Rugby World Cup - underestimated number of fans

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Ooooh, another subtle change with the new branding....

Journeycheck currently referring to "overcrowding", rather than simply 'crowding'! Admission at last

Good, just call it for what it is.

Not been a good start for Rugby fans travelling by rail these past two days. To be fair to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), I don't think that there was much more they could have done without seriously affecting other routes by pulling stock to run even more services or strengthening others to Cardiff.

Of course the public think a train company has a magic cupboard that they can pull lots of trains from at times of major events.

Not a magic cupboard, but when you have several years warning that the 3rd biggest sporting event in the World is taking place on your patch and is likely to have major impact on your service, it's not too much to ask that then train company makes adequate provision for it......thousands of people who do not regularly use the trains have had a pretty appalling experience with FGW and will take some convincing to come back.......

[IndustryInsider]

Weren't you criticising the decision to ban group save to matches the other day?  Something which would have led to even more wanting to travel.

[TaplowGreen]

Weren't you criticising the decision to ban group save to matches the other day?  Something which would have led to even more wanting to travel.

This is one of the World's premier sporting events and the question is about extreme levels of overcrowding and failure to provide sufficient capacity for an event which was many years in the making.

Banning groupsave won't stop people travelling if they've spent hundreds of ^ on a ticket, it's just a cynical attempt by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to screw a few extra quid out of their customers.

You now have a situation where people from all over the World have a jaded view of the British rail system, but I doubt that really bothers FGW, after all they've had a fresh coat of paint.

[didcotdean]

What could have been done in theory if it had been considered acceptable to downgrade services elsewhere?

Have there been any reports of people being unable to get on trains at intermediate stations after Paddington on the main line?

Should some of the additional services have not started from Paddington but from say Reading?

Should stops have been missed out since quite a portion of the delay was at intermediate stations?

A few questions to consider I think ...

[TaplowGreen]

What could have been done in theory if it had been considered acceptable to downgrade services elsewhere?

Have there been any reports of people being unable to get on trains at intermediate stations after Paddington on the main line?

Should some of the additional services have not started from Paddington but from say Reading?

Should stops have been missed out since quite a portion of the delay was at intermediate stations?

A few questions to consider I think ...

Spot on - the sort of questions which should have been considered and addressed well in advance, rather than post mortem.......

[ChrisB]

All I'd say is that the staff have been doing their jobs on events like this for longer than you've been a member. Any wuestion you might raise I revkon they've thought of many more.

They had to continue to offer a timetable elsewhere

[didcotdean]

My questions considered the scenario that the services would or should have been reorientated around the event. This isn't to say this should have been the correct call or indeed that the organisers themselves dont have something to answer as well. Their travel plans, such as they are are weak on additional provision.

[Fourbee]

SWT^▸ (South West Trains) did something - they told their punters to bike it or take a day off (with no reference to refunds for season ticket holders for helping them out).

[ChrisB]

Seasons only Mon/Fri, with use at weekends considered 'free'

[Bob_Blakey]

The 'advice' concerning travel plans on the RWC website seems to have not had the desired effect. Given the amount of notice World Rugby, NR^» (Network Rail - home page) & the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) had I would have got them to decide well in advance how many additional (not for public use) 'Sport Specials' could theoretically be shoehorned into the existing schedule and then make each service available for booking (in turn until full) via a link from the RWC ticket site. This would have been accompanied by some fairly robust warnings about the likely consequences of turning up at a station on the day without a confirmed reservation. I don't think this would have been terribly difficult to implement.
Also would it not have been a good idea to use the RWC ticket purchasing process to also ask punters if they were intending to travel to games by train and, if so, get them to provide some detail about which service(s) they were likely to use - not definitive I know but it might have given the train planners a much better idea of additional passenger volumes.

[trainer]

You now have a situation where people from all over the World have a jaded view of the British rail system, but I doubt that really bothers FGW^▸ (First Great Western), after all they've had a fresh coat of paint.

I fear that they would be right to have a jaded opinion. Whether the blame can be laid entirely at the door of one company is a moot point IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion).  It is government policy to run the railways as commercially as possible which means insufficient capacity everyday at some peak times and certainly no extra capacity in reserve for mass movements on special occasions - like football, rugby,cricket, golf and tennis events, royal visits, air displays, sea displays, music festivals, Christmas Holidays, end/beginning of university terms, summer holidays, half-terms...I may have missed some.  In France they have TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) hanging around for weeks with no work in order to meet the peak demands.  In the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) that is seen as extravagance.  A judgement call.

[TaplowGreen]

Seasons only Mon/Fri, with use at weekends considered 'free'

Not all matches are at weekends - indeed the opening match of the tournament was last Friday.

It'll be interesting to see how the railway copes with the midweek fixtures in Cardiff tomorrow and next Thursday, especially with mid afternoon kick offs - I wonder if services in other areas are being stripped back to provide additional capacity from London/Bristol? Presumably there is less scope to do that during the working week?

If we get similar travel chaos to last weekend in the latter stages of the tournament when the eyes of the sporting World are on the Rugby World Cup and its venues it'll somewhat tarnish the new FGW^▸ (First Great Western) brand.

[ChrisB]

The one we were discussing at the time however, was on Saturday!

[Adelante_CCT]

- I wonder if services in other areas are being stripped back to provide additional capacity from London/Bristol? Presumably there is less scope to do that during the working week?

All I see before KO are the 3 loco hauleds from Paddington, an hourly shuttle from Newport and 1 diagram that does two additional journeys from Bristol. Of course unlike at a weekend at least you have the normal hourly Pad to Cardiff services running.

[TaplowGreen]

The one we were discussing at the time however, was on Saturday!

............must have misunderstood, the way I read it the OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter) (Fourbee) was referring from advice from SWT^▸ (South West Trains) to its customers, they were running the service to Twickenham on Friday for England v Fiji.