Which is your favourite TOC and why?

[Deepgreen]

Very rarely had a problem with GWR so im going to say GWR. Used to commute on SWT, appalling service, always running late, and their guards where rude, trying to check your valid ticket as you where leaving the train, talk about taking the biscuit:-x

Are you suggesting that only non-valid tickets should be checked? If so, how?

 

[anti-pacer]

For me the best is VTEC. Great first class, far better than anyone else. Always nice staff on board and the refurbs look good in my opinion.

LM and EMT are pretty good too, but the worst is Northern. Dirty trains half the time, thanks to the passengers up here and Northern's sproradic turnaround cleaning regime.

LO have a great operation and have opened up so many new travel opportunities in the capital.

 

[XDM]

Southern. I know it's controversial but they are good when their services are not hit for six by Network Rail, which happens somewhere every day literally, & the RMT whose only goal in life is to make travel on Southern as difficult as possible & to smear Southern's good name. The trains are very frequent all over the network bar the guard run services to Ashford & Uckfield. The new OBS, although fairly invisible, do try to make announcements & the automatic announcements are brilliant, clear, correctly frequent & well scripted. The trains are bright & clean inside & out, & some 377 coaches,not all,have first class type seats for Standard class passengers!
Most stations are lovely & warm. Some, Lingfield,Three Bridges,just two examples have libraries & sofas in the waiting rooms. Good luck Southern management.

 

[pompeyfan]

It's interesting reading about people's view about SWT, they don't do a terrible job but they could and should improve in the following areas;

Cleanliness - there's a lot of litter on a lot of services, more roaming presentation staff are needed, also more deep cleans are required.

Customer service dept - there seems to be a constant issue with turn around times of the customer service department, 6 weeks isn't uncommon.

Fares - are a lot more expensive than the equivalent southern only routed options

It's actually quite interesting reading through twitter though, lots of people suggest 'sacking' SWT, but would a First/Go ahead etc run company cope any better? I doubt it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's actually quite interesting reading through twitter though, lots of people suggest 'sacking' SWT, but would a First/Go ahead etc run company cope any better? I doubt it.

As I've said I would rank SWT as the best of the present lot. They aren't perfect, but they seem very professional and do most things pretty well as a whole.

I very much doubt if First got their grubby mitts on it ("South Western Railway"? sWr?) it would be better. Worse, I'd expect.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I didn't think that I would be writing this but I made a very rare trip on Gatwick Express yesterday. (Yes, I know that it is only a brand.)

Easy access at Victoria, with no problems at the barrier. Sparklingly clean 12-car train with ample room for everybody and their luggage. Left on time, 15 minutes after previous service. On-board cleaner came through doing litter pick. Friendly and efficient On Board Supervisor made non-duplicative announcement and then undertook full ticket check, including First Class enforcement. Arrived at Gatwick exactly half an hour later.

By sheer chance I bumped into an old friend ('non-railway') on her way for a weekend break in Madrid. I asked her why she had bothered to pay a premium price. "Well, it's worth it for a bit of luxury" she responded without any irony whatsoever.

I had to admit to myself that if every train journey was like this the industry wouldn't have many problems, besides how to cope with even faster rising tides of happy customers.

Anyway, I was only an hour and a half late getting back home in the North, courtesy of Network Rail, EMT and Northern, which beats several recent experiences.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Southern. I know it's controversial but they are good when their services are not hit for six by Network Rail, which happens somewhere every day literally, & the RMT whose only goal in life is to make travel on Southern as difficult as possible & to smear Southern's good name. The trains are very frequent all over the network bar the guard run services to Ashford & Uckfield. The new OBS, although fairly invisible, do try to make announcements & the automatic announcements are brilliant, clear, correctly frequent & well scripted. The trains are bright & clean inside & out, & some 377 coaches,not all,have first class type seats for Standard class passengers!
Most stations are lovely & warm. Some, Lingfield,Three Bridges,just two examples have libraries & sofas in the waiting rooms. Good luck Southern management.

2 things.

One Wake up and smell the coffee Mr Horton.

Two. Southern aren't a TOC.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Remember that SWT took on a route that was already blessed with numerous flying/burrowing junctions and a single London terminus. Compared with, say, GTR, that's a gem of a route network to have. That's not to say, though, that GTR haven't been a disaster, even accounting for their much harder-to-operate network.

