Tank Slap - Motorcycle Forum

Ford Europe are to stop production of German-produced cars and the only internal combustion Ford to be sold in Europe is the Transit.

The next planned addition is to be based on the Ford America Bronco - I believe it will be EV or PHEV.

The Fiesta... the UK's top selling car... has been making a 2% loss

The front end of that Bronco looks like the old '80s Chevy Blazer (full-size).

I think we will see a few big players disappear over the next decade...

I think we've reached saturation point on British roads for cars. People need to start thinking about other modes of transport.

Kwacky wrote:I think we've reached saturation point on British roads for cars. People need to start thinking about other modes of transport.

I heard an article on the radio today, about the prohibitive cost of railway transport. Doesn't sound like that's going to be amongst the options unless something changes dramatically.?

Ford Europe has been losing money big time in the last few years. They have lost the market to German manufacturers.

I do agree with Kwacky though that i suspect that the days of commuting to work by car are limited. We are all going to have to reassess they way we live our lives over the next decade as the current model isn't sustainable.

The train system is a farce. The government are massively subsidising it and yet prices continue to go up and the service continues to decline

Kwacky wrote:The train system is a farce. The government are massively subsidising it and yet prices continue to go up and the service continues to decline

Yet other Countries seem to get it so right. Something badly wrong with UK train services.

Train fare increases makes the news every January but I can't see why tbh.

The increases are capped by inflation which seems reasonable to me.

Just watched the local news where they stated a commute into Manchester city centre had risen by £2 month. Why on earth that is worthy of making the news is beyond me.

I get the train regular both locally and nationally and although it's not perfect it's a dam sight better than trying to drive a car on the roads. The M6 in particular is a joke and more a car park than a road. If they want to focus on national transport infrastructure focus on the joke called the M6.

Blade wrote:Train fare increases makes the news every January but I can't see why tbh.

The increases are capped by inflation which seems reasonable to me.

Just watched the local news where they stated a commute into Manchester city centre had risen by £2 month. Why on earth that is worthy of making the news is beyond me.

I get the train regular both locally and nationally and although it's not perfect it's a dam sight better than trying to drive a car on the roads. The M6 in particular is a joke and more a car park than a road. If they want to focus on national transport infrastructure focus on the joke called the M6.

Ok, I'll give a few pointers..

I choose to commute from Mortimer into Paddington. If everything runs to time it should take under an hour..

For this privilege I pay just under £5k/pa. My season ticket over the last 2 years has increased above inflation as the government have allowed it (in the name of investment apparently)

I can count on one hand the number of trains that actually arrive at Paddington on time. Most journeys at 10+ mins late.

I'm lucky as I can get on a fast train just before reading, so usually get a seat. If you get on at reading then you have a 50/50 chance of standing.

The trains I catch are still slam doors, so good knows how old they are.

As I said, I choose this and the crap that comes with it as I can earn quite a bit more in town. I would also much rather take a train than drive 20-30 miles on any of the motorways round here. But the train service does not represent value for money for regular commuters, and there is no sign of that changing as the management just don't care.

I've heard from more than one source of staff encouraging passengers to tweet pictures of over crowding and general crap conditions as it's the only way the upper management will take any notice. They ignore their own staff on the matter.

/Kicks away soap box.

Where I live and work there's no consistent alternative to commuting by car. 20 miles each way and some people cycle but no one cycles that distance daily, even the most keen cyclists I know.

There's no bus service for such a length and I would need 4 buses to get there which would get me to work over 3.5 hours late.
There's no train station near my work, plus it would be a 15 minute bus ride to the train station from my house.

My solution is to lift share. There's 5 of us and the journey takes about 30 minutes. A tank of fuel can last more than 6 weeks if I don't do too many short journeys whereas I was refuelling every 2 weeks when driving on my own.

This whole thing is actually causing a headache of recruitment and even inflating starting salaries isn't sufficient to entice Electronic and Software Engineers who can always find work in their local town for similar money

It's the oldest railway system in the world, and it's still one of the busiest, so it seems like it's simply unable to keep up with demand anymore.
You'd think that maybe it can be "upgraded but not expanded"??


@Cav.......6 weeks to use one tank of petrol????? Fcuk me!!

We the public pay £8bn a year to the railways.

Anyone who uses the trains on a regular basis knows that they're shit and already overpriced.

Trains should be about the service they supply first and foremost and not profit.

Go anywhere in Europe and rail services are so far ahead of where the UK is, it's frightening. I don't get why the UK govt cannot see it's a better option. It's also quite embarrassing.

Once congestion charging hits main towns and cities over the next few years, the rail services are going to have to improve.

I must be the exception. I regularly use the train and it costs me less than half what petrol alone would cost. I appreciate it could be better and can only speak for my own experience but the service I received is ok tbh.

@Nutz I feel your pain that does sound bad and not under mining that in anyway but if I could predict a car journey round here accurately to within in 10 minutes and that includes short journeys that can be 10 to 30 minutes depending on traffic I would be happy.

TBH I thought fare increases were capped at inflation if that's not true I stand corrected. Maybe the increases are higher in London but as said previously our local news complained commuters were facing £2 a month increases which I genuinely don't see as news worthy.

According to the UK office for National Statistics the UK population has been growing rapidly since approx year 2000 and is linked to the expansion of the EU.

The roads, trains, schools, hospitals in fact pretty much everything in this country is stretched to breaking point and cant cope. We are small country and cant keep expanding the population at the rate it has been and expect the infrastructure to cope.

So to recap immigrants not buying new cars because they prefer public transport have killed Ford and our railways.