Govia get Thameslink Franchise

[petersi]

There's little about journey times, but one reasonably firm thing seems to be that Tattenham Corner will have a half hourly, 8-car Thameslink service to Cambridge all day

Yep but north of st pancreas they will be very slow. Its More a case of joining 2 services than a useful through service. They will be over taken by Cambridge express at lest

 

[physics34]

yeh id assume that the calling pattern south of the river of the tattenhams will be the same as now (off peak).

I guess at Peak times there will be 2x Vic to Tatts and the 2x Cambridge to Tatts.

 

[dmncf]

Since the GTR franchise started on 14 September 2014, has the Luton Airport Parkway to Luton Airport shuttle bus continued operating 'in the same format' as had been suggested?
Is it still the same buses and staff, still with first branding?

 

[Aictos]

Since the GTR franchise started on 14 September 2014, has the Luton Airport Parkway to Luton Airport shuttle bus continued operating 'in the same format' as had been suggested?
Is it still the same buses and staff, still with first branding?

As far as I am aware nothing has changed with regards to the operation of the Luton Airport Shuttle Bus, it is still business as usual.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I believe the shuttle bus frequency will be improved - plus there are options for a 30 min frequency all night train service for a 3 year trial period.

 

[Bishopstone]

Dyan Crowther did a spell in the Twitter hot seat for Thameslink this morning.

Several folk addressed her as 'Dylan' or otherwise appeared to assume she was a man.

A woman in the rail industry, but not serving behind the buffet counter or cleaning the train?! Who would have thought it!

 

[westcoaster]

As far as I am aware nothing has changed with regards to the operation of the Luton Airport Shuttle Bus, it is still business as usual.

No first logos on the buses but now have thameslink branding on them, not seen the legal's so don't know who is operating them.

 

[robin.joe.son]

Thanks all, very useful - shame not materially faster, but should be interesting being able to go to Cambridge without changing...

 

[Bedpan]

Dyan Crowther did a spell in the Twitter hot seat for Thameslink this morning.

Several folk addressed her as 'Dylan' or otherwise appeared to assume she was a man.

A woman in the rail industry, but not serving behind the buffet counter or cleaning the train?! Who would have thought it!

First Capital Connect came with Elaine Holt at the helm , what a cavalier, I'm still upset about some of the stunts they played whilst she was there.

 

[jon0844]

Is GTR planning to have online forums, like FCC did?

FCC started off well enough, especially when Elaine Holt got heavily involved at the outset and brought in other directors and managers to reply direct, but it soon got to be a bit of a joke with 'Thanks for your comment, we'll get back to you later' or a standard response cut and pasted over and over again.

However, I think they're possibly more valuable than using Twitter given the ability to ask more in-depth questions and get more useful replies. Obviously using Twitter to promote the forums would be essential, and you could also take some questions in advance that way.

On AGA the other day, at Tottenham Hale, I noticed a poster with photos of the top people and something along the lines of 'meet the managers here between nn:nn-nn:nn and/or nn:nn-nn:nn' which seemed odd. A very wide time window as it was, but also with the chance of there actually being nobody at all in the morning or afternoon!

 

[Bedpan]

I believe the shuttle bus frequency will be improved - plus there are options for a 30 min frequency all night train service for a 3 year trial period.

I hope it is going be 7 days a week also. At the moment there's a 24 hour a day service except on the day that you (well, I) most need it!!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

FCC started off well enough, especially when Elaine Holt got heavily involved at the outset and brought in other directors and managers to reply direct,

And then they 1) introduced a ban on the use of off peak tickets during the evening rush hour - 2 hours 44 minutes and at least in the first half hour trains were leaving half empty. And, on the Thameslink route, they picked on people travelling to destinations beyond St Albans, the restrictions didn't apply anywhere else. An hour and a half or even 2 hours I can understand, but 2.75 hours is an inordinately long time to have to wait if you get helfd up and don't make it to the 4.18 from St Pancras.

2) Putting a note in the timetable saying that you could not join a northbound Thameslink Route train in Central London during these times - It was not until about 2 years later that I found out (from reading about ticket validity codes on this site) that I could in fact do so when travelling from places outside London (Esher and Reading for example).

3) Forcing me (at least for the first few months) to buy a peak travelcard if I wanted to come home in the evening peak - which meant that I had to pay for the morning peak element which I was not using, and also meaning that the Network Card that I had bought a few months earlier could not be used, making a whopping difference to the fare (it was a 170% increase)

That was the main gripe - others included a fiasco with car parking and getting charges at bank holidays, finding that TVMs (I think at St Albans but could have been elsewhere too) were overcharging)....there was a string of things, I can't recall exactly what else now, it was too long ago.

And then reading in an article somewhere concerning an interview with Elaine Holt was laughing about the evening evening peak restrictions.

And then, just to rub it in, putting up posters proclaiming "Your Journey, Your Choice, Your Railway" or suchlike.

