By stewartb
‘Worst major train stations for cancellations named’ is the headline of a BBC News website article today (December 20). Despite being Great Britain wide in scope, the story features in the site’s news for England. The same story featured prominently in Radio 4’s Today programme (also on December 20), both in news bulletins and in interviews, including with a Westminster government minister.
Although a Today presenter challenged the Labour minister about the benefit of rail run by the public sector in a part of England given its relatively high level of cancellations, the programme made no mention of the findings for Scotland.
The story doesn’t feature on the Scotland page of the BBC News website. Has the story appeared in other BBC Scotland output today I wonder? And if not, why might this be? After all, BBC Scotland commonly regards rail services in Scotland as newsworthy!
The findings
The online BBC News article is based on an analysis of ‘official’ data from across Great Britain’s rail network of train cancellations during the period January to November 2024. The analysis has been provided by the rail data website On Time Trains.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgnl7j1kglo
The BBC reports: ‘More than three million train stops in Britain have been cancelled from January to November this year – 3.8% of the nearly 83 million scheduled. This breaks down into a 3.9% cancellation rate in England and Wales and 2.9% in Scotland.’
The BBC also reports on the same metric for each of England’s regions: the lowest regional rates of cancellation are for London (3.2%), SE England (3.3%) and East of England (3.3%). The highest rate is in NW England (6.5%). So the overall rate for Scotland (at 2.9%) is substantially lower than the lowest regional rates in England.
Finally, the BBC reports the analysis by On Crime Trains of the rates of cancellation in the ten busiest rail stations in each of the countries and regions of Great Britain. The analysis uses a population of 2,571 train stations across GB: the top 10 busiest stations by region or nation have been determined using data from the Office for Rail and Road.
What follows for illustration are screenshots taken from the BBC News website’s facility to output country and region specific results. For comparison, the top ten stations in Scotland are juxtaposed below with their counterparts in Wales: has having Labour long in power in Cardiff resulted in a better performing rail service? Wales has five stations with higher rates of cancellation than the overall rate for GB: Scotland has none.
The screenshots also provide information on cancellation rates for NE and NW England, the areas adjacent to Scotland influenced most immediately by the performance of cross-border services. Both have eight stations with higher rates of cancellation than the overall GB rate: Scotland has none!
Nothing of interest to BBC Scotland here?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
That’s GREAT. However, ‘Britain’ has never really been ‘great’. 😉
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It is noteworthy that the headline is framed in negative terms, which is standard for all of the media.
The average for the whole of the UK is less than 4 in 100 trains cancelled, which is, I think, a pretty good performance.
There are areas like the north west of England where the cancellation rate is up to 10%, which is concerning but it still indicates most trains run.
Had the Scotland data been similar to the north west of England, BBC Scotland and STV would have it splashed over all broadcasts with unionist politicians demanding ‘heads must roll’.
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O/T apologies.
Talking of trains but actually more of a Gravy Train.
Real Labour leader, as in not Sarwar, but Keir Starmer as in the UK leader, has revealed his latest list of peerages for the HOL’s, same HOL’s that he formerly declared in 2022 that he would “abolish to restore trust in politics”.
The supposed original ‘plan’ was to have “an elected chamber after he, Starmer, accused the Tories of handing peerages to lackeys and donors”.
So for Labour there is NO money for WASPI women but Keir Starmer is more than willing to justify paying another 30 Labour peers to drain the public finances in their daily attendance expenses………. and all the rest .
Who will sit beside the other Labour peers aka those who are also a “waste of tax payers money” .
How many Labour peers in HOL’s now , well far too many.
Well here’s some of the names Keir Starmer has added to the Gravy train.
Well first there is Wendy Alexander the former Labour FM of Scotland who resigned when in June 2008, the Scottish Parliament’s standards committee ruled that she had broken parliament rules by failing to register donations on her MSPs’ register of interests. Her brother, Douglas Alexander, returned to UK politics and he was recently elected as an MP in Scotland in the GE and is now also in the Labour government, but his sister being awarded a peerage now, is I am sure , just a coincidence LOL.
Next Luciana Berger – former Member of Parliament for Liverpool Wavertree and current Chair of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, she left the Labour party because of Jeremy Corbyn and his so called (but wasn’t really at all) anti Semitism , and she then became a member of the newly created rogue party that had both Tory and Labour defectors in it who then all lost their seats in the 2019 GE.
Next Margaret Curran – former Member of Parliament for Glasgow East and formerly Minister within the Scottish Executive. She who lost her seat in 2015 as the voters rejected her, and now her son Chris Murray is my Labour MP in Edinburgh East, so that’s nice and cosy, son in the HOC’s and mum now in the HOL’s.
Next Thangam Debbonaire – former Member of Parliament for Bristol West and former Shadow Secretary of State. She also lost her seat in the recent GE but now she Keir Starmer has gifted her another seat in the HOL’s, so no loss for her then as although voters rejected her in the 2024 GE it seems Starmer has not as he wants to hand peerages to many former Labour rejects.
There is also included in Starmer’s list various Labour MP’s who decided to stand down in the 2024 GE, as in decided to supposdley “Retire from politics”, but now they are, unluckily for us, able to continue in politics in another part of WM , as in the (unelected) chamber that is the HOL’s , as unelected Labour political peers (their retirement from politics didn’t last long did it)
Word is that if you lose your seat as a Labour MP in any GE, then no worries, as a mainstream party like Labour , may just prolong your political life and award (reward) you a lifetime peerage also known as you becoming an unelected bureaucrat in another chamber (Pot) that is also known as ‘The Gravy Train’.
Keir Starmer trolling Scotland with him awarding Curran and Alexander with peerages.
