Cheaper fares to be offered - Cross Country to trial new system

[whole diary]

[mjones]

If Voyagers were ever the answer, it must have been a bloody stupid question.

Quite. Is there a worse designed train for its intended purpose? I can't think of any other that makes such inefficient use of its internal space.

On the wider point, as others have noted above, much of the overcrowding is a particular locations where XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are serving local journeys. Birmingham to Oxford is a good example, which really prompts the question as to how much of this market XC should be trying to serve at all. Maybe XC should make fewer stops and we need a separate local' trains running Reading-Didcot-Oxford- Banbury-Leamington etc. to Birmingham. Clearly there are capacity constraints of course... the short sighted removal of 4 track between Dorridge and Tyesely being one of them.

[JayMac]

Voyagers were ordered based on passengers figures at the time and projected very low growth. Had the projected growth in passenger numbers been correct then the Voyagers would have been an adequate replacement for the ancient loco hauled stock used on the Cross Country network. They provided substantial decreases in journey times, greater operational flexibility, and much improved reliability.

Yes, some mistakes were made. Virgin initially specified 3 classes of accommodation (Standard, Club, First), each requiring an accessible toilet that took up precious seating space. Said toilets were poorly fitted out, leading to odour problems. The Voyager design also didn't account for the regular washing they were to get along the Devon Sea Wall.

Virgin perhaps could have refurbished and re-engineered the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) in the post privatisation Cross Country fleet. That though would not have been enough to cover the whole network. There's no way they would have soldiered on with the elderly locos and Mk2s^▸ (Mark 2 coach), so I can perfectly understand their wish to replace the entire CC fleet with a uniform new build. Of course, had they kept the HSTs then things would be very different on the Great Western franchise. First Group would have needed to order far more Class 180s to fulfill their timetable ambitions.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. And it's fashionable to be down on Voyagers. I've grown used to them and do tire a little of the constant criticism they get. Admittedly, before I knew of the full history of their order and introduction, I was down on them too.

[LiskeardRich]

My understanding the through fare will be cut to the price of the cheapest split combo,

[grahame]

My understanding the through fare will be cut to the price of the cheapest split combo,

Even with walkups that will get to be very interesting where a ticket split is part peak and part off peak ... more questions than answers in some aspects at the moment.

[LiskeardRich]

My understanding the through fare will be cut to the price of the cheapest split combo,

Even with walkups that will get to be very interesting where a ticket split is part peak and part off peak ... more questions than answers in some aspects at the moment.

The trial is only on Scotland to southwest fares, which I suspect see very little sales anyway.

[ChrisB]

You've also missed the fact that XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are only working on simplying where the journey involves *a change of train*.

So no movement on split tickets