Travelers tale

[amy.stanning]

A simple journey but one that says so much about the everyday struggles of railway passengers. Leaving Leeds on the 18.09 tpe to man pic. It's delayed, no explanation. Rammed and standing all the way. Why do tpe sell cheap advance tickets for overloaded trains?

Arrives late into man pic no explanation or apology. The 19.16 tpe connection to Preston has gone. No staff to give information so I wait for the 19.46 tpe to Preston. Passengers wait at the ox rd end of plat 14. The 2x 158s appear at the south end no announcement. Eventually an announcement to move down the platform to the train approx 150 folks scrum down the platform some running to board. Not all make it.

I will miss the Lytham connection at Preston waiting for the 21.23 which will get me in about an hour late.

No major issues to cause the delay apparently.

So I've been inconvenienced by delay on a cold wet night. I know the staff are doing their best but my passenger experience is really poor. Delay, no explanation, no apology, no assistance. It feels like a shambles. How is it that the end user experience is so poor. Is it bad management that don't seemingly care? Either way it's a poor experience and I'm a dissatisfied customer.

 

[Elecman]

If your delayed by more than 30 minutes make a delay repay claim from Trans Pennine

 

[185143]

Welcome to First TransPennine Express! Your experience is by no means unique-indeed it happens to me every time I travel with them nearly, there's always an excuse! Most of the time they simply need to grow a pair and admit they f****d up, never happens though!

I'm not their biggest fan, can you tell?

 

[sheff1]

Why do tpe sell cheap advance tickets for overloaded trains?

Some people on here claim Advance tickets are sold to fill seats which would otherwise be empty. Clearly those people never travel on TPE or Cross Country !

 

[martinsh]

Err, what's wrong with travelling Leeds - Preston direct ?

 

[fandroid]

On services like TPE (and CrossCountry) there are going to be loads of passengers with connections, many of them infrequent travellers with little knowledge of the system. The TM just has to own the problem and provide as much info as possible. That's 10 times more important than churning out spurious reasons for the delay. If info is difficult/impossible to get hold of, then the TM must say so. I think that's why BR tried to introduce use the word 'customers', ie to make the staff think of the travelling public as people who have paid for a service, rather than objects to be shifted around.

 

[nottinghamcity]

Some people on here claim Advance tickets are sold to fill seats which would otherwise be empty. Clearly those people never travel on TPE or Cross Country !

I have always assumed that is why XCs advance fares are scarce, and where they exist, expensive compared to the flexible ticket.

 

[kevin5025]

A simple journey but one that says so much about the everyday struggles of railway passengers. Leaving Leeds on the 18.09 tpe to man pic. It's delayed, no explanation. Rammed and standing all the way. Why do tpe sell cheap advance tickets for overloaded trains?

Arrives late into man pic no explanation or apology. The 19.16 tpe connection to Preston has gone. No staff to give information so I wait for the 19.46 tpe to Preston. Passengers wait at the ox rd end of plat 14. The 2x 158s appear at the south end no announcement. Eventually an announcement to move down the platform to the train approx 150 folks scrum down the platform some running to board. Not all make it.

I will miss the Lytham connection at Preston waiting for the 21.23 which will get me in about an hour late.

No major issues to cause the delay apparently.

So I've been inconvenienced by delay on a cold wet night. I know the staff are doing their best but my passenger experience is really poor. Delay, no explanation, no apology, no assistance. It feels like a shambles. How is it that the end user experience is so poor. Is it bad management that don't seemingly care? Either way it's a poor experience and I'm a dissatisfied customer.

Welcome to the boards. I think this story sums up the state of the UK rail network. All those passengers had a pretty miserable journey, but the likely don't have much choice, so they come back. The railways know that they don't have to provide a good service, and it is about maximising revenue alone. I think that is why they are continuing to sell advance fares.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Welcome to the boards. I think this story sums up the state of the UK rail network. All those passengers had a pretty miserable journey, but the likely don't have much choice, so they come back. The railways know that they don't have to provide a good service, and it is about maximising revenue alone. I think that is why they are continuing to sell advance fares.

It is interesting that TPE clearly believe they get the most income from cramming trains full and standing at price-dumped low fares, while VT clearly believe they get the most income from having quieter trains but with those people paying eye-wateringly high fares.

(I'll admit I have never been on a TPE service in recent years on which Advance fares should be on sale at all if done using the original fill-empty-seats principle)

 

[Pinza-C55]

A simple journey but one that says so much about the everyday struggles of railway passengers. Leaving Leeds on the 18.09 tpe to man pic. It's delayed, no explanation. Rammed and standing all the way. Why do tpe sell cheap advance tickets for overloaded trains?

Arrives late into man pic no explanation or apology. The 19.16 tpe connection to Preston has gone. No staff to give information so I wait for the 19.46 tpe to Preston. Passengers wait at the ox rd end of plat 14. The 2x 158s appear at the south end no announcement. Eventually an announcement to move down the platform to the train approx 150 folks scrum down the platform some running to board. Not all make it.

