Quiet EMT Red Dot Day

[ashworth]

Been to London today from East Midlands Parkway using the £15 EMT Red Dot Day Ticket. It's the first one of these days EMT have done since March 2011 and I've never known one so quiet.

Although these are valid for travel for a day over the whole East Midlands Trains network when these days are from East Midlands Parkway, most people usually go to London as that's the easiest destination without having to change trains at Nottingham or elsewhere.

I can't remember how busy the March 2011 day was but some of the earlier days, when it was only £10, saw huge queues to buy tickets and queues for the car park and very overcrowded trains to London. Indeed there were car park attendants finding parking places in a car park that was full to capacity. Not today though. I admit that I did go early and caught the 0732 to London but the front portion of the 10 car Meridian was almost empty with only a handful of passengers in each carriage all the way to London. It became unbearably hot in London by the afternoon and so I came back on the 1615 and was very surprised to see the car park at East Midlands Parkway probably less than half full.

I don't know if it was the weather forecast of temperatures up to 28 degrees in London that put people off or perhaps that this one didn't seem to have been advertised so widely as previous days. It wasn't even very prominent on the EMT website.

 

[paul1609]

Been to London today from East Midlands Parkway using the £15 EMT Red Dot Day Ticket. It's the first one of these days EMT have done since March 2011 and I've never known one so quiet.

Although these are valid for travel for a day over the whole East Midlands Trains network when these days are from East Midlands Parkway, most people usually go to London as that's the easiest destination without having to change trains at Nottingham or elsewhere.

I can't remember how busy the March 2011 day was but some of the earlier days, when it was only £10, saw huge queues to buy tickets and queues for the car park and very overcrowded trains to London. Indeed there were car park attendants finding parking places in a car park that was full to capacity. Not today though. I admit that I did go early and caught the 0732 to London but the front portion of the 10 car Meridian was almost empty with only a handful of passengers in each carriage all the way to London. It became unbearably hot in London by the afternoon and so I came back on the 1615 and was very surprised to see the car park at East Midlands Parkway probably less than half full.



I don't know if it was the weather forecast of temperatures up to 28 degrees in London that put people off or perhaps that this one didn't seem to have been advertised so widely as previous days. It wasn't even very prominent on the EMT website.

I went up to Bury to the East Lancs Diesel Gala from Appledore in Kent today and I was surprised at how quiet all the trains North of London were.
I went up on the WCML and came back via Sheffield as I fancied a trip across the Peak District in the sunshine.
I was a bit dubious about the EMT service to Nottingham having read on here this service is overcrowded especially departing Piccadilly at 17.42 but in truth there were a maximum of 25 passengers on a 4 coach 158.
Is there no depot North of the Thames that can maintain air con?
390,158 and 222 all duff what a relief to get back on a 395!

 

[RichmondCommu]

I'm a very good customer of EMT and yet I didn't receive an email regarding this which I find rather surprising. It wouldn't have been any use to me but my sister and her family would have been interested.

 

[ashworth]

I'm also a regular customer of EMT and regularly purchase Advance Purchase tickets from their website and I didn't receive any information about this by email. If I hadn't seen it mentioned in a thread on this forum, and downloaded a form from the link given there, I wouldn't have known about this day. I told some a friends about it and they had to really search the EMT website to find information and print off a form as it was quite hidden and not very prominently advertised.
I think the staff on the 10 car meridian that I traveled down on were quite surprised by the lack of passengers. The train had obviously been strengthened from 5 to 10 carriages just for the day and according to the amount of refreshments stacked up at the buffet in the leading unit they were expecting crowds. I think there were 8 passengers in the carriage I was in as very few additional passengers boarded at Leicester.

 

[yorksrob]

Perhaps people have fogotten about these days due to the big gap from 2011. I suspect that if they became a regular thing again, momentum might build up (if they did one from Sheffield, i‘d be tempted).

I agree with those who have noted that the network seems quite quiet this weekend.

 

[Starmill]

Is there no depot North of the Thames that can maintain air con?
390,158 and 222 all duff what a relief to get back on a 395!

Haha, you're surprised about the 158? Shame about the 222 and 390 though!

 

[Qwerty133]

Good job there weren't anyone going to Matlock as the one coach trains were already heavily overcrowded and people were struggling to get on! Also the 09:04 from leicester was just a 5 car meridian which AFAIK is unusual for the fast sheffields and was full and standing. EMT really allocated coaches effectively from what everyone is saying!

 

[edwin_m]

Haven't seen this posted anywhere, apologies if I've missed it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-22880488

A £25m East Midlands railway station is failing to meet projections it would attract 743,000 passengers a year.

East Midlands Parkway (EMP), which is located near Junction 24 of the M1, achieved a 19% increase in use in 2012.

But according to figures from the Office of Rail Regulation, it was used by 261,880 passengers - just 4% of the passengers who used Nottingham station.

