Any train operating company that's been around a while will have its supporters and people who really dislike it, and much of that dislike will come from people who's services have been less that reasonable under one of that TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s franchises.  But whether that comes from the TOC own business approach, conditions laid down on it by the franchise awarder, or decisions it took in order to win the franchise in the first place is an interesting question.

Would I favour a company that provide me with a very unreliable service indeed, with trains "held together with glass fibre", a company that has a fearsome reputation for altering services with little apparent thought to the inconvenience this may case, a company that changed its definition of "offpeak" to dramatically increase its fare take, or a company that cut back from five trains at a variety of good times to just two which cater for little but their saving hiring an extra train?

Or another question - would I favour a company who have provided help in putting forward an excellent case for a better future service an who I feel I can work with, a company that's got the backing of a major parent and has shown by example it would invest in a longer franchise, a company which has already shown faith in upping service levels, or a company that has trains it somehow manages to keep cleaner than everyone else's and has a strong reputation for revenue protection - vital in areas where loss of money and passenger counts effects the viability of services?

I'm intentionally not expressing any view as to the weight of factors - but I have quoted what are essentially well know good and bad points for all four of the companies that were bidders.  The company's own business approach is important ... as everyone will be in the same boat against invitations to bid (or should be - lack of this equallity may have been a WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) issue), as is a company's willingness to stand up for what it believes in.  Problem is - if it stands up too much for what it believes in against flaws in the ITT^▸ (Invitation to Tender), it may find itself putting in a less well received bid and being rules out.   It's a complex balance!

P.S. The through trains from Paddington take much longer on the way out - reversal at Tilehurst as documented elsewhere

I note the trains are much quicker from Reading to Reading West though.  Is this padding / recovery time on the way in to some extent?  Or is it getting the single line (one engine in steam) authority on the way in to a single platform, and being able to return on the same authority?

I saw an answer by the head poncho at ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here) on this, claiming that the report was biased because it only picked out certain fare types, and saying that the average journey fare has remained static for many years at around five pounds.  (If anyone has a link / reference, please add it ... I saw it within the last few days but can't find it again at the moment).

I would suggest
a) Peak, walk up fares have risen - to a great extent that's a policy to supress demand on peak trains
b) Commuter and local traffic has grown faster that long distance traffic, and that rebalance means average journeys are shorter, so average fares should have gone down
c) Does a BNM special - splitting a journey into four sections, and spending (say) 70 pounds count as 1 journey at 70 pounds, 2 at 35 (they are return tickets) or 8 at 9 pounds each as far as ATOC are concerned?



Edit note: One typo corrected, for clarity. CfN.

An update - ticket bought, no problem (but many thanks for the guidance - that magic number helped) and I'm now in the Netherlands.   Long and boring travellogue in two sections at

http://melksh.am/3994
and
http://melksh.am/3995

Only problems?  The cancellation of Fyra, but I had been given a heads-up, and it gave me a chance to see local rail in Belgium.  And the ticket barrier at PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) which refused my ticket, and the chappy who then let me through and confiscated it until I pointed out it was valid to Kings Cross and got it back.  The TfL^» (Transport for London - about) barriers were happy with it ...

Go on - have a guess (and let me know of any I have overlooked).

Melksham to London - trains only at 07:20 and 19:47  ... (06:38 dogleg via Westbury possible to be in London 15 minutes earlier)

Draft answer:

http://melksh.am/3993

As well as a strong team of moderators, we also need a handful of administrators who look after things like new member authorisation, database backups, software issues, and provide further support for the moderator team.

I'm delighted to welcome bobm as a new administrator for the Coffee Shop; he'll be joining Chris from Nailsea and myself as a more active admin; we have a couple of other geeks who we can call on in an emergency.  Bobm runs another web site (in a completely different field) where active updates from many contributing sources are already made, and he's moving that site towards an even more user generated site.   There's an excellent synergy, and significant people skills in an internet / web context there, as well as the technical stuff of the web site.  And - last and (surprisingly) least in this list, Bob knows his way around the railways systems in this part of the world.

I'm sure you'll join me in welcoming Bob as an admin.

Rather that diesel and elecric bimodes, why not run electric all the way to Plymouth, carrying own electric supply west of Exeter where the salty seawall may be an overhead issue?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/03/battery-powered-intercity-trains-possible-study

Yes, though I'm not sure how my receipt translates into a ticket at the obscure NS station I start from - I had to book through the Dutch site because the people in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) only book tickets (singles and returns) originating in the UK.  Why do people go out of their way to put on such restrictions.  Almost temps me to drive!

That's a very old post that I've dredged up and there was some uncertainly as to whether it's still available this way. 

I'm returning by boat rather than by Eurostar (finish in Holland too late to get home by Eurostar; may as well sleep on the boat) ... so I guess I should get the EVR rather that than EVS.

I'm not sure on a Sunday ... but I'm used to the South Wales to London services picking up significantly more people at Swindon (heading towards London) than getting off (travelling to Swindon from Parkway and South Wales).  So whilst you are spot in to question the capacity in the doubled up train, it shouldn't be an issue in this case (that's unless there's already an overcrowding issue on those trains on the section east from Swindon on Sunday.  Surely not - it's super offpeak  )

Thanks, EBrown and all for the feedback on these fares, which I've never used before - I'm a real newbie at this one!

I thinks I'll go for standard class - 4 x time the fare for a journey that's only first for part of the way seems excessive (would probably have paid 1.5 times on this occasion as the start of a long day's travel!).    Any permitted is only useful on the 06:38 from Melksham - the 07:20 and 19:47 both run via Swindon, and the 19:11 via Westbury gets overtaken.  And on the return, the only useful train in the whole 24 hours is the 17:45 via SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) ... a second train involves a night spend on the platform at Swindon, and the two services via Westbury are overtaken by the two SWI trains. Not a brilliant service (!) but the trains happen to fit my travel plans next week.

It will be interesting to see if in coming months the upwards trend continues, it levels off, or it turns out to be a spike ... I wouldn't like to offer a prediction.

Correct 


I'm giving a training course, and not at liberty to reveal my customer company's names or too many clues to them without their permission ... and I think I'm going to a one-IT-company town.   It's a two-hotel town though, and my client has advised which hotel I should use already, I'm through ticketed to the town's station, in walking distance of the hotel and the place of work, so I suspect that I'm now past the point at which those inputs would have been of maximal use.

As general use / reading, I'm going to encourage posts somewhere (wider?) that describe other countries systems, especially where they give us lessons / contrasts / ideas - in fact I've posted a load of those in the past!