Overcrowded trains/empty First Class carriages

Bogof_Babe

Made a journey to Coventry and back yesterday, via changing at Birmingham New Street station. The connection between B'ham and Coventry each way was on Virgin trains (to Euston/York), and on the outward journey there were three First Class carriages, each with around a dozen people in, and three "cattle wagon" carriages with passengers crowded into every available square foot of standing room. We ended up squashed into the door area, and the carriage connecting door closed on my foot and ruined my shoe .

I have no objection to First Class travellers enjoying space and comparative luxury as they have paid for it, but I can't understand why they don't reduce the First Class carriages to one, or maybe two, and put on a couple of extra ones for the vast majority of travellers who just want to get from A to B without paying through the nose.

The bulk of the journey (Hereford to B'ham New St.) on Centrica was equally fraught. Although we got seats on boarding, as the service started at Hereford, the train was freezing cold - obviously they had put the aircon onto summer setting . People in sandals were complaining that their feet had gone numb! My summer weight raincoat was quite inadequate against the chill.

The return B'ham-Hereford trip was a nightmare. The platform was dangerously overcrowded, the train was late (which was indicated on the overhead display) but the worst thing was that one minute before it was due to depart, a tannoy announcement told us it was now leaving from a different platform. There was a total stampede - no escalator so everyone dashing up the stairs - goodness knows how anyone disabled or with young children or heavy baggage managed.

We all crowded on board where it was chokablok, standing in the aisles and the luggage areas. After two stations we were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and got seated. We were opposite a woman who struck up conversation and told us she regularly uses that service and it is always the same :eek: . Now why on earth don't they put an extra carriage on for a Saturday? :mad:

"They" (those who would be our rulers) apparently want to promote the use of public transport, to reduce road overcrowding and pollution, but they are going totally the wrong way about it. A journey by rail should be part of the travel experience, not an ordeal to be got through.

Sorry for the rant - I needed that .

fannyadams

Hey - don't tell us tell them
You might get your fare refunded if you compalin 'nicely' enough - I know I would complain. I travel a lot with the DSs and I complain loudly to the gurad/ticket inspector/the staff on the ground and anyone who I think can give me something - a refund, an upgrade or a seat.
good luck

WHA

Too much state control yet again - whenever the state gets involved, it becomes a foul-up.

Despite being "privatised", the rail system is still state controlled. Individual train companies have very little control over their routes, timetables, etc. In fact, I am reliably told that the train companies have even told what kind of trains to lease.

I regularly see trains which are pitifully under-occupied - sometimes with just a couple or even no passengers at all. Then the next train you see is a sardine special.

There are no "spare" coaches - each train is now a "set" so all they could do is attach two sets together which of course takes a whole train out of service. Some sets are longer than others, but these tend to be because they are different types of train, operated by different train companies, so are just not interchangeable at all - some wouldn't even couple together as there is no longer a standard coupling across all trains.

Worse still, each train operator on a particular route gets a "share" of the total revenue for the route - they don't receive money for the passengers they actually carry - so the worse ones have no incentive to encourage more custom - they'd still get the same revenue! Then there are the many routes which have few passengers and are inherently unprofitable, but kept going because the train companies are told to do it and they get massive govt grants for doing so.

What is needed is true "privatisation", i.e. the train companies having a lot more freedom about which routes, where to stop, timings, train size, etc., or even better, a single train company operating the lot. Of course, we had that with gold old British Rail, but state ownership ruined what could have been a national treasure.

moonrakerz

I have to admit the way some of the railway companies run their services leaves me speechless.

The line between South Wales and Southampton/Portsmouth used to be operated by Wessex Trains. The trains were frequent, generally modern and usually clean. However, there were only two coaches per train and they were very often grossly overcrowded. It was only last year (I believe) that Wessex managed to get some more rolling stock and most of the trains were extended to three coaches. Bliss !
But in the name of the free market, Wessex lost the franchise to First Great Westen - and what was one of their first "service improvement" - to reduce many of the trains back to two coaches.
Just how do they people that award these franchises arrive at their decisions ? Sticking a pin in a list of companies ?

