High speed rail travel: Your views (BBC News)
 

The new high-speed train service operating between Kent and London St Pancras is officially launched.

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Reading all the "comments" on that bulletin seems to indicate one hell of a lot of fed up and pissed off commuters.

If the comments reflect things as they are "now" then someone has seriously fu**ed up.:eek:

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looks like another waste of money exessive fares yet again as usual the lunatics are running the asylum

It looks as if the commuters like the new service on HS1(though given the snail's pace of the recent South Eastern services, perhaps any alternative is better). I am more concerned about plans for HS2, 3 etc - why not spend some of that money electrifying and increasing capacity on remaining non-electrified main line and infill routes, as well as some grade separated junctions, eg Hitchin.

It would appear that this service is to be a glittering showpiece of railway technology, desisigned to shift those with money quickly from A to B, at the expense of everyone in a lower pay bracket. If NORMAL services have been halved in frequency, and retimed to a slower schedule, and don't stop at the most popular stations for Kent commuters, I'm not surprised that they're all up in arms about it. When are TOCs going to realise that it's THESE people that make up the vast majority of their travelling customers? It's high time that priorities for rich travellers took a back seat. I can see all this going horribly wrong, and backfiring on SE Trains. And rightly so.

couldnt agree more Dave .The gov go on about global warming car pollution etc.Lower the fares ,longer trains and stop pampering to those who have it all and get their travel paid for by the tax payer by claiming it on expenses

As for train fares, just a few days ago I read that four people found that it was cheaper to share a taxi fare for the journey from London to Hull than to each travel by rail using the cheapest fares available. What does THAT say?