Name and shame?

[Icemaker]

Diane, before you jump on the band wagon you should check your facts; tesco may have looked at this ten years ago and at the time found it to be un workable BUT we are talking NOW and tesco are doing it on a large scale; see,

http://philmason.fotopic.net/p34974781.html
You will notice the wagons say "less co2" its a play on words work it out.

I dont have the time or space to list every other supermarket or retailer or manufacturer that has switched to rail in the past few years but believe me i drive these trains and we are busy busy busy taking freight and passengers off the road.

Dont become complacent we will still need lorries but as i said they will only be used for short point to point trips, long distance (100 mile or more) road haulage is definately on its way out.

 

[Navman]

Icemaker i road haulage is on the way out why is it that this country is short of twenty thousand truck drivers?

 

[Icemaker]

maybee with all the bad press people know its no longer a job for life so not worth doing, i don't know, what i do know is i have a neighbour who is a class one driver and is on many agency books but rarely gets any long term work so the country cant be that desperate for drivers.

On the other hand my employer has over the past 3 years taken on and trained over 200 new train drivers.

 

[Val & Frank]

Hi Colin,

In the American model, does the driver of the lorry go on the train with his truck ?? Otherwise it requires two drivers one at each end ???

Frank

 

[Icemaker]

Hi colin the proposals for the chanel tunnel to liverpool docks via london sheffield and manchester line are to use lorry on trains stock hauled by conventional electric locomotives.

see;

http://www.translinkuk.com/news/2006-02-20.pdf
This proposal now has funding but needs final planning permission, the firm that plans to operate the line is central railways and they have a good website with all the proposals for you to see.

have a look at;

http://www.central-railway.co.uk/
I think most of the population agree that the roads have got to be cleared of un nessesary traffic whether it be comercial or private and rail is the answer regardless of what some may think, the trains i work are packed all day long as others have pointed out you just cant get a seat.

To answer your question on the lorry driver once the wagon is on the train, the driver will go with his vehicle on the train but he/ she will be in a seperate coach much like the channel tunnel for safety and comfort reasons.

 

[Icemaker]

sorry the above is in reply to frank not colin.

 

[Val & Frank]

No problem,

What about the drivers time for his tacho ? Would the train count as rest I wonder. The tunnel is only minutes not like a drag from Liverpool to Paris or Bonn etc. By the way I am not against the Railways !!!

Frank

 

[Icemaker]

i dont know the laws on tacho's Frank but i would think that since the driver is away from his vehicle he is "at rest" so the journey will not count towards his hours.

Never once thought you where against the railways just took it that you had a genuine interest, i just wish the press would be a bit more upbeat about these proposals, all of us in the rail industry know how much better the trains are these days and how reliable and punctual they are.

Ive only had 1 delay report this year and that was for 3 minuites lost between liverpool and manchester when i had to stop in an emergency due to kids standing on the line playing chicken.

The big problem is we get no good press at all just negative remarks from the press and they are very reluctant to let the public know just what we are doing to make the railways so much better, did you know the uk now has the most modern fleet of trains in europe ?.

 

[Val & Frank]

Hi Icebreaker

Great picture of the Stobart train, that's not a new engine though !!!!!!!!

Frank

 

[johnwolves]

hi ice which company you work for ? . i work for alstom in wolves maintain virgin pendos . been on railway 28 years

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

They've been putting lorry trailers on flat bed wagons for years in France/Spain and maybe Italy. The tractor unit brings the loaded trailer to the rail head and another tractor unit takes it on once at its destination.

I recall stood on Avignon station one night and freights were running two/three abreast. Some of the trains seemed to be about 3/4 mile long, went on for ages.

Those trains who stopped to be relieved by another driver were away again in 30 seconds and by the time the tailend left the station the train was doing about 60.

I do recall a lot of the lorry trailers were loaded with fruit, mainly strawberries from Spain.

In France 40% of goods go by train, 40% by road and 20% still by water.

Stand on a motorway bridge and see lorries for mile after mile, nose to tail, and somethings got to give.

Britains transport system is inherited from the days of Ernest Marples, Tory Transport Minister who had his own construction company (built the M1) and own transport business, Marples Transport.

It was also him who employed an accountant from ICI Fibres to rip the heart out of the railways, the infamous Dr. Beeching.

 

[Diane1]

And Carneforth is where?

Sorry Icemaker, it will never happen in the bigger scheme of things.

We have today been called in for the future launch:- That is not included and could not be included. What i have seen today makes that laughable.

As i said trains are badley maintained and very unreliable and out dated.

It will never be cost effective and that is why this type of transport is only used on the smaller scale rather than the larger. I work in what we call a Cat 6 store, there is no way on gods green earth that we could recieve our daily deliveries on a white Van .We have 40 - 50 cages on A wave and maybe 25-30 on top up.

I don't even think i could get my Pfs deliveries on a Van! not with Grocery sales of 20K+ a week and that with out looking at fuel.

 

[Icemaker]

Hello John, i work for Northern rail working out of manchester victoria.

I did apply for virgin but they only had vacancies on cross country and a lot of x / c staff at piccadilly where being moved to preston and leeds so it was no use to me.

had a look at freight recently and found some vacancies at EWS in buxton but this would mess up my weekends in the van, i only work for 4 days a week and get fri through to wed off every 3 weeks so northern are ideal for a caravanner.

Must admit though i would love to drive a pendo they look and perform fantastic, its such a shame we did not upgrade the west coast to 140 mph for them.