As for the forums, I raised this but got nowhere. In particular I commented that I found it incongruous that I could travel home from Sussex during the evening peak (as I would jon the FCC train before East Croydon) but not Reading (as I would be joining it at St Pancras) but this was simply ignored - nobody bothered to point out to me that the validity coad from Reading would allow me to travel before 7.

I've spent most of my 60+ years trying to encourage people to travel by train - but not between 2006 and around 2009/2010. In fact, I ended taking the car or using Hemel Hempstead for a trains for a year or more.

But it did start to get a bit better after Elaine Holt left - or maybe I just started to mellow.



Welcome back GoVia/Thameslink!!

 

[button_boxer]

Several folk addressed her as 'Dylan' or otherwise appeared to assume she was a man.

Given we're talking about Twitter some of that may be the fault of auto-correct. My phone tries to correct Dyan to Stan, with Dylan as another option.

 

[jon0844]

But it did start to get a bit better after Elaine Holt left - or maybe I just started to mellow

But when she went, the evening peak didn't get axed did it? And is GTR going to axe it?

Even when we get the completed TL project, I can't see the evening peak going now. It seems that Oyster will one day adjust the daily cap for PAYG so that if you travel in the evening peak, you'll be capped at the peak cap.

All of your post was about that one single issue. And there were changes made, and anyone with a Travelcard was able to get around the restriction anyway (however much FCC tried to argue otherwise) simply because you could step off a train part way along and back on, and then;

a) Be valid from the London Terminal to that station, as you were travelling on the Travelcard which wasn't restricted.
b) Be valid from that station to your destination, as you were outside the restricted zone.

I suspect that's why things were tweaked, so it ultimately only hit the passengers on faster trains that didn't stop within the zones.

Given the huge congestion issues, you can argue the restriction was a good idea. It was some years before FCC could get all the 319s, and it took ages to get the 377/5s thanks to Bombardier being, well, Bombardier. On the GN side, there were all sorts of plans to get more stock and work with NR to upgrade the power supplies to Cambridge and run more trains, or longer ones. All long term plans of course, but they did happen.

What didn't happen was getting funding from TfL to increase the frequency of Moorgate trains, which was an aspiration in 2006 but still hasn't happened - but IS now going to happen at some point in the future.

And was anyone left stranded for hours because it was the peak? The idea was to pay an excess, not stand around! Mind you, you couldn't be penalty fared (although I'm sure some people were) so before gates were widely used, I'm sure many people just travelled anyway and paid the excess when 'caught'.

 

[Abpj17]

And was anyone left stranded for hours because it was the peak? The idea was to pay an excess, not stand around! Mind you, you couldn't be penalty fared (although I'm sure some people were) so before gates were widely used, I'm sure many people just travelled anyway and paid the excess when 'caught'.

Stranded isn't quite the right word. But yes, plenty of people/occasional travellers hovered - especially around St P - waiting for a train their ticket was valid for.

 

[jon0844]

Stranded isn't quite the right word. But yes, plenty of people/occasional travellers hovered - especially around St P - waiting for a train their ticket was valid for.

I know people did, but they didn't have to! I can imagine it being frustrating to miss the last off-peak train before the peak hit, but at the same time, a lot of people going into London for the day (more for leisure purposes I'd expect) would be happy to save money* and would likely travel back later anyway.

* Okay, you can argue it isn't saving money when previously you didn't pay, but you know what I mean.

There was a flip side. If I happened to rock up to King's Cross to go home from work and got the first off-peak train, it was rather packed. Uncomfortably so at times, which meant I sometimes waited for the next train instead.

 

[b0b]

I know people did, but they didn't have to! I can imagine it being frustrating to miss the last off-peak train before the peak hit, but at the same time, a lot of people going into London for the day (more for leisure purposes I'd expect) would be happy to save money* and would likely travel back later anyway.

I wonder how many irregular users on "off-peak" tickets realize they can excess the tickets to make them valid for the peak service though vs having the belief they have to pay for a whole new single "peak" ticket.

 

[AM9]

I wonder how many irregular users on "off-peak" tickets realize they can excess the tickets to make them valid for the peak service though vs having the belief they have to pay for a whole new single "peak" ticket.

Until a year or so ago, (maybe longer) you could ask for off-peak, morning peak, evening peak or both peaks travelcards. You would be given the basic off-peak ticket by itself, with an inbound single to Elstree, an outbound single from Elstree, or both singles respectively. The singles were about £4.50 each (from St Albans).
Although I haven't excessed the journey yet, I assume that the Elstree singles are what they are selling.
Interestingly, the 'split-ticket' journey was valid for non-stop trains, unlike most combinations.

 

[stut]

I wonder how many irregular users on "off-peak" tickets realize they can excess the tickets to make them valid for the peak service though vs having the belief they have to pay for a whole new single "peak" ticket.

True, but by the time you've queued up at King's Cross and found someone who knows how to do this (and if you're not at King's Cross, you might get a flat out denial that it's possible), the evening peak is nearly over!

