British Rail Documentary - First Sight Part 1 of 3.

An episode of First Sight which was shown in the early 1990s.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• British
• Railways
• BR
• Intercity
• Network
• SouthEast

[AG3304]

Makes me laugh the way they always whine on about "old trains".These were very often more reliable than the new plastic crap that replaced them,but like anything else they did need maintaining.Rolling stock was designed with a view to lasting 40+ years in the past.Can't see those new monstrousities lasting as long.

[LukeCA18]

Having spent some time learning about BR, it's clear that the government starved it of money and deliberately made the public hate it. Who would have been pro privatisation in the 60's when BR ran so perfectly? At the end of the day, the government just wants to make money, and BR got in the way of that :(

[fordeboi]

Fucking all we do is get ripped off in this nation, in most other nations the governments support the railways here we just get robbed 4.30 for a fucking single on the underground where is the justification in that, We are having our wages cut tax increases etc etc and all the government can do is slap a extra 30 on a fucking rail ticket.

[AG3304]

@Jmarley912 All l know is we ran an hourly service in the snow of 1987 with the old stock.This new Bombardier kit grinds to a halt at the slightest sign of snow,and cannot be easily towed by a loco.The Hastings line had no service for days on end last year when it snowed,and the weather was no worse than 1987.Apparently this is progress.

[colliecandle]

@Jmarley912 But even that is 100% MORE than YOU !

[Jmarley912]

@AG3304 New plastic crap? Are you kidding? You mean the trains built by Siemens and Bombardier, European engineering companies that build some of the most reliable trains in the world? And your comparing them with the old BREL crap?

[AG3304]

@BR75069 There was a plan to rebuild the old stock with new sliding door bodies,called a "Networker Classic" This reused all the old equipment including the trucks and cost a quarter the price of the 375s and all that other souless modern crap.The prototype's still dumped somewhere at Derby l believe.You'd probably have found this lasted longer than the new,over-complicated,power-guz­zling Desiros etc !

[AG3304]

@class37100 Too right!

[BR75069]

@AG3304 i agree mate, back in then they should of 'make do and mend' with the stock they had like slam door DMU's and EMU's. why should the public demand new trains, theres nothing wrong the trains from the 1960's 'modernisation plan'.