It's NOT the age of the train

[whole diary]

[grahame]

It is not [about] the age of the train. Some folks bemoan that we don't have new trains on the line through Melksham, or indeed anywhere on local and regional services in the South West - but does that really matter?  If someone says to you "I'm not going on that train because it was made in the last millennium" are they really saying something else like "it's not clean" or "it's not comfortable"?

I have come up with a personal scoring system as to what makes an ideal train service and come up with values for each of the factors.  You may argue the numbers or eve some of the categories, but you can't argue my personal sentiment.   

(Mention MKM^» (Melksham (Station code) - next trains) SWI^» (Swindon - next trains) and PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) to get formatting right)

Code:

			Ideal	MKM-SWI	SWI-PAD
Appropriate timetable	15	10	15
Reliable		15	7	14
Safe			25	25	25
Clean			15	14	15
Comfortable		15	13	13
Affordable		15	15	12
Age of Train		n/a	n/a	n/a

Added together, you get 84/100 (84%) for Melksham to Swindon and 94/100 (94%) for Swindon to Paddington.   But wait a moment - the factors interact and perhaps we should multiply them together?   I'm not going to travel train if I think it's unsafe. And then you get a very different score - of 64% for Swindon to Paddington and just 25% from Melksham to Swindon.

Rather sadly, I think the (dis)satisfaction I see at present is more accurately reflected in the multiplication, but the marketing hype from those who want to convince us that all is not all THAT bad tends to be addative.

The other thing to note - no matter how much you tweak the price and the cleanliness, you MUST tackle reliability and the appropriateness of the timetable to get the sentiment and use right

[broadgage]

To me, the important factors are in order,
1) Train length/capacity, should be ample even for events like holidays.
2) Comfort and facilities, decent legroom, padded seats, luggage space, catering.
3) Reliability, a nasty short train that turns up is better than a longer one that does not.

Safety is in my view at or near the bottom of the list. UK^▸ (United Kingdom) train travel is already very safe, and minor differences between one type of train and another matter little to me.