Great Western Coffee Shop

When you have a choice of journey options, which factors influence you the most?   You may vote for as many or as few options as you like. Poll idea from reading another thread

Catering factors in for me as well, i wouldn't use xc to get to scotland as i wouldn't be able to get any decent food onboard, and would gladly pay extra to go via london.

I agree catering could be a factor for longer journeys.

What about reliability of changes especialy if say you are changing from a local train to an IC with an advanced ticket on the IC. Do you do what I do and take the train before the one given (30 minute service) on the itinery just to be on the safe side.

Lowest fare is a factor but then advanced can be a hassle if you need to change your plans at the last minute.

i think to me, if i was on a longer journey i would want to get a ticket with a decent amount of flexibility, i wouldnt want to miss a train due to delays and be charged more because i tried to save.

however if i was going to london i would use swt as its cheaper and more comfortable... despite the lack of catering .... however others may pick speed and quieter ride

As this isn't totally scientific, I have gone back and added "catering" and "reliability" options.    Those of you have voted already ARE able to go back and change your votes on this poll!

For comfort, if heading north it's via London for me now Voyagers rule the roost on XC. Yes it takes longer but you can't beat the comfort of an HST to Paddington then onwards by Class 91/HST East Coast or to a lesser extent Pendolino on West Coast.

Not surprised to see price topping the poll even at this early stage which good value is something easily achieved if you know well in advance that you intend to travel, but not so easy if you dont...long distance anyway.

I'd say the type of train is important, if it's a Voyager for example, or a long journey on a 150, i'll do my best to avoid travelling on said services, however ultimately price is my most important factor.

On a side note, I paid the grand price of ^3.30 to travel from Southampton - North Somerset which i'm rather happy with  :D

living in cornwall i generall dont have many options, i have to get to destination by set time,  normally within devon and cornwall i have choice of solely getting from origin to destination at the right time,

For any jouney over three hours I would have to say frequency of service en-route, I get quite claustrophobic on board when I'm not working, even in first class, and having a reservation (or finding a seat free for the journey you're making) doesn't stop a particularly popular train becoming really rammed. I would rather do half the trip, jump off and have a pint and then get the next train - purely to get a breath of fresh air on today's air conditioned units!  ;)
Being staff I can only get my discount off SOS / SOR tickets which makes travelling via London quite expensive when the SVR can be less than a quarter of the price than the SOR.

I too, like to break up a long journey and hop off en route for a stroll, fresh air and a pint/coffee. I'll often buy split Advances or combine an Advance with a walk-up ticket to allow me a break en-route.

I have some quirks as well. If travelling to Exeter or beyond from Bristol, I'll try my damnedest to avoid Voyagers, often taking a local to Taunton or Westbury and picking up a FGW HST from there.

Ultimately though, price is the main consideration for me. I'm happy to get up early doors for an 0635 departure from Shirehampton and travel for nearly 4 hours to London via Salisbury for the bargain price of ^19.45 Day Return (Railcard). I can arrive in London Waterloo around 1015 and have a whole day there, returning any time up to 1920. To arrive around the same time into Paddington I'd be paying ^38.80 and be limited by evening return options.

I also get a perverse pleasure from discovering ticketing loopholes that save me oodles of cash.  :D

For me comfort and type of train is the same - I will avoid little trains if at all possible.  Then its catering

Whether I can do it on First Group boxes or not :P

Route sometimes, I like to go odd routes if I can.

And catering, but it depends what my bank balance is like.

Type of stock doesn't really bother me so much.

Like many others on here I would never consider a long journey North on a Voyager and would thus go via London (hoping to do Scotland trip before too long)

Will do anything to avoid finding myself on 142/143/150 etc for a mainline journey eg Cornish main line.

Would never choose a service without catering if within my control.

Late night trains heading West can feel rather soulless, especially after the Buffet has closed and you are one of just a few people on board. Therefore, much prefer the buzz and convenience of the Sleeper.

Occasionally do Exeter to London on the Salisbury (SWT) route for a change of scenery, however the catering is poor/sporadic and little effort made to police the first class compartment. That said, the trains themselves are quite comfortable and seem fit for purpose.