I suspect the Red Dot Day was an attempt to raise the profile of EM Parkway prior to the Nottingham blockade - there is also an advertising campaign in Nottingham promoting EM Parkway as the station for London. However the roadworks on the A453 are equally well promoted and a lot of people probably aren't going near the place unless they have to!

I guess EMT are scared that people will go to London via Grantham, the only train service still running during most of the blockade.

 

[ashworth]

A few months ago in another thread I pointed out the main reasons why I very rarely use East Midlands parkway despite its very convenient location.

Forgetting the current roadworks East Midlands Parkway is in an ideal position with fairly easy access from Nottingham, Derby, Loughborough and Leicester plus all the surrounding smaller towns and rural areas. However, I very rarely use it for the following reasons:

Firstly the price of many fares are very high in comparison to fares from Nottingham.
When you consider the price of petrol to drive to and from East Midlands Parkway and then add the £6 parking charge it puts a lot on the price of my journey. A bus or tram into Nottingham often works out much cheaper!
I park at Hucknall (free parking) and use the tram or through train tickets to my destination if cheaper.
Also if using Advance Purchase tickets that stretch of the M1 and A453 near East Midlands Parkway regularly gets congested and there is always the worry of missing your booked train.

For example taking the leisure traveler who might go for a day out to popular destinations from the East Midlands. Here are examples of the cheapest buy on the day returns available all day on a Saturday from East Midlands Parkway. Figures in brackets are for the same journey from Nottingham:

London £57.50 (£57.50)
Sheffield £19.20 (£12.80)
Leeds £39.30 (£22.50)
Manchester £39.10 (£21.60)
York £47.00 (£42.20)
Chester £36.00 (£19.90)
Lincoln £12.60 (£10.70)
Skegness £25.70 (£22.10)
Birmingham £19.00 (£17.00)

Need I say any more!
Perhaps I can understand it being a pound or two more to destinations like Lincoln and Skegness which are further in distance than from Nottingham, but then why not a few pound less to London and why more expensive to Birmingham? Many of the other fares are almost double the price, especially to destinations in Yorkshire and the NW including the Manchester area, because Day Returns are not available from East Midlands Parkway.
Comparable fares to Nottingham and free parking might encourage large numbers of people to use it.

Returning to the current thread I think it was mainly a lack of advertising and to a lesser extent forecasts of of up to 30 degrees C in London that put people off. I was talking about it over lunch at work today and no-one else knew about the Red Dot Day on London. About a dozen people were annoyed that they didn't know and would have gone to London. I've been asked to put details on the staff notice board next time!

 

[Starmill]

I've often wondered if somebody fell asleep half way through putting the fares from East Midlands Parkway in! It seems to be lacking in ticket types on many flows!

 

[bb21]

Good job there weren't anyone going to Matlock as the one coach trains were already heavily overcrowded and people were struggling to get on! Also the 09:04 from leicester was just a 5 car meridian which AFAIK is unusual for the fast sheffields and was full and standing. EMT really allocated coaches effectively from what everyone is saying!

There was a lot of strengthening required on the Skeggy runs. Every single train I saw that day on the Skeggy runs was at least strengthened by a dogbox, but more often a double 156 or even double 156 + 153.

Judging by the amount of traffic to/from Skegness due to the weather that day, I am not surprised that is where their focus was.

 

[Qwerty133]

There was a lot of strengthening required on the Skeggy runs. Every single train I saw that day on the Skeggy runs was at least strengthened by a dogbox, but more often a double 156 or even double 156 + 153.

Judging by the amount of traffic to/from Skegness due to the weather that day, I am not surprised that is where their focus was.

Judging by the amount of traffic to Matlock where everyone was struggling to get on the train at least two coaches were needed.
Clearly the local services is not EMTs fault and under central I think some units were borrowed from the West Midlands to strengthen some services and while MML had 170s the branch got a through service from london on Saturday mornings.

 

[paul1609]

Haha, you're surprised about the 158? Shame about the 222 and 390 though!

Whilst aircon on FGW 158s always disappoints on SWT 158s its nearly always a go-go, I was surprised that the refurbed EMT (which I found quite comfortable) given its stagecoach pedigree hasnt got it sorted.
For me as a leisure traveller the Edale route is always a winner to manchester over the WCML, Im surprised there aren't direct trains

 

[43074]

Good job there weren't anyone going to Matlock as the one coach trains were already heavily overcrowded and people were struggling to get on! Also the 09:04 from leicester was just a 5 car meridian which AFAIK is unusual for the fast sheffields and was full and standing. EMT really allocated coaches effectively from what everyone is saying!

I boarded the 09:04 off Leicester at Derby (09:28 depart) - it was not too bad on arrival at Derby.

EMT actually made 7-car Meridian Diagram DY73 an HST for the day, so additional seats could be provided on their Mainline Route. The 5-car you report here was a result of EMT trying to focus longer trains on East Mids Parkway - indeed the 08:38 Leicester to Sheffield was actually formed of 10-coaches instead of the usual 5-.

Unfortunately, strenthening on local services seemed to be lacking bar the usual strengthening of the Skegs and Liverpool Nottingham services.