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Old 23-12-2016, 07:15
Tiger Rag
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We get a normal service on Christmas Eve and then nothing after 8pm. No service on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.
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Old 23-12-2016, 07:41
Peter the Great
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OK so I was wrong about boxing day, mea culpa

But Xmas day, there should be some public transport in London like other major cities. eg a nurse/cleaner/general staff at a London hospital working long, unsociable hour shifts. Being low paid, no way will s/he live near enough to work to walk, probably not cycle either. Not everyone can pay black cab Xmas rates, or Uber/minicab rates.
I think there should be a public holiday service, like there is in every other major city.
I'm not ranting btw. Just voicing an opinion. Lots of Grumpy Santas on here.
I do actually think you have a point. Like you said most major cities in other Countries run some sort of train and/or bus services on Christmas Day. Infact it is one of the things that some tourists think is weird. Also as far as I know there were bus services in London on Christmas Day up to the Early 70's?
I don't think anybody can sensibly expect a full service on Christmas Day but surely some sort of bus service similar to the night bus services could be run on Christmas Day?
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Old 23-12-2016, 08:04
dee123
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It is bizarre that London shuts down entirely.
Everywhere shuts down. Most CBD's around the world are ghost towns on the 25th, well the ones with not much residential spaces anyway.
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Old 23-12-2016, 08:37
SaddlerSteve
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Regarding 'surcharged' taxis.
In London, licenced black cabs are allowed by TFL to add an additional £4.00 for every hiring from 20.00 hrs. on 24/12/16 until 06.00 hrs. on 27/12/16, and between 20.00 hrs. on 31/12/16 until 06.00 hrs. on 02/01/17.
This means that if the fare is £12.00 on the meter, there will be a £4.00 extra, making it £16.00, if the metered fare is £33.00, then it will be £37, hardly gouging for working those unsociable hours, probably ferrying drunks around.
Imitation taxis, minicabs, and Uber, will charge what they reckon the punter will stand for, and no, I'm not a black cab driver.
2 of the main taxi companies here in Milton Keynes have announced that they are going to be charging standard fares over Xmas.
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Old 23-12-2016, 10:11
DMN1968
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Sisters brother will be working all Christmas as usual. He digs up railways lines and puts them back down straighter or something.

By doing the major engineering work over the Xmas/New year period when the trains are quieter means fewer people are inconvenienced.

Then again, working and commuting is probably an alien concept to many on here.
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Old 23-12-2016, 10:31
annette kurten
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Sisters brother will be working all Christmas as usual. He digs up railways lines and puts them back down straighter or something.

By doing the major engineering work over the Xmas/New year period when the trains are quieter means fewer people are inconvenienced.

Then again, working and commuting is probably an alien concept to many on here.
people who are working over christmas need to be able to get there.
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Old 23-12-2016, 10:46
MARTYM8
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There are buses running in Edinburgh on Christmas Day.

Before ranting, OP should check facts.
There is no rail travel on Christmas Day and only a handful of services on Boxing Day England and Wales. The first day perhaps fine but why the second - retail staff and others have to work Boxing Day why not train drivers?

Why do other countries have public transport available in their major cities on Xmas day but we have pretty much none at all in England and Wales? If you don't have a car or a bike you can't go anywhere long distance
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Old 23-12-2016, 11:32
tim59
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There is no rail travel on Christmas Day and only a handful of services on Boxing Day England and Wales. The first day perhaps fine but why the second - retail staff and others have to work Boxing Day why not train drivers?

Why do other countries have public transport available in their major cities on Xmas day but we have pretty much none at all in England and Wales? If you don't have a car or a bike you can't go anywhere long distance
Not all retail staff work boxing day, and trains run a limited service on boxing day. Other countries public transport tend to be owned and run by the state, public transport in the uk is run by the private sector and are there to make money from the business, you dont run a full service to lose money doing so, does not make business sense
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Old 23-12-2016, 11:38
Dotheboyshall
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There is no rail travel on Christmas Day and only a handful of services on Boxing Day England and Wales. The first day perhaps fine but why the second - retail staff and others have to work Boxing Day why not train drivers?

Why do other countries have public transport available in their major cities on Xmas day but we have pretty much none at all in England and Wales? If you don't have a car or a bike you can't go anywhere long distance
Which has nothing to do with OPs claim that there is no public transport in the UK on Christmas Day or Boxing Day when there is. You can even travel long distance by coach on some routes on both days.