 

[johnwolves]

hi yes when they are running right they are brill , pity we did,nt have bottle years ago to percevere with tilt instead of selling it to italians

 

[colin(bridgend)]

And Carneforth is where?

Sorry Icemaker, it will never happen in the bigger scheme of things.

We have today been called in for the future launch:- That is not included and could not be included. What i have seen today makes that laughable.

As i said trains are badley maintained and very unreliable and out dated.

It will never be cost effective and that is why this type of transport is only used on the smaller scale rather than the larger. I work in what we call a Cat 6 store, there is no way on gods green earth that we could recieve our daily deliveries on a white Van .We have 40 - 50 cages on A wave and maybe 25-30 on top up.

I don't even think i could get my Pfs deliveries on a Van! not with Grocery sales of 20K+ a week and that with out looking at fuel.

Diane I provide at least

 

[Diane1]

Colin, i would'nt like to tell you what the store makes as you would choke! But i make one third of of the overall takings aweek.

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Colin, i would'nt like to tell you what the store makes as you would choke! But i make one third of of the overall takings aweek.

Why aren't you in work? Does your hubby know you are home?

 

[Diane1]

Colin, You spend

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Colin, You spend

 

[Diane1]

Day off today! Well not really, doing all the house work and painting the fence. Skiving off at the mo, waiting for some to answer the phone fron my car insurance company!

 

[Diane1]

Well kinda get paid , on a salary not a wage. So if i work more than 25 hours i still get the same amount of money. so i try not to work over to often! How ever if i don't work my 25hour week i am expected to pay the time back! Not really fare!

 

[Icemaker]

Hello again Diane, if you read my post at 7-17 you will see that i have allready stated that we will still need lorries and i have never said small white vans will replace them, i simply said the lorries will in the future just be doing short haul rather than long haul.

If you look again at the picture of the stobart / tesco train you will notice that the containers are designed to be lifted off the train and on to a articulated lorry which is exactely the same size as the ones that deliver to you today so you will still get your delivery as one load but possibly quite a bit sooner as the train is almost twice as fast as the lorry.

"As i said trains are badley maintained and very unreliable and out dated."

When did you last go on a train ? this country now has the most modern fleet of trains in europe, most are less than 5 years old, the class 66 freight locomotive is one of the most reliable locomotives in the world and this is the most heavily used locomotive in the country, (stobarts is just one)most if not all of the old br speed restrictions have now been removed due to new tracks being laid and stations have been upgraded at the rate of 5 a month.

My company (northern rail) probably has the oldest fleet of trains in the country we are still running class 142 and 15x most of which are approaching 20 years old and all have gone well over the 1 million mile mark but we still have a mile per casualty figure of over 10 thousand, you try running a 20 year old lorry for 10 thousand miles without a breakdown bearing in mind that trains run 24 hours a day at much higher speeds.

I would take a look and make my own mind up rather than relying on the outdated views of few bigoted members of the press who seem incapable of modernisation, you may just be surprised.

Any way this is a caravan forum i will talk trains all day if people are genuinely interested but i think this one has now run its course, only time will tell.

 

[colin(bridgend)]

25 hours a week - you don't call that work? When I was at Neath College I was 9:00am - 9:00pm Monday and Tuesday, 9:00am - 1:00pm Wesnesday, 9:00am - 7:30pm Thursday and 9:00am - 4:00pm Friday - a total of 45 hours a week. They did agree for me to have a 1 hour lunch break but that was generally spent eating and marking/preperation or what ever form was needed to fill.

 

[colin(bridgend)]

Icemaker Arriva trains in south Wales recently spent their allocated funding from the Welsh office in buying second hand Scot Rail stock. There is one service run by Arriva in the Gwent valley which is hauled by an EWS loco and pulling four coaches on long term lease from Pete Waterman.

 

[Diane1]

Hello again Diane, if you read my post at 7-17 you will see that i have allready stated that we will still need lorries and i have never said small white vans will replace them, i simply said the lorries will in the future just be doing short haul rather than long haul.

If you look again at the picture of the stobart / tesco train you will notice that the containers are designed to be lifted off the train and on to a articulated lorry which is exactely the same size as the ones that deliver to you today so you will still get your delivery as one load but possibly quite a bit sooner as the train is almost twice as fast as the lorry.

"As i said trains are badley maintained and very unreliable and out dated."

When did you last go on a train ? this country now has the most modern fleet of trains in europe, most are less than 5 years old, the class 66 freight locomotive is one of the most reliable locomotives in the world and this is the most heavily used locomotive in the country, (stobarts is just one)most if not all of the old br speed restrictions have now been removed due to new tracks being laid and stations have been upgraded at the rate of 5 a month.

My company (northern rail) probably has the oldest fleet of trains in the country we are still running class 142 and 15x most of which are approaching 20 years old and all have gone well over the 1 million mile mark but we still have a mile per casualty figure of over 10 thousand, you try running a 20 year old lorry for 10 thousand miles without a breakdown bearing in mind that trains run 24 hours a day at much higher speeds.

I would take a look and make my own mind up rather than relying on the outdated views of few bigoted members of the press who seem incapable of modernisation, you may just be surprised.

Any way this is a caravan forum i will talk trains all day if people are genuinely interested but i think this one has now run its course, only time will tell.

Go on the Train? Now you are having a laugh. If i went to Cardiff on the bus it would cost me