Rail Fares Consulation

[Fambo Number Mive]

Have I mentioned this before?

Not sure how likely it is that the responses will be listened to but worth a go.

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/EasierFaresConsultation

Got to get a train from Oxford to the SW next month with my local station closed (so a rail replacement bus). Hmm

[Paul Calf]

Walk-on fares that anyone can afford.

End of consultation?

[Blinder Data]

How about those machines they have in Japan where you pay extra/less if you decide to change your journey while you're on it? "Fare adjustment machines" or whatever they are.

Plus, the idea that all open returns should be about 50p more than a single can get to fuck

[Huxleys Babkins]

Replacement services should be at least the same level of comfort and speed as the train it replaces. I don't pay £100 for a train ticket to have to take a slow bus journey that could have been covered much better by a £20 National Express ticket.

I'd suggest army transport helicopters or a limo driven by former F1 ace Giancarlo Fisichella.

[Funcrusher]

Renationalise. End of.

[idunnosomename]

Less than they are, thanks

[Fambo Number Mive]

One idea I forgot to mention when I completed the survey was for an Oyster card style card but covering all UK railways.

[Icehaven]

Replacement services should be at least the same level of comfort and speed as the train it replaces. I don't pay £100 for a train ticket to have to take a slow bus journey that could have been covered much better by a £20 National Express ticket.

I'd suggest army transport helicopters or a limo driven by former F1 ace Giancarlo Fisichella.

On Sunday a few weeks ago there were no trains between Birmingham and Coventry so bus replacements were laid on. They were following the same route as the regular Brum-Cov bus service (the X1), only you obviously had to have a rail ticket to use it, which is considerably more expensive than the regular bus fare for the same journey. So it transpired that ever-increasing crowds of us stood waiting at the X1 stop watching rail replacement buses sail past completely empty, before piling onto a dangerously packed X1 going exactly the same way. I can see that this was circumstantial and not 100% the responsibility of the rail service, however the rail disruption was planned and therefore this was totally predictable, so surely a little forward planning and joined-up thinking could have helped, like allowing bus passes to be valid on the rail replacement buses, however I daresay they'd make some 'separate companies' excuse as to why that wasn't possible, as they do with most things that could save passenger money and time.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

This consultation will be full of people like me sounding off in the Any Other Comments section about how this is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, and a more fundamental change needs to come first.

[Zetetic]

Have I mentioned this before?

Yes.

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=66870.0

[Zetetic]

The risk with this is that it's used to transfer rail fare costs to away from those commuting into London to the rest of us - this is what they seem to be aiming at. (Be aware that anything that fails to tackle the actual content of the consultation in favour of rants about the assumptions, e.g. "revenue neutral", will be used as an effective endorsement of the proposals.)

(As well as fixing all the stupid fiddles about journey breaking and so on - which is fine in principle, but I doubt will be fixed in a way that doesn't hurt us somehow.)

[Zetetic]

One idea I forgot to mention when I completed the survey was for an Oyster card style card but covering all UK railways.

Or sensible automatic debit-card based billing at least.

In theory we're edging, very slowly, towards that in Wales for the 'South Wales Metro' and eventually all Welsh-ish (because of the Borders) services.

[hamfist]

Make it like Switzerland.

Fully integrated timetable between all modes of transport.

Regular, predictably scheduled buses and trains.

Same per-km fee regardless of time or route.

Railcard for everyone (half-price card / halbtax).

National network annual subscription to use any train or bus in the country (Generalabonnement).

[Bad Ambassador]

As someone currently on holiday in Switzerland, I second this.

[hamfist]

As someone currently on holiday in Switzerland, I second this.

ooh ! where in Switzerland are you ?

[idunnosomename]

This was pretty vile, it was basically "so who do you want to lose out? Disabled people? People who travel peak? Or last minute travellers? It needs to be one of them!"

FUCK

YOUUUU

[Fambo Number Mive]

Which question was that?

[Paul Calf]

All of them.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Getting ready for my week away in Bristol. Bit nervous about the trains.

Oxford station is closed, might get the bus to Didcot.

[holyzombiejesus]

I think I despise Northern Rail more than the Conservative Party. Actually, no I don't, that would be silly but I do really really hate them. The kindest thing I can say about them is that they're fucking inept although I do have concerns that something more insidious may be happening. The whole line is a shambles and if my manager wasn't so understanding I'd have had to look for another job by now. Their trains are filthy rattling pieces of shit, usually late, always overcrowded to the extent that you can't physically get off without re-enacting that scene from Crocodile Dundee at certain stops, I usually can't get my bike on (and I need that to do my job) and often struggle to get the baby's buggy on board, and I have to pay a stupid amount of money to use them.