VTWC doors closing 4 minutes before departure

[All Line Rover]

Are we talking PPM 5 minutes here? If a long distance Cross Country train is 5 late at Birmingham New St it is 5 late and not on time and doesn't appear in any statistics as such.

Regardless of PPM allowances, a VTWC service which is 5 minutes late at Warrington will most likely be on time (at least according to the public timetable) by the time it reaches Glasgow.

I wasn't aware that XC's PPM allowance is 5 minutes rather than 10.
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Connection times have to be based on the infrequent rather than regular traveller or the infrequent traveller would likely miss their train.

No they shouldn't. Minimum connection times should be based on what is feasible. The clue is in the name. Infrequent travellers should have the option of requesting longer connection times if desired.

Many minimum connection times are clearly not based around the infrequent traveller: e.g. Chester, Shrewsbury, Newport, Milton Keynes, York.

 

[al78]

Would 15 minutes be reasonable cycling time Victoria to Euston, because you could not take it on the tube?

I would say no, at least assuming the cyclist is responsible and doesn't jump all the red lights (which I don't). I have cycled this journey many times and it takes me 20 minutes, very occasionally up to half an hour if I get stuck on the Mall when there is some royal procession going on which stops traffic (and I am not a slow cyclist). The problem with the route is that the most direct route is through the heart of central London and it is often heavily congested, the roads are mostly too narrow to filter safely (IMO anyway), and there are a lot of traffic lights, of which I estimate at least three quarters of them will be red when I get to them. Some of them have short green phases which means if there is even a small queue of traffic in front I will not make it through the junction at the green phase so have to wait another full light cycle. I have done the journey in a little over 15 minutes once from Euston to Victoria, which was due to unusually favorable traffic light phases, lighter traffic than normal and because it is downhill.

 

[AlterEgo]

You can take a bike from Victoria to Euston Square on the tube.

Via a circuitous route, and only at certain times of the day, and even then taking too long to meet the proper connection time.

 

[bb21]

What has PPM got to do with anything?
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The only reason you need such a large time is because trains are often 5 minutes late yet still "on time".

Utter tosh, but in any case, the relevance being?

 

[najaB]

No they shouldn't. Minimum connection times should be based on what is feasible. The clue is in the name. Infrequent travellers should have the option of requesting longer connection times if desired.

With respect, that is a terrible suggestion and indicates that you don't have any idea what a MCT is for.

Minimum connection times don't and shouldn't indicate the fastest possible connection. They indicate the time that the railway industry considers reasonable for connections when journey planning. Reducing MCTs would significantly increase the number of 'valid' connections offered by journey planners - the result of which will be many more 'missed' connections or increasingly stressed passengers worrying about making connections that they only had a very slim chance of making in the first place.

I agree that journey planners should have an option to show 'tight' connections, but that should be an option rather than the default setting. Infrequent travellers already find ticketing too complex, now you want to add another option which 90% of them won't even know exists.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Even as an expert rail user, I find the 4 minutes connections beloved of SBB rather stressful. It really isn't enough time to get off, orient yourself, head for the subway/footbridge, work out the platform, get there, move to the correct location for your coach possibly right at the end of the platform, and board.

It's *vaguely* workable if platforming announcements and screens are done on the train on arrival, and confirmed by German-style "welcome to X, your next connections are..." announcements. But at the vast majority of British stations they are unworkable.

10 minutes, on the other hand, provides enough buffer at a quietish station (up to say 4 platforms). Somewhere like New St I'd rather have 20, time to grab a coffee too if all goes well, time not to stress if it doesn't.

Yes, I can select that, but I think I'd suggest it to be better to have a situation where you can request *shorter* connections at your own risk if an expert, rather than defaulting to them.