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TV Alert: Monday 1 June 20:00 Dispatches 'Trains: Are You Paying Too Much?'

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yorkie

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This programme will be on Channel 4 next Monday at 20:00
http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/d...-are-you-paying-too-much-channel-4-dispatches
Morland Sanders goes undercover at one of Britain's biggest rail operators to investigate how they and other companies treat their customers.

As passenger numbers hit an all-time high, the reporter reveals some of the things travellers aren't told, and examines the key problems of ticket prices, overcrowding, and compensation claims.

Then, he hears from frustrated commuters and experts who believe the train companies have a lot of questions to answer.
 
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TheNewNo2

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No doubt discovers that behind passengers' backs the staff consider the passengers generally contemptible. Like most customer service industries in fact.
 

Envoy

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Channel 4's Dispatches series will be investigating train fares on Monday June 1 2015 at 8pm.

Also on the same day, BBC 4's Timeshift has 'The Golden Age of British Rail' (at 10pm) - though I think this might be a repeat. Anyway, the same programme will be repeated on BBC 4 at 10.35pm on Wednesday 3 June 2015.
 

yorksrob

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Also on the same day, BBC 4's Timeshift has 'The Golden Age of British Rail' (at 10pm) - though I think this might be a repeat. Anyway, the same programme will be repeated on BBC 4 at 10.35pm on Wednesday 3 June 2015.

It is a repeat - worth catching if you haven't seen it before.
 

Starmill

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Well I know that I am not paying too much ;)

But I damn well know that many many (maybe 'most other') people out there are!

Perhaps it will interest new people in 'railforums' Fares Workshops?
 
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yorksrob

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Before the first ad break? :lol:

And it wouldn't be a moment too soon either !

I enjoyed the visual reference to the BR Mother's Pride cheese sandwich, as seen in the other documentary mentioned in this thread :lol:
 

bb21

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Who called 6 minutes on split tickets?

And C4 need to be careful what they wish for on split tickets, and get some basics right before putting a programme together.
 

bb21

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That planner needs sacking tbh.

They have also completely missed the point about WTT and PTT.

I was hoping they would cover issues surrounding incorrect ticket information at Paddington gates.
 

mafeu

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There seems to be too much focus on staff knowledge of split ticketing. I'd argue that the reporter should focus his attention on creating a 'simple' system that eliminates the need/requirement for split tickets, without the myriad of options currently.

My point is that staff members cannot be expected to know on the fly every cheaper possibility. The reporter's demands are somewhat unfair. If I ask for X to Y, I should be offered the cheapest routed ticket for X to Y. It's my responsibility to search for cheaper opportunities/combinations...no different to when I look for a better/cheaper offer or product at the supermarket.
 

bb21

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What a pile of rubbish, mentioning all sorts of non-issues and completely missing the point on virtually all fronts. That's 30 minutes of my time I will never get back. I guess it's only to be expected that journos don't do much research these days.
 

Starmill

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What a disappointment! Ugh. FGW have so many dirty tricks up their sleeve and the programme didn't mention a one of them, just criticised them implicitly for doing exactly what they are supposed to.
 

Mag_seven

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What a pile of rubbish, mentioning all sorts of non-issues and completely missing the point on virtually all fronts. That's 30 minutes of my time I will never get back. I guess it's only to be expected that journos don't do much research these days.

What do you expect from today's C4 - C4 used to do good documentaries, not any more though.
 

ainsworth74

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Pretty disappointing on the whole. I thought it was a bit better than the more usual 'evil greedy train companies' that these programs tend to be but on the whole I still think it missed the point. About the only thing I think they did do quite well was the TVM issue (even then I think Kings Cross was a better example).
 

PeterY

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FGW didn't come out looking too well but I expect all TOC's are as bad as each other.

For me, it just confirmed what a mess ticketing is.
 

bb21

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Pretty disappointing on the whole. I thought it was a bit better than the more usual 'evil greedy train companies' that these programs tend to be but on the whole I still think it missed the point. About the only thing I think they did do quite well was the TVM issue (even then I think Kings Cross was a better example).

They picked possibly the only issue worth covering amongst all those they put in the programme and gave it one of the briefest mentions possible, then left it as an unanswered open question, so how anyone is supposed to learn anything by their mention of lack of impartial retailing from TVMs is anyone's guess.

A First Class walk-on return?! How is anyone supposed to relate to that?
 

ainsworth74

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A First Class walk-on return?! How is anyone supposed to relate to that?

Aye, the Kings Cross GroupSave issue would have been much more relateable. Hence why I would have chosen that one.
 

Crossover

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Split ticketing wasn't explained in any great detail - lacking enough that I can see some people now thinking one can split anywhere on the way, rather than just at stations that are called at
 

telstarbox

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What a disappointment! Ugh. FGW have so many dirty tricks up their sleeve and the programme didn't mention a one of them, just criticised them implicitly for doing exactly what they are supposed to.


What are those then?

It raised some reasonable points (ticket machines selling different tickets for example) but if they were trying to suggest that there's some big ticketing scam going on then that would have made a programme in itself - in the end it was more of a series of unrelated issues.

As posters have pointed out before, finding the minimum price with splits for a journey via multiple stopping points would take a lot of time for both the clerk and the passenger!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
FGW have released a statement - https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/dispatches
 

Starmill

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Changing the fares structure in order to rip people off through several means, like deleting day-returns, raising the price of and increasing restrictions on Off-Peak fares and making it difficult or impossible to find out what the restrictions are and having staff who deny tickets are valid at certain times of day.
 

yorkie

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Split ticketing wasn't explained in any great detail - lacking enough that I can see some people now thinking one can split anywhere on the way, rather than just at stations that are called at
Problem is it's not just a case of saying the train needs to call; that's just one of three ways you can "split".

Many regular passengers are Season ticket holders, and they wouldn't need to call at any station (providing the Season covered part of their journey)

So if it's not going to be explained in detail it's probably best left for people to find out themselves.
 

Qwerty133

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So C4 arranged for someone to take a job, preventing someone who really needed a job from getting one. Rather selfish IMHO.

How does this work, does someone within the company know that it's a reporter and make sure that they get the job, or do channel 4 keep sending applicants each time the job is open and wait until one is hired?
 

bb21

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How does this work, does someone within the company know that it's a reporter and make sure that they get the job, or do channel 4 keep sending applicants each time the job is open and wait until one is hired?

Probably the latter.
 

bnm

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Good effort, a total hatchet job.

Nothing less than FGW middle and higher management deserve.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I was hoping they would cover issues surrounding incorrect ticket information at Paddington gates.

I wasn't asked to appear. :lol:

It did confirm my suspicion that the training given to gateline staff is at best woeful.
 

Mojo

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Yet again the TV producers have compiled a completely irrelevant programme that supposedly misses the point. For a programme entitled "are you paying too much" - why did they spend half the programme talking about delays and overcrowding?

They had the potential with the thing on different TVMs charging different rates; but chose an example that most people probably can't relate to, and when the Toc was asked to give a statement, they just read it out without actually challenging it.

It sounds like Great Western in this case had done pretty much everything by the book. It's a shame that they couldn't have gone after the Tocs that have staff who routinely give out incorrect information; or point out the cases where customers have been mislead about their ticket validities.
 
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