The Truth Behind Traingate

How Branson fleeces the public.

"During autumn 2011, Network Rail shut the line between Shrewsbury and Birmingham for engineering works on Sundays. Trains from mid-Wales were therefore diverted at Shrewsbury to Crewe in order to allow a satisfactory change for travellers bound for London. However, these travellers were charged nearly £10 more than the usual ticket price because Virgin Trains travelling from Crewe to
London would not accept the standard tickets issued
by Arriva Trains Wales via Birmingham, despite the fact that the standard tickets would also normally entail use
of a Virgin train from Birmingham onwards. The net
result was that passengers were charged more for the inconvenience that the railway was causing them. "

Did Corbyn pay the difference for the upgraded family, did they have to pay or was it a freebie? If Corbyn paid, why didn't he take the seats himself instead of uprooting this family, not that I expect they were complaining!

Snap again, trisher.
By the way, my grandson's recognition of different trains by their sound is even more impressive when standing on York Railway Museum's outside platform.

Sorry, but that shows Virgin East Coast at 85.2 having gone down 4.2 year on year.
Ist quarter 2015-16 was when Virgin took over. It was therefore 89.4 when Virgin took over.
When the publically run Eastcoast mainline was running, they were making a profit, and better satisfaction from the public.

Did you read your graph Primrose65? Virgin operated the East coast line at 85.2%- way below your figure for the franchise when it was publicly owned. You really should check things before you post. Passenger satisfaction was at a record 91% and there was money coming into public funds. But don't let reality get in the way of your prejudices.

Nationalised rail can't be run efficiently, at a profit and give customer satisfaction.- Well the evidence from the publicly run East Coast line disproves this.

The evidence from East Coast proves that privately run rail is more efficient trisher. It's easy to prove, as the public performance measure (PPM) shows the percentage of trains which arrive at their terminating station on time. It combines figures for punctuality and reliability into a single performance measure. The moving annual average PPM for East Coast at the end of its franchise was 88.2%.
Very few private train operating companies operate below that level.
You may want it to be the truth, but it just isn't. God help us going back to the days of British Fail.

Let's look at some of the mis-truths being posted on this thread and then some of the things that are really true.
Nationalised rail can't be run efficiently, at a profit and give customer satisfaction.- Well the evidence from the publicly run East Coast line disproves this.
All the people who post on here are Corbynistas or in some way idolise him. No we see in him a chance for real socialist policies which will stop our NHS being sold off and bring the rail system back into public ownership so the profits are spent in this country and not syphoned off into some tax haven.
Now the truths
Corbyn boarded a Virgin train in London and was unable to find a seat.
He walked right down the train and then sat on the floor. (If you've ever walked the length of a Virgin train when you reach the end you really do want to sit somewhere!)
He was offered 1st class seats and refused (5 1st class seats at about £100 difference in price would be a gift of approx £500. We all want our MPs to be free of corruption don't we? And who can doubt that Branson would have made something out of this)
He was then moved to seats when a family was offered 1st class seats.
Then it was publicised, then Branson published selected images to show it wasn't true.
The cameraman asked for all the footage, it took 7 months for Virgin to comply.
All those pontificating about if the seats should have been booked or if it was a stunt should realise they were misled by a man who has made billions and proposes to make billions more out of our public services. And they should ask themselves why they are so incensed about the actions of an elected politician and not particularly bothered about being fed lies by a man who stands to lose much if that politician comes to power? And if they are prepared to sacrifice democracy to big business?

Aren't they just!

I am not alone then ? They really are so alike

Last time a private company looked after our rail infrastructure (Railtrack) there were fatal accidents, which is why publicly owned Network Rail took over.

Same people who worked at Railtrack though & Network Rail contract out work - don't think they do it all in-house!

Yes Baggs, I thought the same, and similarities, both present themselves as man of the people ,Farage and his pint in the pubs, .Corbyn and his bike, but easy to see both cannot compromise, it's their way or no way, they are so alike

There can be no other explanation.

Suppose it's similar to the Farage craze , perhaps extremes in politics does this

I think you're spot on too Annie.

"Transport Minister Chris Grayling has started to realise we need 'one joined-up team of people' running our railway. Sadly, he's avoiding the obvious solution: public ownership. Instead, he wants to start handing control of train tracks to rail companies. This is a dangerous proposal. Last time a private company looked after our rail infrastructure (Railtrack) there were fatal accidents, which is why publicly owned Network Rail took over.

The government also wants Network Rail to sell off assets like train stations. Our report shows that sell offs would mean we lose £10 billion in ten years. It makes more sense to run our railway as an integrated network, not break it up into little pieces.
Passengers not convinced by privatisation

Millions of us use trains every day - last year a record 1.3 billion train trips were made. Yet 66% of the public want the railways to be in public ownership while only three in ten people trust the rail industry. Most of us believe the railways should be accountable to taxpayers rather than shareholders."

Suppose it's similar to the Farage craze , perhaps extremes in politics does this

Oof! Well said, annie. I think you're onto something there.
, cutting to the quick! After all, Corbyn mania arose out of populism, same as Farage populism.

No, Jalima, lots of people are talking about the overcrowded trains.
I know that djen I see it on our local news constantly.

I said something needs to be done but this has not helped in the slightest as it has become all about Corbyn.

There is clearly no bar on saying what you like about Corbyn, in defiance of the evidence.

Because of that I wonder if it is either a useful thread or one that is simple repeating the usual hate filled bile. I am inclined to agree with the latter.

'Brother, let me take the speck smut out of your eye'

lemongrove
Will it cost them seats?

It was the truth. I do not feel protective of a politician but I do feel protective of the truth. This is a truth we are talking about - and democracy.

Ha ha ha. I think you need to travel a bit yourself gg so you can recognise a PR stunt when you see one. Why he's rehashing an epic fail again is beyond me.

"^What Corbyn said about the train was the truth. That's all we need to be clear about^.
Truth is subjective. It isn't dictated. Whatever the "truth" of what went on with Corbyn and his train seat lies somewhere between what the right wingers on here believe and what the Corbinista despots insist is the truth. It's all rather reminiscent of the Andrew Mitchell affair. No one came out of that looking good either.

Will this thread soon run out of steam? ??

No, Jalima, lots of people are talking about the overcrowded trains.

Abellio run Scotrail. Scotrail do much better than Virgin, so I'm afraid Branson bashing it is.
Abellio is owned by the Dutch government.

It wasn't necessarily a pre arranged stunt, but it did draw attention to the situation on the trains.
Unfortunately, even if it wasn't a pre-arranged stunt, it has backfired because it has become less about over-crowding on the trains and all about Corbyn.