Building leisure traffic this autumn.

[whole diary]

[Western Pathfinder]

Myself also and yes it was a straight crib from W1A 

[TaplowGreen]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) ? OOH?

Out-of-home media advertising (also OOH advertising or outdoor advertising) or out-of-home media (also OOH media or outdoor media) is advertising that reaches the consumers while they are outside their homes.

Billboards     for example

OOH = Out of hours, yet another reason for cancellations due to driver shortage.......Five go mad and wished they'd driven or taken the coach instead! 😃

[IndustryInsider]

From an internal communication...

'Look out for our spiffing new ad being shown on ITV during Cannonball on Saturday night and Victoria on Sunday night...'

[ChrisB]

Seriously, they used 'spiffing'?

[RichardB]

Seriously, they used 'spiffing'?

It fits with the Famous Five theme.....

[ChrisB]

Of course.

[grahame]

For frequent posters - a further thread at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=18751 For those who are not frequent posters, this is an area of the forum for background discussions that are of a nature not suitable for general public availability.   We welcome new members, who after a few posts on the public boards will have access to Frequent Posters, the Rumour Mill, and "And Also" - interesting boards, even through they comprise less that 5% of the Coffee Shop content.

[PhilWakely]

https://www.gwr.com/AdventuresStartHere

[JayMac]

SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) have got their new TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) advert just right. Simple, straightforward, unpretentious, no blowing ones own trumpet, and without misappropriating we'll loved cultural icons.

[Tim]

First jumping the gun again? Surely better to wait until the new trains are in operation.

Maybe, but the only bit of variable income FGW^▸ (First Great Western) has any influence over is that earnt by getting the extra seats filled as soon as possible after they are introduced. 

The 20% extra capacity is predicted to be used up within 6 or 7 years due to the general growth in rail travel.  The income generated from it will have already been factored into the franchise bid.   First only makes extra profit by increasing passengers carried ahead of the predictions which means within the first year of so of the new stock (and the last year or so the old franchise).  A cynic would say that if they carry a couple of thousand people now before the new capacity arrives then that is income straight to the bottom line even if the customers never travel again due to overcrowding. 

[John R]

I can never quite get my head around:-

1. There's overcrowding so we are going to introduce more capacity.
2. We've introduced more capacity so we are now going to go all out to fill it.
3. Oh look, we've got overcrowding again...

[Tim]

I can never quite get my head around:-

1. There's overcrowding so we are going to introduce more capacity.
2. We've introduced more capacity so we are now going to go all out to fill it.
3. Oh look, we've got overcrowding again...

That is how the franchise system is incentivised.  The cost of providing the extra capacity and the revenue from filling the extra capacity are all reasonably predictable and therefore costed into the franchise bid on which the ToC reckons on making a small profit margin which is only just enough to make it worth bidding for the franchise.  The only way to make more than a minimal profit is to run the trains overcrowded or to slash the only costs over which the ToC has control (ie staff numbers).  Both approaches can backfire in the long term, but when you've only got a short franchise why should you care?  It isn't like the departing franchisee sells the business on to the next franchisee which would incentive long term investment leading to an increase in the value of the business.  Even if the franchise is successful and you get to keep it for the next franchise term, the calculations are all rebased so the government captures the result of your hard work.  I think the system is called "pretend capitalism"