Leisure, business, commute? How you grow these different sectors can be in conflict. Having this weekend travelled from Reading to Brockenhurst, for Lymington. Cross Country have reinstated the Brockenhurst stop, quite a few got off.

The return journey by SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) was telling on a 444 or 450 didn't check which, classic commuter trains and not suited to most passengers seeming to have two massive suitcases and possibly a buggy. Not to mention an old geezer with a bike cluttering up the place because of inadequate and inappropriate bike storage.

Need to deal successfully with capacity pinchpoints first.

There are far too many currently which will severely hinder any attempt to encourage travellers

The thread asks the question "why are these people travelling by train" and goes on to muse as to whether / why we might be missing such passengers [in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)].

I have - on last year's trip and on this years' - hit capacity issues; they are not unique to the UK.  The matter of whether such travellers / metrics could more usefully travel by train in the UK is at the heart of the question - the metrics of how the systems could or should support it are a necessary corollary, and that is where provision policy and strategy come into play. 

In my view, the moving of TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) from private contractors to public operators is something of a side issue - no matter who runs and specifies the thing - and the wider environment around it too, the result depends on providing what people want and will use, and having them know about it and feel and be comfortable using it.

I haven't travelled much overseas recently (well not at all...) but is the provision of information better when things go wrong?

My last couple of trips West Wales to South East England all had issues but it was the lack of information that frustrated me most.