What influences your choice of train

[whole diary]

[Tim]

Price is important but only in the sense of avaioding stupidly high fares.  Once I have found a sensible price (not neccessarily rock-bottom)  comfort (avaoiding voyagers) becomes important.

[matt473]

Apart from the obvious, reasonable priced tickets and decent catering makes all of the difference for me. Since I regularly travel between Swansea and Bristol I regularly get to use the travelling chef and with cheap first class tickets available I always choose the train. In comparison Nat Ex would cost pretty much the same for a bacon baugette and first class so clearly tarin wins hands down. However if prices were different then I may not travel by train, especially with the unpredicatiblity of over-crowding on SWML^▸ (South Western Mail Line) services when the inevtibale happens with problems and the Cardiffs are the first trains to be pulled.

[johoare]

I voted for shortest journey time.. Thinking about it more.. I guess that is because my trains are horribly overcrowded generally.. If they weren't .. I wouldn't be quite so bothered...

[rogerpatenall]

Going up to Norwich tomorrow (via Pad) and so looking forward to first journey out of Liverpool Lime Street for over 6 years, although sadly no longer any chance of dinner in the dining car

I guess its a typo - if not paddington to Norwich via Liverpool suggests an overdose of limes. . .

[broadgage]

Roughly equal priorities for me are avoiding voyagers and other new, nasty, cramped DMUs^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit), and seeking a decent meal.
As disscussed elswhere on these forums, catering on most services has been downgraded to at best a buffet, and often to only a trolley.

Most of my journies are between London and the West, I take the 18-03 train simply because it still has a restaurant, if I miss it then the 19-03 is the other restaurant. I pay first class so as to be able to book in the restaurant.
Return to London is normally on one of the 2 services that retain a restaurant.

When this route is downgraded to DMUs I shall probably go by road.
Steerage class fares already greatly exceed the cost of petrol, and first class is nearly as expensive as a taxi.

[bobm]

Most of my journies are between London and the West, I take the 18-03 train simply because it still has a restaurant, if I miss it then the 19-03 is the other restaurant. I pay first class so as to be able to book in the restaurant.
Return to London is normally on one of the 2 services that retain a restaurant.

Exactly what I do. Have shared a table with MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament), trade union leaders, actors and leading industrialists over the years. Not many places you can do that!

[grahame]

Three more days to answer the poll at the head of this thread - some interesting early results which I'm not going to talk about yet in order to encourage more people to complete the poll without having their inputs biased by an analysis of other people's answers so far!

[eightf48544]

Perhaps without making it too complicated there should be an implied proviso that the journey you want to do can be made by train.

For instance I can't make a train journey from my local station on a Sunday. Also if I want to go places like Teddington (to pick up a boat) I have to either go to Eton and walk across the bridge or walk between the two Windsor stations.

[grahame]

Many thanks for the inputs.  Fascinating results

Your top "deciders"

* Price
* Comfort
* Good arrival and departure times
* Reliability

Well down the votes

- Shortest Journey Time
- Fewest Changes
- Favourite Operating Company

Tells me a lot - that our small sample prefers a good choice of trains rather than fewer, faster ones, and that they don't mind having to change along the way if it fits in with their schedule.  Rather points towards a clockface timetable (hourly or every 30 minutes) along a standard route, with timings done to make good connections off that standard route.  I am (of course, for me) thinking "TransWilts implications" ... also aware that our membership here is a self-selected group of really intersted people, and not a random sample of passengers or wannabe passengers.

I'm havind a "doozie" of a week; overbusy, lots of good stuff amongst it (but as ever some tough stuff too).  I'll be coming back to look in more detail at this little survey and its results at a later point.

[matt473]

Given that wannabe normal passangers seem to want cheap, reliable travel with a seat I would say the results clearly reflect this. Nowadays through trains with few or no changes are a nice thing but not essential apart from maybe a small number a day for disabled and elderly passangers. This may be areas that the railway needs to look at, smaller more frequent services with a small number of through services to other destinations that usually require changes just after peak hours were stock is not as streched as it would otherwise return to depot. Small solution to problems that support the results given?

[Maxwell P]

Rosters 

[bobm]

Rosters 

Joking aside as staff are there particular services you look forward to working and others you'd rather not?

[Maxwell P]

Rosters 

Joking aside as staff are there particular services you look forward to working and others you'd rather not?

Not really.  I do groan a little when I know I will be working a packed holiday train, but in a perverse way, I also enjoy it. One of the great tings about the job is variety, although we tend to know the scenery on our particular patch quite well :-)