I have to do a study on U.K. railways problems. I need information on
the quality of the service, if the people in u.k. are satisfied of the
railways, if the trains are clean, if there are problems, delays, high
price, and if there were collisions,incident, or if they are very
safe. All the info should be related to the last 1-10 years. I don't
need info of 10-20 years ago, but only details and information about
the quality of nowadays railways system in u.k. and customers
satisfaction about the service, for example a link of a website with a
forum where satisfaied and unsatisfied people write their experience
(bad or good) about u.k. trains or a link to a website were i can find
how many people died in train collisions/incidents. thank you

Dear railwaysuk-ga,

You need first to understand the structure of the railways in the UK.
This page will be again referred to below, but it is a good brief introduction.
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.114

The National Rail Enquiries web site has a guide to the UK Train
Operators and maps of the areas they cover. Each Train Operator have
their own web site from which you should be able to obtain additional
information on the company, the trains they operate, their corporate
structure, passengers? charter, performance data, and their safety
record.
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/tocs_maps/tocs/

Passenger Focus is an independent rail consumer watchdog where you
will find consumer information and comments information.
http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/

In most of the areas covered by these companies there are Users?
Groups or Passengers? Groups which monitors the efficiency of that
company. These are often run by passengers. A full list appears here
on the Rail Passengers Council web site. Each will have customer
comments.
http://www.railpassengers.org.uk/site/Council/Links/RUGs
 
The Health and Safety Executive deal with railway safety.
?HSE is the independent health and safety regulator for a range of
activities and industries including the railways industry. We cover
the safety of the travelling public as well as workers on the
railways.?

This link will take you to their railway page. From there you can
navigate to detailed information on accident statistics back to 1975.
There are also reports and recommendations from various Inquiries into
recent railway accidents which caused the death of several passengers;
a recent example is the Hatfield crash.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/railways/

The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) publishes reports on rail safety.
http://www.rssb.co.uk/

Others sources which will assist you are,

Department for Transport - UK Government department 
?DfT's Rail Group was set up in summer 2005 following the Railways Act
2005 which gained Royal Assent on 7 April 2005. The Group combines the
Department's overarching strategic and financial responsibilities for
the railways with many of the functions formerly carried out by the
Strategic Rail Authority.?
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/sectionhomepage/dft_railways_page.hcsp

As the site above indicates, the Strategy Rail Authority is now
superseded, but there is still some useful information on the site.
http://www.sra.gov.uk/

Office of Rail Regulation
?The principal function of the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) is to
regulate Network Rail's stewardship of the national network. ORR also
licenses operators of railway assets, approves agreements for access
by operators to track, stations, and light maintenance depots, and
enforces domestic competition law.?
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/
You may find the summary of the railways in the UK as a useful start.
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.114

Network Rail.
?Network Rail is the operator of Britain's rail infrastructure. Our
mission is to maintain, improve and upgrade the railway fit for the
21st century.?
You will find performance data on this site.
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/

The Association of Train Operating Companies
http://www.atoc.org/

Transport 2000
Transport 2000 is the independent national body concerned with
sustainable transport. Sections on the railways.
http://www.transport2000.org.uk/


I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder

hello

that s a great topic, here are some links. The uk train system went
from public to private but there were no money to pay repair for
infrastructure. So it s all dangerous, trains are derailing, they got
to slow them down and there are so many companies that i found it hard
to travel .

I ve read somewhere that a guye who needed to go from a to b once
calculated that it was cheaper to  buy a car in a, do the trip, sell
the car in b, than buy train tickets for his wife and 2 kids

Price went so high and customers so upset that they got to nominate a mediator 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the_company_file/355299.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1755599.stm
http://www.northernmediators.co.uk/
http://www.atoc.org/index.asp
http://www.sra.gov.uk/
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_railways/documents/sectionhomepage/dft_railways_page.hcsp
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_transstats/documents/sectionhomepage/dft_transstats_page.hcsp

there you go, have fun. In france, we tend to take the same path ...

For years, railways in the UK have been under-funded with essential
maintenance neglected. They had been nationalised after WWII and
latterly the Tory Government resolved the political problem by
privatisation, so successive Governments can now point the finger of
blame elsewhere.

With privatisation came the segregation of track services and train
operations. Not a great idea when a train can damage track and a
damaged track can cause a crash.

Private investment has brought a considerable renewal of rolling stock
but many trains are still seriously overcrowded at peak times with
standing room only.

Last week, I (together with many others) had to stand on a very
crowded London-Brighton train. Not good and not unusual.

In the meantime, the cost of travelling has escalated way beyond inflation.

The UK suffers from having being a pioneer of railways and low bridges
and narrow tracks inhibit any major re-developments.

Worse, many of the tunnels are ancient and were constructed to low
standards that were acceptable in the old days. Many experts have
predicted a serious tunnel failure which, fortunately, has never
happened.

And if it does, I hope that I'm not among the passengers - sitting or standing.