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October 28, 2006
Returning from their UK course
A correction to "is it fare" - my previous post. I undertstand the three single fares came to 120 pounds (that's for a journey on an off-peak train, which could not be booked ahead due to possible delays to an incoming airline flight). Still a lot of money for three people to occupy seats for an hour which would otherwise have been vacant.
As you might imagine, my customers were less that happy with the prospect of leaving Melksham on the 17:02 last night (which did run ... so that gives it a 60% record for the week) and changing into an express of the same type / price as the one they arrived on. Indeed, they required me to recommend an alternative and although their journey was going to be slower, they saved well over half the money and left happy.
Posted by gje at 06:30 AM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2006
Is this fare?
I'm proud to be British. Correction - I'm usually proud to be British, but there are times that I squirm with embarrasment at what we do to visitors to our country.
Last night (or, rather, early this morning) I was up at Chippenham Station meeting 3 people off the train due in at 00:56 - they had flow into the UK in the evening and made their way from Stanstead, rebooking tickets for each leg of the journey as they went. And they were in a state of some shock as the said that they hadn't realised it would cost 200 pounds for them to get from Paddington to Chippenham.
I feel that they have been ripped off. And ripped off by a system that seems to be set up to maximise its income from those who don't know the tricks and techniques for getting a good fare. Looking at the same journey for the same time next week, the online booking service is telling me about no less that 27 different fares available for that single journey and, guess what, my delegates were charged the highest possible fare. With a premium of 1.1 billion pounds to be paid to the government, First Great Western has to maximise its income - but is this selling of overpriced tickets to vulnerable groups who know no better really a morally acceptable way of doing it? And is this the way to encourage the tourist business?
Posted by gje at 06:40 AM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2006
Behind the new timetable
Looking through the new timetable, I've got a feeling that the vestigial service that we're being provided with isn't being sourced purely off the Stroud Valley line. The 05:29 from Gloucester gets in to Westbury at 07:02, which is exactly the same time that the return trip leaves. Then there's an 07:05 departure from Westbury to Southampton.
I suspect that the 05:29 from Gloucester runs all the way through to Southampton and in practise, yes, we do still have a through Southampton train. A cause for celebration, then, even to a very minor degree? Especially as it looks like the evening train from Westbury may start further south too.
Alas, it raises other concerns. It shows a disregard by the operator for the specification which allows them to run through services to and from Gloucester and Weymouth but NOT Southampton. And it appears to merge in the service through Melksham with the Westbury - Southampton shuttle which is to run for one year only, before it's transferred to South West Trains and cut back to Salisbury. What then?
I was talking on the phone yesterday evening with a concerned and knowledgable party, musing over whether or not the operator is genuine in their stated aim of coming up with the best of a bad job this year, and improving the situation next year, or whether such stated aims and comments are simply made to give us - their customers - a warm and fuzzy feeling while they continue to pull the rug out from under the service. Our conversation didn't result in any conclusion one way of the other.
Posted by gje at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2006
Passenger or lemmings
I recall playing 'lemmings' a number of years ago ... and I was reminded of the game when I saw someone playing a similar game with penguins the other day. The idea is that you have a flow of lemmings coming from "A" and needing to get to "B" passing all sorts of perils on the way. A certain percentage need to make it in a certain time for you to pass. Other get lost on the way / die in the interest of others.
Reading about Great Central having trouble getting trains from the leasing companies for their services, and seeing how desparately short we're going to be in this area in a couple of months, I drew a parallel between a level of lemmings and the current system.
The operators of the trains are running the game, and the lemmings are the passengers. Mucking up the odd journey / timing out some passengers is no big deal - there's plenty more coming and provided you do enough to meet your target, you'll be congratulated rather than penalised.
The game itself is written by the ROScos and Network Rail, where they provide just enough (and at a high price) for it to be possible to meet the target of a level.
And pity the poor lemmings. Late, lost, overcrowded ...
Posted by gje at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2006
More cancellations
I see the service is up to its old tricks again this evening ... with the busiest train of the day cancelled. Not a month goes by without commuters having to catch the bus ... (no - that's unfair - I don't think that a commuter train was cancelled in May ... but it has happened every other month this year, and in some months on numerous occasions.
No wonder that Wilts County Council wrote the the DfT that the service should be picking up and dropping off around 40 TIMES the number of passengers it does in Melksham; the reliability's been lousy.
Posted by gje at 08:32 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2006
Taunton meeting
The SWPTUF (South West Passenger Transport Users Forum) - now known as "Travel Watch South West" - meeting last Saturday was an interesting opportunity to meet with others interested in public transport in the South West - ranging from campaign groups through specific service interests, train and bus operators, local representatives and officers and government officials. Whilst I can't come back waving an flag that says "Melksham is safer today because", I do come back with the ability to say that I have spoken in person with "x" and with "y" and with "z" - all of whom are important players in games played and still to be played, and have an element of influence over the decisions. I have learnt some of their points of view, understand a little more of what makes them tick (and thus what view they're likely to take of things crossing their desks) and I come back somewhat less pessimistic than I might have been.
I wish I had hours and hours to write everything up; I don't. I've got another big load of FOI information in. I've got a hotel to open on Sunday and - yikes - my job to start in 10 minutes time. But I WILL be finding time, for example, to be putting a case together for perhaps the highest level / pressure meeting yet at the end of the month.
In the meantime, can I leave you with a picture in words.
The 18:06 (Saturday) arrival pulls in to Melksham from Swidnon and Chippenham. Of the 50 or so people on the train, 20 get off; a few get into cars but most walk up the road and away, 3 more join, the train leaves and all is quiet.
When is this - in the distant past when everyone used the train? In the future, when oil is running out? No - this was last Saturday, our well used and well loved service that was, coach for coach, JUST as busy (and busier) that any of the other 4 trains I was on last Saturday
Posted by gje at 08:18 AM | Comments (0)