SWR Franchise Delivery Plan

[whole diary]

[stuving]

In August 2017, SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) published on their website this "Franchise Delivery Plan" - a detailed list of the promises made to DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), restated as to the public. Most of them are what you'd predict, but some may be new, or at least newly specify how to realise a vague commitment. For example:

Other Customer Service Initiatives
• Introduce BlueAssist cards (BlueAssist is a simple way of asking for assistance for people who require additional support in communicating with our employees)
• Introduce ‘Back-On-Track’ compensation vouchers, which provide our employees with the ability to resolve customers issues on the spot and have been successfully rolled out at TPE^▸ (Trans Pennine Express) and GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)

Has anyone come across these ‘Back-On-Track’ compensation vouchers?

Transport Integration
• We will work with local bus operators to provide integrated services for our customers, and look to extend multimodal ticketing
• Virtual branch lines will allow locations without a rail connection to be linked into the National Rail timetable through an integrated connecting bus service
• We will form a partnership with Southampton Airport, offering return fares to London for airline customers

This is listed for the first 12 months: Create a new virtual branch line between Fareham and Gosport

They also mention longer trains in the first year, but not where - they do have an obvious problem with saying anything positive about the 707s.

[CyclingSid]

The irony of a Fareham - Gosport virtual branch line is that it would go down the busway built on the old Fareham - Gosport real branch line. The busway could do with some money to extend it, there used to be a sign at the Gosport "end" saying that they were going to extend it, but that has vanished.

[paul7575]

It isn't exactly revolutionary is it.   Named destinations via bus links in the fares database makes the connection more visible but isn't much of a new idea.  SWT^▸ (South West Trains) had a trial of fares to Waterlooville via a dedicated bus connection from Petersfield a few years ago, but I don't think it lasted long. 

They had comparatively recently added "Gosport via Ferry" to the fares system, but I don't recall much publicity about it.

Is there a true unsatisfied demand for through ticketing, are people that reluctant to use bus links because they have to buy a separate ticket, or is this just all a bit gimmicky...

Paul

[Trowres]

It should be about more than just through ticketing:-

• Easy physical interchange
• Timetable planning and live info from one source
• Single contract to get you from A to B (with similar safeguards to a through rail journey)
• Through ticketing via appropriate routes (not just one railhead)
• ...and through fares comparable with similar distance single-mode journey

[Rhydgaled]

Is there a true unsatisfied demand for through ticketing, are people that reluctant to use bus links because they have to buy a separate ticket, or is this just all a bit gimmicky...

When visiting an unfamilar area, I find that it is rather more difficult to find times for a multi-modal journey compared to just a rail journey. Yes, there is the Traveline website but I don't find it nearly as easy to use as the 'Mixing Deck' rail journey planners (like FirstGWR's). In the rare event that I want to get somewhere away from the rail network while on holiday the steps I have followed go something like this:
1. check which county my destination is in
2. go to the appropriate local authority's website and look for bus information (with some councils, like Powys, I draw a blank), where the journey crosses a county boundry check both authorities' websites. If I'm very lucky they will have route maps and timetables, if not and they only have a list of route numbers then
3. hope that the operator of the route is listed and check the operators' website for timetables and route maps, potentially multiple operators serving an area for the maps
4. spend hours looking at the timetables and working out whether the journey I want to make is possible or if the connections don't work, or the village I wanted to get to is not served by regular buses (in which case visiting the place gets dropped from my holiday plans, or a taxi is needed)
5. have no local knowledge of which routes are punctual and fail to allow enough time for a connection which is then missed throwing the plan out of the window anyway

Not that I've tried using it, but the 'Minehead bus' destination on the FirstGWR 'Mixing Deck' looks far more straightforward than the above, the timetable for the buses is show along with the trains. That, plus the things Trowres listed above, mean this 'virtual railway' idea, depending on how it is implemented, might make a big difference.

The through contract mentioned by Trowres in itself could be rather important. Currently, missing a connecting bus because the train is late means having to pay for a taxi yourself to complete the journey, and if your bus is late on the way to the station you are stuck; but if a train-to-train connection is missed due to a train being late then (unless there is another train along shortly) the railway is supposed to pay the taxi fare for you.