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All i wish is that they didn't have the airconditioning on full blast on the new trains even in the winter

How well nationalisation started out and how quickly it declined - while governments use cash for 'quangoes' and refuse to consult those who are at the nitty gritty end of public services - not just transport - we don't stand a chance. The waste of tax payers cash is one of the criminal activities which will never be stamped out.

I'd use the train for work but, unfortunately, I work 35 miles from home, and the nearest train station to work is 2½ miles away, with no bus service. As such, I'd still have to get a taxi, which would defeat the object somewhat!

They hadn't ripped up the tracks 40 years ago! I could had gone too and from work every day by train if the track was still there, and I love trains - much more than having to drive every day.

I go to London on the train every day, usually on time with air con in summer and heating in winter and all this from c2c which was, for decades, known as "the misery line". Some new signalling, track, trains and a management team who react quickly to any problems - you never got this with British Rail!!! It may have taken c2c (formerly LTS) a long time to achieve this, but they did. However, not all train lines are as good as ours and need a lot of investment and work. I was particularly astonished when the local bus company ceased to run buses from my station once the line had been upgraded! One company moves forward and the others all go backwards. Why can't they work together?!

I used to use the train to commute between Taunton and Bristol and was forced to go back to using my car. In the first year of using the train I was late 13 times for work, and the number of trains that were on time on the way home could be counted on one hand. On top of which I could actually drive there quicker anyway! I also regard the fact that the train companies charge up to twice as much to travel during peak times as extortion, half the time in the mornings I just could not get a seat. The rail service in the UK is outdated, unreliable, slow, untimely and just plain crap. I don't know why anyone in their right mind would use them!

I would take the train to commute to work if one were to be allowed to take one's bicycle on to rush hour trains. My house is a 35 minute walk from the station and there is an unreliable bus service between the two, and my office is a further 20 minutes once I arrive at my destination town, with no bus service to my office. If I could take my bicycle on to the trains I would be delighted. It takes me 40 minutes to drive to work, door to door, so being able to use my bicycle would mean I could achieve a similar journey time using the train. Were I to walk or get the bus to and from stations, my journey time would be significantly increased.

It is too dangerous to travel on a train - I feel safe in my car. The Government should look to address this asap.

I would like to take my father (aged 83) and his friend to a war museum in Malton, nr York called Eden Camp. However, the cost of train fares from where I live is, in total, for 3 cheap day returns, £108. I think this is outrageous. To go by car would be much easier but the journey involves the M62 most of the way which is usually busy all day. I don't particulary want my father and friend to be stuck in traffick for hours on end. The train journey would be brilliant - some of the scenery in Yorkshire is breathtaking.

If the trains where clean safe and you could get a seat for the price of youre ticket.
In reality if I go to London from Birmingham by train and back there is the melle for a seat you end up next to a walking hygiene problem who insists on playing their i-pod full blast or shouting down a mobile phone to their mates all through the journey.
The ticket prices are also not attractive considering no seat assured in the price

All forms of public transport need some form of subsidy to make them affordable. It is no use telling us to reduce the ozone layer when there are no buses and trains in places we want them. Most people who work shifts outside the major cities have no option other than to travel by car as there are no alternatives at unsocial hours.

All the above plus....

.... If people took showers everyday
.... If there was a bus service that ran in conjuction with the train schedule
.... If for the annual cost of £1500 I could actually get a seat*
.... If my ticket was actually checked, and people were actually punished for fare avaision.
.... If stations were adequately staffed - why do staff disappear when there are delays?

* Off peak at 1/3rd less?? I can guarantee a seat. How is that fair?

Journey to work by car: 30 minutes, £5 petrol per day
Journey to work by train: 2 hours, 1 change, £43 per day

If they were like Swiss trains - on a recent trip to Lucerne the latest we left any of the intermediate stations was....4 seconds. I know this because of the on-board computer screen in each carriage. Clean, not expensive, can cope with leaves, snow and heat. French trains are very good too. Can it be that difficult to get it right???

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Having spent the last year commuting four and a half hours each day to London at a cost of nearly £4,500, I've quit a well paid job because the rail network is:

expensive
inflexible
over populated
dirty and (occasionally) dangerous

Give me my car back anytime !

