Pewsey station - facilities, services / fares, incidents and user group - merged posts

[whole diary]

[Reginald25]

It would seem good customer relations to find some way to get the waiting facilities (and presumably toilets) open for the waiting time in these situations. Is there not an emergency local authorised keyholder?

[grahame]

It would seem good customer relations to find some way to get the waiting facilities (and presumably toilets) open for the waiting time in these situations. Is there not an emergency local authorised keyholder?

Pewsey is peculiarly distant from other stations and not easily driven to from any of them ... so there could be sense in having a local backup in place. The regular GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) person based there - but for an early rather than a late shift - does a superb job when he's on duty  and I suspect would pop down to the station beyond the call of duty if alerted and available.

There was talk last October of appointing (? volunteer) station ambassadors at unstaffed stations in Wiltshire.  "Soon" was the word, but in railway terms "soon" hasn't progressed yet.

Good job they weren't coming through the Severn Tunnel and dropped off at the first station in England. That's really bleak, and a long wait for the next stopping train!

[eightf48544]

Presumably the failure was such that the train could be moved but only without passenger. Wouldn't it have ben  sensible to keep the passengers on the train and wait for the rescue train to be a couple of sections away. You May hold up some stone trains  but they would clear in front of the rescue train .

[grahame]

From Spire fm

Great Western Railway has announced £3,000 for the new lighting at the village's train station.

The cash is coming from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Customer and Communities Improvement Fund.

Pewsey's winning bid is one of only two to get funding in Wiltshire.

The money will be used to fund lighting and signage.

This will allow pedestrian users of the railway to access the station using a safely lit pathway.

Great Western Railway Managing Director, Mark Hopwood, said: "We at GWR recognise only too well the vital role that rail plays in local and the national economy, and I am delighted that we have been able to continue to support the communities we serve with this funding."

[hoover50]

As a result of the new timetable from 15/12/19 onwards, the current 0810 off-peak train from Pewsey to Paddington has been replaced by an 0817 peak-time train. This means that a return to London around that time increases from £53.60 to £120

The first off-peak train will be a 0930 departure rather than the 0810 at present, i.e. 1hr 20mins later.

I thought the whole idea of the new timetable was to improve things but this will make it much worse for people wanting to travel from Pewsey! 

[grahame]

As a result of the new timetable from 15/12/19 onwards, the current 0810 off-peak train from Pewsey to Paddington has been replaced by an 0817 peak-time train. This means that a return to London around that time increases from £53.60 to £120

The first off-peak train will be a 0930 departure rather than the 0810 at present, i.e. 1hr 20mins later.

I thought the whole idea of the new timetable was to improve things but this will make it much worse for people wanting to travel from Pewsey! 

See http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=22244.0 ... where we suspect that this may not be intentional.   I have also followed up on the Facebook Pewsey Community Page.

Issue of changed train times pushing services from off peak to peak effects other lines too. I will be writing up / raising a couple of Melksham issues via the user Group, and am hopeful that the boundary of the peak will be adjusted rather than massive fare rises on trains that become peak in name, but are off-peak in traffic / nature.

[grahame]

View from Bedwyn / Kintbury / Hungerford on Facebook

Very high percentage price increases for some as trains move a few minutes and long-standing concessions are withdrawn.  It may be that the new system is fairer across the board, but as the post says "we have built our lives around these trains and train prices".

[JayMac]

Largely irrelevant. If you're driving a commercial vehicle it's your responsibility to know its height.

[Timmer]

Largely irrelevant. If you're driving a commercial vehicle it's your responsibility to know its height.

Think this was for another thread. Do you want me to remove BNM?

[Celestial]

Largely irrelevant. If you're driving a commercial vehicle it's your responsibility to know its height.

Think this was for another thread. Do you want me to remove BNM?

Maybe the first two words were more fitting than intended.

[JayMac]

Apologies. I did post in wrong thread. As there have been follow ups then it's okay to leave my embarrassment for posterity.

