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Are we seeing an increase in loadings across the network.

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Adrian1980uk

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Leisure travel at the moment id guess but interesting to see after the bank holiday if loadings dramatically increase
 
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paulmch

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A weekly breakdown is published here by the DfT every Wednesday and makes for some interesting reading. Since the end of the lockdown after Christmas, levels have recovered from approximately 14% of pre-Covid normal to just short of 60% at the last weekly release. There don't seem to have been many huge jumps after a change in rules, rather a steady climb that points to us being somewhere around 70-75% of normal by the end of the year.

What the data doesn't show, however, is how revenue is doing. I'd imagine a large part of the 60% is leisure travel which is generally much less profitable for the railway compared to regular commuters and ad-hoc peak time business travel. The other thing to note would be that the figures also mask huge variations; a Saturday afternoon train to Cromer will probably be packed, but the morning peak into Waterloo is probably still a fraction of what it was in 2019.
 

wobman

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I've never seen the tourist traffic on the trains so busy, so many people having staycations.
The tocs can't cope with the peaks as it doesn't follow the usual traffic, but commutters are still staying away.
Conductors are now going through doing revenue now, so income will be increasing to reflect true revenue unlike over the covid times.
 

evergreenadam

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I've never seen the tourist traffic on the trains so busy, so many people having staycations.
The tocs can't cope with the peaks as it doesn't follow the usual traffic, but commutters are still staying away.
Conductors are now going through doing revenue now, so income will be increasing to reflect true revenue unlike over the covid times.
GWR has been disrupted due to rolling stock shortage, Bristol planned works and Plymouth bridge strike which has been unfortunate given the number of passengers wanting to travel. Interestingly tickets were not checked at all on my GWR train from Paddington to Truro on Friday afternoon, gates left open at both stations. Hardly much interest in collecting revenue.
 

Class 170101

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GWR has been disrupted due to rolling stock shortage, Bristol planned works and Plymouth bridge strike which has been unfortunate given the number of passengers wanting to travel. Interestingly tickets were not checked at all on my GWR train from Paddington to Truro on Friday afternoon, gates left open at both stations. Hardly much interest in collecting revenue.

More likely a case of letting people through rather than a confrontation of ticket checking from delayed trains which also causes a build up of people wanting advice on alternative trains going onwards but also in current times you don't want this build up of people because of the risk of potentially spreading Covid 19.
 

142blue

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Yes it's getting busier but that's depending on time of day. Off peak can have it's moments, same with weekends. It's good to have people back, was disheartening standing on empty platforms
 

The exile

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The days of “ which carriage shall I have to myself today” are definitely over, but my bag still gets a seat!
 

fgwrich

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The days of “ which carriage shall I have to myself today” are definitely over, but my bag still gets a seat!

I think that’s certainly very operator dependant though - I took a 9 car XC down to Bournemouth last Friday (still running on the 2 hourly Covid timetable I note!) and had a coach almost to myself from Reading to Southampton Airport Parkway, then to myself to Bournemouth.
 

The exile

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I think that’s certainly very operator dependant though - I took a 9 car XC down to Bournemouth last Friday (still running on the 2 hourly Covid timetable I note!) and had a coach almost to myself from Reading to Southampton Airport Parkway, then to myself to Bournemouth.
Whereas Bristol area locals were cosy!
 

Master29

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I've been on 8 car Voyagers from Bristol with the rear coaches empty and standing in the front unit. A case of platform brain for sure.
 

Watershed

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Some services and TOCs are seeing 80-90% of pre-Covid loadings - even more around the August Bank Holiday - but it's still overwhelmingly a leisure based recovery, which naturally means revenue is still at a much lower level.

Short distance commuting has recovered quite well in a lot of areas, but long distance commuting is performing very poorly.
 

Ianno87

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I've been on 8 car Voyagers from Bristol with the rear coaches empty and standing in the front unit. A case of platform brain for sure.

The carriages that basically stop next to the steps at New Street!
 

Nova1

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I've been on 8 car Voyagers from Bristol with the rear coaches empty and standing in the front unit. A case of platform brain for sure.
To be fair at a lot of stations if you weren't in the know you could end up in a position where it's going to be difficult to walk to the other set.

I also think people are worried about moving too far away from where they entered the platform, at a lot of stations you can look pretty stupid if you move too far down then a two car 170 arrives...
 

Ianno87

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I also think people are worried about moving too far away from where they entered the platform, at a lot of stations you can look pretty stupid if you move too far down then a two car 170 arrives...

Reminds me of being at Peterborough of a couple of guys being stood at the "Wait here for Coach B" sign...then chasing their Norwich-bound EMR 158 down the platform...
 

Mike395

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Going to lock this thread so it doesn't become a duplicate of this one - please share further experiences/musings there. Thank you!
 
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