http://www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk/community/community-news/rise-in-parking-charges-could-see-station-axed-1-4986896


ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) figures show 313,516 passenger arrivals or departures in the year to March 2012, which has risen from 237,297 seven years earlier - that's an extra third.  Sudbury has a population of around 12,000, with around 20 departures a day, spread evenly through the day.

My own comparison shows 11,330 passenger arrivals and departures in the year to March 2012, which has dropped from 27,446 seven years earlier - that's just 40% of the previous traffic.  Melksham has a population of around 24,000, with just four departures a day, 2 in the very early morning and two mid-evening.  Previously, (at the time of the higher numbers) there were 10 departures a day, spread early (as now), peak (now gone), daytime (now gone), peak (now gone), evening (as now). Car parking at Melksham station is free.

I suspect the success of a train service is more about the number and timing of the trains than about the cost of parking at the station - certainly my Melksham example does not support the Suffolk hypothysis that you'll boost train ridership by having low station parking prices.   You need trains too.

You are required to be a psychic, John, and know how early or late your flight will be 

In all seriousness, the fair rule for advanced tickets should be that you present yourself at your initial point of public transport departure at least "X" minutes before the scheduled departure time, that you allow at least minimum connection / transfer times at each point, and that if any one of those fails then the train operator of your "booked only" service will honour your reservation.  That means buses, trams, airline flights arriving at a UK^▸ (United Kingdom) airport and ferries are covered - perhaps with 15 minutes bus-to-train or tram-to-train, 45 minutes ferry-to-train and 60 minutes aircraft-to-train being the metric.

I can see such a change gaining rather that loosing the railways custom, and certainly cutting down on bad experiences if (for example) the First bus that connects with the First train gets held up due to an accident on the A350.  Once you've had a bad experience, it can put you off for year.

Are you sure the 14:00 goes to London not Manchester ??

Not on the railway but at a hotel nearby



"I waited 30 minutes for 4 more more people to join me in the lift and then missed my train. Is my advanced ticket valid on the next train in this circumstance?  "

Welcome to the forum, Stuving .... that's one heck of an impressive opening post!

I've not yet gotten off a train at the new Reading ... so really can't comment.  But surely designs evolve and one would hope that past experience has been used in the building of this new "Transfer Deck", and it's not just someone's view without looking back.   But having said that, I personally find the new Newport cold, impersonal and less welcoming to the passenger ... but is that one of the key criteria in the design, or is it much more based on cheap to run (fewer staff, easyclean), low maintenance, little opportunity for fare evasion, no corners for antisocial behaviour ... rather than the comfort and enjoyment of you and me?

I fear you may be too late to make meaningful inputs ... it's virtually there now, isn't it?

By the way - I'm not against all new stations; King's Cross is lovely, as are many aspects of Paddington

Advanced fares are not regulated, and it's up to the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) how many, how far in advance, and with what conditions they offer them.  They're even allowed to offer them at a higher price than a walkup fare for the same journey. So 3 months - allowed. 12 months would be allowed.   As would a 2 weeks to 1 week ONLY window!

What's good customer service, encouraging people to come back, should help shape the policy, but they're not actually going to loose all that much business by being rather tight with what they offer, and at certain times of day they're in a seller's market where they can generate more passenger traffic than they can handle.

The refranchise has been aborted ... but what was to stop one of the bidders (including the existing operator) coming in with a simplified fare structure that offered no advanced tickets, no groupsaves ... on the grounds that (a) the system has become too complex and (b) the trains are full anyway, with slower passenger number growth allowing the service to carry on longer without extra stock?  Could actually have bee quite attractive to the Treasury 

But then what's to stop Network Rail simply pulling half a million out of its normal level crossings budget, leaving the fine having no effect at all?


Agreed - that's not the solution either.   And I don't know what is the solution; presumably the court found failure at some point within NR such that a penalty of that magnitude was justified, but I can't see (can anyone?) how to ensure that the penalty is applied to those who were at fault, rather than their customers or the taxpaying community in general, or simply turning the whole thing into an accounting exercise!

