THey are the biggest waste of space on the train these days as its only peak hours they might be full the rest of the time it can be spot the passenger.
How many staff have they now fussing over the first class coaches? all some want is to think they are getting something for free food and drink, its costed into the ticket.
What gets me is how many is paying the proper 1st class price? and how many are been subsidised by the passengers in standard class just like the airlines.
Have you seen the price of an airline business or first class ticket? It is much more the opposite way round - cheap economy fares are sometimes subsidised by the business class passengers.
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Isn't the ideal to manage it so as to get the nearly-full train at the highest possible fares? (I certainly don't understand how the nearly-empty train at the high fares fits in with any normal yield management ideas -- those on it would have to be paying very high fares indeed!)
The ideal from a TOC point of view is to maximise income, that is all. As for empty trains at high fares, you've seen VTWC Anytime fares I guess?
And there's the problem stemming from the fact that the politicians won't decide what sort of a railway they want. If franchises are supposed to deliver the best returns to the taxpayer, then you go for whatever brings in the greatest net income. If they're supposed to move people when the people want to be moved, other rules apply. Who should get the blame for the overcrowing? The TOCs or the politicians?
The politicians. Businesses are required by law to act in the interests of their shareholders, which usually means sweating assets.
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There's no reason for first class to run empty on InterCity trains while standard is full. If this is happening, it means that first class fares are too high.
Or not flexible enough - most of the time it's a choice between hefty Anytime and restricted Advance.
If I can have an interavailable First Off Peak ticket at 1.6 ish times Standard, I will switch to First for most journeys.