Simon Calder - 10 ways to fix our railways

[SS4]

But with false peaks where does one draw the line instead of shifting false peaks around?

 

[Oswyntail]

The two problems with that being that there's no space for lots more services into London/ Glasgow/ Manchester/ Leeds at rush hour and it'd be uneconomic to build lots of stock that was only going to be used for one service a day......

So you use the stock throughout the day, and market it so that it is used. For instance, one often hears of people driving along the M62, because the trains are crowded. Or use splitting more to provide better services to more destinations. There is always a defeatist air about train planning:roll:

 

[sheff1]

But with false peaks where does one draw the line instead of shifting false peaks around?

If you do not have a peak/off peak walk up fare differential there is no need to draw a line anywhere. You then provide the capacity required at the busiest times rather than carting fresh air around at the very times people do actually want to travel but can't afford to do so.

 

[Oscar]

2. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't our punctuality generally worse than Switzerland and Germany? It's all well and good allowing one minute connections but if the inbound train is two minutes late (on time according to our definition of late)
Whilst I agree that some of our connection times are OTT punctuality needs to be fixed before connections are advertised and connections are already secondary to direct trains.

There are very few delays in Switzerland of more than 5 minutes. There are very many delays of 1-5 minutes and connections are generally held. There is an exact number of minutes each connection will wait for (this is generally but not always 3 minutes but has be calculated for connections across the country and it is only waived in exceptional circumstances). If the train were to wait longer, this would be likely to impact on other connections or pathing. Schedules between hubs are tight but there are long dwell times at hubs. Connections are frequently held. Swiss railway planning is based on the concept of an Integrierter Taktfahrplan (a regular-interval timetable with connections actively planned based on the mirror-image principle of trains/buses arriving around e.g. xx55-xx00/xx25-xx30 and departing around e.g. xx00-xx05/xx30-xx35, also planned very much as one national network, English link to Swiss timetable plan).

If you do not have a peak/off peak walk up fare differential there is no need to draw a line anywhere. You then provide the capacity required at the busiest times rather than carting fresh air around at the very times people do actually want to travel but can't afford to do so.

Serious consideration is being given to a peak/off-peak walk-up differential in Switzerland due to capacity constraints primarily between Zürich and Bern as I understand it. Ideally I agree that such a differential should not be necessary and it should not be necessary in many of the UK's regions. However, I would be interested to know how sufficient peak capacity into London could be provided without such a differential and what would happen to the rolling stock in the off-peak periods. I don't think that there is anywhere in Germany where the commuting flows into a centre are comparable within London.

Although services which do not run on the same tracks as the main network such as U-Bahnen and many S-Bahnen are often very punctual, punctuality in Germany on the whole is not stunning. There are frequent delays of 5-20 minutes generally caused by operational or technical problems and these then cause knock-on delays. Tight connections are offered and will often be held but are much more likely to be missed than in Switzerland. The network and its connections do not seem to be planned as a whole unlike Switzerland and timetabling seems to work in a way which is much more similar to Britain.

 

[radamfi]

Single fares are the same in peak or off-peak in Switzerland and Germany. However, the day ticket giving unlimited travel on all public transport in Switzerland costs less after 0900. Similarly, regional day tickets (and national day ticket for local/regional trains) in Germany are typically valid after 0900.