And of course no one knows in advance how much the fare will be ! railway ticketing is hugely complex and the fare payable is generally considered to be matter of luck or chance or perhaps due to the skill of the purchaser in searching on line for the best deal.
Until recently I used trains a great deal, and the vast majority of my longer journeys went smoothly, and many were enjoyable.
I almost always went first class.
I avoided times when I knew that railway would not be able to cope.
I also avoided weekends, no proper first class, no Pullman.
I used only named trains, as I suspect that these are prioritised at times of disruption.
None of these are particularly relevant for the journeys that Grahame is promoting those is it? Relatively short hops into Swindon or Bath for Xmas shopping.
On our relatively short hops, there are certainly less of those issues to consider - but never the less, promotions encouraging new rail users take a lot of these issues into account and we try not to oversell and persuade people to make their first journey at a "surprisingly low" price, and on a train that's likely to run and on which they can get a seat.
The Santa shopping promotions have started now that engineering timetable changes and the occasional bustitution are over for a while. The fares quoted are the off-peak ones and the suggested train times are all ones on which that fare is valid. Consideration was given whether or not to include the 17:36 train back from Swindon, as the experience on that - likely to be full and standing from Chippenham to Melksham on Mondays to Fridays - may not be ideal, but it was included because (i) most people out for the day shopping are likely to come back on the previous train, (ii) leaving it out would make it look like there's a nasty gap in services and (iii) first time travellers tend to arrive at the station early anyway, so will board 'first doors' and be pretty sure to get a seat from Swindon.
As a
CRP▸ Officer these days, I encourage promotions that are going to show the line / service in an excellent light, both to the promotion readers who choose not to travel (marketing) and those to whom the promotion actually makes a sale. And also promotions which for the most part are going to make use of existing resources that are there anyway and are available for use. The summer and autumn "Days out from Melksham" brochure suggested around a dozen different places to go and gave example train times. Not one of those examples was on the 07:50 departure or 18:03 arrival. I frankly wrestle with suggesting day trips to London; pricing, ticket complexity, crowding, engineering changes, failing connections at Swindon off the officially suggested returning trains, a
TVM▸ which hides the best fares and won't sell you GroupSaves, and a direct National Express coach service which also needs promotion to ensure its longevity
all help towards a decision to promote local journeys first, and have people try London as a later trip once they've been baptised into train use within our area.
It is something we have been conscious of when promoting the TransWilts. It is counter productive to attract people to a service which is already likely to full.
A case in point has been the summer services to Weymouth. We went to town when it was an HST▸ in 2015 but less so this summer when it was a unit with a change at Westbury.
You added that while I was typing my over-long answer, BobM. Couldn't agree more (or have put it shorter!
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