Poll: Traveling by Train - 1st class seat dilema!

[Scam]

Fox, that may be the case but the problem is there's probably 15 people in cattle class for every person in first. If not more in my experience!

Can you imagine the outrage if you got to a station and were told to wait until the following day to travel as all the trains that day were full!

I'd imagine most commuters in here have been unable to get on trains in the morning because they're too full, it certainly happens on the local fgw services into paddington.

 

[Amp34]

This is exactly what an Airline would do, why not a railway?

Erm... Because you haven't booked a specific train...

There are loads of spare seats on trains every day, unfortunately the most spare seats will be early in the morning or later in the evening. If you want a seat, without a seat reservation then wait for the next train with seats...

I don't get why this idea is so hard?

 

[shine]

Fox, that may be the case but the problem is there's probably 15 people in cattle class for every person in first. If not more in my experience!

I'd imagine most commuters in here have been unable to get on trains in the morning because they're too full, it certainly happens on the local fgw services into paddington.

That's down to a lack of capacity, which they are working on increasing by removing the bottleneck at Reading station. An airline system of one person one seat and no standing would only make things worse for these commuters. As I'm one of them I'm well placed to see both sides of it.

 

[[TW]Fox]

This is exactly what an Airline would do, why not a railway?

What sort of dream world do you live in where if there economy is overbooked you get a free upgrade on a plane?! You usually get bumped to the next flight!

 

[BunnyKillBot]

This seems to be a point a that is lost on many people but a train is a not a plane and should not be operated as such.

Personally, i can not understand why there is a premium for on the day train ticket sales. Why the hell should it be neccisary to book in advance to get a good price for a train? What ever happened to spontaneous train journeys to visit beautiful parts of the united kingdom? Under the current system it is financially impossible to decide 'Today i want to go visit York' because the rail network is so insanely priced.

If trains were more fairly priced on the day, the missus and I would be up and down the country touring beauty hotspots and generating tourist revenue. 'Oh its a sunny day, lets take the train to the beech.' As it is we might as well just stay at home.

 

[Bobcat]

Personally, i can not understand why there is a premium for on the day train ticket sales. Why the hell should it be neccisary to book in advance to get a good price for a train? What ever happened to spontaneous train journeys to visit beautiful parts of the united kingdom? Under the current system it is financially impossible to decide 'Today i want to go visit York' because the rail network is so insanely priced.

If trains were more fairly priced on the day, the missus and I would be up and down the country touring beauty hotspots and generating tourist revenue. As it is we might as well just stay at home.

I do agree with this point to be honest, i believe that the rail network have been told to shake up the pricing structure to make it more affordable and to make discounts better available.

If i book three days or more in advance, i get the cost of a 1st Class ticket for less than a Standard Class ticket purchased on the day, it pays to book in advance but its not always practical or as you say spontaneous, which the rail networks cash in on unfortunately.

 

[dekez]

If trains were more fairly priced on the day, the missus and I would be up and down the country touring beauty hotspots and generating tourist revenue. 'Oh its a sunny day, lets take the train to the beech.' As it is we might as well just stay at home.

This is so true, I used to live in Germany where they have the "Schönes Wochenende Ticket", a ticket which allows up to 5 people to travel anywhere in the country (excluding fast trains) for around €40 on weekends. My mates and I were always using this ticket to visit other parts of the country.

Here if it's an unexpected sunny weekend and you want to go somewhere the only option really is to drive

I don't know if the current ticketing actually does anything other than encourage people to use trains less.

 

[[TW]Fox]

The reason for offering discounted advance tickets really quite simple - capacity management.

An advance purchase fare almost always has a compulsory seat reservation, and once these seats are filled, the tickets are no longer available. If you offered the same low fare on the day without the seat reservation (You can hardly reserve a seat 10 minutes prior to getting on the train!) there would be no way of managing capacity - in theory, 300 people could buy a discounted ticket for a train that seats only 200.

Then everyone would come onto the internet and cry about not being able to get a seat.

Discounted tickets in advance are common on all transport systems the world over - some of you complain that the rail ticketing system is not more like that of an airline - discounts for non refundable advance tickets are very much how an airline operates!

I do completely agree that the ticketing system needs reform, however - the concept of split ticketing (Where a ticket from A to B and then a ticket from B to C is cheaper than one from A to C) is ridiculous and you shouldn't need to be a guru to get the best deal. When I travel by train to the girlfriends it is cheaper for me to get a return ticket to Tiverton Parkway and then a Freedom of the Severn and Solent unlimited 3 day rover ticket (Meaning I can travel as much as I like between Tiverton, Worcester, Cardiff and Portsmouth for 3 days!!) than it is to simply purchase a return ticket, or a return ticket in advance, to my end destination. Great deal for me who found this, but really, it shouldnt work like that.

 

[hurfdurf]

Sit in first, why not at least attempt to blag it when it's completely empty?

 

[BunnyKillBot]

in theory, 300 people could buy a discounted ticket for a train that seats only 200.

Also in theory, 30 people could by a discounted ticket for a train that seats up to 200 people, leaving 170 empty seats.

As it is, those 30 people look around at those empty seats and wonder why they paid so much to be here.

 

[PMKeates]

If you offered the same low fare on the day without the seat reservation (You can hardly reserve a seat 10 minutes prior to getting on the train!) there would be no way of managing capacity - in theory, 300 people could buy a discounted ticket for a train that seats only 200.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see the issue?

 

[dekez]

There isn't really any capacity management as it is, if you get on any train out of London on a Friday night it is crammed. If you buy an open return it doesn't specify what train you need to go on.

IMO it would be better to have cheap tickets all the time, if you want to guarantee a seat you need to book your seat in advanced.

 

[dekez]

This has just reminded me I might be going to Plymouth the week end after next, quick look at tickets and it looks like it's going to cost £73.50 , the amount of time you have to book in advance to get a decent price is ridiculous.

 

[gambitt]

Since there are a lot of train experts in here, perhaps you would be able to assist.

I'm traveling from Bristol to Warwick on Monday for work and I fancy taking the train and doing some work on the way.

I thought this would be a simple journey but a quick search for tickets returned this:

08:00 Bristol Temple Meads
09:26 Birmingham New Street - Train CROSSCOUNTRY 01h 26
09:55 Birmingham Moor Street - Walk n/a 00h 29
10:22 Warwick - Train CHILTERN RAILWAYS 00h 27

Walk for 30 minutes? What kind of a service is that for £53? It's under 100 miles. Not to mention the 3 separate trains I'd need to take.

Any suggestions or am I driving instead?

edit: Looks like an earlier train will avoid the walk but for some reason I have to go via Reading and still take 3 trains :/

 

[bhavv]

Pancake.