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Title: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: grahame on April 01, 2016, 04:49:56 Quote -- embargo until 00:01 - 1st April 2016 / http://www.gettinghere.info/standby From Sunday, 15th May 2016, Great Western Railway will be offering standby tickets to major destinations from London Paddington. Booking ahead, passengers will check in at Paddington on their chosen day with a promise of a low price seat to their destination by the end of the day. Available for purchase in limited numbers from a month before travel, these tickets are expected to sell out fast. With a fare of just ^34 to Exeter St David's or to Swansea, ^29 to Taunton or Cardiff Central, ^24 to Bath Spa or Bristol Temple Meads, ^19 to Swindon or Chippenham. Individual rail card discounts will apply. Price includs PlusBus onward travel upon arrival at destination station. Standby tickets are a great money-saving way to get away from London when you've finished you're through with your business there. Simply check in to the advance ticket desk at Paddington, situated on platform 1, and you'll be given a numbered boarding card. Numbers will be called between five and fifteen minutes before your train's due to depart, and you can then board and select any of the available unreserved seats on the train. "Provided you check in at least 4 hours before the final high speed departure of the day to your destination, we promise we'll get you on the way from Paddington by the end of the day. Checkin opens at 06:00 each morning, and we'll also promise a maximum wait of 8 hours." explains Customer Service Manager Sharon Jones "Although overcrowded trains make the headlines" says Ismbard Walkwell of Great Western "the fact is that over a quarter of the seats on our trains leaving Paddington through the day remain empty. By using standby seats - a well tested airline tool - we can increase the number of passengers carried, and do so with more travel comfort and at excellent prices as we make more efficient use of current resource". "It's good to see Great Western are to boost their business on quieter train, and the traders around Paddington are looking forward to it" says Alf Murphy, owner of "The Tipsy Traveller" in Praed Street. --- Note for editors: Final trains: - 21:45 to Taunton and Exeter / checkin by 17:45 - 22:45 to Cardiff and Swansea / checkin by 18:45 - 23:30 to Swindon, Chippenham, Bath Spa and Bristol / checkin by 19:30 Late afternoon and early evening trains from London's Paddington station are often very busy, and the new "Standby Fare" offers a comfortable journey for those who are not in a hurry. Later evening trains offer a more relaxed journey, with seats for all and often a more leisurly schedule for you to relax and enjoy the journey. Boarding card numbers will be called in sequence for trains with available seats, and will be displayed on departure boards and a mobile phone app which will estimate your wait time too. Bookings only via the GWR web site, GWR telesales, or in person at the booking office in Paddington. Standby tickets are offored for for travel in standard class only. Advance Fares, offering low prices in limited numbers on a specific train, remain available as an alternative product for passengers who can accurately plan their arrival at Paddington. Passengers checking in after the final train deadline will be carried if there is sufficient allocation of seats available that evening, or will be refunded their ticket price minus a ^10 admin fee upon departure of the final train if capacity was not available. -- embargo until 00:01 - 1st April 2016 / http://www.gettinghere.info/standby Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: eightf48544 on April 01, 2016, 07:20:54 Posted on the right day!
Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: Timmer on April 01, 2016, 07:59:43 Posted on the right day! YupTitle: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: Tim on April 01, 2016, 09:36:13 Interesting. Although how will FGW know how many spare seats there are on a service until it is loaded and the doors lock I don't know.
Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: ChrisB on April 01, 2016, 09:58:21 Tim hasn't spotted the date....
Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: didcotdean on April 01, 2016, 10:01:44 Pick your own bowl of spaghetti included.
Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: jdw.wor on April 01, 2016, 10:32:33 Looks authentic, right down to the two typos!
Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: stuving on April 01, 2016, 11:55:08 In this case, a bit of thread drift seems inevitable - even de rigueur - here's RATP's contribution this morning:
(http://www.ratp.fr/fr/upload/docs/image/png/2016-04/sans-titre.png) English news report here (http://www.connexionfrance.com/April-Fools-France-2016-17896-view-article.html), and RATP's own explanation (http://www.ratp.fr/fr/ratp/v_149039/metro-rer-la-ratp-renomme-13-stations/) (some of them are rather obscure unless you had a French childhood). Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: JayMac on April 01, 2016, 14:04:53 The Virgin Trains East Coast effort:
https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/news/virgin-trains-introduces-flying-scotsman-to-the-commuter-route/ And Visit Scotland told of plans for a fourth Forth Bridge: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/revealed-ambitious-plans-fourth-bridge-7663166#CZtl0bVUswx8McKj.97 RailUK Forums entered into the spirit by replacing their semaphore topic markers with TVM 430 block markers. (http://i.imgur.com/i1eb86C.png) Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: Tim on April 01, 2016, 14:59:10 Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: stuving on April 01, 2016, 21:34:04 I did wonder about the piece quoted in the OP - was it a case of "but there's a serious side to this too"? I mean:
1. A compulsory seat reservation with a ticket is equivalent to an airline ticket (even on Air Bunfight you have a guaranteed seat, you just don't know which). On that basis an ordinary train ticket is standby. You are not picked off a list to board, it's just a matter of the compressibility of the passenger substance*. 2. If it was felt necessary to limit excess passenger numbers below that level, how would you do it? One way might be to say "you can stand if you like, but it's first come first served". You probably wouldn't now pick a number out of one of those deli counter machines, it would be some gizmoid equivalent. That would be a sort of standby. And remember - an SET can count passengers, and probably could e-mail the ORR if overloaded. *Technical note: the passenger substance does exhibit a number of phases, but no clear boundaries or transitions. It is best treated as supercritical. Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: JayMac on April 01, 2016, 22:33:30 *Technical note: the passenger substance does exhibit a number of phases, but no clear boundaries or transitions. It is best treated as supercritical. Is this supercriticality affected by the fact that some passengers have more substance (i.e. are more substantial) than others? Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: stuving on April 01, 2016, 22:45:00 *Technical note: the passenger substance does exhibit a number of phases, but no clear boundaries or transitions. It is best treated as supercritical. Is this supercriticality affected by the fact that some passengers have more substance (i.e. are more substantial) than others? No, not very much - though it may affect reaction dynamics a bit. Of course that's straying into the field of chemistry, where the compatibility of the different agents, and how heated they get, has a much greater effect on whether the reaction proceeds to completion, and if it is explosive or merely bubbles. Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: ellendune on April 01, 2016, 22:55:32 *Technical note: the passenger substance does exhibit a number of phases, but no clear boundaries or transitions. It is best treated as supercritical. /Pedant alert/ Does this mean that passenger substance has a Froude number > 1?. It is therefore shallow and fast flowing and influenced only by what has occurred upstream rather than downstream. What is the equivalent sub-critical substance (i.e. Froude number < 1)? as when they meet we must expect a massive standing wave (I mean "stopper" if you are into white water canoeing). /End/ Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: stuving on April 01, 2016, 23:24:11 "Oh dear! Does that mean we ought to find out something about the transport properties of the passenger substance?"
"No. It's always going to supercritical, whatever you do and however you try to analyse and predict its behaviour." Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: JayMac on April 01, 2016, 23:50:09 I'm out. And not ashamed to admit a bit lost by the thread drift. ???
Only studied Physics and Chemistry to GCSE level, so the intricacies of fluid dynamics are somewhat beyond my ken. ::) ;D Always learning though... Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: grahame on April 02, 2016, 00:34:39 I did wonder about the piece quoted in the OP - was it a case of "but there's a serious side to this too"? I mean: it was intended to be close enough .... but the serious side concerns I noted included: a) How *would* you measure numbers on services? b) What to do about people called but missed their boarding call? c) Overcrowding on The Lawn with bored waiters d) People going to the pubs while waiting - really good way to fill late trains with drunks? e) PlusBus pretty useless for late trains - last buses long since gone (useful for earlier people though!) f) Only offered in one direction - westbound not eastbound g) Potential safety issue of last minute boarders and would tickets be "disability friendly" or only available to those who could board quickly? h) People would likely get use to the wait and then get really miffed on days it was longer than average Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: ChrisB on April 02, 2016, 09:54:14 B) they take another ticket & start the process again. That'll concentrate minds
Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: Chris from Nailsea on April 03, 2016, 22:57:56 ... the fact that some passengers have more substance (i.e. are more substantial) than others? To my certain knowledge, some passengers are indeed more substantial than others. ;) And some of them are valued members of the Coffee Shop forum. ;D Title: Re: Standby for lower fares and a more comfortable journey Post by: TonyK on April 04, 2016, 17:43:47 Quote "Although overcrowded trains make the headlines" says Ismbard Walkwell of Great Western..." ;D ;D ;D (Apologies if there is a real Isambard Walkwell) This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |