Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s only true if your goal is to optimize for profit instead of passenger satisfaction.
Passengers have to pay.
have to or choose to?
How I got 100% off my train travel
211–220 of 240 posts
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I suppose anything below 30 minutes is consideres "on time". sounds about right for the stereotype. it's the 'murikans that are the ones so uptight about time
Japan would like to have a word.
When I was taking a train in Japan I heard an announcement apologising for severe delays. It was less than 5 minutes.
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#213The UK train system is a dire, expensive mess. Attempting to avoid getting directly political here, but I strongly believe it’s one of the lowest hanging fruit a political party could act on to curry favour with the electorate. Would be amazing to see this productised à la the way split ticketing works.
I agree that it's a dire , expensive mess. But it doesn't seem like low hanging fruit at all... Anything that will improve the situation will be expensive and/or take a long time to achieve.
There is some low hanging fruit, like the ticketing system.
Might be possible to improve satisfaction without costly infrastructure upgrades by ensuring you have a seat for long trips and being more aggressive with discounts at quiet times.
Plenty of times I’ve been one of like 30 people on a 12 car train despite the ticket having cost £60. The train is going to run anyway, so may as well price more aggressively.
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#214ccc has a talk about predicting on deutsche bahn which trains will be delayed
but: being stuck in a train for 3 hours is not worth 50 euros
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean there’s pretty low hanging fruit mentioned in the article. If rail strikes are frequent enough to feature in the formula, end the strikes by paying the workers well.
You don't understand how this works, do you? By paying workers because of strikes, you are increasing the number of strikes.
Any evidence for that, or is this entirely opinion?
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
CTA never did that; I don’t think they could if the wanted to. Metra did it, I’m 99.9% sure they stopped years ago. But yeah, there would be a person at the platform when the train arrived downtown with a piece of paper saying that the train was delayed. A late slip. Nowadays, you have real-time location tracking of the train. If it’s late, you can tell your employer what train you’re on and they could verify it. At…
Somewhere else in the thread, it was suggested that these 'late slips' might be useful for proving to one's employer why they were late to work. Is this the only use for them? I am reminded, once again, how lucky I am to have been employed by people who trust me.
The only use for a late slip is to prove to someone (doesn't necessarily have to be an employer) that you were late due to no fault of your own.
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
the return is 30p/mile, which is still considerably cheaper than driving (HMRC rate is 45p/mile, which constitutes insurance, capital cost, wear, petrol, etc) the single pricing is because they don't want to sell singles at all, but remember that return lets you come back upto a month later (your choice when)
So two in the car is cheaper, and with the sunk costs of car ownership most people will find it cheaper to drive alone. Very often I don't want to return. I can fly to Manchester, visit family, take the train to Derby, visit friends, continue to London and fly home. I can't book advance tickets as the plane might be late, and I can't use a return journey ticket. It's all ridiculous, and I don't understand how anyone…
> It's all ridiculous, and I don't understand how anyone can defend it.
it's a ultimately a difference in philosophy
UK governments over the past 30 years have decided that passengers should pay to run the railway, rather than the taxpayer out of general taxation
if you look at the distribution of earnings of those who use the railways you could even call this a progressive policy
meanwhile most European countries chose the other way round
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Passengers have to pay.
have to or choose to ?
Yes, you're not a legitimate passenger if you haven't paid the fare.
It's immaterial though. They could instead face increased cost in taxes, decreased investment elsewhere, or good-old eminent domain for infrastructure expansion. The downstream effects of an infinite number of backup lines to guarantee service following an infinite number of track trespassers are not good for passenger satisfaction.
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#219This reminds me of many years ago when I was backpacking around Australia. For whatever reason, I was wandering around a smallish town around 10am on a Sunday morning and ordered food from either McDonalds or Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King).
I was the only customer, and after a few minutes, she called me over and gave me my money back. I asked why, assuming that they'd just discovered they'd run out of ingredients, but no, she said it was because it had taken too long to prepare, so it was free. This is something I'd never experienced in the UK before, and in fact McDonalds in the UK can sometimes take 10 minutes - compared to back home, it hadn't struck me as being particularly slow.
It occurred to me that I was probably their first customer of the day and that anyone else who rocked up on a Sunday morning on other weeks as their first customer would probably also get their food for free as e.g. fries would be cooked on demand instead of being ready.
Re: How I got 100% off my train travel
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
it's not dire and it's not expensive compared to the next reasonable alternatives if you compare the cost of a London commuter belt season ticket compared to the cost of driving+parking, it is still very much a bargain
Maybe commuting can be a good deal sometimes, but for a 5 hour trip for 2 people with railcards, we were looking at £160ish when booked in advance (!) or £400ish if not. If we drive our car, this is 4 hours with less than £35 of petrol (the full tank is approx £35 and it gets us there and some of the way back). Booking in advance and having to get stressed about making it to the station on time, dealing with the freq…
I think it always helps to remember the railway in the UK is operated for the benefit of commuters
I am a heavy rail user, and I never, ever use it for leisure trips
(the RMT/ASLEF strikes saw to that)