Returning to work - but at home, or at the office? Effect on travel

[whole diary]

[Lee]

Question for all those in a Community Rail, User Group or Passenger Representative role:

Have either DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) or GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) given you any actual guarantees that your missing services will return, or are you simply assuming that they will at some unspecified point in the future?

[grahame]

Question for all those in a Community Rail, User Group or Passenger Representative role:

Have either DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) or GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) given you any actual guarantees that your missing services will return, or are you simply assuming that they will at some unspecified point in the future?

Lee - you have tried what in sales terms would be an alternative close ... asking your contacts to choose between (a) and (b) where, happily, neither is the case 

There are no guarantees.  But there is a statement of plan / direction which is broadly agreed and eminently sensible - not an assumption on the part of groups at the recent timetabling meetings, but not a full-blown promise either which could actually be counter-productive if it commits both sides (not 100% happy with word "sides") to the same old service which replicates historic features not right for new requirements and, indeed, that we might have been looking to change already.

A real feeling - and I'm sure it was carefully (but welcomely) fertilised by GWR to be looking forward with the goal of filling in the significant gaps where services are missing, but that does not actually mean the return of all the missing services as they were. Sad past experience leads me still to have one eye on the possibility that fine words and intents will melt away into long grass, pathing, staffing, cost, political and possession problems, and the cashing in of optimism factors - but that is not to stop the movements forward especially where things can be come up with that make so much sense ...

[TaplowGreen]

Question for all those in a Community Rail, User Group or Passenger Representative role:

Have either DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) or GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) given you any actual guarantees that your missing services will return, or are you simply assuming that they will at some unspecified point in the future?

Lee - you have tried what in sales terms would be an alternative close ... asking your contacts to choose between (a) and (b) where, happily, neither is the case 

There are no guarantees.  But there is a statement of plan / direction which is broadly agreed and eminently sensible - not an assumption on the part of groups at the recent timetabling meetings, but not a full-blown promise either which could actually be counter-productive if it commits both sides (not 100% happy with word "sides") to the same old service which replicates historic features not right for new requirements and, indeed, that we might have been looking to change already.

A real feeling - and I'm sure it was carefully (but welcomely) fertilised by GWR to be looking forward with the goal of filling in the significant gaps where services are missing, but that does not actually mean the return of all the missing services as they were. Sad past experience leads me still to have one eye on the possibility that fine words and intents will melt away into long grass, pathing, staffing, cost, political and possession problems, and the cashing in of optimism factors - but that is not to stop the movements forward especially where things can be come up with that make so much sense ...

Have you ever considered going into Politics? 

[grahame]

Have you ever considered going into Politics? 

Yes.


No.

[grahame]

Can't believe I'm quoting the Daily Mail

Britain's rail companies will slash one in ten services as post-lockdown passenger numbers plummet.

The new autumn train timetables will be phased in from today with services operating at 10 per cent below the levels before the pandemic.

This will leave passengers with longer wait times and see trains that ran hourly cut to running every two hours. 

[snip]

Rail operators have said services were unlikely to rise above 90 per cent until May next year, with few services being restored in the winter timetables.

Susie Homan, a director of the Rail Delivery Group, said they wanted passengers to 'travel with confidence' which means running a service that is 'more reliable than before'.

The Department for Transport said that it was 'inaccurate and untrue' that they would agree to fewer services operating in the long term.

[MVR S&T]

The ten percent, mabe covered by comuter services? Much as its sad to see London city and other office areas sheding jobs in the 'support' sector, a spreading out of wealth, in the long term should get us out of the London magnet thinking, hey even HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) may be worth while after all.

[TaplowGreen]

The ten percent, mabe covered by comuter services? Much as its sad to see London city and other office areas sheding jobs in the 'support' sector, a spreading out of wealth, in the long term should get us out of the London magnet thinking, hey even HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) may be worth while after all.

Chap from the Rail Delivery Group has just been interviewed on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) at Liverpool Street and has suggested that commuter services are at around 95%, running longer services to help social distancing which would suggest the bulk of the reductions are going to be elsewhere.

As an aside I had a trip into Reading on Friday - train virtually empty both ways, and was really shocked by the state of Reading City Centre - dirty, deserted (even The Oracle) and an awful lot of shops etc closed, bars/restaurants virtually empty.

Interestingly - huge queues at most of the Banks.

[CyclingSid]

Haven't been in The Oracle, but riverside eateries were absolutely heaving for Eat Out to Help Out.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

The off-peak service from Pangbourne (ie the Paddington-Didcot stoppers) is still hourly instead of the pre-Covid level of half-hourly, but according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) goes half-hourly on 21st September.

Nice to get our normal service back, but I can see that it must be difficult to justify running 8 car trains every 30 minutes for the number of passengers travelling. 

[grahame]

The off-peak service from Pangbourne (ie the Paddington-Didcot stoppers) is still hourly instead of the pre-Covid level of half-hourly, but according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) goes half-hourly on 21st September.

Nice to get our normal service back, but I can see that it must be difficult to justify running 8 car trains every 30 minutes for the number of passengers travelling. 

Do not believe Real Time Trains beyond a few days ahead; the working timetable ahead tells you what was being planned for the whole year when uploaded prior to last December.   It's also showing the 18:51 Swindon to Melksham which we would dearly love back - at present if you miss the train just after half past five, your next one is quarter to nine which hardly helps people follow the government's recommendation of "spread out the working day" and "travel at quieter times".   Slightly jealous of even your hourly service 

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Yes, it did cross my mind that RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) may not be accurate while services are being slowly restored (or not as the case may be) ...

[Marlburian]

The off-peak service from Pangbourne (ie the Paddington-Didcot stoppers) is still hourly instead of the pre-Covid level of half-hourly, but according to RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) goes half-hourly on 21st September.

Nice to get our normal service back, but I can see that it must be difficult to justify running 8 car trains every 30 minutes for the number of passengers travelling. 

I used think that off-peak eight-car trains were too generous in Old Normal times, with less than a score of passengers between Didcot and Reading - though of course there would have been far more between Maidenhead and Paddington.

[stuving]

Yes, it did cross my mind that RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) may not be accurate while services are being slowly restored (or not as the case may be) ...

In theory, the WTT^▸ (Working Time-Table) should be stable as far as the booking horizon, which GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) say is currently 27th November (weekdays). But that's a pre-Covid theory, and it's hard to know if it's been overruled by emergency stuff. Plus it only applies to reservations and advance tickets in any case.

[IndustryInsider]

Don’t trust anything in RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website) more than a week ahead!

You can’t even trust TRUST^▸ (Train Running System TOPS) at the moment.  [in joke for those who know their internal railway systems!] 

[didcotdean]

I've found a few "Unadvertised Ordinary Passenger" trains in RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website), eg 2P34, 0909 Didcot to Paddington., which used to be a train I used quite regularly (or its close equivalent).