Change to SWT Weekend Upgrades

[sushiuk]

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but it appears that SWT have changed from their £5 weekend upgrade to three zones charging £5/£10/£15:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/firstclass.aspx

With the zones shown here:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/uploads/firstclasszonemapstationswebcolour.pdf

Disappointing news. I suppose the old offer was too popular!

 

[[.n]]

The lovely irony in this is that the more you pay (because you're further out), the fewer benefits you get (on the train in general) i.e. no buffet

 

[bb21]

There is no buffet on any of SWT's services.

 

[[.n]]

There is no buffet on any of SWT's services.

Semantics - they have at seat trolley and static services on some services though!

...and in fact I think they announce them still as buffet, I'll pay more attention this evening

 

[Bletchleyite]

Doesn't seem *unreasonable*, really. It was £5 when tickets were half the price of now or lower. They could have done worse and just cranked it up to £15 throughout.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

There is no buffet on any of SWT's services.

When the 444s go in for their next major overhaul (whenever it's due), with the "buffet" area get removed?

 

[swt_passenger]

When the 444s go in for their next major overhaul (whenever it's due), with the "buffet" area get removed?

They were supposed to be removed from the 444s during the present (2007) franchise, according to the originally published spec, as a way of adding a pretty trivial amount of extra capacity. Four seats maybe?

So I'd be amazed if they bothered now, given all the extra stock they've now got on the way. Given the structures that would need removing, and the lack of a window, it would be a very poor BCR.

 

[[.n]]

Removing the buffet area would reduce the capacity to serve hot drinks, as that's where the water is heated. Also reduce chilled drinks / ice capacity too.

Not to mention where would staff be able to lock their trolleys away? Doesn't seem good value to get4 seats, I'd rather they used the buffet for the whole journey as they used too.