GWR appear to be tryingto get some ideas on how travel habits are likely to change (if indeed they will) and what sort of service provision will be needed.

So farnthis week we have had:

Ministers disagreeing with each other by their actions in public over whether or not to wear face masks in shops

A decree that we all have to wear face maks in shops when the rolling average daily deaths are in the 70s, when it wasn't apparantly needed when that rolling average was 800+ back in April

Graylng losing a rigged election and Dom the Traveller throwing his dummy out of the pram again as a result

Mop Head (and no doubt Dom the Traveller) deciding they know better than the Chief Medical officer over a return to work

Everybody who still thinks this lot still has any credibility will be invited to a meeting to be held in a phone box near Hyde Park Corner...

John Betjamin is probably getting ready to turn in his grave...

A few points from Celestial to comment on:

On the matter of free travel, perhaps a distinction needs to be drawn between the accompanied and unaccompanied of the species. Whilst I agree that, in the same way as I did at that age, kids going on social leisure trips should contribute towards the cost of providing the service. But, for example, a family of four making a journey would have two adults already paying their fares which, in itself, would exceed the equivalent cost of travelling by car. To charge children in these circumstances may make public transport a very cost-ineffective option, and would do nothing to encourage those children into a public transport mindset.

When my kids were under 14, I had a Family Railcard which in those days charged a flat fare of £1.00 per child. Suffice to say that if I had to have paid a half fare back then, even at the railcard discounted rate, Shell and Esso would have would have got a lot more money out of me than British Rail would have done...

Celestial goes on to bring up issues which, in my view, are complete red herrings. The “wealthy pensioner having a bus pass” for example – Michael Heseltine has often been cited as an example. Can you honestly see the well-heeled actually getting on a bus? And even if they did, how much revenue is being lost when compared with how much it would cost to introduce means testing for bus passes, especially bearing in mind the number of appeals there would be from people “on the cusp.”

It is always an unwise move to base opinions on ability to pay on the resale value of domestic property. For example, my mother and stepfather bought a farm cottage on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border that they were previously renting in 1970 for £2000. He worked as a farm labourer/ hedge layer/ JCB driver all his life and never earned enough to pay higher rate tax. He is still there, now widowed and not in the best of health. At a rough guess the old man lives in a place worth about £750,000.

Will you tell him he’s too asset rich for a free TV licence? I won’t – he’s a cantankerous old bugger at the best of times...

Is this an oxymoron?

Bearing in mind that the labour and material costs to build a couple of 5-bed detachd houses would be less than that,  I would be very interested to see the Bills of Qantities to see what materials are going into it. There must be some gold-plating somewhere...

Either that or something serious needs to be done about Network Rail's (NR^» (Network Rail - home page)) costs, which ultimately we are all paying for.



Edit:VickiS - Clarifying Acronyms

Thanks for the information, which confirms two things - firstly, I wasn't seeing things that weren't there, and secondly that someone with a long memory was having a laugh!

As I often said as my eyesight deteriorated, it is better to see things that aren't there than not see things that are there.

_{(Like that bleeding lamp post I walked into last Saturday and prossibly cracked a rib...)}

I was watching "Train Truckers" on Yesterday last night, when there was a scene inside the Crewe LNWR^▸ (London North Western Railway) Heritage Workshop. I thought I saw "DP2" on a first-generation-looking English Electric diesel on the left hand side.

As far as I know the locomotive was dismantled after its beyond repair accident in 1967, and various parts ended up in various class 50s.

Did my old eyes deceive me (that's quite possible), was somebody "'avin a larf" or is there actually a replica-building project that I know nothing about and can't find any information about online??

IF there was such a project ir would appear to be a little odd to me, because as the effective prototype for the class 50s it was almost a class 50 with a Deltic bodyshell.

For my younger readers:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/93122458@N08/8466486042/

There is a mixed picture here in Chippenham.

Most services are more or less back to normal. The two major exceptions are on routes 33 (Chippenham-Devizes) and 44 Chippenham town service.

The 33, probably for operational convenience, has seen its frequency doubled from 2-hourly to hourly. Previously there was a 2-hourly service via Sandy Lane and another 2-hourly service running between Calne and Devizes only. This latter service is now extended to and from Chippenham via Studley.

On a rather less positive note, the 44 continues to operate a Saturday service every day except Sunday when it doesn’t run anyway. This has the effect of there only being one bus after 1200 (at 1355) when the normal timetable provides for 5 (1205, 1305, 1405, 1450 and 1550. As this is the service I use most regularly Faresaver, suffice to say, were given the benefit of my observations in an email last Tuesday...

The reply I got (from a more senior individual at the company than the last time I contacted them) was well-reasoned and cited a lack of passengers on this route compared to the others that the company runs. From personal observation I have to agree with that but I do wonder whether the service currently being provided is part of that problem, especially that lack of afternoon buses.

The normal timetable has a first bus at 0935, then hourly from 1005 to 1405, then 1450 and 1550. The “emergency” timetable runs at 0845, 0925, 1025, 1145 and 1355. Having spent plenty enough years getting up at daft ‘o clock in the morning I have no intention of doing it now in retirement, so as far as I am concerned this precludes the use of the 0845 and usually the 0925. I doubt that I am alone, because not all pensioners employ themselves waking up the sparrows in the morning.

However, I am also old enough to remember the pre-Beeching service reductions on the railways, and the way that Bristol Omnibus Company reduced its lesser used services in the 1960s. In both cases there was a strong element of diminishing returns; whilst it is all very well, for example, withdrawing late evening services because too few people use them, this also has the effect of reducing demand earlier in the day as those “too few” passengers don’t travel outbound either. I therefore wonder whether the lack of afternoon services is not in itself contributing to poor passenger loadings.