An open question - how much sway do you think SWT had in this/how much was recognised already by HMG as a strategic inevitability (coupled with the convenient additional space from the ex-international side)?

Considering how long it took after the International station was closed for the works to start, I would suggest that there was a definite behind the scenes struggle to get the DfT to recognise the need to get this done.

Also one London terminus can be an issue, especially one with a throat as complex as Waterloo and of course Waterloo is the busiest terminus of the lot. When something goes wrong in the throat you've lost the service with absolutely no hope of recovering quickly.

 

[47271]

Southern nominated for best TOC eh?

I must mention that to my colleague who lives in Streatham and now *walks half an hour* to the Northern Line every morning rather than gamble with their useless service.

Or another colleague who gets to Brighton station *90 minutes* earlier than the timetable would suggest just in case...

 

[bramling]

It's interesting reading about people's view about SWT, they don't do a terrible job but they could and should improve in the following areas;

Cleanliness - there's a lot of litter on a lot of services, more roaming presentation staff are needed, also more deep cleans are required.

Customer service dept - there seems to be a constant issue with turn around times of the customer service department, 6 weeks isn't uncommon.

Fares - are a lot more expensive than the equivalent southern only routed options

It's actually quite interesting reading through twitter though, lots of people suggest 'sacking' SWT, but would a First/Go ahead etc run company cope any better? I doubt it.

Surely the Southern only fares are cheaper than SWT because they involve taking a longer and slower route? This has been the case for many years, for example I can remember back in the 90s being offered a"via Horsham" option for Portsmouth to London.

 

[pompeyfan]

Surely the Southern only fares are cheaper than SWT because they involve taking a longer and slower route? This has been the case for many years, for example I can remember back in the 90s being offered a"via Horsham" option for Portsmouth to London.

That is true, but between Portsmouth/Cosham and Southampton a Southern only return can be cheaper than an AP single.

 

[BTU]

Southern may blow your estimated time of arrival out of the water but that aside they have clean stations, warm nicely painted waiting rooms, they clean their trains at every turn around most of the new 377 trains have power points and they are not the most expensive ticket wise also they cover a large chunk of the south of England and their stations tend to have good lighting and plenty of bike racks and the staff are actually ok. Its not their fault that the management is rubbish or that the government has chosen them to try and break the unions with and that the RMT dont know when they have lost.

 

[JaJaWa]

The trains are bright & clean inside & out, & some 377 coaches,not all,have first class type seats for Standard class passengers!

Or as they are generally known, standard class type seats for first class passengers...

 

[Minilad]

Southern. I know it's controversial but they are good when their services are not hit for six by Network Rail, which happens somewhere every day literally, & the RMT whose only goal in life is to make travel on Southern as difficult as possible & to smear Southern's good name. The trains are very frequent all over the network bar the guard run services to Ashford & Uckfield. The new OBS, although fairly invisible, do try to make announcements & the automatic announcements are brilliant, clear, correctly frequent & well scripted. The trains are bright & clean inside & out, & some 377 coaches,not all,have first class type seats for Standard class passengers!
Most stations are lovely & warm. Some, Lingfield,Three Bridges,just two examples have libraries & sofas in the waiting rooms. Good luck Southern management.

Either A. You genuinely hold this view which shows just how out of touch with reality many railway "managers" are.
Or B. You need to get back under your bridge

 

[Bletchleyite]

the government has chosen them to try and break the unions with and that the RMT dont know when they have lost.

Well, it sort of is, they could have declined to bid.

But yes, the DOO fad should be blamed on the Government. No TOC (other than the odd case of Merseyrail which is like no other TOC and more like LU) would have even gone there had the franchise agreement not mandated it, evidenced by the fact that until the franchise agreements did mandate it no TOC went there.

 

[BestWestern]

Southern. I know it's controversial but they are good when their services are not hit for six by Network Rail, which happens somewhere every day literally, & the RMT whose only goal in life is to make travel on Southern as difficult as possible & to smear Southern's good name. The trains are very frequent all over the network bar the guard run services to Ashford & Uckfield. The new OBS, although fairly invisible, do try to make announcements & the automatic announcements are brilliant, clear, correctly frequent & well scripted. The trains are bright & clean inside & out, & some 377 coaches,not all,have first class type seats for Standard class passengers!
Most stations are lovely & warm. Some, Lingfield,Three Bridges,just two examples have libraries & sofas in the waiting rooms. Good luck Southern management.

