A New High Quality Transport System for Leeds

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Tue 04 Aug, 2009 9:29 pm

Cardiarms wrote: And cross rail is going ahead while Standing Room Only Transpennine Express gets no better.If you draw a circle centred on Saddleworth Moor that takes in Leeds and Manchester, you realise ho poor the connections between the towns in that circle is, let alone within the towns. Ah, Transpennine Express - with it's shiny new trains that actually have less seats than the ones they replaced....not got a lot of publicity that fact, I wonder why?And lets not forget that several of those shiny new diesel trains, ordered specifically for the trans pennine routes are now being used to run betwixt Manchester and Scotland on the fully electrified West Coast Mainline...You really couldn't make this governments transport policy up.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Tue 04 Aug, 2009 11:08 pm

[quotenick="raveydavey"] Cardiarms wrote: And cross rail is going ahead while Standing Room Only Transpennine Express gets no better.And lets not forget that several of those shiny new diesel trains, ordered specifically for the trans pennine routes are now being used to run betwixt Manchester and Scotland on the fully electrified West Coast Mainline...You really couldn't make this governments transport policy up. Oh please don't remind me of this scandal. August Bank Holiday Monday 2008 three of us returned from Edinburgh to Manchester with reserved seats. The train is scheduled to be six coaches - 2 sets of Trans-Pennine three car units. The platform at Edinburgh resembled the Wembley Cup Final as the THREE car train pulled in. A harassed porter advised - "Forget your reserved seats - just dive on and sit where you can if you're lucky !!" Well we DID get seats - in that ridiculous narrow gangway adjacent to the overflowing toilet.Before the train left there were bodies standing everywhere, and sitting in every available inch of the gangways with luggage. What a sad mockery this makes of "Please familiarise yourselves with the safety notices at both ends of the coaches." Please believe me I am not being crude here, but the entire journey to Manchester condemned us to being within inches of the toilet door - it was never vacant for a moment and you might as well be in there with the user due to the acoustics and close proximity. Regardless of overcrowding or otherwise those two double seats should be removed from that narrow passage in the interests of public decency.What an utter disgrace !!

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Tue 04 Aug, 2009 11:12 pm

Yeah, but apart from that, was it on time?

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Tue 04 Aug, 2009 11:33 pm

Cardiarms wrote: Yeah, but apart from that, was it on time? Well yes, if I remember rightly it was on time - a bloomin' good job too, because I don't think we'd have survived those awful conditions much longer !! :9

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Tue 04 Aug, 2009 11:37 pm

Cardiarms wrote: Yeah, but apart from that, was it on time? And they expect you to use public transport! What a joke!

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Tue 04 Aug, 2009 11:52 pm

BLAKEY wrote: Cardiarms wrote: Yeah, but apart from that, was it on time? Well yes, if I remember rightly it was on time - a bloomin' good job too, because I don't think we'd have survived those awful conditions much longer !! :9 The old days could be equally as bad. I remember a 6 hour (yes 6) journey from Birmingham in the middle of winter, at night, no heating and old carriages with windows that didn't close. circa 78.

rangieowner · Post by **rangieowner** » Sat 15 Aug, 2009 12:55 pm

[quotenick="raveydavey"] Cardiarms wrote: You really couldn't make this governments transport policy up. Yeah you can.....and they did and continue to do so!! lol

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sat 22 Aug, 2009 6:28 pm

I was on site at Ayres Road (near Old Trafford cricket ground) Manchester yesterday. They're having another MetroLink line, this time it will run from Rochdale, through Oldham, to the city centre and then on to Didsbury. The section on Ayres Road is on redundant track bed closed by Beeching. They've already go two lines, Bury to Altrincham and Picadilly to Eccles. What has Manchester got that Leeds hasn't?

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Sun 23 Aug, 2009 4:30 pm

Trojan wrote: I was on site at Ayres Road (near Old Trafford cricket ground) Manchester yesterday. They're having another MetroLink line, this time it will run from Rochdale, through Oldham, to the city centre and then on to Didsbury. The section on Ayres Road is on redundant track bed closed by Beeching. They've already go two lines, Bury to Altrincham and Picadilly to Eccles. What has Manchester got that Leeds hasn't? A council that goes out of it's way to court government money whilst slavishly toeing the (Labour) party line, plus Labour MP's who actually do things for their area, rather than remaining anonymous.Leeds was set to have the flawed tram system approved until the Labour council was voted out by the electorate as the "condition" of getting the tram money was that "congestion charging" would be introduced at the same time. Remember the gantries all over South Leeds for the pilot scheme at the time?As soon as Labour were out and the Lib-Con alliance was in place (that had said all along that it would only consider introducing "congestion" charging when a viable alternative transport system was in place), the whole issue became a political hot potato and the government withdrew funding.Notice how much the Greater Manchester (there's an oxymoron) councils are pushing to get the public there to vote for "congestion" charging now - they've already been defeated once, but are set to drag the whole thing back again.

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sun 23 Aug, 2009 6:42 pm

raveydavey wrote: Notice how much the Greater Manchester (there's an oxymoron) councils are pushing to get the public there to vote for "congestion" charging now - they've already been defeated once, but are set to drag the whole thing back again. They certainly voted against it. But money or no money this thing is acutally happnening, they're driving piles now - I know I was inspecting the pile driver.