As to why public transport is limited, it's because it doesn't make a profit for the private companies who provide most public transport in the UK, if there was a demand then they'd provide it.
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Old 23-12-2016, 11:48
tim59
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Which has nothing to do with OPs claim that there is no public transport in the UK on Christmas Day or Boxing Day when there is. You can even travel long distance by coach on some routes on both days.

As to why public transport is limited, it's because it doesn't make a profit for the private companies who provide most public transport in the UK, if there was a demand then they'd provide it.
Not sure about on traveling coach, as stagecoach the biggest operater does not operate on xmas day
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Old 23-12-2016, 11:55
Peter the Great
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Which has nothing to do with OPs claim that there is no public transport in the UK on Christmas Day or Boxing Day when there is. You can even travel long distance by coach on some routes on both days.

As to why public transport is limited, it's because it doesn't make a profit for the private companies who provide most public transport in the UK, if there was a demand then they'd provide it.
The thing is most public transport is not privately run in London. I don't think anybody would expect public transport to run on Christmas Day outside the main Cities but in London in particular it is quite weird to not. Many people in London don't own cars and I can't believe that there is more need for a bus service at 3 in the morning on a normal weekday than there is for a bus service at 10 in the morning on Christmas Day.
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Old 23-12-2016, 12:00
MARTYM8
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Not all retail staff work boxing day, and trains run a limited service on boxing day. Other countries public transport tend to be owned and run by the state, public transport in the uk is run by the private sector and are there to make money from the business, you dont run a full service to lose money doing so, does not make business sense

Public transport does not exist to make money it exists to allow people to get to work and to be customers which creates even more money that funds the taxes to pay for the public transport - and to discourage use of cars which create pollution.

There is plenty of demand for public transport on Boxing Day - football matches, shopping, visiting relatives. And yet in England and Wales there are no national rail services at all bar a few isolated cases. The tube runs in London but that is the exception. It's ridiculous!

There is only one reason why there is no rail service on Boxing Day - the RMT!
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Old 23-12-2016, 12:00
Ads
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I agree its odd there is no public transport in London on Christmas day. Surely at least some of the main bus routes could run still? There are still people who need to get to work, and who don't have cars who need to get around.
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Old 23-12-2016, 12:21
snukr
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Not sure about on traveling coach, as stagecoach the biggest operater does not operate on xmas day
I think they're talking about National Express.
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Old 23-12-2016, 12:40
tim59
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Public transport does not exist to make money it exists to allow people to get to work and to be customers which creates even more money that funds the taxes to pay for the public transport - and to discourage use of cars which create pollution.

There is plenty of demand for public transport on Boxing Day - football matches, shopping, visiting relatives. And yet in England and Wales there are no national rail services at all bar a few isolated cases. The tube runs in London but that is the exception. It's ridiculous!

There is only one reason why there is no rail service on Boxing Day - the RMT!
There is a limted rail service on boxing day, network rail us xmasday and boxing day, and most sundays to do rail maintance. Sorry the private sector who run public transport are in it to make money
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Old 23-12-2016, 12:51
MARTYM8
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There is a limted rail service on boxing day, network rail us xmasday and boxing day, and most sundays to do rail maintance. Sorry the private sector who run public transport are in it to make money
There was never a Boxing Day service when it was run by British rail!

It's not the train companies that don't want to run a service it's the unions that wouldn't allow it without extortionate pay demands and bonuses. This is why despite the lines being run by TfL the London overground and TfL rail don't operate on Boxing Day despite TfL tube and DLR services operating.

There is far more demand for trains on Boxing Day than on most Sundays - but the unions won't agree to it.

I am interested to know where these train services are on Boxing Day - there are none bar the dedicated airport services anywhere in London and the south east except oddly a limited service on Southern and from Gravesend to St Pancras.
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Old 23-12-2016, 13:04
tim59
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There was never a Boxing Day service when it was run by British rail!

It's not the train companies that don't want to run a service it's the unions that wouldn't allow it without extortionate pay demands and bonuses. This is why despite the lines being run by TfL the London overground and TfL rail don't operate on Boxing Day despite TfL tube and DLR services operating.

There is far more demand for trains on Boxing Day than on most Sundays - but the unions won't agree to it.

