Getting people back on trains as lockdown eases.

[paul1609]

Car park revenue is at very best 30% I reckon - so a way to assist would be to drastically reduce car park charges at least at weekends , and probably weekday - as the days of capacity charging are long over - and this would possibly reduce the extremely annoying "commuter" parking on suburban streets - at least a mile or so away from key commuting stations.

If people are travelling for say 2 days a week on standard tickets none commuting seasons , then the economics of reduced car parking costs may well assist , and certainly for a flat fare of £1-£2 a day at weekends.

Went past Frant station car park at 9 this morning on the way to the Spa Valley Railway. Cars in the car park today were 10, up from 4 last week. I reckon a proportion of those would be rail staff. The car park has just over 100 spaces and is normally full by 9. Its the same with all the stations down here in Kent and Sussex.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

I noticed recently that the on board Covid announcements on Thameslink have been dramatically shortened. It now just says:


I actually can’t remember what it said before, as it became background noise, but it went on for ages (distancing, hand washing and symptoms, at a guess).

They now place the same announcement on Southern too.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Went to London today. And it was great to see more and more people using the trains again!

Ok levels still not back to pre pandemic but we are getting there...

 

[philosopher]

According to the DfT, train use in May so far has been running at about 40% of pre Covid levels, which is similar to what is was last September. Trains use does not seem to be recovering better on weekends compared to weekdays. With the tube it is in the high thirties percent on weekdays and low forties percent on weekends of pre Covid levels. So the tube is recovering slightly better on weekends.

 

[WelshBluebird]

According to the DfT, train use in May so far has been running at about 40% of pre Covid levels, which is similar to what is was last September. Trains use does not seem to be recovering better on weekends compared to weekdays. With the tube it is in the high thirties percent on weekdays and low forties percent on weekends of pre Covid levels. So the tube is recovering slightly better on weekends.

We've not yet had a weekend with indoor venues open yet so I'd be interested to see what this weekend ends up looking like, and then the following bank holiday weekend too.

 

[Kite159]

Car park revenue is at very best 30% I reckon - so a way to assist would be to drastically reduce car park charges at least at weekends , and probably weekday - as the days of capacity charging are long over - and this would possibly reduce the extremely annoying "commuter" parking on suburban streets - at least a mile or so away from key commuting stations.

If people are travelling for say 2 days a week on standard tickets none commuting seasons , then the economics of reduced car parking costs may well assist , and certainly for a flat fare of £1-£2 a day at weekends.

Interestingly I've noticed a couple commuters have returned to using the train from Grateley who have resumed parking on the side of the road just outside the Controlled Parking Zone (less than 5 minutes walk from the platform entrance), can't blame them for wanting to save ~ £6 a day (or however much it costs to park in the actual car-park on a weekday, as it will soon add up)

Last October time I was at Haddiscoe station (Norwich - Lowestoft line) and noticed that the tiny car park there (for a station seeing a rough 2 hourly service) was something like £3 a day, even at weekends. The sort of car park which should ideally be free to encourage people to use the trains/

 

[Peregrine 4903]

We've not yet had a weekend with indoor venues open yet so I'd be interested to see what this weekend ends up looking like, and then the following bank holiday weekend too.

I've noticed that since Monday, things have got noticably busier, so it will be interesting to see what this weeks stats are, I suspect 45 or 50% perhpahs, still a long way off but good progress all the same.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Interestingly I've noticed a couple commuters have returned to using the train from Grateley who have resumed parking on the side of the road just outside the Controlled Parking Zone (less than 5 minutes walk from the platform entrance), can't blame them for wanting to save ~ £6 a day (or however much it costs to park in the actual car-park on a weekday, as it will soon add up)

Last October time I was at Haddiscoe station (Norwich - Lowestoft line) and noticed that the tiny car park there (for a station seeing a rough 2 hourly service) was something like £3 a day, even at weekends. The sort of car park which should ideally be free to encourage people to use the trains/

The whole crux of the matter is it not ? - no chance now for what some might term ex price gouging of commuters. They might as well reduce prices to a reasonable level which covers essential maintenance and some security.

Of course , the nationalised industry used to provide free off parking as an initiative. Now you run the gauntlet of franchised out car park operators just dying to clamp or penalty you for the slightest transgression. We have all had some experience of this I am sure.

