He's been suspended, apparently.
Full thing here:
pbs.twimg.com/media/B7-JGiRIUAApWK6.jpg
I do like his unanswered question "Why is it cheaper to get a return flight to Spain than a train ticket from Leicester to London?", as the answer is "privitisation" - hardly UKIP thinking to undo that.
(
monkeon schmonkeon, Thu 22 Jan 2015, 22:28,
Reply)
I remember frowning when the Hedgehogfromhell said it was much cheaper for him to fly to London from Dundee to a bash
than take a train. I frowned for the wrong reasons
It's simply cheaper to operate a plane for short haul
(
Jahled Three shades of black, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 0:52,
Reply)
It should not be.
A train is a stupidly simple machine that should cost basically the price of the pig iron needed to make it.
How train travel became so expensive, in most of Europe, is a mystery to me.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 9:43, Reply)
I guess planes don't fly on railtracks
which require shit loads of space and no end of maintenance
(
Jahled Three shades of black, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 9:57,
Reply)
Well, I kinda call bullshit to that.
Heavy rail can last from 30 to 100 years before needing a full refit...
And newer track systems (1970's onwards) are projected to last even longer.
Most maintenance is at crossings and heavy stress curves, the rest is pretty stable.
For lets say 15000 movements a year (about one train every 30 min)?
I'd say that the maintenance cost of a 100 miles of track, the rolling stock and two train stations over 30 years.
Is probably a magnitude or two lower than than the maintenance of two airports, the aircraft's and others (comms, radars etc) at 100 miles from one another.
Then if you factor in energy. It becomes ridiculously in favour of trains.
So the difference is going somewhere but where? I say aliens.
onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/tcrp/tcrp_webdoc_43.pdf
www.railway-technical.com/finance.shtml (look at the Ratio of Revenue to Operating costs oO )
litep.epfl.ch/files/content/sites/litep/files/shared/Liens/Downloads/Divers/Baumgartner_Couts_chf_2001_e.pdf
Etc.
Keep in mind that most of these studies are the worst case scenarios in the 1st world.
In certain countries, Japan, many short haul routes have disappeared because they can't compete with trains.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 10:23, Reply)
I don't really know that much about the operational costs of a transport network to be honest
other than well, it's cheaper to fly in some circumstances.
That's it really
(
Jahled Three shades of black, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 10:51,
Reply)
I can't quote statistics or anything,
But I have been led to believe that some analysis was done looking comparing national railways to our motorway / a-road system, and the conclusion was that the best value for money the government can get means never building any more train tracks ever again and just building motorways everywhere.
www.transport-watch.co.uk/facts-sheet-7-rail-versus-road-capital-costs-track
(Personally, I don't agree with this, since I need the train system and I'm already shafted daily by the prices, I'm just pointing out the absurdity of the order-of-magnitude difference in cost)
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 12:24, Reply)
Pave the bloody island
One endless blacktop as far as the eye can see.
This forgets the cost of ownership of cars, aka cost of trains, that is distributed.
Cost of being stuck in jams.
Benefit of on working, reading, resting in trains.
Time lost looking for parking etc
Amongst others.
This is apple to fish.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 14:47, Reply)
Last November
we flew from Berlin to Naples, took the train to Sorrento, took a boat to Capri and back, returned to Naples by train (stopping off at Pompeii), flew from Naples to Luton airport, took a train from Luton to Nottingham, and later flew from East Midlands airport back to Berlin. The cost of the train from Luton to Nottingham was more than the total cost of all the other travel we did. That must be wrong!
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 10:27, Reply)
Yep
When I see the prices of tickets we paid in Japan...
Quick test:
- Luton to Nottingham: 144KM: $45,50 to £104 - so £0.32 to £0.72 per mile.
- Tokyo Central to Shinfuji 142Km: $31.60 - $0.22 per mile.
And in Japan, it's a Shinkansen that makes anything rolling in the UK look a bit like an open top cattle box car with service from a disgruntled East German border guard.
If you took the local train - about the same speed as an UK train, the price would be even lower. But still more comfy.
And this is Tokyo, the real estate might be a tad more expensive than in Luton.
As a quick story:
In Japan, we took the train on average once a day for 3 weeks.
All spot on time. Except one.
It was 3minutes late, the horror! The staff was on the verge of tears...
Bowing, excusing themselves for being lazy etc.
Came back to Belgium, second day back to Uni, train 45 min late and terminates one station early - effectively putting all the passengers 1 hour late.
The driver and the controller were having a gay old laugh about it.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 10:54, Reply)
That sounds about right
BTW admittedly we did have to pay the top whack for the Luton to Nottingham train, and the flights were RyanAir & Easyjet at the lowest price we could get them. But still ...
Here in Germany you can for example get any day of the week a Brandenburg-Berlin ticket for 29€ that gives unlimited travel anywhere in Brandenburg for up to five people for 24hrs.
If you can't get together five people there are numerous websites where you can advertise for co-travellers. That's 6€ per person, and if you are on a popular run you can even end up making a profit!
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 11:34, Reply)
And did I talk about the packed meals on sale in Japanese train stations?
Bloody miss those... Ahhh.
(, Fri 23 Jan 2015, 11:50, Reply)