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Chris from Nailsea
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« on: October 30, 2009, 18:24:25 » |
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From the Herald Express: Furious Totnes commuters have condemned rail bosses for increasing London fares by a quarter and squeezing them out of their cheap travel slot.
Passengers using early morning services to travel from Totnes railway station to Paddington have seen their return ticket price rise by some 25 per cent thanks to an increase in the 'off peak' return fare and a move which bans cheaper 'super off-peak' ticket holders from travelling before 10.30am.
Members of the Totnes Rail Transport Group are complaining direct to First Great Western over the changes which, they claim, will hit early morning travellers trying to get into London for a day's work.
But First Great Western's train bosses say the aim is to take the pressure off peak morning and evening services. A spokesman said: "People who will be advantaged by this are the leisure travellers. Those who will be slightly disadvantaged are business travellers."
Until now commuters aiming to catch the 8.14am or 9.22am trains to London from Totnes were paying ^68.35 return. First great Western has increased the fare up to ^84. At the same time, the company introduced a super off-peak fare of ^69.
But, explained Totnes rail group coordinator Ronnie Plagerson, this new ticket cannot be used by anyone at Totnes travelling before 10.30am, which means if they use a direct service they can't get to London until 3.23pm which is 'much too late for people travelling for work'. She also said group members were angry the new super off-peak fare had been trumpeted as cheaper and declared that was only true because the alternative fare had been increased.
"We were given the misleading impression that the new arrangements were an improvement for passengers," she said. "In fact people wanting to continue getting to London by late morning now have to pay ^15 more per journey, the third increase within a year.
The rail group has been trying to get a response from First Great Western over their concerns for the last month but without any joy, revealed Ms Plagerson. She said the rail group was planning to meet on Monday to decide what to do next.
The spokesman for First Great Western said there was a 'financial reason' for the changes but more importantly it was designed to address 'capacity' by encouraging more people to use the quieter off-peak services by giving them a financial incentive. He said: "A lot of people are now travelling during the day using a highly discounted ticket. The converse side of that is that those people who need to arrive by a certain time and cannot be flexible will pay a little more."
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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JayMac
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« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2009, 18:50:33 » |
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All well and good and pretty much factually correct, but just how many commuters are there from Totnes to Paddington? 6 hours plus for a return daily journey.....
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"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
- Sir Terry Pratchett.
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2009, 18:57:21 » |
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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devon_metro
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« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2009, 18:57:41 » |
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All well and good and pretty much factually correct, but just how many commuters are there from Totnes to Paddington? 6 hours plus for a return daily journey.....
Exactly what I thought when I was reading!! But then again, I did do a "commute" on Tuesday from Totnes to Paddington, if you can call it that considering I got the first up and last down. |
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Zoe
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« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2009, 19:37:30 » |
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But then again, I did do a "commute" on Tuesday from Totnes to Paddington, if you can call it that considering I got the first up and last down.
I hope you booked in advance. I would expect Newton Abbot to be the limit for any daily commute to London and even then I doubt there are many. Even though Totnes is only 12 minutes away from Newton Abbot, the fast up and down trains in the morning and evening don't stop there. |
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devon_metro
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« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2009, 23:03:12 » |
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No, I only paid ^5  Make that ^10 with parking. |
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vacman
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« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2009, 18:41:09 » |
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most Totnes passengers seem to think they can travel for free anyway!
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DevonTrains2008
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« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2009, 20:40:07 » |
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^5 - that's fantastic!
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6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01
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« Reply #8 on: November 02, 2009, 22:19:24 » |
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having been working in totness for the past couple of weeks i can tell you that it is infact another world! is a nice place.. just different, i guess they are also losing there cheaper alternative to london in southwest trains
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paul7575
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« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2009, 22:42:37 » |
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Surely the SWT▸ fares 'route Salisbury' will still be available even though a change will be needed? Then there are the SWT Advance fares - might they just become '+connections' like the current SWT advance fares from Barnstaple & Exmouth? [checks NREs‡ online planner...] Yes they do!  ^14.00 available form Paignton and Plymouth just like today. Edited - as I made an embarrassing beginner's mistake and didn't check times later in the day... Paul |
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« Last Edit: November 02, 2009, 22:54:07 by paul7755 »
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devon_metro
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« Reply #10 on: November 03, 2009, 16:44:15 » |
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having been working in totness for the past couple of weeks i can tell you that it is infact another world! is a nice place.. just different, i guess they are also losing there cheaper alternative to london in southwest trains
The cheapest walk on fare from Totnes to London is actually cheaper on FGW▸ . Likewise, the cheapest Advance fare is set by FGW, at ^13. |
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DevonTrains2008
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« Reply #11 on: November 04, 2009, 17:10:13 » |
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How do you get the ^5 fares to London? would like to travel from Exeter if poss.
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devon_metro
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« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2009, 18:07:44 » |
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How do you get the ^5 fares to London? would like to travel from Exeter if poss.
Staff promotion am afraid, ideal if you know any! |
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inspector_blakey
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« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2009, 15:08:40 » |
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Gives you the run of the FGW▸ network (on FGW trains only, of course) for GBP5.00 a day. The main stipulation is that you must be accompanied by the FGW staff member whose voucher was used to purchase the ticket on all journeys. But through knowing some staff I've had a couple of bargain days out on those tickets!
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