EV road tax

[ajlelectronics]

The idea of privatising them was to improve effiency? Where did that go wrong?

Much as I am an advocate for privatisation, it is clearly very difficult with something like the railways. Best compromise I suppose is one company in charge of the infrastructure and another in charge of the actual trains and services. Maybe allow those operators to be selected every few years according to the quality of service offered? I'm not sure that the current fragmentation will ever run any better than a state monoploly, sadly.

 

[voipio]

British Rail, back in the good old days seemed to run quite well on the whole, if I recall.

 

[ajlelectronics]

British Rail, back in the good old days seemed to run quite well on the whole, if I recall.

It was still heavily loss making though. The upsurge in road transport didn't help of course and with the huge cost of train drivers and associated staff now, I can't see how it could ever break even at fares that can be afforded.
A state monopoly may well offer subsidised fares, but that is the taxpayer (i.e. US) funding the difference at a far higher total cost than paying up front. It just looks like a lower fare to the bloke on the Clapham Omnibus.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

It's all very sad...when people have a guaranteed job up to retirement followed by a good final salary pension it should be enough shouldn't it?

In theory gov owned should be the best system...the reality is somewhat different.

 

[ajlelectronics]

It's all very sad...when people have a guaranteed job up to retirement followed by a good final salary pension it should be enough shouldn't it?

In theory it should be the best system...the reality is somewhat different.

Like Communism; an excellent theory, but impossible to work in practice. Socialism works, until they run out of other people's money to spend.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Like Communism; an excellent theory, but impossible to work in practice.

The only people who think communism is a good idea is people who haven't lived under it...ask anyone who has and see what they say!

In theory it's the best...but not with humans in charge. Maybe an AI could make it work properly?

 

[ajlelectronics]

The only people who think communism is a good idea is people who haven't lived under it...ask anyone who has and see what the say!

In theory it's the best...but not with humans in charge. Maybe an AI could make it work properly?

I have a contact in Nicaragua. He tells me some stories.

 

[ukracer]

The idea of privatising them was to improve effiency? Where did that go wrong?

Because to make a profit they need to reduce standards or and staff.

 

[ukracer]

Because to make a profit they need to reduce standards or and staff.

I ironically I was in a car yesterday sitting at one of the insane amount in our area just now.
6 guys all standing round looking into a hole in the ground.
Person in the car starts chuntering about council workers and the usual 6 people watching 1 working comment was trotted out.......sadly for him I pointed out it was a private company doing the work....lol

He soon shut up. Lol

 

[brewdexta]

The current rail is the worst of both worlds, large government subsidies to private companies who use it to provide dividends, not investment. So it is effectively socialist, but letting capitalists allocate the money, there's a recipe for disaster!

The current strikes wouldn't exist if the need for paying wage increases in line with inflation was included in rail companies accounting forecasts instead of syphoned into dividends. Its hardly rocket science to do this or to assume its necessary for workers wages to keep up. Wage rises demands are always met with surprise, but other business cost rises are accepted. Same goes for junior doctors, nurses etc. etc........ it is paramount to false accounting.

 

[Morris]

Exactly. Privatise the profit and publicly own the loss.
Subsidies to the rail companies in 2021-22 was 17 billion.

 

[Seadog]

BR, prior to privatisation, was actually a much improved service with a high degree of customer satisfaction. Great, now's the time to flog it to our mates

 

[prepman]

British Rail, back in the good old days seemed to run quite well on the whole, if I recall.

It had it's moments, but had to be made profitable in order to sell it........dwell on that for a moment.
Historically the railways where a mish-mash of private rail companies and nationalised to sort the mess out. My Grandad was a steam engineer driver for the LNER based at Sevenoaks.
His shift patterns were horrendous. But breakfast off the shovel for free and toasty warm .......in summer.

 

[brewdexta]

I use public transport on a regular basis, mainly commuting to London from Yorkshire for 24 years. Inter-city rail is worse than it was, some nicer trains but the infrastructure is not up to scratch, overhead lines fall down constantly on the east coast and signal failures are numerous. That smells of lack of investment/management oversight. Underground and mass transit in London is better than it was, especially since Crossrail. Local buses services near me are going to be cut in half. They are already too full at peak times and leave people at bus stops, so my daughter will have issues getting to college when the new timetable starts in February.

But, I'll be retired soon, so I can give her a lift in the Leaf. It hasn't burst into flames, the battery hasn't degraded, its comfortable, fast and we've had no issues but that's not what people want to hear

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

But, I'll be retired soon, so I can give her a lift in the Leaf. It hasn't burst into flames, the battery hasn't degraded, its comfortable, fast and we've had no issues but that's not what people want to hear

Good for you...but keep it quiet otherwise people will be out to ruin what you have going at the moment!

 

[Blobber]

But, I'll be retired soon, so I can give her a lift in the Leaf. It hasn't burst into flames, the battery hasn't degraded, its comfortable, fast and we've had no issues but that's not what people want to hear

Another mode of transport subsidised by the taxpayer...

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I was reading today...London is officially the slowest city on earth for drivers. That's quite an achievement I think.

Wonder if we'll need to drop the speed limit to 10mph if other cities try to steal the title from us

 

[ajlelectronics]

Wonder if we'll need to drop the speed limit to 10mph if other cities try to steal the title from us

"If it saves one child's life...".

 

[DAPPH]

Chademo (Nissan Leaf, for instance) is still a reasonable charging option. Being phased out on new chargers but not dead yet. Charging facilities will outlast the cars, I expect - and still home charging sets for local usage, anyway.

Yes, there may be more advances, but DC current will still be the same, the now probably millions of CCS connections around the globe will not be phased out in a hurry. Less efficient, maybe, but not obsolete from the point of them not being available.

Try another. Try again. Not doing too well with your anti-EV ideas.

Our outlander is now almost 9 yrs old , it gets a 30 mile home recharge at least twice a week in the last five months we have been able to whack it with 7.4 kw hr charges now my car iE Berlingo s fully set up with intelligent charging .
This latest intelligent charging does now wait till off peak hours but relies on ultra high speed computers saying when there is a slight excess production happening so it switch the car charging onn if the car ( Alison's or mine ) is plugged in asking for charging .

T' was a nice surprise to see the other day both cars were able to be charged in day light hours at the cheaper night charge rate especially as I'd hammered the battery on mine by demanding 25oC climate controlled heating for both 17 mile runs I did in the morning .which reduced the battery level by 51 miles .

 

[DAPPH]

"If it saves one child's life...".

That will be trying to dismiss Darwin's observations , Teach the kids & parent( s) the right way in the first place .