Something to do with more trains running on an overcrowded network . But i am at pains to see where there are more trains !
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[Technology] Victorian train companies
- Thread starter Gwylan
- Start date
Something to do with more trains running on an overcrowded network . But i am at pains to see where there are more trains !
- Thread starter
- #102
But they're not offering cheaper fares so there's no incentive to shift work patterns. In fact, rail companies are doing the opposite with some operators shifting the times when off-peak tickets come into effect (at 9.30, instead of 9.00 - amazed that SASTA hasn't done this).
As an example, when I worked in London, I negotiated it so that I worked from home two days a week to spend more time with my kids. It was great from that point of view but there was no financial advantage in my doing this as three returns to London were more than my weekly season ticket. If rail companies offered three-day season tickets, then more firms could do things like this and ease over-crowding.
As another example, my mother talks of the time when you could get a 'workman's ticket' where fares were cheaper first thing in the morning. Firms could offer employees a flexible starting time, again, reducing over-crowding, but there's no incentive for a worker to get into the office earlier as leaving at 5.30 and 8.30 cost exactly the same.
Or to take another example, In France, I could buy a ticket that covers the whole of the Ile-de-France region - buses, trains and metro. While London has the Oyster card, it's not valid in Sussex or Kent, so there's no integration in regional travel.
It's diverging a bit from the original theme but the lack of flexible ticketing like this is another example of railways failing to catch up with the 21st century. And I'm not sure why you think that rail companies are doing anything to help the poor sods trying to get to work.
One big change was the trains brought in when Major privatised were too tall for several tunnels, so they were introduced late and there have been endless engineering works at weekends since (over the last 20 years). The new trains break down a lot. We have one line up and down most of the way so a breakdown buggers up trains all day. We have a dispute between cleaners and the company that has cause the lack of toilets. We have congestion at Victoria and London Bridge. But as stated, the timetabled journey has been lengthened (I have been told bey people who work for the company) this was to reduce 'lateness' (a fiddle). North Kent line has always been shit, but after privatisation the wheels (lmost literally) came off.
What's your commute? I do Fav to mostly Victoria and London Bridge but also 'hi speed' to St Pancreas. Trains are prettier and air conditioned, but seats are less comfortable (except in first class), shorter, and less frequent (albeit there are additional but even slower stoppers but I don't enjoy a 1 h 40 min commute). I'm sure the company can say they supply more carriages per minute or something, but this does not add up to more fast trains to London. It is equivalent to tikka takka football - plenty of possession (movement of trains back and forth) but very little delivery (whizzy trains arriving in a timely fashion).
All the best.
- Thread starter
- #104
Is that where you change for the ferry to the Islets of Langerhans?
Gluclose, but no cigar.
GT49er
Well-known member
It's not so much more trains as less network - and even more damaging, less flexible network. In many places four tracks have been reduced to two, or double track reduced to single line , all in the name of saving on maintenance. Not to mention ripping up alternative routes........cough, cough....... Lewes to Uckfield.
Plus there is no longer the flexibility to allow for broken down trains to be moved out of the way, faster trains to overtake slower ones etc. For instance, on Coastway west I don't think there's a single set of points anywhere between Hove and Worthing. Going east I suspect the same applies from just outside Lewes to Hampden Park; one train breaks down, the line closes. Maintenance needed? The line closes. Both ways.
- Thread starter
- #107
As we can see this weekend: engineering work at Ford means the whole Coastway West line closes
GT49er
Well-known member
Quod erat demonstrandum.
Madafwo
I'm probably being facetious.
- Nov 11, 2013
- 1,591
That's all planned months in advance, the same service should depart from the same platform every day which is why you see commuters standing on an empty platform without a service advertised in the exact spot where the doors should be. You can see the platforms services should be in during the peak from Brighton for next week already here.
Take Brighton during the peak for instance, 1 line in and 1 line out for Mainline services, it doesn't take a lot for it to go completely to pot and have a service booked for Platform 3 to end up on 6 or 7, East Croydon is particularly terrible for it as well.
jackalbion
Well-known member
- Aug 30, 2011
- 4,024
The only large station I can think that isn’t like this is King’s Cross which is signalled on the day, so 9 times out of 10 your train won’t be on the same platform twice in a row.
As good a place as any, and I'm easily impressed:-
[tweet]1038001185670737920[/tweet]
[tweet]1038001185670737920[/tweet]
Cian
Well-known member
Were Burger King and McDonalds both the same company and are still controlled by one regulator?
The UK has the exemplar in privatising operation of public transport services - the London Buses system. Multiple operators; a single point of contact and method of payment for the user and if an operator hits the wall its likely the user will never know. And it has the absolute worst system which is the TOC system for railways. How one setup can create two systems that different is quite amazing.
I worked for a state owned public transport system in dire need of a boot up the arse to fix some awful setups in place, but everything worked better than the TOC system. I can't even begin to imagine what the question thought it was the answer for was.
Fran112
Active member
THe 1st word is the most impossible thing you said!
WERE.
NO THEY WERE NOT.
But our rail system is NOT now.
When will people accept THINGS CHANGE?
You all want change for the better, we all do, but hey ho it doesn’t all work that way.
Had the OP used the technology you all harp on about this is how it would have played out.
1. Download LNER app.
2. Register.
3. Buy ticket.
4. Send log-on details to Daughter.
5. Daughter downloads App.
6. Daughter logs on using your details (you sent her in 4 above).
7. Boom, there’s there ticket. About 3 mins I’m guessing?
Not rocket science, not a young persons thing (I’m 60).
You want the technology, it’s there, then ffs use it!
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Cian
Well-known member
You're accepting a significant regression in provision of service for zero gain elsewhere.
Ticketing should entirely be a DOT function and have nothing to do with the TOCs.
Ticketing should entirely be a DOT function and have nothing to do with the TOCs.
Fran112
Active member
Shropshire Seagull
Well-known member
In the effort to resolve the root cause, I'd quite like to understand how said daughter ended up in Northants with no money or cards - if this can be resolved, a repeat event might be less likely.
Not seen it discussed yet, but if she'd got on a train without a ticket, would she [given the circumstances we've not yet heard] be locked up and receive a criminal record & heavy fine, or treated as a damsel in distress?
Not seen it discussed yet, but if she'd got on a train without a ticket, would she [given the circumstances we've not yet heard] be locked up and receive a criminal record & heavy fine, or treated as a damsel in distress?
- Thread starter
- #117
She got a lift up and could have got a lift back a few days later but needed to be back in Brighton before then (teenagers have no concept of practicalities). I wouldn't have trusted the rail operators to treat her as a damsel in distress, they'd probably have thrown her off at the next station.
And I couldn't have bought her a mobile ticket. As I explained earlier, they're not transferable and can only be used on the mobile purchased on. But, even if I could have, she only had about 45 minutes charge on her phone and it would have run out before London (as I said, teenagers have no concept of practicalities
)
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 70,161
Sounds like one of their muffled train announcements