HS2 coming about 2 miles away…they’ve just started work again…
That is gaudy as!! Money can’t buy you style or class. I expected something a little more reserved from Gareth Barry! haha
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There’s a good train station in Helsby, plus it’s close to Liverpool John Lennon airport…plus it’s cheaper than Barry’s old house!
…
Or this one in Antrobus:
Finally, this one is used in the Real Housewives…
Well, it has a bar & games room, what did you expect? Is the pool table red? 
(I haven’t looked at the pics)
Just had a look at the pics. F* me, that’s like a really expensive Barratt show home. Hideous. Are all the pictures black & white, or is that the colour scheme (monochrome)? 
It’s the interior design equivalent of shiny tie with a giant knot.
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According to Wazza Gazza, Justin Beiber stayed in the Helsby one on some or other tour. Life in Cheshire hey, never a dull moment.
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That 12-bed Grade 1 Listed place; £3.95m to buy it …and probably the same again over the next 10 years to maintain it 
Unless I win big on t’Lotto I’m not buying something 200 years old again; even if it only has 4 beds. Too much on-going maintenance.
Every time someone tries to start a new thread when another goes O/T…and it gets derailed.
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This one has definitely gone off track.
We definitely need to guard against it happening.
Back on topic…I spent 2.5 years getting the shoddy old FTPE service from Sheffield to Manchester - it was often cancelled, late and turned up as half a train.
FINALLY…five years later, their new rolling stock has hit the lines (Leeds - Manchester) and it is looking GOOD!!!
https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/travelling-with-us/the-nova-fleets
It’s just a signal that the country is on the rails.
Maybe, if we station more guards it would be electrifying.
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I’m Choo-choosing to ignore these puns.
Poet is cutting through all the puns with his tunnel vision: a better future for our railways.
The situation in LOndon cannot be improved much in less than a couple of decades - too many people, no enough track space and operating on the limit of signalling technology. All they can do is gradually introduce new signalling systems so they can run trains closer together and stretch the size of trains by increasing platform length but I doubt even thoose will keep up with sdands growth.
There’s not much more can be done as long as trains have to share tracks. The current model is fine but its biggest hurdel is the failure of Network rail to keep the tracks going well enough. The private sector is no longer interested as its just a whipping boy for the government and the returns are no longer worth the bad press.
Outside of London there’s plenty that could be done, but as far as inside the M25 is concerned, I’d just carry on as is and try and persuade companies to set up outside London. My employers CHQ was 350 people in Central London - its now only about 50 with the rest sent back to the Midlands and the office moved right next to Kings Cross so that if someone really does need to visit, they can walk from KX rather than tube/tax for 40 minutes.
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I think the current model is rubbish. The franchises are subsidised to the tune of approx. £5bn a year, so we’re all paying anyway. A series of short term monopolies means almost zero competition between franchises and they don’t have a massive incentive to invest in rolling stock because the lead time compared to franchise length.
IMO either re-nationalise or create proper competition with franchises having to compete for customers.
The reason subsidies are there is to pay for the uneconomic lines.
No subsidies means lines close and fares rise.
Honestly, do you really think it’s money just given for nothing ?
The subsidies are peanuts overall. Opinions are fine but try not to look like you know nothing otherwise you are Jeremy Corbyn.
I am no Corbyn fan.
But…
Personally attacking Corbyn (and fellow forumite pacha) in this way is bad form in my opinion GrahamO.
It really grinds me to have to vote for him, which I may do this time around as being the best of a bad ego fuelled power grabbing bunch (read do least short term harm to me and my family, though medium term I probably have the same worrying concerns as you GrahamO).
But…
I am sure he knows something, it simply cannot be factually correct that he knows nothing. After all he knows enough to get Momemtum behind him, and to stay in power when so many want shot of him.
And some of what he says is correct, eg Universal Credit has for a decade driven fear into hundreds of thousands to millions. It has aided I’ll health and arguably killed people (I know you think that ok, I see it as terrorism). He is right food banks are a disgrace, as is unnecessary homelessness. The extra NHS pressure from worry, fear, lack of food and sleeping rough, and in my case, having to consider refusing cancer treatment to avoid potential homelessness (one of many considerations, but I am taking treatment which is going well my cancer, while Incurable is controlled until it isn’t in due course), all matter. Maybe not to you GrahamO, but to our society, and to how effective the NHS can be, matter. So he knows something.
Personal attacks on opponents is sadly a common routine normalised strategy nowadays. It’s also one reason our politics is in such a mess.
You are clearly an Intelligent man GrahamO, please stop falling down the rabbit hole of character assassinations. Please. Whether a fellow forumite, pacha, or Corbyn.
Be the light of illumination. Not the darkness.
Don’t worry SS, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I am surprised he’s all for subsidising private companies though. I don’t think the subsidies are for nothing, they’re there so the companies can continue to operate and make a profit.
I am not saying we should re-nationalise but that I think doing either that or introducing proper competition for passengers would likely be an improvement. I certainly don’t want a train service ran by the RMT.
Then you are truly ignorant.
I know what the subsidies are there for as I have actually seen and read multiple franchise agreements but I guess that means nothing. Remove the subsidies if you like but all that happens as I’ve said is the price goes up because the costs will still occur and for some lines like a few where they have 20-30 passengers a day, they will shut. Sorry if you cannot cope with facts.
How would you introduce ‘proper competition’ with shared tracks and shared stations as its not like a road where anything can arrive and leave in any order. Go on, lets hear what your brilliant ideas are that nobody in the last two decades has thought of ?
Admit it - you havent the faintest idea but just ‘think’ there is one.