ChewChewTrain
Member
- Joined
- 27 Jun 2019
- Messages
- 355
Wouldn’t it be great if RTT et al could tell you how busy each train (or maybe even each carriage) was? And I’m not talking about the hit-and-miss “reported full and standing” that one sometimes sees. Something nerdy and automated, please!
Let’s say you’re waiting at Reading for an up fast. The first one pulls in, and it’s standing room only but there’s still spare room. The next service is due in 5 minutes, and, from my experience, it could be anything from near-empty to an absolute heaving nightmare. Do you twist or stick? While you can try to read the tea leaves in terms of where the services are from, whether they’re short-formed, whether they’re late, etc, it would be nice to have a more concrete indication of what to expect so you can make an informed choice.
I’ve seen “load levels by carriage” displays on ThamesLink services. I don’t know whether they do this by weight or some other means, but would it be so hard in this day and age for all TOCs to do the same thing and upload this data?
Generally, I would rather get there a bit later than have to stand the whole way. (You try being tall and thin…) I’m aware that in many places there isn’t really a choice of what train you can take, but, where there is, it’s surely best all round for passenger distribution to be as optimal as possible.
Let’s say you’re waiting at Reading for an up fast. The first one pulls in, and it’s standing room only but there’s still spare room. The next service is due in 5 minutes, and, from my experience, it could be anything from near-empty to an absolute heaving nightmare. Do you twist or stick? While you can try to read the tea leaves in terms of where the services are from, whether they’re short-formed, whether they’re late, etc, it would be nice to have a more concrete indication of what to expect so you can make an informed choice.
I’ve seen “load levels by carriage” displays on ThamesLink services. I don’t know whether they do this by weight or some other means, but would it be so hard in this day and age for all TOCs to do the same thing and upload this data?
Generally, I would rather get there a bit later than have to stand the whole way. (You try being tall and thin…) I’m aware that in many places there isn’t really a choice of what train you can take, but, where there is, it’s surely best all round for passenger distribution to be as optimal as possible.
