You know what St Andrews really needs...

[md25]

Agreed on the direct rail link. I refuse to pony up £10 for a taxi and the buses never ever synchronise with the trains, adding fifteen minutes easily onto the journey. Aggravating in the extreme.

FirstGroup more like WorstGroup. They've bought over Scotrail (a lucrative franchise, seeing as Scotland's the only UK region with rail expansion plans) so things can only get worse. I'm all from renationalising the train network, BR mightn't have had Mussolini efficency (and Dr. Beeching wasn't exactly nice to small stations) but they were a damn sight better than the current crowd.

Take the weekend engineering works, BR would have organised diversions around them but the private train operating companies refuse to play nice with one another - they'd need to poach train drivers from another company as drivers need to be familiar with the track, and the companies refuse to lease their drivers to the enemy. So they use coaches, which cost much less than trains, are still applicable for the full-price train fare and are often owned by the same company running the trains, so there's no leasing costs to pay on the buses. Fuck the passengers, there's the bottom line to think about!

Also, the amount BR was undersold by (£150m) happens to be very close to the cost of installing the Automatic Train Protection system that would've prevented several fatal train crashes from happening. In their rush to privatise BR before they were voted out the Tories not only cost the taxpayer millions upon millions of pounds they even signed some of their death warrants.

The railway system is an essential public service, it is too valuable be entrusted to private companies and should be renationalised as soon as possible.

[flarewearer]

there is a campaign for a rail link, but they are bulldozing up the cutting where the train station was, behind the bus station, which you think would have been a sensible place to put it back in (combined bus & train station I mean). then again, sensibility is an anomally is British public transport planning.

[hr]..Is space hot?... ...Of course it is, where do you think we get pineapples from?...

[groovy]

[s]md25 wrote on 15:24, 11th Jan 2005:
Agreed on the direct rail link. I refuse to pony up £10 for a taxi and the buses never ever synchronise with the trains, adding fifteen minutes easily onto the journey. Aggravating in the extreme.


Get a grip... when I was a child I had to wait 15 hours for a train!

Seriously, it's only fifteen bloody minutes- and I'll also point out the added advantage of being there early incase the train is early- if it was 'better' synchronized, then a lot of people may be missing their trains

[sweet]

[s]groovy wrote on 15:39, 11th Jan 2005:
[s]md25 wrote on 15:24, 11th Jan 2005:[i]
Agreed on the direct rail link. I refuse to pony up £10 for a taxi and the buses never ever synchronise with the trains, adding fifteen minutes easily onto the journey. Aggravating in the extreme.


Get a grip... when I was a child I had to wait 15 hours for a train!

Seriously, it's only fifteen bloody minutes- and I'll also point out the added advantage of being there early incase the train is early- if it was 'better' synchronized, then a lot of people may be missing their trains
[/i]

Did you walk 20 miles to school in the snow with no shoes to?

Sure, a good 5/10 minutes early is nice but waiting around in the wind in leuchars for half an hour for the number 96 ain't...

[flarewearer]

[s]groovy wrote on 15:39, 11th Jan 2005:
Seriously, it's only fifteen bloody minutes- and I'll also point out the added advantage of being there early incase the train is early- if it was 'better' synchronized, then a lot of people may be missing their trains


but if it wasnt two competing private companies, then you could have the bus WAIT until the train got in to the station, therefore everybody would be happier

[hr]
..Is space hot?... ...Of course it is, where do you think we get pineapples from?...

[steerpike]

[s]flarewearer wrote on 12:42, 11th Jan 2005:
Did anyone ever visit Forrest in edinburgh before it closed? St Andrews needs something along those lines...

[hr]..Is space hot?... ...Of course it is, where do you think we get pineapples from?...






The Forest Cafe has closed?!! Since when? i really liked it there, it had a real atmosphere and community to it and the food was really good... i loved the divesrsity of ppl in there - students, homeless ppl, artists, musicians and loadsa ppl from all over the world. And that cafe threw some good parties too

Flarewearer, im really curious now... did you at any point work in or spend daft ammounts of time in the Forest? it's just cos i worked in the Forest during the summer, along with one or two other people from St Andrews

I know the Forest Cafe moved from its original location from the Grassmarket to just off of Bristo Square a few years ago. Please say it isnt so and that you're not referring to the Forest Cafe on Potterow! (or Bristow place, or whatever that street is called - the street between George IV and Bristo Square)

[flarewearer]

[s]steerpike wrote on 17:41, 11th Jan 2005:
Please say it isnt so and that you're not referring to the Forest Cafe on Potterow! (or Bristow place, or whatever that street is called - the street between George IV and Bristo Square)


phew! im just out of touch with edinburgh, I was reffering to the grassmarket one! Don't panic! I used to go there a few times when I was in the berg for some tasty snackage

[hr]
..if you smell an odourless gas, it is likely to be Carbon Monoxide...

