The Cost and Funding of Transit Systems
 

On 2014-04-25 08:51, Recliner wrote:
Hils wrote:
On 2014-04-25 02:22, Aurora wrote:
September 1, this penny pinching madness will affect the rest of the
UK. Network Rail will no longer be able to borrow against its assets
like a private business. It will be subject to the availability of
funds from HM Treasury. The chancellor will have to balance railway
infrastructure improvements against funds for hospitals and schools.

We have enjoyed a period of continual improvement. Capacity has been
increased with improved junctions and enlarged facilities.

Reading may be the last hurrah. It is back to Penney pinching
decline. Single lead junctions anyone?

I wouldn't bank on there being many new hospitals or schools either. The
oligarchs don't want taxpayers money to do anything useful like build
public infrastructure when they can get it into their own pockets directly.

Those mysterious oligarchs are obviously deeply incompetent:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23080327

Refurbishing or replacing existing schools.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-s...wales-26526380

Wales. Old Labour. :-)

http://www.theconstructionindex.co.u...-hs2-engineers

"Plans... intention..." And who needs HS2 anyway? :-)

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...-queen-4870398

"Private Finance Initiative".

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/wy...-trust-6293381

"Private Finance Initiative". Costs were cut not by throwing out the PFI
but by reducing the size of the hospital originally planned.

http://www.papworthhospital.nhs.uk/c...worth_hospital

"PFI".

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't PFIs resulted
in taxpayers paying huge amounts into hedge funds for the hire of
hospitals and schools?[*] Let me guess... the Conservative-led
coalition's PFIs will be different from New Labour's PFIs...

BTW most of the projects mentioned are replacements for existing
facilities. This may not meet everyone's idea of "new" since few
additional hospital beds or school places are likely to result.
[*] One of my friends teaches at a PFI school. If the teachers organise
any event outside strict school hours, they have to organise it well in
advance through a Japanese facilities management company. I daresay the
investors, managers and investment managers of the facilities management
company like this arrangement, but ISTM that it sucks.

Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off
 

In article
,
(Recliner) wrote:

Yes, it's one of the mysteries of OSI, which was designed to benefit
users, but sometimes costs them for reasons that aren't instantly obvious.
I hadn't come across this variant before; more commonly, it attempts to
combine two fairly lengthy but legit journeys to create one that breaks
journey time limits, thus creating two (expensive) unresolved journeys. I
really think the algorithm in that case should be smarter, and it should
abort the attempted combination of multiple OSI journeys if it would lead
to unresolved compound journeys.

I agree. OSIs are nothing like as helpful as they are touted and should have
sanity checks. In fact any putative unresolved journey should be subject to
sanity checks for possibly legitimate journeys. I realise that may be
impossible for the original Oyster technology but the system is changing.
The helpline should be a lot more generous about refunds in the meantime.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off
 

On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 10:47:36 -0500, wrote:
Not useful, unless you're in the tiny minority that have memorised
what
the fares should be and who know what their card balance is at all
times. And you still have to stop and bend down to see what it says
while the person behind is trying to push you through the gate because
they're not expecting you to stop and admire the scenery.

I think you exaggerate somewhat. The gates that tell are easy enough to with
minimal delay. Most in central London don't give out the information though.

The older pneumatic gates should have a display on exit like the one
in http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ter-Reader.jpg

Is VAT still charged on motor insurance policies? A very nice earner for The Treasury.

Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off
 

wrote

(Recliner) wrote:

Yes, it's one of the mysteries of OSI, which was designed to benefit
users, but sometimes costs them for reasons that aren't instantly
obvious. I hadn't come across this variant before; more commonly, it
attempts to combine two fairly lengthy but legit journeys to create one
that breaks journey time limits, thus creating two (expensive)
unresolved journeys. I really think the algorithm in that case should be
smarter, and it should
abort the attempted combination of multiple OSI journeys if it would lead
to unresolved compound journeys.

I agree. OSIs are nothing like as helpful as they are touted and should
have
sanity checks. In fact any putative unresolved journey should be subject to
sanity checks for possibly legitimate journeys. I realise that may be
impossible for the original Oyster technology but the system is changing.
The helpline should be a lot more generous about refunds in the meantime.


As noted elsethread the contactless card implementation should be able to do
better since it can see the whole day.
Oyster has to make its decisions step by step with a possible batch refund
the next day - do these still occur ?


--
Mike D

Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off
 

Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off
 

In article ,
(David Walters) wrote:

On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 10:47:36 -0500, wrote:
Not useful, unless you're in the tiny minority that have memorised what
the fares should be and who know what their card balance is at all
times. And you still have to stop and bend down to see what it says
while the person behind is trying to push you through the gate because
they're not expecting you to stop and admire the scenery.

I think you exaggerate somewhat. The gates that tell are easy
enough to with minimal delay. Most in central London don't give out
the information though.

The older pneumatic gates should have a display on exit like the onein
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ter-Reader.jpg

I'm not sure they all have that display next to the touch pad. I think they
didn't use to.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off
 

On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 20:34:46 -0500
Recliner wrote:
Presumably you're ignoring the taxes and duties made on road vehicle sales,
fuel and ownership, all of which rise with more roads and their usage?
They greatly exceed the cost of building and maintaining roads. Roads make
a clear direct profit for the Treasury and the economy, while railway

Got any proof of that? Ie returns on vehicle tax and fuel vs road maintenance
and building budget.

--
Spud

Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off
 

On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 23:18:16 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 18:47:07 GMT, d wrote:
Naturally :) Because it makes sense.

Modest as ever I see.

One tries, but its so hard sometimes surrounded by intellectual pygmies ;)

I don't disagree with what you say but I'm not the person who has to
be persuaded.

Fair enough.

--
Spud

The Cost and Funding of Transit Systems
 

On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 18:22:44 -0700
Aurora wrote:
On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 18:47:07 GMT, d wrote:
The government and Mayor are forcing TfL to make their rail services
all run at an operating profit and make surpluses to fund some of
their investment funding. New York's transit funding is notoriously
bad and unpredictable and looking at their current budget there is a
massive operating loss of nearly $6bn just on the Subway and Staten

This time Boltar, I am absolutely with you. Much as I would like to

Boltar? Never heard of him. Sounds like the sort of name someone who was
usually right would have though...

September 1, this penny pinching madness will affect the rest of the
UK. Network Rail will no longer be able to borrow against its assets
like a private business. It will be subject to the availability of
funds from HM Treasury. The chancellor will have to balance railway
infrastructure improvements against funds for hospitals and schools.

Nothing the treasury does surprised me. Bunch of washed up idiots with no
clue about basic economics its seems to me. Any idiot can cut everything
tory style of empty the piggy bank labour style, it takes someone smart to
figure out a 3rd option.

--
Spud