Truckers

There's always the option of laying new tracks. IIRC there's a central
England line that was previously closed and all it needs is 3 compulsory
purchase orders to get all the track bed available.

 

Actually, that is *exactly* what has been happening over the last
several decades. OK, more goods moved by road, but definitely fewer
vehicles and fewer drivers, as distribution gets more efficient and as
truck payloads go up.

 

From what I remember from my days at the Freight Transport Association,
yes, this is exactly the point.

 

They tried to get a new rail link from the NW down to the Channel ports,
by plotting a new loop around the west of London. The NIMBYs and
tree-huggers put an early stop to that.

 

That's very true, also.

Well, the small guys are dropping out anyway, and have been for years.
Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want to become an owner-operator,
unless it's the thrill of the open road and the freedom to wear makeup,
perched high above the traffic.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

My father and another guy ran their own haulage business[1] in Belfast back
in the '70s, had half a dozen artics[2], seemed to go well enough until his
health took a turn for the worse and he had to give it up. He'd been a
transport manager for Cawoods for years previously, so he knew his stuff.

[1]Expressways Ltd
[2]I remember at least a couple of Atkinsons.

 

Ooh! Seddies!

 

Yes. Agree absolutely. This was shown at the time of the fuel blockades
in, erm, 2001?

Er, no, not completely. It was also a conscious decision by the then
government to prune the rail network in order to help stimulate the then
motor industry. And road transport *is* more efficient than rail, for
almost everything. But fragile, as you say.

Disagree here.

This seems to disregard the fact that you still need road vehicles to
get the goods from the railheads to the stores (or whatever).

Good insight.

As far as freight goes, forget it. Rail can't do it. Not any more,
except for certain high-speed bulk loads moved during the hours of
darkness.

 

There was that advert a little while back on the tellybox where some guy
spent a while using ace computer software to bundle up some funky
documents into a cool presentation and then used miracle fiber
technology to send it tens of thousands of miles in a couple of seconds
so some chubby exec could read it on the other side of the world.
I recall thinking it was pretty cool what IBM could do, and how cute
their advert was till three sharply dressed twats walked into the dudes
office and won the contract because they'd used BA's super duper polluty
flying train service to go and shake his hand. What a waste of 14 hours
of three people's time.

It's hugely depressing that that's 'what smacks of quality' and would
get rewarded over actual intelligent content. However, since it's an
advert it's all fantasy anyway. I just hate flying and like emails.
Apologies for wasting so much of your time if you read this far.

 

I remember that advert. What it didn't show you was that the three SDTs won
the contract on the basis of a product that wasn't actually ready, what they
did deliver was so underspecced to cut costs that the client was getting
enterprise-wide outages on three out of five days, and they were talking to
each other through lawyers within six months.

 

The Great Central Line? Yep, I used to pass over/under various parts of
it and found out a little bit about it years ago. Strikes me as a Good
Idea to get it working again, especially as I see a time when trains
will once again seem like a good thing.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

platypus wrote:

yes, but they achieved it by wasting HUGE resources; which is the
measure of success. If you can afford to waste it, you must have TONS of
the stuff </battle of the sexes/argument for bling>

Also, I read that as STDs and assumed they caught them from all that
handshaking.

 

Ooh! Seddies![/QUOTE]

Foden. The one true lorry.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

Is there money to be made!

 

Foden. The one true lorry.[/QUOTE]

I remember seeing an ERF with <pERFick!> painted on it.

 

Well, I thought that they're not going to be doing much business without an
office in-country staffed with people who can go in front of the customer
without making fools of themselves.

Heh. I've been working for an outfit that does water treatment and
legionella compliance and stuff. These guys /know/ about aerosols and
organisms in water droplets and similar, yet /none of them/ closed the lid
on the toilet in the office before flushing.

 

Point of order. Shouldn't this have been x-posted to uk.whining.truckers
or whatever?

 

Foden. The one true lorry.[/QUOTE]

Nah. Atkinson 8-wheeler.

 

I'd say it's at capacity and in some areas beyond it.

 

And then some. It's the biggest problem we have at the moment and
freight is the loser as aggregates, steel and coal can't vote.

Crossrail is a major win for the passenger but will effectively banish
freight trains from within the M25 area of London.

Relatively modest investment in key areas will bring real dividends.
Unfortunately due to accounting models and the very short franchise lives
there is little likelihood of it happening.