A thing not unknown generally in society , but in terms of railway station parking ,time for a reappraisal.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The DfT figures are an average across the whole network; I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of the numbers between suburban, regional and long distance. I'd suspect that suburban is some considerable way ahead of the other two.

 

[Kite159]

I reckon trains on Friday/Saturday night will be busy with people heading home after a good night out in the pubs (now they can sit indoors without the cold/wet weather).

 

[Horizon22]

The DfT figures are an average across the whole network; I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of the numbers between suburban, regional and long distance. I'd suspect that suburban is some considerable way ahead of the other two.

Almost certainly from my experience.

Went to London today. And it was great to see more and more people using the trains again!

Ok levels still not back to pre pandemic but we are getting there...

It's interesting as I think there's a "false crowding effect" on some trains. In the pre-Covid times, people would obviously sit next to strangers often for a long period of time. Now, you generally see people leaving a space next to them and tending to only use window seats (which some TOCs are recommending). And therefore actually people rather stand making it overall look a bit busier if 50% of seats aren't taken!. That being said, there is a definite uptick. I even saw a few busy peak trains with significant loading of your standard 'London office commuter' in them which was encouraging.

 

[brad465]

Today I did a return trip to Bristol Temple Meads from Maidstone, and the journey back to Paddington on GWR was interesting for the behaviour of the guard, and also the proportion of passengers in my carriage penalised for having something wrong with their ticket. The guard was extreme on the mask mandate reminders, in that after every calling point passed he did an announcement in great detail about their legal requirement and the need to socially distance on the train, which felt very off-putting and annoying.

With regards to the passenger ticket issues, one passenger was using a "via Salisbury ticket", and two others had separate Advance tickets but were on the wrong train (all 3 were sold new tickets), which made me think they could easily have been away from the railways for so long that they had forgotten about fare principles, and were this the case could make for some interesting workloads for guards/inspectors as more and more people return. Overall the load was modest, where social distancing was possible but a noticeable number were travelling. Now 3 people in one carriage with invalid tickets is high in normal times, but I reckon that was around 15-20% of the carriage load today.

 

[island]

I don't think that's true at all. Do you get all of your home electrical equipment PAT tested? Do you have a fully automatic fire detection and monitoring system at home? Do you have a fire escape from whatever room you are using as an office?

PAT (not PAT testing, which would be portable appliance testing testing) is a silly tick-box exercise that just creates work for PA testers.

 

[Failed Unit]

According to the DfT, train use in May so far has been running at about 40% of pre Covid levels, which is similar to what is was last September. Trains use does not seem to be recovering better on weekends compared to weekdays. With the tube it is in the high thirties percent on weekdays and low forties percent on weekends of pre Covid levels. So the tube is recovering slightly better on weekends.

I have noticed on the regional lines they are recovering much better than NSE route. The weekends are getting busy again at the normal times. I suspect once you are allowed in sports stadiums again the weekends will probably be close to normal. Considering sports fans can be noisy - I am not sure if they will be welcome back by everyone.

 

[takno]

I don't think that's true at all. Do you get all of your home electrical equipment PAT tested? Do you have a fully automatic fire detection and monitoring system at home? Do you have a fire escape from whatever room you are using as an office?

Three random examples off the top of my head. If any company cited "well, it's good enough for a domestic environment so it's good enough for work" they'd find themselves hauled over the coals.

FWIW, I live in a rented flat and the legal requirements are every bit as stringent as they would be for commercial premises of equivalent size and occupancy. The PAT testing (which is so unrequired in the workplace that the Health and Safety Executive have a web page about what a waste of time it is) is legally mandated, as are the fire extinguishers and fire evacuation instructions. As I understand it, even owner occupiers in Scotland will shortly have to have interconnected smoke alarms in every room.

 

[Jonny]

To get people back onto trains, then perhaps get rid of face coverings, or at least the requirement, altogether. Firstly, there is the matter of eating and drinking, if it's coming off for that then what's the point. Also it is less of an issue on trains but more on buses, that removing a face covering can betray the fact that someone is eating or drinking, maybe when they are not supposed to be.

Secondly, we have to get used to each other's faces again, and thirdly those of us who are passing on the ^jab^ think that it's about time to get used to it. Fourthly, enforcement is going to be nigh-on impossible in high-volume crowd-type situations.

