Great Western Coffee Shop

Today at 1715 I arrived at Plymouth station to return home to Redruth.
I had the choice of 3 services within a short time.
The 1726 (originated Paddington), the 1742 (XC originated somewhere up north) and the 1752 (Plymouth- Penzance stopper, but operated by a HST on summer Saturdays).
The 1726 was delayed until 1745 today.

I spoke with the very helpful gateline staff member at Plymouth who suggested the 1752 maybe the most comfortable with my 2 young children as it was originating from Plymouth platform 5. I took his advice.

I then observed the 2 earlier services come and go.

The delayed 1726 left full and standing with some passengers unable to board. The 1742 left full and slightly standing.
Meanwhile my 1752 left with me in coach C at a comfortable table seat with no more than 40-50% of seats taken in coach C where I was. The 1752 was available for boarding from approximately 1730 so long before the other two arrived.
What interested me that whilst platform staff and gateline staff had suggested the later service would be more comfortable to travel on, yet 90% of the crowd opted for the earlier services.

Although the 1752 is the slow stopper service as such, it crawled all the way from Grampound as it was stuck behind the delayed Paddington and XC services. So it didn't make a great difference to arrival times by catching the later service.

What I couldn't understand is despite the staff making all aware the 1752 will be empty and plenty of seats, why such a majority still crowded on to the already crowded services from further afield.

There's no accounting for folks!

Could it be that they had tickets which restricted them to using those services?

......or perhaps (and quite rationally based on the recent abysmal services) they felt it safest to get on the first available service, albeit crowded, as a later one may well be cancelled/massively delayed?)

I'm not sure there is any (advance) tickets which would restrict to a specific service between Plymouth and Cornwall, or at least not that I've seen.

The 1752 was staffed and boarding long before either of the other services arrived, which to me was a positive sign that It would run. It seemed like it was for the sake of 10 minutes earlier to get home to travel in crowded conditions which I imagine from past experiences to be hot and uncomfortable.

i must admit I've chosen this option in the past taking a crowed train to Slough to awaitm a Taplow servcie from there. this was on the on the basis that if the service stopped altogther I could get a lift or catch the bus.

However if theer was staffed empty HST waiting with engines running with a departure time shown stopping where I was going  i woud join it preference certainly to a Vomiter and a very crowed HST.

I'm not surprised at everyone crowding on the first trains.  "At least we'll get there" is the view, and it's a commonly taken view on public transport - so much so that competing bus companies run just ahead of each other, and even if the earlier arriving bus is more expensive, grottier, and has a reputation for madcap drivers, people will use it in preference to the "risk" of waiting for the later one ... the more so where there's a risk of the later one being further delayed or not running.   Where you already have rail delays (as in the example), people are simply going to crowd on first available service whatever you do, and feel cheated at the loss of even a few (more) minutes to final destination.

Looking wider, passengers perceive a service to be slow and wasting their time if:
* It makes lots of stops (for passenger and / or other purposes)
* It waits for time at intermediate stations
* It drops them off late at their final destination
and yet the last two elements are to a degree conflicting with each other.  They also at times prefer a fast infrequent service to a slightly slower but much more frequent one.