 

[jon0844]

True, but by the time you've queued up at King's Cross and found someone who knows how to do this (and if you're not at King's Cross, you might get a flat out denial that it's possible), the evening peak is nearly over!

True.

And King's Cross is where I managed to miss TWO trains due to someone from EC not accepting my perfectly valid off-peak ticket to Hatfield on the overbridge gateline.

 

[stut]

True.

And King's Cross is where I managed to miss TWO trains due to someone from EC not accepting my perfectly valid off-peak ticket to Hatfield on the overbridge gateline.

I do hope you didn't use the escalator to get up there with heavy luggage, and used the elevators provided.

I've had a few occasions now with EC not understanding the evening peak restrictions. Just try catching the 16:09 Newark train to get to Stevenage. "This is a peak train, your ticket isn't valid."

 

[jon0844]

I do hope you didn't use the escalator to get up there with heavy luggage, and used the elevators provided.

Of course. Meanwhile, I keep noticing all these confused Americans that are told to use the elevators but can't find the signs that say 'elevators' anywhere in the station. Some of them get stuck there for days and ruin their whole holi, sorry, vacation.

And when they're using the underground, they get told to use the lifts but don't have a clue what 'lifts' means.

Oh, wait, that doesn't happen.

 

[91103eastcoast]

I've had a few occasions now with EC not understanding the evening peak restrictions. Just try catching the 16:09 Newark train to get to Stevenage. "This is a peak train, your ticket isn't valid."

They appear to be confusing the GN peak restrictions (which apply to Stevenage tickets IIRC) with the East Coast ones.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

On a positive note - the St Albans "hologram woman" has been binned.....

 

[ModernRailways]

On a positive note - the St Albans "hologram woman" has been binned.....

A new one, however, has been introduced at Birmingham. So she may be back

 

[Abpj17]

I know people did, but they didn't have to! I can imagine it being frustrating to miss the last off-peak train before the peak hit, but at the same time, a lot of people going into London for the day (more for leisure purposes I'd expect) would be happy to save money* and would likely travel back later anyway.

* Okay, you can argue it isn't saving money when previously you didn't pay, but you know what I mean.

There was a flip side. If I happened to rock up to King's Cross to go home from work and got the first off-peak train, it was rather packed. Uncomfortably so at times, which meant I sometimes waited for the next train instead.

But said occasional travellers don't know to ask for creative variations of tickets lol

On the hologram, the Blackfriars one has vanished - but have they been trashed or simply put into storage/gone for upgrade?

 

[jon0844]

Probably needs new video to show staff wearing Great Northern badges instead of FCC. Seems rather odd that they were introduced when it was already known the franchise was changing.

 

[RJ]

But said occasional travellers don't know to ask for creative variations of tickets lol

Just ask for an upgrade. A single from Radlett to destination passes for a peak time excess on a CDR, with a single from Elstree doing the job for an ODT, to use on any train regardless of stops. How that came to be, I don't know. When I worked at a London Terminal, it was always excess a CDR to SDR or for Travelcards, the cheapest out of excessing to an ADT or selling a CDS from Boundary Zone 6.

 

[Abpj17]

Only a slight revival - RJ - the point is occassional travellers don't know/understand they can ask for an upgrade or excesses!

The main news, Charles Horton's first interview

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/tran...p-rail-firm-boss-tells-commuters-9772106.html

The boss of Britain’s biggest rail firm today risked the wrath of passengers by saying he aims to alleviate train overcrowding - by making it easier to stand.

Charles Horton, chief executive of the new Govia Thameslink (GTR) rail “megafranchise”, also suggested commuters who wanted to get a seat should catch later, slower trains.

GTR - which will run services into London from places including Cambridge and Southampton - has promised 10,000 more seats by 2018.

But the boss’s comments on standing will infuriate commuters travelling on increasingly cramped trains amid ever-rising fares.

According to Government figures, 120,000 commuters - or one in five travellers - are without a seat on trains into the capital each morning.

In his first interview since taking the helm, Mr Horton told the Standard: “At the very busiest time which is the morning peak, we are going to increase the number of seats on trains into central London by 10,000.

“But it doesn’t mean I can promise no-one will ever stand on trains into central London. What I can promise is that the trains on Thameslink (Bedford-to-Brighton route) will be more comfortable to stand up in .. they have big ‘stand-back’ areas so people can stand in more comfort.

“They will be air-conditioned and have much better information screens so (passengers) know when they look up at the information screens where they are on their journey and they will be able to say ‘right I know I am here’.”

continued...

 

[Class377/5]

Nothing like mis-quoting a person to create a headline is there?

What he actually said

Some people think that getting a seat is more important than the (duration) of their journey - so they will take a slower service if they want to sit down, and there are people for whom speed is all.

Note he's talking about what people actually choose to do now not suggesting what they should do.

 

[infobleep]

Why does the Evening Standard hate rail travel? Or does the newspaper just enjoy playing devil's avocet?