Fifthly, there is the whole security issue - CCTV is much more useful when the whole face is uncovered.

======

Coming back to something that is slightly off-topic, and someone took my previous post the wrong way,

I don't think that's true at all. Do you get all of your home electrical equipment PAT tested? Do you have a fully automatic fire detection and monitoring system at home? Do you have a fire escape from whatever room you are using as an office?

Three random examples off the top of my head. If any company cited "well, it's good enough for a domestic environment so it's good enough for work" they'd find themselves hauled over the coals.

Indeed, it's a bit of a grey area and I'm sure we will start to see some test cases before too long. "I had an accident at work, my employer failed to keep me safe/carry out a risk assessment/allowed me to work in a hazardous environment", with the workplace being the employees home. Employer *should* be risk assessing and taking measures to mitigate, but I bet very few do.

On that point, it depends on whether or not it is a BYOD (bring-your-own-device) environment. Believe it or not, where I am at nothing has been PAT tested and I'm not even remotely bothered. Even on the matter of my sister's employer's laptop (that she uses in the same house), I don't think that has been PAT tested either. Such events have proved to be very rare with desk-based home working generally - otherwise it would have been in the news by now.

=======

Coming back to the main topic,

What we cannot have is those who are worried about catching the coronavirus after having had at least the opportunity to be vaccinated, complaining that they are "scared" when they see someone without a ^mask^, dictating things when their concerns no longer have a basis in reality (even if they did a few months - or even a few weeks - ago). In fact, mandates based on unjustified (or no-longer-justified) fear are psychologically poisonous to leisure travel, especially on the train.

 

[WelshBluebird]

What we cannot have is those who are worried about catching the coronavirus after having had at least the opportunity to be vaccinated, complaining that they are "scared" when they see someone without a ^mask^

It sounds like you are suggesting that there may be some people who are pro masks but have passed up the chance to be vaccinated? Sorry if that isn't what you are saying! Being honest, I am not sure those people exist in great numbers. Most people / comments I've seen fall into one of three groups:

• pro or accepting of masks / other restrictions and pro vaccinations
• anti masks / other restrictions but pro vaccinations
• anti masks / other restrictions and anti vaccinations

I've not seen much from anyone in a possible fourth group of "pro masks / other restrictions but anti vaccinations".

And regardless of the above, if you have had the chance to get the jab and have had it, then you should be fine with people not wearing masks as you yourself have a huge amount of protection now!

 

[Jonny]

It sounds like you are suggesting that there may be some people who are pro masks but have passed up the chance to be vaccinated? Sorry if that isn't what you are saying! Being honest, I am not sure those people exist in great numbers. Most people / comments I've seen fall into one of three groups:

• pro or accepting of masks / other restrictions and pro vaccinations
• anti masks / other restrictions but pro vaccinations
• anti masks / other restrictions and anti vaccinations

I've not seen much from anyone in a possible fourth group of "pro masks / other restrictions but anti vaccinations".

And regardless of the above, if you have had the chance to get the jab and have had it, then you should be fine with people not wearing masks as you yourself have a huge amount of protection now!

One of the points I meant to make is that there is likely a group out there who would have been vaccinated except they may have had questionable immigration status or something else to hide (regarding their identity) that means they are avoiding the NHS and generally they are from pro-mask communities; sadly they are highly likely to have TfL's corporate ^ear^ even if they have little influence over national policy.

 

[greyman42]

I noticed recently that the on board Covid announcements on Thameslink have been dramatically shortened. It now just says:


I actually can’t remember what it said before, as it became background noise, but it went on for ages (distancing, hand washing and symptoms, at a guess).

Why do we need any such announcement at all? I am sure passengers now know the score regarding masks.

 

[dk1]

Trains on the Great Yarmouth route have been extremely busy today now the holiday camps & Friday-Monday deals have restarted. Surprisingly too with the awful weather, both Norwich to Sheringham services I have been on have been full & standing with a 755/3.

 

[yorksrob]

Trains on the Great Yarmouth route have been extremely busy today now the holiday camps & Friday-Monday deals have restarted. Surprisingly too with the awful weather, both Norwich to Sheringham services I have been on have been full & standing with a 755/3.

At least holiday camps can provide plenty of indoor activities. If I were a parent, I'd take em there.

 

[dk1]

At least holiday camps can provide plenty of indoor activities. If I were a parent, I'd take em there.