Neat, Thank you... I hadn't thought of the implications of a Didcot split on this one!

I won't be chasing up on this ... although perhaps I should.  I contend that I was told by an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) employee in the course of his duty that I could legitimately use this ticket on the 18:47 from Paddington for a partial journey, and actually (with this given permission of his) I could have done so, even though it was an extension of normal rights.   Rather like a train manager allowing someone to sit in First on a standard ticket - perhaps a frail old dear on a standard train of drunken revellers.

Sure, it would have be hard to prove - BUT I have the receipt for other tickets bought from the chap at Paddington, so that they could have worked out who it was and checked with him.

Harder for me to justify now that I've had it stated that the advise was wrong ... and I'm travelling 2 hours earlier from BoA^» (Bradford-on-Avon - next trains) via BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) - faster, better choice of services ...

Next week, I'm in East Anglia:
Melksham to Peterborough, Sunday evening (leave 17:25)
Peterborough to Melksham, Friday evening (arrive 19:11)
Best return fare offered - 216 pounds anytime return.

But looking at the booking the other way:
Peterborough to Melksham, Friday evening (arrive 19:11)
Melksham to Peterborough, Sunday evening (leave 17:25)
Best return fare offered - 92 pounds 50p - super offpeak return

Same train, same journey, other way round.   Which is correct?  Can I specifically buy a super offpeak Melksham to Peterborough and validly use it

A passenger holds an advanced fare from PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) to CNM^» (Cheltenham Spa - next trains) for Thursday evening (30 pounds). However, on Tuesday his plans are changed and he goes to PAD to ask to change this to a ticket from PAD to MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) for Wednesday evening, using "maximum flexibiity" and expecting to to charged a tenner. However, he's told that he cannot change the ROUTE of the ticket, and is offered a 76 pound fare with "you're choosing to travel at the most expensive time of day"

Passenger is assured, however, that his PAD to CNM ticket can be used on Thursday evening for a journey on that same train, joining at SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) for the journey to CNM.

I was / am the passenger, and am slightly surprised
a) Surely maximum flexibility should let me buy an MKM ticket rather than a CNM?
b) I didn't think joining late was allowed on advance tickets?

Three things I'm not surprised at
c) "you're choosing to travel at the most expensive time of day" ... but no alternative suggested.  Apart from sleeping on the platform overnight, when would have been cheaper??  I would have been happy to wait for the 19:30, but there's no connection ...
d) In the end I bought a fresh PAD to DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains) peak, and a super offpeak DID to MKM, suitable for the 17:30 change at SWI, but flexible (in so far as I could at least get to CPM^» (Chippenham - next trains) at any time)
e) An announcement on the train that "Off peak tickets are not valid on this service", even though mine was ... and indeed was accepted without question by two menacing looking bruisers who passed through the carriage checking everyone's tickets.

I ended up travelling on the 18:00 off PAD, which is supposed to arrive at CPM two minutes before the early evening (also First) bus.   The train was 2 minues late into CPM;  not trusting the connection, I had taken up favour - a kind offer of a lift, and my pickup told me that the bus had pulled out as the train entered the station.  Another nice one First ... after the 7.15 bus the next one's 10.15

Can anyone comment on (a) and (b) - should I have been allowed to change my ticket as I wanted?   And am I able to use it this evening on the 19:53 SWI to CNM?

Cast list:
PAD - Paddington
DID - Didcot
SWI - Swindon
CPM - Chippenham
MKM - Melksham
CNM - Cheltenham

Hi, Max and welcome to the forum

You're caught between something of a rock and a hard place.   The official answer is to suggest that the best you can do is to hand it in to lost property at your local station; if that's FGW^▸ (First Great Western) operated, then the pen will make its way to Bristol and the lost property place there is the natural place where people will ask.  You may have read some criticism of their systems on here, but it's as real struggle to get property back to people and there's no easy answer.

If the professionals in Bristol don't reach the right person, I fear you (or others) have little chance of doing so yourself.  Of course, it's just possible that the person who lost the pen, or more likely a contact of his / hers is on here, could get in touch, and then - happy days - it would be sorted. Stranger things have happened, but being realistic you can't rely on them.

