6th December 2016

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Interesting to see that every single station (except Finstock) on the Cotswold Line saw growth.  Some, such as Hanborough and Charlbury, very good growth.  Given that, according to some, people from out that way apparently drive to Warwick Parkway that might come as a surprise.  Even more of a surprise is that according to those figures usage of Warwick Parkway actually decreased over the previous year.  Similarly the opening of Oxford Parkway has appeared to have little impact on the surrounding stations, though it is of course early days.

[didcotdean]

Just noticed today that Chiltern sent out a tweet earlier today that the car park at Oxford Parkway was full and you should use the adjacent P&R^▸ (Park and Ride) one instead. Maybe it is truly suppressed demand ...

[LiskeardRich]

Looks like richwarwicker has been doing his bit for Coombe

Or is it next year's stats that will be extra inflated?   

Assuming April to March, nothing to do with me in these figures. I only got the keys to here on 24/3 and would have been a couple of weeks later before I settled into doing anything. My first coombe ticket is dated 14/5/16.

I would also suggest ticketing for Coombe Junction is artificially low, 75% of my 12 tickets I've saved for Coombe have been purchased at Liskeard on arrival from the booking office. I imagine many will just walk past. The 3 that were sold on board, one set was a return to Looe (on the return leg I purchased an overdistance excess to Liskeard so unsure how that reports) and the other was a well known local guard who became a little excited to sell her first Coombe ticket. General observation is the guard goes and sits in the back cab and doesn't re-emerge. However I suspect the ticket machine may have been left in the front cab as the guard normally doesn't have it with them. I guess the guard cant retrieve once the driver is in the other end? I also suspect many get a free ride as a result of my observations.

One particular day 6 passengers boarded at Coombe, the other 5 were all on Ride Cornwall tickets.

[grahame]

I would also suggest ticketing for Coombe Junction is artificially ...

That's a massive problem with these data sets.  The consultants put a lot of work in to apportionments, but with the best will in the world the figures remain (as they are described) as estimates. Lelant is another huge growth station, but look at the St Ives lines as a whole, and read the text, and the changes are more due to the redistribution of journeys than a fourfold change on the ground.   And these shiftings of passengers around disproportionally register with the lesser station in the exchange.

As well as RickWarwicker's comments about unticketed journeys, I note that long distance journeys from Coombe often cost the same as long distance journeys from Liskeard to the same destination.  Imagine I live halfway between Coombe and Liskeard.  Walk down to Coombe to start my journey if it coincides with a rain calling - but can I buy my ticket on the train, and if not do I buy a Liskeard one (same price anyway) or a Coombe return even if on my return I'm not going to be connecting to Coombe.   Whatever I do, I'm distorting figures ...

[John R]

Indeed, and they do seem to be putting a lot more effort in and using local knowledge to identify and adjust for such instances. Another local example is that season tickets from Didcot and Oxford to London are in many cases the same price. Thus many travelling from Didcot buy a ticket from Oxford, as it enables them to travel into Oxford for free at the weekend, so an appropriate reduction in Oxford and increase in Didcot travel has been made.

I wonder how long before they adjust Didcot downwards for "Didcot splits"!  And my season is split at Chippenham (thanks Ollie!), so that overstates entries and exits there by around 1,000.