Very true & unlimited bingo too lol.

 

[yorksrob]

Very true & unlimited bingo too lol.

Ha ha, my last trip to one was Pontins but was too young for Bingo (remember loving it though !!).

 

[3rd rail land]

I'm currently on a train just about to turn off the South Western mainline onto the Portsmouth Direct Line. It's rather busy which makes me think mask requirements aren't deterring leisue travellers.

The PIS isn't working on this train so no announcements about face coverings or 61016 etc... the guard has only made one short announcement about face coverings thus far.

I'll be glad when masks are no longer required on public transport as I am finding wearing one a bit hot and stuffy.

 

[Failed Unit]

For me I won’t be back on long distance services until social distancing and face masks are gone. I enjoy sitting around a table with my family. No-one wants to wear a face coverings for 4 hours. The car wins for now sadly. Which is a shame as pre-Covid the train was a much nicer experience.

if the mask requirement goes next month I will be back. Be interesting how LNER handles the social distance seats. They can fill the train but as family groups get forced to split up. The spare seats on their tables could be filled with strangers. (My attempts to book on LNER resulted in getting placed over 2 tables. 2 person for each table rather than one table of 4). I drove instead.

 

[Ianno87]

. They can fill the train but as family groups get forced to split up. The spare seats on their tables could be filled with strangers. (My attempts to book on LNER resulted in getting placed over 2 tables. 2 person for each table rather than one table of 4).

Not correct. You are permitted to ignore the allocated seats if you are travelling in your household "bubble", and I've heard that announced as such. So all 4 pax can sit around the same table, no problem (and 95% of the time, none bothers to check anyway)

So many urban myths and hearsay flying around about this...

 

[Failed Unit]

Not correct. You are permitted to ignore the allocated seats if you are travelling in your household "bubble", and I've heard that announced as such. So all 4 pax can sit around the same table, no problem (and 95% of the time, none bothers to check anyway)

So many urban myths and hearsay flying around about this...

I know they don’t check tickets / reservations but how are you supposed to know that? My last trip on LNER the guard was threatening to remove/ move people who were not in the correct seat. She didn’t leave the cab.

 

[Ianno87]

I know they don’t check tickets / reservations but how are you supposed to know that? My last trip on LNER the guard was threatening to remove/ move people who were not in the correct seat. She didn’t leave the cab.

I see it as a positive. When we travelled as 4, we had a whole load of extra space for us all!

 

[LowLevel]

Yesterday felt like a normal Saturday to me. Quiet start in the early hours, a steadily increasing dribble of leisure travellers becoming a flow banging out groupsaves left right and centre by late morning/early afternoon. Back to normal Saturday night standards too of course - busy trains full of those who can't handle a drink and a train binned at Warrington following a mass fight on board requiring police intervention. Can't help but think stiffer penalties are needed for those who get into a brawl in a confined space where people can't get away from them - use the CCTV, work out the instigators and lock them away for several years. I've dealt with a few and they're pretty horrific for those nearby, especially on a busy train when the crush to try and get away starts.

We are told to keep out of the way and call for backup - not much help on a Sprinter where if someone pulls the passcom you're stuck unless you wade in to reset it. As Alan Partridge would say - sub human scum.

 

[Bikeman78]

Yesterday felt like a normal Saturday to me. Quiet start in the early hours, a steadily increasing dribble of leisure travellers becoming a flow banging out groupsaves left right and centre by late morning/early afternoon. Back to normal Saturday night standards too of course - busy trains full of those who can't handle a drink and a train binned at Warrington following a mass fight on board requiring police intervention. Can't help but think stiffer penalties are needed for those who get into a brawl in a confined space where people can't get away from them - use the CCTV, work out the instigators and lock them away for several years. I've dealt with a few and they're pretty horrific for those nearby, especially on a busy train when the crush to try and get away starts.

We are told to keep out of the way and call for backup - not much help on a Sprinter where if someone pulls the passcom you're stuck unless you wade in to reset it. As Alan Partridge would say - sub human scum.

Ha ha, that made me burst out laughing. Dossers and Dwads! Not sure what is the point in pulling the passcom between stations. Like you say, it ought to be possible for the Police to identify the culprits from the CCTV.

Ramping up in Wales too. Some two car valleys trains were full with a few standees.