[TaplowGreen]

View from Bedwyn / Kintbury / Hungerford on Facebook

Very high percentage price increases for some as trains move a few minutes and long-standing concessions are withdrawn.  It may be that the new system is fairer across the board, but as the post says "we have built our lives around these trains and train prices".

I think they're being a bit melodramatic. Surely it's the case that in any reorganisation on this scale there are always going to be winners and losers?

One could argue that they've benefitted from an extremely generous easement for many years, and these are always subject to potential withdrawal?

Are there slower (but cheaper) trains still available, albeit perhaps involving a change at Reading?

(I do agree with BNM about the commercial vehicles though!) 

[grahame]

I think they're being a bit melodramatic. Surely it's the case that in any reorganisation on this scale there are always going to be winners and losers?

Taking Pewsey, as I know the case better, as an example

The price increases on the lowest cost walk up tickets for certain journeys at certain times of day have come as a massive shock to people who have used these services with these tickets for many years. For many people, cost-of-travel is a significant part of their budget and changing from a £53.60 fare to a £120.00 fare (say) 40 times a year would / will cost an extra £2,656.00 per annum - up from £2144.00 to £4,800.   Assuming a basic rate (20%) taxpayer, it's an extra £3127.20 gross needed and I'm not going to try to consider National Insurance factors.

However ...

a) The fare until mid December has been a concession and there's an argument that it should not have been so low in the first place; a difficult one as it has been established as a custom for so long.   And no notice (to my knowledge) was given that the custom was to be withdrawn.   Last year, Pewsey lost its rail services for 50 days (bus replacement instead) amongst a great deal of publicity talking about new, better, faster trains.  At no point to I recall seeing any warning that (for some) the new, better, faster trains would also cost them a lot more to use - and people are going to feel aggrieved at been selectively informed last year and having this sprung on them now.

b) If a product you have used suddenly and sharply increases in price, or otherwise becomes unavailable, surely you take a look for an alternative product.  Whilst the headlines we're seeing are looking at the new price of travelingg on what is essentially the same train with the same ticket type, for many users I suspect there are other options so they won't have to spend all that extra:
* A new train an hour later available at the lower price which could even be better for some:
* re-arrange their work to be able to make less journeys
* shift their office time (if they can) a couple of hours later
* Drive to a lower cost station, bearing in mind that Pewsey is a railhead
* Look at booking further ahead with advance tickets
* Buy two singles - up in the peak, back off peak perhaps
Split ticketing, season tickets (which are not going up) etc are further options to look at.

Looking ahead to the new year, the £120 ticket may be rising to £124 giving rise to a further shout of pain.  And looking further ahead to someone sorting out the current mess that is ticketing ... goodness only knows what the effect will be.  But then with Pewsey to London for a day in the peak - £120 and  Bedwyn to London in the peak being 'just' £63.10, future levelling out might reduce the Pewsey fares at the expense of the Bedwyn ones.   We live in interesting times!

[hoover50]

But then with Pewsey to London for a day in the peak - £120 and  Bedwyn to London in the peak being 'just' £63.10, future levelling out might reduce the Pewsey fares at the expense of the Bedwyn ones.   We live in interesting times!

This really needs to be addressed. It is absolutely ridiculous that the fare is almost double from Pewsey which is less than 9 miles down the line from Bedwyn.

I think the main cause of this anomaly is that you are able buy an anytime day return from Bedwyn but not from Pewsey, where you have to buy an anytime period return.

[Timmer]

This really needs to be addressed. It is absolutely ridiculous that the fare is almost double from Pewsey which is less than 9 miles down the line from Bedwyn.

I think the main cause of this anomaly is that you are able buy an anytime day return from Bedwyn but not from Pewsey, where you have to buy an anytime period return.

Time was that you could justify the huge difference in fare due to Pewsey having IC^▸ (Inter City) quality rolling stock compared to DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) from Bedwyn, but now the rolling stock, in the form of IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train), is of exactly the same standard from both stations.