Unused Train carriages to stay in depot

[whole diary]

[northwesterntrains]

Not strictly First Great Western related - but South West Trains are set to run shorter trains on Saturdays as they claim half their carraiges are empty on a Saturday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7830158.stm

I've never been on South West Trains myself but I've found most train operators have Saturday trains as busy as their busiest weekday trains throughout the day on Saturday.  So find this claim very strange.

On a similar topic First Transpennine Express were looking at not using any 3 car 185s for overnight services and only using 2 car 170s, in an attempt to save money and 'help the environment'  Not sure how much money that will save.

[Lee]

Not just on Saturdays either. See also link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3613.msg27930#msg27930

[devon_metro]

With the fares stagecoach charge in torbay I'm rather confused as to why they see the need to cut back!

[Zoe]

With the fares stagecoach charge in torbay I'm rather confused as to why they see the need to cut back!

I agree with you about the bus fares but when I have talked to other people about this I have been told that as the number 12 is a popular service then it's what I should expect to pay.

[devon_metro]

Madness really. Especially with the cost of diesel falling, shame Stagecoach cannot pass the savings onto us 12/12A passengers.

[Btline]

Has this got anything to do with swt's failed desire to shut ticket offices?

[chrisoates]

Madness really. Especially with the cost of diesel falling, shame Stagecoach cannot pass the savings onto us 12/12A passengers.

If I'm going up that way I get a Plusbus ticket for ^1.30 (railcarded) that gives unlimited travel anywhere bounded by Shaldon, Kingswear, Buckfastleigh & Newton abbot - flipin brilliant !

 

[Timmer]

Has this got anything to do with swt's failed desire to shut ticket offices?

Like I mentioned the other day SWT^▸ (South West Trains) have got to find the savings from somewhere.

And here's another one:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7831383.stm

Makes you wonder if they are under severe pressure to make their premium without Stagecoach taking a major hit on it's profits.

Remember many of the newer (2006-2007) franchises that are a couple of years old were negotiated when things were good but even at the time many commentators were questioning the fact that groups like First, NatEx, Arriva and Stagecoach were making billion pound bids to win or retain their franchise, that they may not be able to afford once the subsidy stops and the premium payments kick in.

How long will it be before one of them has to hand in the keys? I can't see the government being as generous with the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) like they have with the banks.

[devon_metro]

Has this got anything to do with swt's failed desire to shut ticket offices?

Like I mentioned the other day SWT^▸ (South West Trains) have got to find the savings from somewhere.

I'd like to pick up on the use of "have got to"

Personally, I think this is untrue, Stagecoach is a large company who I contribute extortionate sums of money to for a sub-standard service. They must be creaming money out of mugs like me who have no other choice than to use their awful bus service!

[Timmer]

I'd like to pick up on the use of "have got to"

Personally, I think this is untrue, Stagecoach is a large company who I contribute extortionate sums of money to for a sub-standard service. They must be creaming money out of mugs like me who have no other choice than to use their awful bus service!

You are more than welcome to pick on me saying they have got to make savings D/M.

The reason I say that is because of the track record (no pun intended) of the companies that run rail franchises and buses in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) is that they will do everything they can so as not to harm their profits that they can get away with without breaking their franchise commitment. lt was good to see the government taking a firm hand the other day in not allowing SWT^▸ (South West Trains) to reduce ticket office opening hours in the way they had planned which hopefully shows the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) that the government won't roll over. How long that will continue is anyone's guess of course

[Timmer]

Statement from SWT^▸ (South West Trains) on job loses:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWTrains/News/_joblosses.htm

Subject to consultation with staff, our plans will involve a reduction of around 480 management, administration and other roles across the company. Train drivers, guards and frontline fleet maintenance staff are not affected by these proposed changes.

Taking into account existing vacancies and posts which have been withdrawn, this will mean the actual number of people leaving the company will be around 200. We hope to achieve some of this through natural turnover or voluntary redundancy. However, we cannot rule out compulsory redundancies.

[willc]

Like I mentioned the other day SWT^▸ (South West Trains) have got to find the savings from somewhere.

Er, maybe they could try reducing the dividend paid to shareholders, who have done very well out of Stagecoach over the past few years and surely should take a share of the pain - though in common with First, NX, Go-Ahead et all, what is actually happening at SWT at the moment is a slowing of the growth in business, not a decline which you might imagine from the pronouncements of SWT and Southern.

And as owner of half of Virgin Trains, Stagecoach will be doing very nicely out of the improving fortunes of that operation thanks to the completion of WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) modernisation and the new high-frequency timetable. Even before that started last month, Virgin was hoovering up lots of new business from Manchester, with a clear shift from planes to trains for business travel to London.

[Lee]

I have received this from David Habershon of the no450 campaign (see http://www.no450.co.uk/) :

This measure must weaken SWT^▸ (South West Trains)^s case for suburban stock on mainline routes. The irony is that less than 2 years ago SWT proudly proclaimed the introduction of 4,500 more seats daily, but now apparently they^re not needed. Both decisions are of course cost-saving measures, the former because it justified SWT^s removal of more expensive mainline stock. Neither action benefits the passengers.

[autotank]

I have to say I'm not totally against this as there are a lot of trains running around with ridiculous amounts of spare capacity. For instance on Sunday an 8 car 450 was being used on the Alton - Guildford shuttle which was completely over the top. A four car until would have been more than adequate.

So as long as it is done sensibly to match demand and flexibility is maintained I don't see a hugh problem. I don't want my fare going to fund empty trains running around. Having stock out of service for longer should mean more servicing time and fewer break downs!?!

[IndustryInsider]

I have to say I'm not totally against this as there are a lot of trains running around with ridiculous amounts of spare capacity. For instance on Sunday an 8 car 450 was being used on the Alton - Guildford shuttle which was completely over the top. A four car until would have been more than adequate.

So as long as it is done sensibly to match demand and flexibility is maintained I don't see a hugh problem. I don't want my fare going to fund empty trains running around. Having stock out of service for longer should mean more servicing time and fewer break downs!?!

I partly agree with those sentiments. There still is an awful lot of Mr. Darling's 'fresh air' being carted around the network outside of the peak hours. The challenge is to save money by removing carriages from certain trains without impacting on other trains later in the day when things get busier again. The gap between the morning and evening peak hours may seem large, but in reality a train may only do a couple of return trips in the interim period, so sometimes detaching a unit and sending it to the depot for those few hours only to have to bring it back out again for the evening peak causes more problems than its worth.

I don't think there's much scope for removing carriages from the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) network anyway, as few units run coupled up outside the peaks and at weekends - but on the more intensive commuter flows south and south-east of London there are an awful lot of trains running well within capacity such as the Alton-Guildford shuttle mentioned by 'autotank' above.

Sadly (but inevitably) whatever SWT^▸ (South West Trains)'s intentions, moves like this will only ever garner negative publicity with the hacks.