You're actually being ridiculed both on and off the forum now. Seriously, you actually are. Do you do private functions?

 

[JDi]

Do you have a preferred TOC? Perhaps its their punctuality rate or their choice of on board food? Or even just a bit of extra legroom? Comfortable seats? Fast and reliable WiFI? Maybe it's nostalgia?

So, you have a favourite TOC and why?

 

[Gathursty]

Branding: gWr or Grand Central
Station facilities and cleanliness: Scotrail
Train cleanliness: Merseyrail

Other criteria I could use isn't fully in the TOCs hands (timetables, punctuality, destinations)

 

[Up_Tilt_390]

For me personally, it has to be Virgin Trains. In case you didn't already guess my favourite train is the Class 390, and the Virgin silver and red livery just blend with it so seamlessly that I find it hard to imagine many other liveries on it. The branding and style for me is what gets me loving the company. I was slightly dissapointed at the prospect of them losing the franchise back in 2012, but then it's more about service than brand style and nice looks. But I also like Great Western Railway, CrossCountry, Grand Central and Hull Trains (though the the latter two are technically OAOs rather than TOCs) and I have very nostalgic memories with Merseyrail.

 

[delt1c]

British Railways, we had a joined up integtated rail system, 1 operator for the traveller. Benifits obtained post privitisation could have been gained for the nationalised business and profits reinvested in the network and infastructure.

 

[STKKK46]

London Midland - never been uncomfortable on a train due to overheating or it being too cold. Air con always bang on. My line always keeps to time too which is nice.

 

[185143]

London Midland - never been uncomfortable on a train due to overheating or it being too cold. Air con always bang on. My line always keeps to time too which is nice.

The last LM 172 (back in August) I was on was freezing!

My favourite TOC is Merseyrail, without a doubt.

I love the trains, the staff-especially the guards, are a great bunch (unless you ask some station staff for a pre-10AM railcard advance...) the fares are without a doubt the cheapest in the country for us 16-18 year olds, the trains are frequent and usually turn up. The passengers are a good laugh at times too, as is the entertainment provided when the chav is caught with his feet on the seats/with a can of lager by the Byelaw Enforcement Officers!

What's not to like! (Until you need a pee...)

 

[Parallel]

Station facilities: ATW (Though funding probably came from the WG, every station has electronic display boards, even Sugar Loaf!)

Services: ATW (None of this 1 train a day parliamentary service - all trains can stop at all stations on the really rural lines)

Stock: Chiltern Railways (Silver sets and plenty of coaches on their DMUs)

Favourite part of the country: GWR

Frequency of trains: Southern or London Midland

Staff attitude: SWT/SWR or Northern

 

[class387]

Chiltern Railways is my favourite because of the investment in high-quality and well maintained stock in the form of their 68+Mk3s and 168s. Even their 165s are quite nice. They also always have cheap 'via High Wycombe' tickets available, both advance and on the day. The only problem is some short DMU formations.

My second favourite is probably GWR and I find c2c to be quite good for a London commuter service, though that has gotten worse over the years.

 

[uww11x]

Virgin West Coast are my favourite. Good service decent staff.

Worst has to be Northern.

 

[Lrd]

ScotRail. Clean well kept stations. Frequent, reliable trains and super nice staff.

 

[dk1]

Greater Anglia because they pay me every month.

Virgin Trains after that.

 

[Master29]

British Rail.......

 

[devonexpress]

Are you suggesting that only non-valid tickets should be checked? If so, how?

No, but when you have a season ticket issued by a local authority and the guard is a regular on the exact same service 2 or 3 days a week. I'd expect him to know after 6 months that I have a season ticket and not to check it as im literally just leaving the doors of the train, especially when the train is 10 minutes+ late. There is a right time to check someone's ticket and there's taking the biscuit.

 

[Lrd]

No, but when you have a season ticket issued by a local authority and the guard is a regular on the exact same service 2 or 3 days a week. I'd expect him to know after 6 months that I have a season ticket and not to check it as im literally just leaving the doors of the train, especially when the train is 10 minutes+ late. There is a right time to check someone's ticket and there's taking the biscuit.

That one guard will see thousands of people a day. They should not be expected to remember what ticket everyone has and when it runs out.