2020 PAD to WOS today? Train or Bus?

[whole diary]

[Oxman]

I like the idea of having staff at Moreton sometime after midnight to arrange taxis for anyone arriving from Hanborough, Charlbury etc to continue on to Worcester!

No, come to think of it, I don't like the idea at all!

[Mookiemoo]

I like the idea of having staff at Moreton sometime after midnight to arrange taxis for anyone arriving from Hanborough, Charlbury etc to continue on to Worcester!

No, come to think of it, I don't like the idea at all!

Could you even rustle up a taxi at that time?

[IndustryInsider]

I'd agree that regulation is needed to ensure sufficient buses are provided & no one ever gets left behind, but I can't support running buses for half a dozen people that only *might* want to go fast to Worcester on any given day on the last service....

Remember this would benefit Moreton, Honeybourne, Evesham, Pershore, Worcester and Malvern passengers equally. I estimate usual loadings for Moreton and beyond on the last two trains would be around 40 and 25 respectively - with around half of those travelling to Worcester or beyond. I am basing these estimates on what TM^‡(resolve)'s who work the trains have told me and what I've seen with my own eyes. Some may be put off by a bus - no matter how fast it was - but that's more than used many of the ghost buses that ran during the summer blockade, which if anything was a bit over the top, though welcomed.

I like the idea of having staff at Moreton sometime after midnight to arrange taxis for anyone arriving from Hanborough, Charlbury etc to continue on to Worcester!

No, come to think of it, I don't like the idea at all!

Could you even rustle up a taxi at that time?

The best way would be to pre-book one from one of the 24-hour taxi firms in Evesham. If you don't want to go to the bother of having a staff member there, then you agree a rate with the company and specify that they wait for the bus. Then they must confirm with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) control that it's OK to leave (or OK to go back to base if there's no takers). This is not beyond the realms of possibility. Or, you just run the stopping bus through to Worcester to avoid the need of any taxis - though of course the global warming risk would be HUGE 

To be honest, the additional cost (given the extraordinary amount of money FGW and NR^» (Network Rail - home page) throw at taxis and buses a year anyway) is barely a factor.

[Oxman]

On the contrary, I would think that the enormous amount of money thrown at taxis and buses each year was a major factor. Any commercial organisation would do it what it could to reduce unneccesary costs, particularly in hard times. Which brings us back to the cost versus customer service arguement!

[IndustryInsider]

Any commercial organisation would do it what it could to reduce unneccesary costs, particularly in hard times. Which brings us back to the cost versus customer service arguement!

You'd have thought so, wouldn't you? With a taxi bill of well over a million a year, and God knows what on buses, my point was that two extra buses and an extra taxi for a few nights when the two late trains aren't running would only be an extra drop of water in a very large ocean. Especially if that additional cost was claimed back off on NR^» (Network Rail - home page).