M42 Trailer ban in lane 2

[the other tom]

Moving freight by rail worked in the past and now with modern technology it ought to be a much superior method of transporting goods and supplying industry with materials and components than with totally inefficient trucks.The benefits to motorists, the country and the environment are enormous. Money collected from taxes should be used extensively to open up our rail and canal networks again.

yes but how long will you wait for it when they go strike !!!!!

 

[Steve L]

I can see this has turned into a stab at truckers day. Not fair!!

They have a hard enough day as it is battleing against the tacho, speed limiter and the transport manager on the phone "are you there yet, are you there yet".

The quote on the 7.5 ton limit forlane two is right, so us caravanners aren't affected.

Anyway I more often than not find it's a solo car driver that hold's me up on whatever type of road Im on. And before you lot start it's not always a woman with her hand bag on the gear lever!!

The boys in blue are good at causing rolling traffic jams, driving at 55Mph so that Mr "I must not go over 60" takes ages to pass them.

Just drive normal at take the day as it comes, why build more stress in the "stressed Eric" world we live in today.

Chill have a bud.

 

[Icemaker]

Hi to everyone, As a train driver i can only start to tell you of the amount of railway sidings that are closed or derilict from under use, most of these sidings where previously used for goods movements and could easily be renovated and re-used. unfortunately we have one major hurdle, our beloved government has no intention of making the railways any more attractive to freight than they have of refunding all our councill tax, they recently cancelled a sceme whereby they gave subsidies to companies who opened rail freight terminals so companies who want to transfer to rail no longer can unless they fund the project themselves, would you pay for a railway then hand it to network rail becouse it became part of theire network, i dont think anyone would. The railway companies want the work and we are getting it, three hundred thousand extra lorry journys where removed from the road to rail last year on top of the original work, a lorry can carry 40 ton a train can carry 3000 ton both with one engine, ok a train uses a large amount of fuel when on full power and only does about 1 mile to the gallon but once on the move it will coast on tickover for 50 plus miles before needing about half power to get back to speed, on average this gives the train round about 20 miles to the gallon. it may be of interest to you to have a look at the a web site regarding a company who want to build and run a freight only rail line from the channel tunnel to liverpool usin mostly existing disused and used rail lines, they want to electrify it throughout and have wagons where lorry's can be driven straight on and off. have a look at. www.central-railways.co.uk

 

[PaulCopaul]

It works in Germany so why not in UK? Just get used to it.

thats because Mike we are a smal island with as many auto routes as Germany and a lot more trucks because they are all coming over here and blocking our roads

 

[PaulCopaul]

So once again some jobsworth in the ministry has screwed the lorry driver over.

It's all very well to say they can pull over and have a cup of tea, but it doesn't work like that in reality. It's probably the biggest blow to haulage since the advent of the speed limiter. And that my friends is the reason for all the queues in the first place. Two trucks travelling on a motorway (speed limit 60mph) are 'on the limiter' at 90kmph(56mph). However one is actually set at 89 and one at 91, which is very prevalent. Now there is a differential of 2kmph. Not much at all you might think, but over ten or so miles you will catch up to the slower set truck and gradually overhaul it. Unfortunately it just takes so damn long to do because of the limiter. If there was no limiter, you could pour on more coal, pass and pull in again with little inconvenience to following traffic and all without exceeding the speed limit for the vehicle. Unfortunately Mr Jobsworth's speed limiter does away with the driver's better view of what's going on around him, but Mr Jobsworth knows better as he drives a desk all day.

So people, don't be too quick to blame the lorry driver as he is just trying to earn a living while attempting to keep to normally impossible work schedules. If you are caught in a traffic jam on the way to your holiday destinationb because a caravan has overturned, it's inconvenient but that's all. For the guy in the Artic beside you it probably means he will miss his timed booking at Bloggs Foods, who will then make him sit there all day "because we're fully booked today but we might get a cancellation". This causes a knock on effect for the rest of his deliveries/collections and in a worst-case scenario, can mean a weekend out in the cab away from home and family.

What a great life it is as a lorry driver......

Iam with you all the way on that one Dean,what people seem to forget is that this lttle old island of ours depends heavy on road transport and that a lot of it travels at night time

love to see cars get bogged down with speed regulators,tacho regs and the working time directive

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

Hi to everyone, As a train driver i can only start to tell you of the amount of railway sidings that are closed or derilict from under use, most of these sidings where previously used for goods movements and could easily be renovated and re-used. unfortunately we have one major hurdle, our beloved government has no intention of making the railways any more attractive to freight than they have of refunding all our councill tax, they recently cancelled a sceme whereby they gave subsidies to companies who opened rail freight terminals so companies who want to transfer to rail no longer can unless they fund the project themselves, would you pay for a railway then hand it to network rail becouse it became part of theire network, i dont think anyone would. The railway companies want the work and we are getting it, three hundred thousand extra lorry journys where removed from the road to rail last year on top of the original work, a lorry can carry 40 ton a train can carry 3000 ton both with one engine, ok a train uses a large amount of fuel when on full power and only does about 1 mile to the gallon but once on the move it will coast on tickover for 50 plus miles before needing about half power to get back to speed, on average this gives the train round about 20 miles to the gallon. it may be of interest to you to have a look at the a web site regarding a company who want to build and run a freight only rail line from the channel tunnel to liverpool usin mostly existing disused and used rail lines, they want to electrify it throughout and have wagons where lorry's can be driven straight on and off. have a look at. www.central-railways.co.uk

Thats what happens in France and Spain, the trailer units are loaded on to wagons. The tractor units hook up to the trailers at the railheads and deliver them locally. Thats why in France you have miles of open roads. If they can do it so can we, after all they arent a third world country.