[flossy]

St Andrews needs a lovely wee cafe like The Hub in Aberdeen (next to the college). Cheap prices, internet connection, comfy battered seats and a selection of board games and musical instruments.

And as for Rendez-Vous coffee shop, I feel the Campaign for Clear English should force them to change the name to Meet You There Cafe or something similar (the idiom may be incorrect, but the sentiment still stands).

[Rilla]

[s]flossy wrote on 17:46, 11th Jan 2005:
St Andrews needs a lovely wee cafe like The Hub in Aberdeen (next to the college). Cheap prices, internet connection, comfy battered seats and a selection of board games and musical instruments.


I think some of the pubs here do cater for things like that - Aikmans and the Central and the Raisin (i think) have boardgames and you can just sit and read the paper and play the game or wahtever. and waste away an enjoyable day. lovely comfy seats too. and cheap prices. you dont have to drink just cos you're in a pub.
although no internet access though; that would be fun.


[hr]
Anything War can do, Peace can do better

[flarewearer]

Believe it or not, i looked into doing something like this last summer when I was bored and needed something to occupy my time. The discovery of commercial rents of about £20 000 a year in central St Andrews certainly put paid to that...

[hr]..if you smell an odourless gas, it is likely to be Carbon Monoxide...

[queen of scots]

[s]groovy wrote on 15:39, 11th Jan 2005:
Get a grip... when I was a child I had to wait 15 hours for a train!

Seriously, it's only fifteen bloody minutes- and I'll also point out the added advantage of being there early incase the train is early- if it was 'better' synchronized, then a lot of people may be missing their trains


It's worse in the evenings if you're coming back from Edinburgh, particularly at this time of year when it's so cold and windy! Train service is crap too - not even one an hour at some points of the day. I would *love* better public transport...and an M&S foodhall would go down well too...

[hr]
Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.

[b(b)b]

oh, i was scared too that THAT forest was closed in edinburgh, i love that place. it just generally reminds nme of the fact how much we lack diversity here. and a train station. ahh, i should stop moaning and start studying..

[Guest]

And pubs too, don't forget.

A Starbucks would make it even more ridiculous, can't believe with all the Americans here there still isn't a Stabucks. Give it a coupla years.

[Guest]

can we please please please petiton FOPP to come here ! i would sell my soul for cheap books dvd and music

[Guest]

[s]papercutheart wrote on 22:47, 9th Jan 2005:
A decent clothes shop...an H&M would be cool or a TK Maxx. A CULT clothing type shop would be good too.



Y'alls crazy. We need a Ralph Lauren in this town.

[queen of scots]

[s]Unregisted User wrote on 19:13, 9th Jan 2005:
can we please please please petiton FOPP to come here ! i would sell my soul for cheap books dvd and music


You can find cheap books and music on the internet...it's decent food we need here!!

[hr]
Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.

[blondie]

[s]steerpike wrote on 17:41, 11th Jan 2005:

The Forest Cafe has closed?!! Since when?...
I know the Forest Cafe moved from its original location from the Grassmarket to just off of Bristo Square a few years ago. Please say it isnt so and that you're not referring to the Forest Cafe on Potterow!


Nah, it's not closed - at least, I was in the Forest Cafe on Potterow a fortnight ago and I presume it hasn't shut in the past couple of weeks!
Tis an excellent place, with excellent food, music and art, with excellent prices and excellent people.

[flarewearer]

[s]Superstar wrote on 22:14, 9th Jan 2005:
A mate of mine is looking into possibly opening a second hand cd shop in st.andrews actually, wouldnt be set up until summer at earliest though. Bit along the lines of Grouchos in dundee kind of idea i think - do you reckon a place like that would do well in st.andrews?


rent far too expensive, ive looked into it

[hr]
..if you smell an odourless gas, it is likely to be Carbon Monoxide...

[Clonion]

Have any of you actually been to Le Rendezvous yet? I was there today, and really liked it. Good paninis, not expensive, not homogenised to crap, lovely people working there! I must admit, I was one of the people who thought we didn't need another coffee shop, but I must say I like it - it's got quite a different atmosphere to the other coffee shops in town. As for Starbucks though... Meh.

[hr]

http://www.biggerbrother.org.uk

"If I want to quantify anything, I measure it against Clones. There is nothing you will ever encounter in life you haven't seen in some form in Clones"
Neil Jordan

[richey]

I've been to Rendevous a few times...they are nice folk Once, me and my friend had to wait 10 minutes for a table, and they gave us some free soup!