Bogof_Babe

Moonrakerz, funny you should mention that route. I came back from Portsmouth to Newport (where I had to connect to the Hereford service) last November, and I was given a consumer satisfaction survey sheet (about six pages) and a biro, almost immediately we left Portsmouth Harbour.

On this occasion, I had walked to the station on Saturday just to see if I could find out which platform to make for on Sunday, only to find the whole station abandoned, all ticket kiosks boarded up, and an electronic sign saying that most trains would be replaced by buses over the weekend :eek: . I'd already had to change to a local service unexpected on the outward journey, and had just about had enough by then.

Luckily my Newport/Cardiff service did turn out to be running, but it ruined my Saturday night worrying about it.

We all dutifully filled in that yes it was on time, yes reasonably clean, yes enough seating etc. Two stops later, the sardine effect kicked in, but by then the forms had been collected (by a lady who was pretty mother-hen-ish about rounding them all up - and demanding her cheap Bic biros back!).

I use the train quite often, as I enjoy "meets" with friends I've made online, but each time I get back from one, I think "never again" - and it isn't the friends' fault, just the nightmare journeys.

I think I'll vote for whoever puts decent public transport in their manifesto!

hjb123

I think they shoudl reduce the first class, its ridiculous having overcrowding in the economy when there is too much space in first class.

This reminded me of the following story that was in the news this last week where 14 people upgraded themselves to first class on a plane and wouldnt move - they were arrested on arrival in Britain - check the following link:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1769411,00.html

Bogof_Babe

That's unbelievable hjb - "endangering the aircraft"???? Maybe one of them had accidentally included a pair of nail scissors in their hand luggage :rolleyes: .

The longer I live, the more I realise that we really are all at best numbers, and in general just an inconvenience to eachother.

Just been watching "The Way We Were" about wartime Britain and how everyone pulled together and looked out for eachother. Different ballgame now, isn't it? .

Trow

Bogof_Babe wrote:

That's unbelievable hjb - "endangering the aircraft"???? Maybe one of them had accidentally included a pair of nail scissors in their hand luggage :rolleyes:

It's more complicated than that. When the captain gets his figures (i.e. weights of passengers, baggage and freight) he decides how to load the aircraft based on the weights and where the passengers are expected to sit. Once the passengers are on board (but before take-off) the air steward will confirm where the passengers are and the captain may adjust the settings for the flight if there is a significant difference.

It is possible then that fourteen passengers less in the rear and more in the front might have a detimental effect.

But then I only know the basics - for more info ask a commercial pilot!

Outtathaway

Ah yes, an experience I know all too well, I regularly travel on the west of England mainline on a regular basis and its not usual to find a peak-time train (08.05) with only 3 coaches, so as you can imagine, people are stood in every available space. But despite the crowded conditions non-first clss passengers are not allowed to sit, or in some guards cases stand in the first class section.

But despite that, what annoys me more is that I sometimes catch services that start in Southampton to Londonat 10am and despite being off-peak these services frequently have 12 coaches, and on one such journey I counted and the first 4 coaches combined had less than 20 passengers in

moonrakerz

Outtathaway wrote:

But despite the crowded conditions non-first clss passengers are not allowed to sit, or in some guards cases stand in the first class section.

That reminds me of a journey I made some years back. Because of signalling problems only one train in two or three was allowed through past Swindon toward London. I was (supposedly!) travelling first class, however, first class was packed, with all seats occupied and passengers standing all down the coach and in the vestibule. In the midst of all this the ticket inspector arrives, doing his duty. A fellow standing passenger pointed out, quite reasonably, that he he had paid over £100 for his first class ticket and that he would like a refund, to which the inspector replied - "I can't do that, you ARE travelling first class, if you want a refund go and stand in standard class".
The passenger's face was a picture, he went beetroot red, his eyes bulged - at this point the inspector obviously decided that what he just said was not perhaps the most tactful comment and immediately produced a pad of refund chits.
I abandoned the train at Reading, to see the inspector still only halfway down the next coach writing refund chits as though his life depended on it - which it probably did !

Katie_Bell

I live in Worcester and travel on the Hereford to Birmingham line every day. Its not usually too bad, except I did have to stand all the way home on Friday, as lots of commuters including myself, leave early on a Friday. If you complain Central Trains will refund part or all of your ticket.