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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Network Rail (who own and maintain the track/infrastructure) are state run.
    It was privatised for about 5 years, it was a disaster, and it was brought back in house.
    Trains are run by TOCs, though these are being gradually coming back to the state too.

    The honest answer is, we have a fuckton of track, much of which has been there since victorian times.
    Couple that with diesel-electric trains that run at 125mph already, a lot of track that doesn’t get that much use, and the electrification number is low.

    We’re slowly getting there.
    New lines are electric from the start, and electrification projects are rolling out.
    It can be a pain in the ass though (GWML, for example. We had to order bi-mode trains to continue down to the westcountry, and while the electric part was completed.)

    Plus the issue that any track that’s busy enough to prioritise electrification on is going to be more complex because of the impact any downtime causes on a busy route.



  • Originally, council housing was supposed to be available for everyone.
    A socially funded, reasonably priced, decent accommodation for anyone.
    With the added bonus for the council that they have properties vulnerable people could be housed in at cost.

    And there are still legacy tenants from those days happily living in their council places.

    R2B was brought in, with the stated idea of giving long-term renters the opportunity to buy at a discount.
    A leg up onto owning and running their own house.
    Unfortunately with the way it was implemented, it ended up gutting the supply of council houses, until we reach today.
    Where only the most vulnerable have a sniff of a chance of being allocated a council house.