I drive over 300 miles per week to work and back and before anyone say's move closer to work my wife works as well so either way one of us would be driving . The Goverment want to put in this road charge or Black box in our cars so they charge us for their incompetency.They say use public Transport that never runs on time so that means if it was so i would have to be up at 02:00 to get a Bus that would not be running , then a Train then another 3 buses and vice versa so i would not be in till 22:00 .It is about time they were voted out and a Working man took their place who knows what it is like to rely on his car to get to work , not a Chauffer driven Limo paid for by us!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a founder member of the ABE club (Anywhere But Egland) I am voting with my feet. I have sold my house and moving instead toCrete where there are no trains at all and no rush to get anywhere!

I would if I could walk as far as the nearest bus/ train station.
I have a disability and struggle to walk even quite short distances at times.
nearest bus stop half a mile, nearest train station 12 miles.
My partner works 12 miles from home and as my son's school is a mile from home we run two cars as it costs us less to do that than for me to take him to work and back every day and use just the one car!!!

On the couple of occasions I have tried to use the train, the first time my train was cancelled and it meant a booked seat was no longer available and a rush across London to attend a meeting. The second time the train to Manchester left on time but on the journey home broke down or had a braking problem so the journey took longer than it would have by car. They need to run on time regularly and fares must be competitive. I have travelled by train in France and they have always run on time and the fares were reasonable.

If trains didn't go from where you are not, to where you do not want to be

I used to commute between Stirling and Edinburgh. The train journey would take on average just over a hour in the morning, if it wasn't late or cancelled. If the train was cancelled it was always the four carridge train that was cancelled so you had to get the next train which was a two carridge train, I'll let you work out the maths, but sardines didn't have a look in! On the return journey it was the same story, get there early for the train journey home, find out what platform the train is leaving from, sit on the train, make the mistake of getting comfy, two minutes before the train is due to leave, hear the tannoy "This train is now not going to Stirling blah blah blah, the train to Stirling is now on the opposite side of the station." Run with all the other passengers across Waverly and get on the already packed train!!!! Get half way home, pull out of Polmont train station approx three hundred metres and sit there for 2 1/2 hours. Finally get home 3 to 4 hours later (a journy of roughly 40 miles). Now I once again work in Edinburgh and I DRIVE, it takes me half an hour, I'm not crushed, late, waiting for ages, buying season tickets, sitting in other peoples mess and all the other negitives that come with using the trains. Petrol prices maybe on the rise, but every time fuel prices go up i don't have to worry that my train ticket is going up by XX%.

I do actually take the train quite a lot. I travel to London four or five times a month and am in the fortunate positon of being both over 60 and within the Greater London area. So I get the Freedom pass giving me free travel on trains, underground and buses. I can also usually travel out of rush hours.

I live in Surbiton and find that bus services are frequent, as are the trains to Waterloo. Also by using online timetables you can easily plan your journeys (if you wish), so I have no complaints.

I still use the car though for journeys out of town or to places less well served by public transport.

I feel we complain a lot about our public transport, but when you consider the recent tragic train crash in Egypt, we are better of than some - not that there isn't room for improvement though!

I avoid the train as I pay a huge sum of money for a seat that is not available and I feel like I am squashed in a cattle truck.
I drive to London and catch the tube into the city.

and parking was FREE, then the commuters wouldnt park outside residents houses,or supermarket car parks

Our railway system is a national disaster. Trains are vastly overpriced, operate to central hub locations only, often involve many changes, run at wierd times, all adding up to a complete lack of investment in what once ran like capillaries across this nation. Years ago, the equivalent of thousands of miles of train-tracks running between towns and villages servicing plentiful small rail-links were ripped up and covered with tarmac to give us the "freedom" of the road. That freedom works well if you've got a country the size of France or Germany, where space isn't at a premium, but our overcrowded island is badly designed to support a network of motorways. It's worth noting that every example of privatisation of rail services throughout history has shown that involving private enterprise is a complete disaster - as proven when the US rail system was divided and sold off to private tycoons in the 1910s. Back then, only the wealthy US citizens were targetted as valid customers, which is an interesting point, isn't it? As for Britain in the 21st Century, the government is willing to tax drivers through fuel duties, car tax, insurance tax, and also capitalise on speeding camera fines, but how much of that £38 billion per year is spent on our roads and creating a modern integrated transport system? We're lucky to see even £2 billion of it spent on the roads, while the other £36 billion goes into supplying bombs for our troops Afghanistan or hiring spin-doctors to dig some politician out of a public scandal. I'd happily give up my car and go by public transport if it was plentiful, cheap and available. Once again, another example of British incompetence and mismanagement at the national government level. If private industrial directors ran their companies as poorly as the government runs our transport system, they'd be prosecuted and struck off the company register.