I will miss the Lytham connection at Preston waiting for the 21.23 which will get me in about an hour late.

No major issues to cause the delay apparently.

So I've been inconvenienced by delay on a cold wet night. I know the staff are doing their best but my passenger experience is really poor. Delay, no explanation, no apology, no assistance. It feels like a shambles. How is it that the end user experience is so poor. Is it bad management that don't seemingly care? Either way it's a poor experience and I'm a dissatisfied customer.

"Why do tpe sell cheap advance tickets for overloaded trains?"

Why not ? Privatisation means they are a private company and do pretty much as they like within the terms of their franchise. They don't care about your travel experience as long as you pay up.

As for the connections, again that is privatisation. Holding a connection on British Rail didn't impact their balance sheet because they weren't penalised for late running.
No companies are penalised and there is no incentive at all to hold connections especially if they are from another companies trains.

 

[misterredmist]

Welcome to a route between 2 major cities that should be served with rolling stock that has adequate capacity, running at 100mph + ..... oh wait, the line doesn't involve a London Terminus , so BR nor anybody else since has bothered investing in it.....

Of course, now the route is very popular with rail travellers, but the service and experience not so popular, they are getting round to it...... eventually

Our Grand children should fair better on the trans-Pennine routes....

 

[sheff1]

I have always assumed that is why XCs advance fares are scarce, ... .

It may depend on the route, but checking for tomorrow every direct XC from Sheffield to Birmingham has Advances available and Advances are also available for all the remaining direct trains today. I have not checked, but would expect Advances to still be on offer on the Sheffield to Leeds XC trains as well, as this is normal in my experience. In both directions it is again normal for a number of the the trains to be full and standing for at least part of the journey.

 

[3141]

"Why do tpe sell cheap advance tickets for overloaded trains?"

Why not ? Privatisation means they are a private company and do pretty much as they like within the terms of their franchise. They don't care about your travel experience as long as you pay up.

As for the connections, again that is privatisation. Holding a connection on British Rail didn't impact their balance sheet because they weren't penalised for late running.

Train A runs late, connecting train B isn't held, and some passengers on train A miss it.

Alternative scenario: train A runs late, connecting train B is held, and the passengers get it. But now train B is late, and further along the line the same issue arises about whether to hold train C. Train C goes onto a single track with passing loops, and if it runs late it will affect other trains on the route as well. So it isn't held, and passengers who were on train B, who would have caught train C if B hadn't been held earlier for train A, now miss their connection.

This sort of dilemma must face staff every day. It's not simply a matter of BR v. privatisation. Adjustments that benefit one passenger may seriously inconvenience another.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Re: Connections
There is still scope for agreed connectional policies at stations across the network. These are negotiated between various passenger TOCs and Network Rail at many locations.
When a train is held in accordance with an agreed policy any delays are linked back to the original incident that affected the incoming train, such as a points failure, freight running out of course or whatever.
Obviously if trains are held beyond agreed margins, e.g. by well-intentioned local staff, then a new delay incident will be created in relation to the TOC that operates the forward connection.
But as explained above and especially on today's congested ralway the implications of trying to maintain many connections are just not worth it. Hence connectional policies are probably less 'generous' to connecting passengers than they were many years ago.

 

[ryan125hst]

Why do tpe sell cheap advance tickets for overloaded trains?

I often hear their adverts on the radio and wonder why they are advertising. I thought the idea of advance tickets was to fill seats cheaply that would otherwise be empty. How many of FTPE's services are quiet?

 

[Bletchleyite]

I often hear their adverts on the radio and wonder why they are advertising. I thought the idea of advance tickets was to fill seats cheaply that would otherwise be empty. How many of FTPE's services are quiet?

I don't recall ever having been on one.

 

[Pinza-C55]

Train A runs late, connecting train B isn't held, and some passengers on train A miss it.

Alternative scenario: train A runs late, connecting train B is held, and the passengers get it. But now train B is late, and further along the line the same issue arises about whether to hold train C. Train C goes onto a single track with passing loops, and if it runs late it will affect other trains on the route as well. So it isn't held, and passengers who were on train B, who would have caught train C if B hadn't been held earlier for train A, now miss their connection.

This sort of dilemma must face staff every day. It's not simply a matter of BR v. privatisation. Adjustments that benefit one passenger may seriously inconvenience another.

I worked on both British Rail and a TOC so my mention of connections was first hand experience of a member of train crew.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I often hear their adverts on the radio and wonder why they are advertising. I thought the idea of advance tickets was to fill seats cheaply that would otherwise be empty. How many of FTPE's services are quiet?

At this time of year, if travelling from Doncaster it's normally quiet easy to find yourself a seat on the Cleethorpes train.

 

[sprinterguy]

I don't recall ever having been on one.

I've been on several, but not at peak time through the core section on TPE North.

 

[Tetchytyke]

As always, many people on here seem to be labouring under the misunderstanding that Advance tickets are always cheap.