Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 14:55 28 Mar 2024
- Man held over stabbing in front of train passengers
- How do I renew my UK passport and what is the 10-year rule?
- Jet2 launches first flight from Liverpool airport
* Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
28th Mar (1992)
MOD Kineton tour, branch line society (*)

Train RunningCancelled
13:26 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington
13:28 Weymouth to Gloucester
13:30 London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads
14:13 Par to Newquay
14:19 Westbury to Swindon
15:10 Newquay to Par
15:14 Swindon to Westbury
15:16 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
15:30 Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington
16:04 Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood
16:51 Filton Abbey Wood to Bristol Temple Meads
17:04 Bristol Temple Meads to Filton Abbey Wood
17:51 Filton Abbey Wood to Bristol Temple Meads
17:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
19:33 London Paddington to Worcester Shrub Hill
Short Run
11:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
11:29 Weymouth to Gloucester
11:48 London Paddington to Carmarthen
12:03 London Paddington to Penzance
13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
13:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
14:05 Salisbury to Bristol Temple Meads
15:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
15:23 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central
15:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
16:19 Carmarthen to London Paddington
16:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
Delayed
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
12:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
13:57 Exmouth to Paignton
14:30 Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 28, 2024, 15:09:05 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[142] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[80] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[56] Return of the BRUTE?
[46] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[43] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[34] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Frequency - a key priority  (Read 1954 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« on: October 21, 2020, 10:09:05 »

Members may have notice my prioritising of a reasonably frequent service, reliable services, good connections, intermodal links and understandable fare systems and good information systems over the trimming of a few minutes off journey times.

By way of example ... I need to be at Swindon (Station) from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. this evening ... using Google (which has turned into a good information system to tell me about travel options, but lacks associated fare data).

With a service every 30 minutes and a 25 minute travel time, I should (on average) be able to leave Melksham 40 minutes before I start (15:20) and get back 40 minutes after I finish (19:40).  I am offered a 14:32 departure and a 21:09 return - 80 minutes (waiting+travel) time increased to 217 minutes due to a poor frequency. Remember that the 2013 service increase was from an impractical service to the minimum above that - a poor service but usable by those who have no alternative, or who are lucky enough to want to travel both ways at the times the trains run or who are flexible in their planning they can fit the trains.





24 minutes is a wonderful train time - I would be perfectly happy with 35 minutes.  But look at how long I have to wait for the train!  An arrival 59 minutes early, and a wait of hour and 45 minutes when I finish lead me to consider alternatives when the train should be the natural choice.   I will be travelling up by train - although the timing is poor, the alternative timings are so awful that it's "Hobson's choice".  For return ... I'll almost certainly take the 19:00 train/bus combo. For sure it's an hour (and 2 minutes) longer than the train, but still gets me home nearly an hour earlier (the bus stop being nearer home that the train station).   And I dream of the 18:52 which GWR (Great Western Railway) withdrew in March which used to get to Melksham at 19:18.

For completeness, driving, cycling and walking alternatives ...





Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
TonyN
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 471



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2020, 11:13:05 »

Just a note about Travel planning with Google. It has a few snags.

For example if I look up a journey from Pershore town centre to Oxford. Sometimes trains stop at Worcestershire parkway but not Pershore. Google will tell me to take a bus to Worcester bus station and another bus to Shrub hill then catch the train to Oxford.

However the bus from Pershore calls at Worcestershire Parkway and so does the train to Oxford. Google is aware of the bus and train calling at parkway as it shows in the detail of the journey. Also I could have caught a bus on the same route in the other direction to Evesham as Google sometimes directs.

Google will only tell me go to Pershore station if it is the time for one of the infrequent buses to the station. It does not advise walking (22 Minutes). This is without selecting the less walking option.
Logged
bobm
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 9809



View Profile
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2020, 14:47:16 »

I assume for that hour earlier home arrival there is a price as you are using different forms of transport for your outward and return journey and there is no common ticketing.
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2020, 14:53:01 »

I assume for that hour earlier home arrival there is a price as you are using different forms of transport for your outward and return journey and there is no common ticketing.

There is indeed a price ... though I could use a Trowbridge to Swindon (any permitted route).  But partly paid for through my taxes - old codger's card on Faresaver.  Extra ticket is CPM» (Chippenham - next trains) - BTH» (Bath Spa - next trains) single on top of MKM» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) SWI» (Swindon - next trains) return. Simples.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2020, 22:24:01 »

Just a note about Travel planning with Google. It has a few snags.

Yes - and a good example; there are other snags I could describe too. 

Information systems that put more than just a limited quantity of options together tend - my view - to be embryonic and come up with suggestions which will probably work (for the most part) for people who don't know the area but can be tuned and further decisions made that can make them even better.

The ... most excellent ... holiday I have taken in the century was but a few days in Iceland.  And what made it so much fit together was that the itinerary was tuned for us by an Icelander who listened / suggested / advised. On the phone.  Not a hugely long call.   But it put it together like no automated system that I've come across yet could do.

I have moved a long way from frequency.  Yes, I doglegged via Bath Spa tonight to save a wait for almost 2 hours (at times, I find it better to be travelling than to be sitting in some bus or train station with everything shuttered as it is for so much of the time it is at present.   But I would really prefer the train in the middle of that 3.25 hours that GWR (Great Western Railway) aren't running at the moment to be back.  Frequency is key, obscure alternatives that take 3 times the time and have separate ticketing arrangements are a poor second best.

Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page