Why people don't travel by train...

[Kite159]

Had a beautiful example of why people simply can't trust the railways. Andover on Friday evening, the 17:35odd train to London was running around 10 minutes late before it got held at Gillingham for the next Exeter train so SWR control decided to do their usual and rip out the stops after Salisbury.

At the same time the stopper was showing as running 10 minutes late meaning the 6 minute connection at Basingstoke for a London train would have been missed so for the 40 or so passengers at Andover they got delayed by over an hour if wanting Waterloo (or Clapham).
Eventually the stopper appeared 15 minutes late which itself caused a 5 minute delay to a Manchester bound XC train (at that time of night platform 4 is occupied by a single 450 from Bournemouth which terminates at Basingstoke before forming the next stopper)

 

[Jamesrob637]

Though many do seem somewhat less busy than they were, pre-pandemic.

Pretty full Tuesday to Thursday and occasionally Monday. Pretty dead Fridays though.

 

[PauloDavesi]

1 Trains do go where people want to go, at the time they want to travel.
2 High cost, especially when more than one person is travelling.
3 Service is unreliable, through strikes & other delays and service failures.
4 Uncomfortable seating and poor legroom.
5 Abysmal customer service