Presumably also because for COVID reasons the railway is operating well below capacity, and LNER are only reserving 50% of seats as well as operating a reduced timetable?
Yes, there are issues with it - I sit on the fence at about 50-50 on my views on it, but as most people are against on here that's tended me towards arguing for. What I was taking issue with was suggestions that it's dangerous, it's really not, and that really does down the issue with views that are dangerous, such as facism and the likes.
Well that depends in context what constitutes
dangerous does it not? With proposed cuts to the rail timetable
post pandemic, confirmed cuts to network investment (-10% of the RNEP budget), rail fare increase above inflation while fuel duty continues to be frozen, disarray in the DfT on how the railway is to address decarbonisation being forced on it by government, seemingly no strategy of how rail is going to address government fear based policy to overcome reticence to return to public transport and now this crazy proposal which can only place barriers to travel (the reason it's currently operating on some services) for users who have paid and should expect to 'turn up and go' then I believe there is a genuine
danger of another regression in rail use much like the 70's and 80's. A Treasury looking for ways to pay for HS2 (I support it) might well be tempted to do a 'Beeching' and seek to save costs by targeting 'underused' lines. Cut the services first of course to ensure it becomes underused. And before someone says nonsense, reopening lines closed by Beeching is current policy just remember much of the trumpeting is merely for 'studies'. They can maintain this deception by simply delaying a response then asking for more while periodically re-announcing the policy to placate the gullible.
But then on another measure there's the economic peril the country is now in and the likely pairing back of wider spending on public services but which will most certainly include rail no matter what demand exists in a couple of years time as another split personality bit of Gov grapples with the problems of air pollution and all that comes with it. Arguably the economic policy of the last decade is why the UK economy has performed so badly in the pandemic period. Might it be because the country, or more precisely it's vital services were ill prepared to cope after a decade of austerity. Why else did the 'NHS need protecting'? I'd argue that those who have paid with their lives demonstrates the
danger of electing incompetents. The worry is that if the current incumbents eventually are found out Nigel is lurking in the hedgerow just waiting to re-emerge with another populist bright idea. That would be dangerous to us all and definitely the rail network as we know it.