I am interested to know where these train services are on Boxing Day - there are none bar the dedicated airport services anywhere in London and the south east except oddly a limited service on Southern!
You says its all about unions, but the truth is rail maintance is the biggest resaon trains are very limited, network rail have lots of maintance going on over xmas as its a the best time to do it, its the longest holiday season. The busy times for public transport is people going to and coming from work. The xmas holidays mean the best time to do maintanace work.
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Old 23-12-2016, 13:48
chris1978
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Train drivers have never had to work boxing day. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are the only guaranteed days off for drivers and most rail staff. We don't get bank holidays as they are just added onto our leave and we take them in lieu. A lot of people think we should run Boxing Day. Personally it would not bother me as I'm not a big fan of Christmas but my colleagues with Children would think otherwise, although I guess it could be done on a voluntary basis. Wouldn't surprise me if it didn't come in within next few years. A friend of mine recently went to Australia for Christmas and said thier trains ran on Christmas Day. So I'm not sure whether this "total shutdown" of pretty much everything is a particularly British thing.
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Old 23-12-2016, 13:53
Pitman
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I agree its odd there is no public transport in London on Christmas day. Surely at least some of the main bus routes could run still? There are still people who need to get to work, and who don't have cars who need to get around.
central London has been pretty much deserted all week once the shops are shut, Chrstmas Day it will be like a ghost town, even on normal nights there are hundreds of buses clogging up the streets with virtually no passengers on board, let them have the day off, the ones that want to travel can treat it as a little adventure, have a little pub crawl (if you can find any pubs open)
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Old 25-12-2016, 07:41
jra
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I do actually think you have a point. Like you said most major cities in other Countries run some sort of train and/or bus services on Christmas Day. Infact it is one of the things that some tourists think is weird. Also as far as I know there were bus services in London on Christmas Day up to the Early 70's?
I don't think anybody can sensibly expect a full service on Christmas Day but surely some sort of bus service similar to the night bus services could be run on Christmas Day?
Indeed. The London night bus service is better than many daytime services in major cities. Some London night bus services run every 10 minutes (yes every 10 minutes) throughout the night.
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Old 25-12-2016, 07:56
jra
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There is no rail travel on Christmas Day and only a handful of services on Boxing Day England and Wales. The first day perhaps fine but why the second - retail staff and others have to work Boxing Day why not train drivers?

Why do other countries have public transport available in their major cities on Xmas day but we have pretty much none at all in England and Wales? If you don't have a car or a bike you can't go anywhere long distance
Exactly. It's a bit of an embarrassment really.

Get this peeps. Not all of us celebrate Christmas and some of us need to go to work or just want a leisure day out. In the UK as a whole there are very few options, unless you have a car or are prepared to pay (inflated) taxi rates.

For instance, I wouldn't mind chilling out with my best friend in Borehamwood today, but there are no trains or buses, so I'd have to get a taxi, which would be at least £35 each way. Sod that for a game of soldiers.

In this link, Radlett to Luton is £28 (normal rates) (*). Christmas Day may be more expensive still. So for the sake of argument it'll cost me about £70 (minimum), whereas the train fare is about £12 return.

(*) Elstree & Borehamwood is further down the line to London.

http://www.hertscars.net/prices
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Old 25-12-2016, 08:08
Sport1
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You could have traveled to your mates house yesterday and stayed over.
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Old 25-12-2016, 08:13
jra
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You says its all about unions, but the truth is rail maintance is the biggest resaon trains are very limited, network rail have lots of maintance going on over xmas as its a the best time to do it, its the longest holiday season. The busy times for public transport is people going to and coming from work. The xmas holidays mean the best time to do maintanace work.
Maintenance work can be done most week nights (after midnight) anyway, since the majority of train services will have shut down, other than some freight.

Tfl claimed that the reason the tube shut down so early was due to maintenance work being required. Now they are running 24 hours services on some lines at weekends, proving that maintenance work can be done at other times.
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Old 25-12-2016, 08:42
jra
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Which has nothing to do with OPs claim that there is no public transport in the UK on Christmas Day or Boxing Day when there is. You can even travel long distance by coach on some routes on both days.

As to why public transport is limited, it's because it doesn't make a profit for the private companies who provide most public transport in the UK, if there was a demand then they'd provide it.
How do they know there isn't a demand, since it's been a long time since trains stopped running on Christmas Day for example. Have they done a poll recently?

You could have traveled to your mates house yesterday and stayed over.
I could have, but I had made other plans, apart from it being of some inconvenience to my friend.
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Old 25-12-2016, 08:49
jra
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Not all retail staff work boxing day, and trains run a limited service on boxing day. Other countries public transport tend to be owned and run by the state, public transport in the uk is run by the private sector and are there to make money from the business, you dont run a full service to lose money doing so, does not make business sense
Some trains run on Boxing Day tim. Many don't run.

For example.

https://www.thameslinkrailway.com/yo...ve-travel-info

This is a major rail route and there are no trains running today (Christmas Day) or tomorrow (Boxing Day).
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