What if..... ?

[Ashley]

what if the metrobuses were never retired and withdrawn

Then social media would be littered with Fleetline armchair veg rather than the metro armchair veg

Or...

The current clan of younger WM spotters would have a better recollection of proper motors rather than a plastic fantastic fascination

[lauren1993]

What if NXWM scrapped all the Omnilinks? I would be zooming around in joy!
What if they sent all the ALX400's to get Vantage Power hybrid engines? I would be driving them by the time I join NXWM
What if 4341, 4108, 4088, 4218, 4253, 4246, 4242, 4312, 4613, 4502, 4336, 4602, 4014, 4006, 4028, 4075, 4050, 4030, 4031 did not have any damage history?

Then I would be gutted, and would completely go off buses.
Gemini's, omnicities and omnilinks and maybe alx400 (b7tl only!) are nxwm's saving grace IMO. The rest of the fleet is awful!

[Dutsey]

de-regulation never happened, you might be able to travel without costing a fortune!!

[Tony]

de-regulation never happened, you might be able to travel without costing a fortune!!

I think you may find that it would be the opposite.

Have Rates/Council tax risen more or less than inflation since 1986?

[Bob]

Just because buses were privatised /deregulated doesnt mean theyre better Tony.  Where's the promised benefits with competition etc its largely just switched from a public to a private monopoly in places like cannock at least. Lookat how much rail fares, gas electric etc have gone up since bbeing sold off. Nx are very reasonable price wise but other companies are a lot more expensive. Theres some really good publicly owned operators too. Lothian for example

[Dutsey]

Arriva are very expensive.

[Tony]

Just because buses were privatised /deregulated doesnt mean theyre better Tony.  Where's the promised benefits with competition etc its largely just switched from a public to a private monopoly in places like cannock at least. Lookat how much rail fares, gas electric etc have gone up since bbeing sold off. Nx are very reasonable price wise but other companies are a lot more expensive. Theres some really good publicly owned operators too. Lothian for example

I didn't say it was any better, but if you look at the prices of things controlled by government (local & national) they have risen by a lot more than inflation Royal Mail (before privatisation), regulated train fares, Council Tax, Prescriptions to name a few

[Bob]

Yea and the train companies put even more on dont they? Or the maximum theyre allowed to by law ? Cannock council tax has stayed the same fir a few years until this year hasnt it? Although christ knows what services ccdc spend it on they cant even get it together to provide a public toilet block in any of their three town centres!

[Tony]

Yea and the train companies put even more on dont they? Or the maximum theyre allowed to by law ? Cannock council tax has stayed the same fir a few years until this year hasnt it? Although christ knows what services ccdc spend it on they cant even get it together to provide a public toilet block in any of their three town centres!

Yes and no.
If I want to go anywhere by train I can get cheaper tickets than ever (£6 to London etc) and most fares the rail companies actually have control of for leisure travellers are much cheaper than BR ever was. Blair/Brown put the accelerator on train fares (inflation + 1%) which made sure savers (generally BRs cheapest ticket) and season tickets for commuters increased more than they should. At least Cameron's lot have had the decency to take the extra 1% off for the last two years. The fares that have risen most are the Anytime tickets (the old open returns and singles) which are mostly used by businesses

[Bob]

The decent thing would be to take it into public ownership as one entity rather than the crap fragmented system we have now. The tories are hell bent on re privatising the east coast before the next election purely for ideological reasons.  Lower than vermin they were once described as. Im inclined to agree

[Tony]

The decent thing would be to take it into public ownership as one entity rather than the crap fragmented system we have now. The tories are hell bent on re privatising the east coast before the next election purely for ideological reasons.  Lower than vermin they were once described as. Im inclined to agree

Is East Coast better for the public purse in private or public hands?
It is claimed to be making large profits for the Government, but the profit is still less than NX Group would have been paying if they had kept going. Now we know what NX promised appears to have been unachievable, but if they had got their figures right they may have still be paying more in in premiums than the current DoR makes in profits. Of course they may not and DoR may be better, but we will never know.

The biggest waster of money seems to be the one nationalised part of the railway, Network Rail, Why does it cost £2m to build a basic two platform station with bus shelters on?

[Ashley]

The decent thing would be to take it into public ownership as one entity rather than the crap fragmented system we have now. The tories are hell bent on re privatising the east coast before the next election purely for ideological reasons.  Lower than vermin they were once described as. Im inclined to agree

Is East Coast better for the public purse in private or public hands?
It is claimed to be making large profits for the Government, but the profit is still less than NX Group would have been paying if they had kept going. Now we know what NX promised appears to have been unachievable, but if they had got their figures right they may have still be paying more in in premiums than the current DoR makes in profits. Of course they may not and DoR may be better, but we will never know.

The biggest waster of money seems to be the one nationalised part of the railway, Network Rail, Why does it cost £2m to build a basic two platform station with bus shelters on?

Network epic fail is a better name I think