GWR Weekend First New Prices

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Well, 1A92 16:56 Plymouth-Paddington was announced at Reading yesterday (Saturday) as "Formed of 9 carriages". Do you think that would help?

I understand there was an extra carriage on a train for the Prime Minister - presumably with her entourage - to have a carriage of their own. If they were to share, I suspect it would help 

[Timmer]

According to a TM^‡(resolve) I encountered yesterday, if you have split Standard Class tickets your WF upgrade must also be split

No problems on the return. TM upgraded through journey.

Never had a problem upgrading to weekend first when I've split my tickets Westbury-Newbury, Newbury-Paddington so I can use my Network railcard.

Don't upgrade much now as travelling from Bath/Westbury to Paddington the upgrade is £20 which for an hour and a half is poor value. Yet for £5 more you can travel all the way to Penzance from London. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have priced me out of First class now with Advance tickets also very pricey.

[PhilWakely]

As far as long distance trips go on Sundays - particularly Penzance/Plymouth to London, Weekend First should be stopped as there are not enough seats for those with regular First class tickets, I've seen it happen on a number of occasions when 1st Class is full by Exeter, largely by those who have bought supplements, and 1st class ticket holders can't get a seat.

I always thought Weekend 1st was designed to utilise 1st class when it wasn't busy but now that there are only 1.5 carriages that is rarely if ever the case on those services.

Are there many pax who buy walk-up First Class tickets at the weekend? Surely it would be the responsibility of the ticket office staff to offer the cheapest fare - namely the SSS/R together with suggesting that pax upgrade on board? How many walk-up First Class tickets are sold via TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) at the weekend?

[Zoe]

It used to be the case that Weekend First passengers were banned from Coach H, are there no longer any restrictions now with the reduced First Class capacity?

[Timmer]

It used to be the case that Weekend First passengers were banned from Coach H, are there no longer any restrictions now with the reduced First Class capacity?

Nope, not any TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) that offers weekend first restricts which carriage you can sit in. I remember the Intercity days when coach H was restricted to full fare First class passengers only at weekends. Coaches F and G had window stickers denoting these were the weekend first carriages.

I'll go further and say I remember when weekend first used to be £1!!! Was then £3 for most if not all of the remaining Intercity years.

[bobm]

As far as long distance trips go on Sundays - particularly Penzance/Plymouth to London, Weekend First should be stopped as there are not enough seats for those with regular First class tickets, I've seen it happen on a number of occasions when 1st Class is full by Exeter, largely by those who have bought supplements, and 1st class ticket holders can't get a seat.

I always thought Weekend 1st was designed to utilise 1st class when it wasn't busy but now that there are only 1.5 carriages that is rarely if ever the case on those services.

Are there many pax who buy walk-up First Class tickets at the weekend? Surely it would be the responsibility of the ticket office staff to offer the cheapest fare - namely the SSS/R together with suggesting that pax upgrade on board? How many walk-up First Class tickets are sold via TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) at the weekend?

There might be a "get out clause" there in that Weekend First is at the discretion of the Train Manager.  If First Class is full or likely to become so, they can suspend weekend first so a passenger might not be able to upgrade.

[Zoe]

Was then £3 for most if not all of the remaining Intercity years.

Yes, I'm not sure when it went up to £5 but I remember it then going to £6 in 1999 and then £8 in 2001 (£10 for London to Taunton and west). It didn't increase then until the zones were introduced in in 2009.

[broadgage]

According to a TM^‡(resolve) I encountered yesterday, if you have split Standard Class tickets your WF upgrade must also be split.

From the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) web site:

And even if you need to change to another GWR train as part of your trip, you’ll pay one fare for the whole journey.

The price of your upgrade depends on the number of zones you travel through:

£7.50 for 1 zone
£15 for 2 zones
£20 for 3 zones
£25 for 4 or 5 zones

It talks about for your JOURNEY and how many zones you TRAVEL through, not your ticket, so doesn't depend on any splits you have - it's a journey upgrade.

Are you certain ?
It seems to me that a pedantic train manager MIGHT still argue that each TICKET needs upgrading, rather than each journey. The key wording could be "if you need to change trains- - "
What if you don't NEED to change trains, but choose to change TICKETS in order to save money ?

[grahame]

According to a TM^‡(resolve) I encountered yesterday, if you have split Standard Class tickets your WF upgrade must also be split.

From the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) web site:

And even if you need to change to another GWR train as part of your trip, you’ll pay one fare for the whole journey.

The price of your upgrade depends on the number of zones you travel through:

£7.50 for 1 zone
£15 for 2 zones
£20 for 3 zones
£25 for 4 or 5 zones

It talks about for your JOURNEY and how many zones you TRAVEL through, not your ticket, so doesn't depend on any splits you have - it's a journey upgrade.

Are you certain ?
It seems to me that a pedantic train manager MIGHT still argue that each TICKET needs upgrading, rather than each journey. The key wording could be "if you need to change trains- - "
What if you don't NEED to change trains, but choose to change TICKETS in order to save money ?

Yes, I'm pretty certain.

The key sentences are "The price of your upgrade depends on the number of zones you travel through" and "you’ll pay one fare for the whole journey.".   The business of changing trains is a red herring in that it's talking about a different circumstance - but the wording "even if" clearly says to me this is just an example to show it's always just a single upgrade fare ....

Clearly a pedantic train manager could (and did) argue that each ticket needed upgrading - but I think they would be (and were) wrong to do so ...

[TaplowGreen]

As far as long distance trips go on Sundays - particularly Penzance/Plymouth to London, Weekend First should be stopped as there are not enough seats for those with regular First class tickets, I've seen it happen on a number of occasions when 1st Class is full by Exeter, largely by those who have bought supplements, and 1st class ticket holders can't get a seat.

I always thought Weekend 1st was designed to utilise 1st class when it wasn't busy but now that there are only 1.5 carriages that is rarely if ever the case on those services.

Are there many pax who buy walk-up First Class tickets at the weekend? Surely it would be the responsibility of the ticket office staff to offer the cheapest fare - namely the SSS/R together with suggesting that pax upgrade on board? How many walk-up First Class tickets are sold via TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) at the weekend?

There might be a "get out clause" there in that Weekend First is at the discretion of the Train Manager.  If First Class is full or likely to become so, they can suspend weekend first so a passenger might not be able to upgrade.

My understanding is that the TM^‡(resolve) gets paid commission on the sale of upgrades such as Weekend First so it's perhaps unlikely that they will suspend it! 

[Richard Fairhurst]

Well, 1A92 16:56 Plymouth-Paddington was announced at Reading yesterday (Saturday) as "Formed of 9 carriages". Do you think that would help?

So I wasn't imagining things! On my travels this weekend I thought I heard an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) announced as "This train has 9 carriages"; saw it pass; counted them up; there were indeed nine...