Going up to Norwich tomorrow (via Pad) and so looking forward to first journey out of Liverpool Lime Street for over 6 years, although sadly no longer any chance of dinner in the dining car >:(

Off to London on Friday but, unusually, going to Waterloo purely because FGW had no cheaper tickets available at the time I needed to travel (and I am paying - if the employer was footing the bill I would go to PAD regardless of the cost).

Catering isn't something that is of interest to me.  If I'm making a journey, I'll either ensure I take enough food to last or arrange somewhere to stop en route.  I'm not really keen on having to eat cheese sandwiches because that's all the buffet has left, especially considering the price charged compared to food outlets within walking distance of stations.

Price is definitely the most important factor to me at the moment, shortly followed by the best departure/arrival times.  I would easily choose another method of transport over the train if it was cheaper.

Price is important but only in the sense of avaioding stupidly high fares.  Once I have found a sensible price (not neccessarily rock-bottom)  comfort (avaoiding voyagers) becomes important.

Apart from the obvious, reasonable priced tickets and decent catering makes all of the difference for me. Since I regularly travel between Swansea and Bristol I regularly get to use the travelling chef and with cheap first class tickets available I always choose the train. In comparison Nat Ex would cost pretty much the same for a bacon baugette and first class so clearly tarin wins hands down. However if prices were different then I may not travel by train, especially with the unpredicatiblity of over-crowding on SWML services when the inevtibale happens with problems and the Cardiffs are the first trains to be pulled.

I voted for shortest journey time.. Thinking about it more.. I guess that is because my trains are horribly overcrowded generally.. If they weren't .. I wouldn't be quite so bothered... ;D

I guess its a typo - if not paddington to Norwich via Liverpool suggests an overdose of limes. . .

Roughly equal priorities for me are avoiding voyagers and other new, nasty, cramped DMUs, and seeking a decent meal.
As disscussed elswhere on these forums, catering on most services has been downgraded to at best a buffet, and often to only a trolley.

Most of my journies are between London and the West, I take the 18-03 train simply because it still has a restaurant, if I miss it then the 19-03 is the other restaurant. I pay first class so as to be able to book in the restaurant.
Return to London is normally on one of the 2 services that retain a restaurant.

When this route is downgraded to DMUs I shall probably go by road.
Steerage class fares already greatly exceed the cost of petrol, and first class is nearly as expensive as a taxi.

Exactly what I do. Have shared a table with MPs, trade union leaders, actors and leading industrialists over the years. Not many places you can do that!

Three more days to answer the poll at the head of this thread - some interesting early results which I'm not going to talk about yet in order to encourage more people to complete the poll without having their inputs biased by an analysis of other people's answers so far!

Perhaps without making it too complicated there should be an implied proviso that the journey you want to do can be made by train.

For instance I can't make a train journey from my local station on a Sunday. Also if I want to go places like Teddington (to pick up a boat) I have to either go to Eton and walk across the bridge or walk between the two Windsor stations.

Many thanks for the inputs.  Fascinating results

Your top "deciders"

* Price
* Comfort
* Good arrival and departure times
* Reliability

Well down the votes

- Shortest Journey Time
- Fewest Changes
- Favourite Operating Company

Tells me a lot - that our small sample prefers a good choice of trains rather than fewer, faster ones, and that they don't mind having to change along the way if it fits in with their schedule.  Rather points towards a clockface timetable (hourly or every 30 minutes) along a standard route, with timings done to make good connections off that standard route.  I am (of course, for me) thinking "TransWilts implications" ... also aware that our membership here is a self-selected group of really intersted people, and not a random sample of passengers or wannabe passengers.

I'm havind a "doozie" of a week; overbusy, lots of good stuff amongst it (but as ever some tough stuff too).  I'll be coming back to look in more detail at this little survey and its results at a later point.

Given that wannabe normal passangers seem to want cheap, reliable travel with a seat I would say the results clearly reflect this. Nowadays through trains with few or no changes are a nice thing but not essential apart from maybe a small number a day for disabled and elderly passangers. This may be areas that the railway needs to look at, smaller more frequent services with a small number of through services to other destinations that usually require changes just after peak hours were stock is not as streched as it would otherwise return to depot. Small solution to problems that support the results given?

Rosters  ;D

Joking aside as staff are there particular services you look forward to working and others you'd rather not?

Not really.  I do groan a little when I know I will be working a packed holiday train, but in a perverse way, I also enjoy it. One of the great tings about the job is variety, although we tend to know the scenery on our particular patch quite well :-)