Comments on: Holy frikkin smokatines!!! https://yummy-wakame.com/weblog/2007/02/holy-frikkin-smokes/ UX Designer + Full-Stack Dev Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:44:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 By: Cait https://yummy-wakame.com/weblog/2007/02/holy-frikkin-smokes/#comment-7709 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:44:34 +0000 http://www.yummy-wakame.com/archives/2007/02/20/3531#comment-7709 The bus fare is more like it. AmTrak here in the states is like that. Too expensive.

]]> By: Ms. Wakame https://yummy-wakame.com/weblog/2007/02/holy-frikkin-smokes/#comment-7708 Wed, 21 Feb 2007 09:37:54 +0000 http://www.yummy-wakame.com/archives/2007/02/20/3531#comment-7708 Ouch that’s steep aj!! I didn’t know about the air subsidies either. Very interesting…

I am still horrified over the rail prices here. If you live in the UK, where hardly anyone has a drivers license (and thank God for that because there is no-where to park and hardly any space to drive), the nations economy depends on rail (and slightly on buses) to get to and from work every day. The average commute each way for people who work in London is around 2 hours. Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of catching trains here knows they are overcrowded and almost never on time with frequent cancellations that cause more overcrowding and lateness.

The rail system here used to be a well oiled machine that was affordable and reliable and the envy of other countries until privatization in 1994. Then there were a series of crazy accidents that resulted in an extremely expensive track replacement programme along with speed restrictions that caused severe operational disruption to the whole national network and spiralling ticket fares that just go up in crazy increments each year. Privatisation seems to work really well in the States from what I’ve seen… perhaps Americans are better capitalists… but in the UK it seems to be a recipe for disaster in each case so far. It scares me each time the government here decides to privatise any service that is part of the infrastructure. Hmm. I wandered a bit there…

Anyway, I’m just on holiday in the UK now, but when I lived here, relying on rail transport truly sucked. The prices were already almost outside my reach, but now within a year they have become truly unaffordable. I have no idea how my brother can afford to travel into the heart of London every day all month long. I don’t know what he’s paying, but I’m sure it feels about as comfortable as a prostate check. I feel so bad for anyone who has to catch a train to or via London every day… and luckier than ever that I can work from home.

]]> By: aj https://yummy-wakame.com/weblog/2007/02/holy-frikkin-smokes/#comment-7707 Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:16:22 +0000 http://www.yummy-wakame.com/archives/2007/02/20/3531#comment-7707 The problem isn’t that rail is too expensive – it’s that air travel is overly subsidized, what with bailouts to airlines and aircraft manufacturers from central governments in nearly every western nation. Like big-box retailing, air travel is a commodity where the competition is a race to the bottom.

If you think the equivalent of $50 for that rail journey is pricey, consider the far-flung distances between Canadian cities. For me to take the train from Montreal to Edmonton (granted, it’s like going from London to the Ukraine – literally) is somewhere in the order of $3000 CDN and involves a multi-day sleeper car journey. The air travel price is a couple hundred bucks and takes less than a day.

If we’d invested in bullet trains back then…

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