Jubilee weekend rail travel - some concerns raised

[whole diary]

[adc82140]

Just for the record- dictionary definition of commute:

commute [kəˈmjuːt]
vb
1. (intr) to travel some distance regularly between one's home and one's place of work


Therefore by definition leisure travellers are NOT commuters.

That is all 

[broadgage]

Then again, you could ignore the whole event completely.  Like all good republicans.

But what about republicans who voluntered to work, in order that those more interested in the celebrations could enjoy them.
Two colleagues, not much interested in the event tried to get to work via FCC^▸ (First Capital Connect). Described as a total fiasco with a limited service of short trains "because it is Sunday"
LUL^▸ (London Underground Ltd) described as even worse.

This does not bode well for the sporting event in a few weeks time.

[Btline]

Oh!  Were you quoting ITN?  I thought that was your wording - as it wasn't in quotes. 

Commuters have been angered...
...tearful children, unable to board overcrowded carriages...

Source: itv.com

[ChrisB]

This does not bode well for the sporting event in a few weeks time.

On the Sundays especially! And the shops are all open longer too.

[eightf48544]

And the shops are all open longer too.

Please explain not come across that one before!

[ChrisB]

Unrestricted shop opening on Ol;ympic Sundays is likely to attract more shoppers also wanting transport in/out of London.

[smokey]

ATOC^» (Association of Train Operating Companies See - here) at it's best!

In this day of Internet Enquires and Bookings I just don't see how the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s are taken by surprise on Passenger loadings.

His Lordship "Lord Grahame of Melksham" is very capable of producing Facts and Figures about the Great Western Passengers' Forum, from simple data gathered.

From the various data bases that are used for train enquires and booking ticket's it must be possible to examine and down load tends that are occuring.
i.e.  If it's found that an average of 4000 travel enquires are made about travel from Bristol Temple Meads to London for an Average Sunday, but this has increased to 10000 for Sunday 3rd June (on information gathered 2 weeks in advance) and Pre Booked Tickets sales are 100% above the Average then it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to said "it's elemenary my dear Watson that the trains are going to be BUSY on Sunday 3rd June"


    


Of course external problems like fog on Motorways, or unplanned road closures etc can cause sudden blips in passenger flows but advertised Events should be mananged!

[Electric train]

One TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) .... Southern were anticipating that QDJ Sunday would be much busier at Victoria than any single day of the Olympics they were certainly planning more trains and longer ones.  Other TOC had only planned longer trains. 

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) in the Wessex Sussex Kent route areas had ensured that planned works were kept to a minimum, very few outages of traction supply equipment were allowed, only those that if they were not completed would impact on the Olympics were allowed.

As far as I am aware NR were expecting high demands over the QDJ weekend ................. TOC's well after all they only deal face to face with the public bit much to expect them to understand demand 

[JayMac]

Unrestricted shop opening on Ol;ympic Sundays is likely to attract more shoppers also wanting transport in/out of London.

Have to ask. Was that a deliberate typo, ChrisB, to avoid any potential penalty for using a trademarked term? 

[eightf48544]

Boris has just spoken on Tv and said everything went very well over the weekend only 29 arrests etc. except for the TOCS who let people down by not running enough or longer trains!