures are true they’ll obviously have no problem with trucks being able to use red diesel to level the playing field.
UK cost for a 20 mile annual commuter ticket £3750…Spain and France around 800eur for the same distance. Huge difference there…
Carryfast:
weeto:
Allegedly, a huge chunk of the profits from “British” train companies go to subsidise train companies in France Germany and the Netherlands, and the people of these countries would like to thank the British tax payer and passengers for their generosity!
British taxpayers are subsidising European train fares and it's nothing to do with the EU - Mirror OnlineBlimey the Europhile Daily Mirror moaning about us being ripped off by Europe they couldn’t make it up.
As for freight trains using red diesel.If their fuel consumption figures are true they’ll obviously have no problem with trucks being able to use red diesel to level the playing field.
I think it’s the unions that are moaning, as 70% of the UK train operations are now partially or wholley own by foreign states or their railways, France and SNCF being one of the biggest.