Bristol, UK, worst transport in europe?

[b3nr]

Bristol

[Snowguy716]

This seems to be a problem in the UK. The rail transportation there has been torn to shreds by private interests and Britrail was a disaster when I was there. They are using out-of-date diesels that travel slowly on old tracks.

I don't understand this about the UK. They seem to pay higher taxes than anyone else in Europe, and yet their infrastructure isn't nearly as good as other EUropean countries. Does anyone know why?

[Spartan]

This is interesting. I'm interested in the privatizaiton of transit that has occured in the UK. Here in the USA, some people argue that transit should be a private entity and not a public one... but your example in Brtistol seems to indicate that privatization has not helped transit at all.

[b3nr]

The UK is essentially the only developed country that has privatised its mass transit and it has been an absolute disaster. Bus riderships are still much lower than they were before privatisation and rail riderships have gone up only by

[Snowguy716]

I think mass transit would naturally allow for a monopoly since the only way to really increase profit margins would be to expand your service area rather than try to pump up ridership in one area.

There is enough space and demand to operate nation-wide long-journey mass transit in the U.S. with private interests simply because there are so many people that want to get from city to city, but airlines and car travel make up the vast majority of that travel with trains and buses filling only a small niche. As it is, the trains are subsidized by the government at a pretty high rate. All the railroad companies in the U.S carried 1 billion passengers in the 1910s each year, and consider this: 2006 was a record year for Amtrak since it was founded in 1971 carrying 26 million passengers.

Britrail is pretty much doomed, I would think, by Virgin Trains simply because Virgin has newer trains and is looking to 'shave the cream' off, much like Southwest Airlines in the U.S.

But I wouldn't worry too much. There are plenty of wonderful things about the U.K that make up for the horrid mass transit... including the humor.. so at least you can have a good laugh while you're waiting for the train.

[b3nr]

Yeah, well we like to hide our emotions under a think layer or sarcasm. I have been told that if you suspect a British person is 'taking the piss', the best thing you can do act really upset, they won't know how to react having spent their whole lives hiding their feeling through humour...