2C91 (0657 Cambridge- London) going soon. Let's hope people are not left behind as a result.
I took refuge aboard 317339 + 317342 from Welwyn Garden City on 2C91 (the 0755) this morning. I got a seat in the rear coach, but plenty of standees on this, way more than 2C93 (the 0825) used to have back in class 317 days.
Reflecting more on the class 387 first class situation. The RPI yesterday told me that they were responding to complaints from first class ticket holders. But have they really thought this through? Trains like 2C91 and 2C93 each carry at most 4 to 6 people across both first class sections. Yet the seating capacity of standard class has been reduced from 542 seats per 8 car train to 404 per 8 car train, while the first class capacity has been reduced from 44 seats per 8 car train to, err... 44 seats per 8 car train. Across the three key trains from Welwyn Garden City that removes 414 standard class seats.
To put this in perspective, the 414 passengers who must now stand account for at least £1,169,136 of annual revenue for GTR (assuming they pay the equivalent of a season ticket from Welwyn Garden City - many will pay more), whereas the 18 first class passengers (6 per train) account for a mere £81,360.
And yet someone in GTR, or several people in a meeting decided that it is a high priority to be seen to be responding to the complaints from first class ticket holders. I have to ask my railway industry colleagues, "what were you thinking?" How can it be a good idea to further annoy many of your 414 customers, customers you have already given a substantial worsening of their experience?
I'm sure, if I had a first class ticket I would complain too, but not just about the presence of standard class passengers, but the seats which are clearly exactly the same as standard class and pretty poor even by the standard of standard class, plus the completely random position of first class on the train! But I fail to see what yesterday's exercise achieved other than annoyance on everybody's part. Even with the RPI babysitting throughout on yesterday's 2C93, the one poor man who clearly was a first class passenger looked very uncomfortable and embarrassed by the whole thing - as Jonmorris0844 observed, passengers were not actually removed from the first class area or charged an excess fare - the RPI clearly also thought that would cause a riot, they were just made to stand all the way!
I'm afraid I have to disagree with 377/5 and others further up the thread about the first class being part of the design specification. It may be true that a door was inserted into one of the driving vehicles with a nod to possible future use as first class, but the train was self-evidently specified to fitted out as Standard Class only! And on these three peak trains, that is clearly how it should be used, the revenue gained from the few people who do use first class for such short hauls, surely can't justify the RPI hours and aggravation it will take to keep them sufficiently empty to provide anything approaching a customer experience worthy of the label first class.
Nothing about the train need be changed to facilitate this, simply downgrade the services to be standard class only on timetable leaflets and posters, and add an announcement (as is already common on Thameslink) saying, "customers may use any part of this train, the first class is not in use". Where the 387s are adequate to carry the load, as they may well be on the 12 car services from further out and trains after the high peak, such as the 0859 from Welwyn Garden City (2R35 0835 Letchworth to London Kings Cross), then the timetable would continue to show first class and announcement wouldn't play. The situation could be re-evaluated once the 700s are fully rolled out and the new Thameslink timetable introduced. This would even align with DfT policy on other franchises, which has been to reduce first class where demand pressure was not easily met by other ways - an example being the FGW HSTs on shorter routes. If they did this, at least 132 of the 414 passengers would feel a bit better about GTR...