Anyway I got the usual “we are monitoring the situation” thrust of a reply, with a suggestion that it might be possible for a service improvement after the schools break up as that would not require additional staffing.

We shall see. And I will be watching...

Some of us old buggers still think of it as being between Wickwar and Berkeley Road

With apologies to William S Gilbert...




As some day it may happen that I’ll be delayed by clowns
I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list
Of the frequent re-offenders who are found in my home town
The buggers can’t be missed; I wish they could be missed
There’s the blighters who don’t get off when they’ve rung the bell to stop
And idiots who seem surprised to have to pay for their monthly shop
And those who ask daft question when the ticket office has a queue
Like will the train be on time next Wednesday when my mother goes to Crewe
And the people who bang on about that no buffet exists
I’ve got em on the list, I’ve got em on the list

I’ve got a little list, I’ve got s little list
And they'll none of 'em be missed — they'll none of 'em be missed

There’s those that always rummage for the bus pass or the fare
And the fare evasionist – I’ve got him on the list
Or the drivers when you say hello pretends you’re just not there
They never would be missed, they never would be missed
And the idiot who praises in enthusiastic tone
All bus companies but this on every route except his own
And the old dear from the Care Home who takes an hour to get on
And longer to get off because her friend talks on and on
But it really doesn’t matter who I put upon my list
‘cos they’d none of em be missed, not one of them be missed

Perhaps my eyesight is worse the usual this afternoon but I can’t find the sentence where he said that. I think he is arguing that public transport usage may increase for environmental reasons, not because of an increase in commuting.

I would, however, take a counter view to “Perhaps put in a generous portion of vacations within the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) rather than flying.” The main reasons for the growth of bucket and spade continental holidays had more to do with the vagaries of the British weather and a short summer season resulting in higher prices to allow the traders to make a living. Neither of those factors have changed

As a bus passenger who perhaps understands a little more about the logistics of running a public transport system that the average passenger, I can empathise with a lot of those comments. There are a few, however, that could be seen as a little unjustified depending on circumstances.

Item 1 in particular. Whereas they may be people around who put their hand out just for the sheer hell of it (like there are kids who press pedestrian crossing buttons as they’re passing by which used to irritate the hell out of me), there are also people like me with defective eyesight who cannot perhaps see the destination blind from a distance. Faresaver, my local operator, runs a lot of Optare Solos and, when one comes around the corner towards the Chippenham Town Bridge stop at about the time I am expecting mine to turn up, I have to peer through my cataract-induced fog to see the service number. I’ve only got it wrong once so far, but that is more by luck than judgement.

As a casual observer, I also get irritated by cars parked in bus lanes, especially when taking into account the fact that emergency services also use them. Of course, when challenged the usual limp excuse is “I was only two minutes” to which the less-than-limp answer is “so the bloke having a heart attack can wait two minutes whilst you buy a packet of fags can he?”

I have been witness to item 41 more times than I care to remember. A bus is running to a timetable, with other services to operate after this one. When the bus stops at your stop, get off so that the bus can proceed. Perhaps a driver could say “if your conversation is that important, would you like to stay on for two or three stops and walk back?” But then again, I suppose they were only two minutes...

I think that there might be an elephant in the room here.

If we work on the basis that commuter travel is unlikely to fully recover, then as already been said, this will have a negative effect on TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) revenues.

Further fare rises to make up the shortfall would not be widely appreciated, and could easily lead to diminishing returns as potential passengers find cheaper ways of making their journeys, not least by increasing the use of private cars.

This will mean cost savings. The usual immediate target for such savings is staffing. Whilst perhaps a few less train crews may be the result, I wonder whether this would be sufficient. Other savings would need to be found.

To take a couple of examples from my neck of the woods, plans are currently afoot to re-hash the forecourt of Chippenham station. Plans include changing the shape of the short stay and staff car parks, and widening the pedestrian access. Personally, even with my lousy eyesight, I can’t see anything wrong with the existing arrangements; no pedestrians need to walk into the road for need of wider pavements. Cars can happily park now and the buses can easily use their turning space, something that could actually be made easier by moving the 55 bus stop, because buses on layover there can make that turn difficult.

Moving a bus stop would improve the situation for a lot less that the Lord knows how much the fully-blown plan has been costed at.

There are also plans to provide a lift on the northern side. Unlike the changes to the forecourt, this will benefit a lot of passengers entering the station from this direction. But I understand that NR^» (Network Rail - home page) have quoted in the region of £1million for doing it.

£1 million for a two-storey lift shaft? When you don’t even need to buy any land to put it on? How many houses could you build for that sort of money?

Perhaps what urgently needs to be dealt with in Network Rail’s profligacy with other people’s money. A reduction in NRs costs could feed through to reduced track access charges, and perhaps that may be where the largest savings could be made.

Its all your own faults for reading the Express...

Did they work Princess Diana into the story anywhere?

Yet on two other postings you’ve made this morning, things you’ve quoted have mentioned  commuters, (existing and new in Priorities to guide future design development and procurement  of stations in Campaigns for new and improved services quoting Railway Gazette); and a future lack of them in End of the Monday-Friday commute in Fares Fair and quoted from Politics Home.

So in summary we have GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) telling people no to travel in the peak, Politics Home saying widespread commuting is a thing of the past, and the Railway Gazette apparently expecting things to go back to normal.

All three of them can’t be right, which suggests to me that nobody has the foggiest idea about what is going on or is likely to go on. It also suggests to me that nothing is going to be done any time soon.

Wait and see, methinks...