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Not sure best place to put this.
With the current situation with Avanti, we actually have an example of how it is hurting rail more generally.
Let us take the long distance example:
Put London Terminals - Glasgow Central / Queen Street in a journey planner you can't book anything. So what will someone that isn't familiar with rail do? Do to Easyjet or BA (not Heathrow)
However if you select via Edinburgh - you get some options. (But why would a "normal" person do this?) - Even now some LNER services are totally sold out (as is typical at this time of year). Doing a quick look at the key cities they serve, the only options I could find a fare for without changing filters was Birmingham.
Not sure if they will change the journey planners. But personally feel when Mr Shapps is doing is best to close down the rail and encourage people to fly (cutting APD as an example) this is giving him the perfect ammo. I think this is very damaging to rail, they really need the trains removed from the booking engine if possible, so the slower alternatives can at least be quoted. This is very bad to helping rail recover considering it should be one of the first lines to get back it passengers, but it is also impacting the rural lines.
With the current situation with Avanti, we actually have an example of how it is hurting rail more generally.
Let us take the long distance example:
Put London Terminals - Glasgow Central / Queen Street in a journey planner you can't book anything. So what will someone that isn't familiar with rail do? Do to Easyjet or BA (not Heathrow)
However if you select via Edinburgh - you get some options. (But why would a "normal" person do this?) - Even now some LNER services are totally sold out (as is typical at this time of year). Doing a quick look at the key cities they serve, the only options I could find a fare for without changing filters was Birmingham.
Not sure if they will change the journey planners. But personally feel when Mr Shapps is doing is best to close down the rail and encourage people to fly (cutting APD as an example) this is giving him the perfect ammo. I think this is very damaging to rail, they really need the trains removed from the booking engine if possible, so the slower alternatives can at least be quoted. This is very bad to helping rail recover considering it should be one of the first lines to get back it passengers, but it is also impacting the rural lines.