Severn Beach Line; trains, performance, tickets and usage

[whole diary]

[johnneyw]

What SCRP don't say is that revenue collection is at times very poor. How many journeys go uncounted because of this is open to conjecture, but in my estimation it must be a significant number.

Any regular user of the Severn Riviera Express (and I count myself as one) will know that it is a significant number.  I'll carry out bit of unscientific research later today as I'm having a quick pootle to town (Redland to Temple Meads and back) and I'll post on this thread if I see any missed revenue in my carriage.

[Bmblbzzz]

Revenue collection data must skew figures for individual stations even more than for the whole line. The ticket the machine prints for me always says Clifton Down, although I ask for Redland. Probably this doesn't matter but it would be a shame if it did.

[johnneyw]

What SCRP don't say is that revenue collection is at times very poor. How many journeys go uncounted because of this is open to conjecture, but in my estimation it must be a significant number.

Any regular user of the Severn Riviera Express (and I count myself as one) will know that it is a significant number.  I'll carry out bit of unscientific research later today as I'm having a quick pootle to town (Redland to Temple Meads and back) and I'll post on this thread if I see any missed revenue in my carriage.

Caught the delayed (by 11 mins) 12.50 from Redland.  There was a Revenue Protection lady on the platform waiting for the same service so she had plenty of time to dispense tickets to everyone waiting. There was another RP chap already on the train so it looked like no missed tickets.
Returned on the delayed (by 7 minutes) 16.36 from Temple Meads.  Rather a different story.  RP is carried out in a more "passive" manner with the RP person unmoving from the next carriage down and simply opening the doors and conjunction with another person at the head of the train.  Plenty of opportunity to free hop and plenty of those opportunities taken.... largely because of no one coming to sell a ticket rather than blatant avoidance.
So yes, looks like a lot of revenue leakage still but this would add to the argument that the latest figures are about real passenger growth rather than simply improved revenue protection.

[Red Squirrel]

Your experience, in terms of both delays and patchy revenue collection/protection, matches mine.

[johnneyw]

and not for the "First" time!

[Red Squirrel]

...linked to the sustainability of the area, a park-and-ride facility at Severn Beach railway station would be greatly beneficial. It would capture a lot of traffic heading towards Bristol and avoid a large number of car journeys being taken. There is suitable land adjacent to the station, and I have made the case for it to be used for a park and ride. That would benefit those travelling towards Bristol from Gloucestershire and Wales, as the station is conveniently located near the A403 and M4, and those commuting towards work in Avonmouth and Severnside, which is a huge growth area for jobs and industry, as it is a 10-minute journey by train from Severn Beach to Avonmouth.

Source: Jack Lopresti, MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) for Filton and Bradley Stoke, Hansard 13 Feb 2020

[Celestial]

Surprised he didn't mention P*****g just a mile down the road. Would make a much quicker park and ride journey into Bristol.

Unless parking or traffic in Avonmouth is really difficult I can't see why you would cross the bridge and then change onto a train for the last few miles.

[Celestial]

Surprised he didn't mention P*****g just a mile down the road. Would make a much quicker park and ride journey into Bristol.

Unless parking or traffic in Avonmouth is really difficult I can't see why you would cross the bridge and then change onto a train for the last few miles.

Apologies, just seen Red Squirrel's other post, and don't seem to have the facility to edit out my first comment, which was covered off in the second post. 

[Red Squirrel]

Surprised he didn't mention P*****g just a mile down the road. Would make a much quicker park and ride journey into Bristol.

Unless parking or traffic in Avonmouth is really difficult I can't see why you would cross the bridge and then change onto a train for the last few miles.

Apologies, just seen Red Squirrel's other post, and don't seem to have the facility to edit out my first comment, which was covered off in the second post. 

I should probably have linked the three sections of his speech that I've quoted, but it was going to get rather complicated... 

[grahame]

Surprised he didn't mention P*****g just a mile down the road. Would make a much quicker park and ride journey into Bristol.

Unless parking or traffic in Avonmouth is really difficult I can't see why you would cross the bridge and then change onto a train for the last few miles.

Apologies, just seen Red Squirrel's other post, and don't seem to have the facility to edit out my first comment, which was covered off in the second post. 

There should be a "modify" button at the top right of your post allowing edits.  (Should be there on your own posts until messages are 'archived' - which is a few days.)  No facility to remove a post completely if you want to do that; if you change the text to something like "content deleted" it flags up to the moderators they should tidy up, which often involves little changes to other member's posts before and after to retain thread context into the future.

[Celestial]

There should be a "modify" button at the top right of your post allowing edits. 

Thanks. I was aware of that, as I've had to use it before. But for some strange reason it wasn't there.  As soon as I posted the second message both then did give me the option to edit, but as I couldn't delete the second message decided to leave them both there. Curiouser and curiouser as Alice once said.

[Red Squirrel]

I think both your replies were useful, and led me to clarify. Stet.

[TonyK]

Here's a crazy suggestion for Bristol, why not bring in a metro bus service   

Go on, away with you! I'll get your coat...

[Bristolboy]

What SCRP don't say is that revenue collection is at times very poor. How many journeys go uncounted because of this is open to conjecture, but in my estimation it must be a significant number.

Any regular user of the Severn Riviera Express (and I count myself as one) will know that it is a significant number.  I'll carry out bit of unscientific research later today as I'm having a quick pootle to town (Redland to Temple Meads and back) and I'll post on this thread if I see any missed revenue in my carriage.

Caught the delayed (by 11 mins) 12.50 from Redland.  There was a Revenue Protection lady on the platform waiting for the same service so she had plenty of time to dispense tickets to everyone waiting. There was another RP chap already on the train so it looked like no missed tickets.
Returned on the delayed (by 7 minutes) 16.36 from Temple Meads.  Rather a different story.  RP is carried out in a more "passive" manner with the RP person unmoving from the next carriage down and simply opening the doors and conjunction with another person at the head of the train.  Plenty of opportunity to free hop and plenty of those opportunities taken.... largely because of no one coming to sell a ticket rather than blatant avoidance.
So yes, looks like a lot of revenue leakage still but this would add to the argument that the latest figures are about real passenger growth rather than simply improved revenue protection.

Similar to my experience. Undoubtedly this is a problem across the entire network - I used to witness the same when I lived in SE-England and saw the same between Parson Street and Keynsham yesterday. 

[Red Squirrel]

Message from Jane Jones of GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway):

I wrote to you yesterday to let you know that we would be running buses on the Severn Beach line on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend (24 and 25 October).

There have been further developments and buses will now also operate on the line on Friday evening (tomorrow).  The last rail services will be the 1803 from Bristol Temple Meads and the 1844 from Severn Beach.

The reason for the further extension is that the storm predicted for the weekend will prevent Network Rail from using cranes.    This could have meant the work being cancelled. They have however reworked their plan and by starting on Friday evening they can complete all the work that needs cranes ahead of the storm.

This will mean the work does not have to be reprogrammed and the improvements stay on track. We have agreed that this is a sensible approach, and we are now working on informing customers.

We are now updating customer information and will use social and traditional media to let customers know about the change.  We are also sourcing accessible replacement buses and have made arrangements for our tickets to be valid on scheduled bus services. 

Any help you can give us in getting the message out will be gratefully received.