absolutelymilk
Established Member
- Joined
- 18 Jul 2015
- Messages
- 1,242
In light of recent overcrowding on Bank holiday services e.g. Overcrowded Easter holiday 'train from hell' forces police to intervene, I was wondering what operators can do to lighten the load on services that are likely to be heavily overcrowded. This is obviously difficult because it depends very much on the weather and whether it was sunny. This means that they cannot simply offer fewer advance tickets. However there were a few things I thought they could do in the event that they thought particular services were likely to be busy - I don't know whether they already do any of these:
Firstly, simply email those people who have bought flexible tickets online warning them that particular services are likely busy and recommend to travel on an earlier/later train if possible.
Secondly, they could provide some kind of incentive, such as free ice cream or picnic mat (appropriately branded of course) for those travelling before/after a certain time on these services.
Thirdly, and probably most difficultly, when they email people to say that certain services are going to be busy, then offer them the chance to trade in their flexible ticket for an advance (and refund the difference) without charging them a fee, as long as they go on one of the less busy services. Thoughts?
Firstly, simply email those people who have bought flexible tickets online warning them that particular services are likely busy and recommend to travel on an earlier/later train if possible.
Secondly, they could provide some kind of incentive, such as free ice cream or picnic mat (appropriately branded of course) for those travelling before/after a certain time on these services.
Thirdly, and probably most difficultly, when they email people to say that certain services are going to be busy, then offer them the chance to trade in their flexible ticket for an advance (and refund the difference) without charging them a fee, as long as they go on one of the less busy services. Thoughts?
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