(07 Nov 2016, 8:45 pm)8222 wrote Little iPlayer watch:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08...our-trains

Oh joy! Usually about twice per year these sort of 'documentaries' appear.
Lots and lots of blunders. Can't resist having a dig at the Pacers (whereby no mention of the new units being built and others cascaded was said, funny that!), of course lots of anger at Southern for recent events (in turn to the unions rightly stepping up and fighting back the dangerous removal of guards on trains) and shock horror, trains in/out of London at peak times are often busy! :O :O
Very small section on Crossrail (obviously that is a solution to a problem so cannot be given much airtime) but surely that shows that the Government is concerned and actioning various things to relieve the stress on the railway?

Of course, as mentioned, most of these issues end up to DfT. So contrary to everyone's rants and ravings saying how useless TOCs are (even featuring a ludicrous 'Bring Back British Rail' march at one of the London termini by clueless people who think passenger numbers will instantly fall to BR days levels) it's not their direct fault. As an aside in my opinion the last thing the railways need is nationalisation.

Apparently GWR has the last "dining car" left in the UK too! Funny that really when all of the long-distance London based TOCs have 1st class dining too.
Oh and lastly, for a programme made in November 2016 the changes from April 2016 with franchise names were not even considered. The Abellio Greater Anglia logo flashed up (now just Greater Anglia) as well as Northern Rail being mentioned several times.


Note all points above are my opinion.