I have lived and used trains in Germany that, despite higher wages, are less expensive than the UK. Also they manage to syncronise all their public transport systems.

Here in the UK you have to add at least £5.00 to any train price for the privilage of parking your car neer the station.

But remember, you don't have to vote for the clowns that are ultimately responsible for UK transport policies but as long as you do, please don't complain too lowdly!

Where's my comment gone ???

I'd be delighted to use trains if I could afford them, but as it's usually an early start or a last-minute job that necessitates a journey for which a train is actually a possibility, I rarely find a Leeds-London ticket for less than £50. Yes, it's fine if you can plan 3 months in advance and only want to travel mid-morning in either direction, but otherwise you're out of luck, and if you want to come home on a Sunday, you've had it unless you're a millionaire.
A weekend break in London? No chance!

This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.

This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.

Before I passed my driving test, I was using the train and bus services to travel 14 miles (one-way) every weekday morning and then another 14 miles back home during the afternoon rush-hour. Because of bad connections, it was taking 1hr 45mins in the morning and 1hr 30minutes on the way home! These figures are without any delays so picture what it would have been like had i missed a train or when such problems as signal failure occured? Not to mention - for the privelege of this wonderful service i paid £60/week. Now I can drive and it takes me 35minutes to do the same journey and costs only £20/week plus other expenses such as insurance and tax.
If trains were more regular, had more space to sit, called at more stations, had good connections and were cost effective, then i might consider using them again. I think at the end of the day it always boils down to the same things - time and money.

If I was able to be picked up from my door and arrive at the door of my destination, if I could listen to my own choice of music at whatever volume I see fit, if I could be guaranteed not to hear the noise of other people. Until this day arrives (and because infrastructure in the country is going backwards, not forwards it won't) I will take the car everytime.

I'd take the train to work but it would involve a 2 mile drive to the station as there aren't any buses, pay for parking and ticket. The choice of 1 train at 8.10- if that is delayed or cancelled, waiting for another hour or driving to work anyway (after already shelling out for parking). I'd rather drive in the comfort of my own car. Until the Government decide to make public transport (especially in rural areas) a viable and cost effective alternative to driving I'll be taking the road.

I think you need to look no further than corruption for the state of the rail network.at least 9 years now the railways have been in private hands. those companies KNEW the state of the network when they all vied to take them over. if you buy a business thats flagging you cant go to the government for tax payers money to bail you out,unlike the rail owners can. You'd be told "you knew what it was like when you bought it"why doesn't the government make them run an efficiant service? because they must be getting some kind of kick back from some where. I bet the directors give themselves a fat bonus every year and the government don't say "NO WAY put that money into improving the service you wanted to run". after all you all promised a better service.wrong leaves, too hot, too cold. i suppose it will be too bright next for an excuse. india, sri lanka, and other poor countries can run a rail network efficiantly,without modern rolling stock, and the people put their washing on the lines to dry(I've seen it) their trains run on time.it's about time there was a massive demonstration in this country. more and more taxes, and less and less to show for them.

Why do we keep spending money repairing old, out of date, had its day, unsafe rail networks, when for not much more money we could possibly consider a completly new overhead rail system - operated on a vacuun principle. Travelling over cities and farm land without disrupting and dividing communities at ground level, able to travel at great speeds from city to city. Perhaps that is too simple or futuristic!

Before I retired :-

Jouney to work by car 35 mins. Includes 10 min walk from car park
Journey to work by train 15 mins. includes 10 min walk to and from stations.
Journey by pedal cycle 15 mins.
Walking all the way. 40 mins.

For the last 5 yrs I cycled every day summer and winter. on a dedicated cycle/footpath on a closed railway line ( oh why oh why were these lines closed, they would be so useful today)