The sillyness is that a little bit or pre-publicity on the engineering signs "from Monday onwards, we'll be operating a new layout and there may be delays of up to ten minutes as we bed in" would have been understood by commuters, and should have obviated the need for blame assignment, fines, etc which all end up being paid for by the customer or taxpayer anyway!

I love playing with figures ....

Passenger growth by station operator (percentage, year to March 2011, year to 2012):

 112.72 68070475 76727936 "london midland trains"
 107.82 149781128 161490108 "national express east anglia"
 106.09 118666068 125888884 "first scotrail"
 109.15 106573058 116328320 "northern rail"
 102.49 1627348 1667834 "south west trains (island line)"
 107.53 191026233 205418462 "southern"
 110.96 33586328 37267690 "chiltern railways"
  95.49 75519049 72112632 "merseyrail"
 102.86 38374508 39472600 "east midlands trains"
  77.94 432334 336982 "glasgow prestwick airport"
 104.13 32308884 33643264 "east coast"
 105.22 253096633 266306990 "south west trains"
 157.52 51563890 81225196 "london overground"
 103.90 21470589 22308272 "first transpennine express"
 115.07 25882993 29783456 "london underground"
 103.07 37382672 38528568 "virgin trains (west coast)"
 106.44 120066730 127795492 "first capital connect"
 102.62 175640492 180237504 "southeastern"
 102.35 53647288 54906734 "arriva trains wales"
 107.10 112344542 120318740 "first great western"
 104.51 601917586 629047816 "network rail"
 107.54 44534718 47890560 "c2c"

And by the nuts2 Spatial area (whatever that is!):

 102.39 49977364 51170394 "hampshire and isle of wight"
 103.09 26498790 27316820 "east wales"
 105.27 74789020 78728704 "berkshire, buckinghamshire and oxfordshire"
 104.07 4469948 4651958 "highlands and islands"
 102.32 8926140 9133172 "tees valley and durham"
 108.92 760559871 828424122 "inner london"
 108.78 44060634 47931182 "eastern scotland"
 105.40 13420824 14145780 "shropshire and staffordshire"
 107.94 63675866 68729378 "greater manchester"
 104.25 16272145 16963018 "cheshire"
 101.84 19445580 19804282 "west wales and the valleys"
 104.99 32776012 34410406 "east anglia"
  99.61 6133492 6109552 "cumbria"
 102.64 61580672 63205592 "kent"
 118.46 75320926 89224454 "west midlands"
 102.27 10485842 10724308 "dorset and somerset"
 104.84 70209155 73606708 "bedfordshire and hertforshire"
 106.30 34106754 36256644 "gloucestershire, wiltshire and north somerset"
 107.17 308778380 330912436 "outer london"
 104.69 155180581 162461518 "surrey, east & west sussex"
 108.75 4641314 5047596 "north eastern scotland"
 103.57 15987456 16558960 "lancashire"
 106.31 111168755 118182576 "south western scotland"
 109.08 15404456 16802502 "herefordshire, worcestershire and warwickshire"
 103.66 19363990 20072896 "derbyshire and nottinghamshire"
 102.55 60886855 62437498 "west yorkshire"
 104.20 18910926 19706058 "south yorkshire"
 108.74 13628096 14819516 "devon"
 121.36 5066746 6149060 "cornwall and isles of scilly"
 102.76 10575170 10866722 "northumberland and tyne and wear"
 101.69 13365932 13592130 "leicestershire, rutland and northamptonshire"
 104.69 13923262 14575994 "north yorkshire"
 103.57 5844128 6052646 "east riding and north linconshire"
 103.53 71146901 73657774 "essex"
  98.99 92414145 91482434 "merseyside"
 106.02 4517418 4789250 "lincolnshire"

Please excuse all lower cased places and companies - it appears that some data lines have First Scotrail and other First ScotRail (nice clean data set  ) and it was easier just to thump them all to lower case!

106.71 2313514557 2468853618 grand totals

Yes, indeed ... from the waiting room on platform 4