The corrupt state that is the UK , the state that just keeps on giving………more sh*te that we , in Scotland, are just expected to take, all because we are still in their corrupt state known as the UK.
Stop the corrupt UK state, as thousands of us (and all of the rest) in Scotland want to get off.
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*She also lost her seat in the recent GE but now * she * Keir Starmer has gifted her
She also lost her seat in the recent GE but now that she has Keir Starmer has gifted her
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Adding to my above comment about the newly awarded Labour peers.
Owen Jones tweeted
“Back in June, then Labour MP for Bristol Thangam Debbonaire was “enraged” when Green activists suggested she’d be put in the Lords if she lost.
Six months later – that is, today – Thangam Debbonaire has been put in the Lords.
As Green activists said would happen”!
Yep, but surely Owen knows that faux indignation is a speciality of Labour politicians.
MSM Monitor tweeted
Margaret Curran, 2011: “I think if Alex Salmond went under a bus tomorrow – not that I would ask who drove that bus – but seriously, if he wasn’t there …”
Dec 2024, Margaret Curran to be awarded peerage”
Indeed MSM Monitor, Shocking is it not , more so as only recently Alex Salmond died, but then would Keir Starmer care what we in Scotland thought, or indeed what Mr Salmond’s family thought about him awarding a peerage to the person who made this awful past comment in relation to Mr Salmond. Obviously not.
The same Keir Starmer who described the former first minister of Scotland as a “monumental figure in Scottish and UK politics” not long after Mr Salmond’s death.
So as a fitting tribute to Mr Salmond he, Keir Starmer, then awards a less “monumental figure’ a peerage only two months after Mr Salmond’s death.
A person who had previously said that she ” would not ask who drove the bus that Alex Salmond went under” .
A hit and run then Margaret so that he , Mr Salmond, was no longer a potential threat to your political career as an MP in the UK (your favourite state).
(The same Margaret Curran who when she lost her seat in 2015 flounced off in the huff and did not even wait until the result was announced. Bad loser and she has been bitter , like most of the other Labour losers in 2015, ever since).
Only in Politics is any kind of public failure, with any current or indeed any past black marks against their name while in their previous position (Alexander) then rewarded .
Also rewarded are those rejected by the people (Curran , Debbonaire, Berger ).
Then there are those other former MP’s who had decided they no longer wanted to be politicians but who are then somehow seen as being fit, by the current PM, to also then be rewarded in the future.
Also included are those people, who in the past , made a terrible , controversial and offensive comment about another politician (Curran ,who was also rejected by the people).
In any private company no individual who had failed in the past , who had made a shocking remark about a competitor, or who had a black mark on their record and also those whose customers had previously rejected them , and then also those who had previously decided to leave the company as they decided they no longer wanted to do that kind of work , would then be rewarded by the current boss in him/her awarding them an elevated position for the rest of their life.
Especially when the current boss of that private company had previously assured everyone that he would “abolish this former practice in order to restore trust in the company” as he had seen “other bosses abuse this system to their advantage and also to the advantage of those who had given financial assistance to them as other bosses”.
(Keir Starmer had previously said, when his party were in opposition to the Tory UK government, that in relation to the HOL’s he would “abolish it to restore trust in politics”. as the supposed original ‘plan’ with Labour was to have “an elected chamber” as he, Starmer, “accused the Tories of handing peerages to lackeys and donors”).
Politicians love using analogies to make a point , well the above one is mine, in relation to politics and private companies.
Alastair Campbell tweeted on the 19 December 2020 about Boris Jonson.
“Worst possible Prime Minister and worst possible government at the worst possible time”?
Well that is exactly the position for Scotland now , as foolishly some within Scotland decided to lend their vote to Labour in the 2024 GE, who as a pro UK political party had previously , as part of the NO campaign, betrayed them (and too us who supported the YES side) as citizens of Scotland in 2014, as Labour were not fighting FOR us in Scotland but fighting AGAINST us in Scotland. (They are still doing that now)
Labour UK in all of their words and actions, are clearly demonstrating that they, as the current UK government, are no better, no different and no change from the previous Tory UK government.
So people in Scotland need to wise up pronto or they can hardly complain about the falling standards they see happening within the UK, with an obvious lack of action from a UK government whose reserved powers are failing to improve those same falling standards in the UK that alas includes Scotland too, and they (and we) never will see any improvement as long as we , Scotland, are still a part of their UK !
Simples !
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So much for reforming the HoL.
The rail services in the north and Scotland should be improved to cut rail journey times. Instead of wasting £Billions on HS2.
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Yes ignoring Scotland especially when there is a whiff of good news is becoming a common theme amongst the media and not just the News. Promoting Scotland is almost non existent these days with preference made to other parts of the UK. So far this year we have seen an almost obsession with Yorkshire and what it has to offer followed by Devon and Cornwall and of course London. Most recent was a programme about Christmas markets which you would expect Edinburgh (2.5mill visitors) as probably the most popular of all in the UK to feature but alas not with Belfast (1mill visitors) exclusively shown presumably because it is organised apparently by an English coy.
In general for those unfortunate enough to have to settle for ‘council TV’ without the huge range of drivel from cable providers we are apparently prohibited from watching programmes from rWorld with almost half coming from the USA courtesy of SKy. All I guess nicely watered down for the masses and almost certainly designed to wean us off Europe.
Robbo
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“Scotland’s papers: 800 trains a day cancelled”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cre7xq3p4j0o
Gosh! That’s not misleading in any way at all.
All the “Scottish” papers awash with the new recipients of the G̶r̶a̶v̶y̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶i̶n̶ House of “Lords”.
It’s good Sir (early warning of his views there) Queer Stauner has kept his promises on abolishing the HOL.
That’s how many promises now?
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