Happy Birthday VTEC

[SaveECRewards]

Well despite scrapping the loyalty scheme there's still a lot of good things about VTEC. The most important to me is the fact they're bringing customer relations back in house. Hopefully this shows a commitment to improving quality rather than doing what is cheapest.

So what are your views, good or bad of the first year of VTEC? What would you like to see in the future?

 

[All Line Rover]

Build upon the improvements made by Directly Operated Railways, and introduce Traveller (even if availability is restricted, as on the WCML). It's an excellent scheme for rewarding regular passengers through the use of otherwise empty accommodation, and with the scrappage of East Coast Rewards, the ECML now lacks anything remotely comparable.

 

[SaveECRewards]

Build upon the improvements made by Directly Operated Railways, and introduce Traveller (even if availability is restricted, as on the WCML). It's an excellent scheme for rewarding regular passengers through the use of otherwise empty accommodation, and with the scrappage of East Coast Rewards, the ECML now lacks anything remotely comparable.

What improvements by DOR were you thinking of? The biggest improvement (Rewards) was scrapped, but they're undoing the mistake of outsourcing customer relations by moving it back in house.

Unfortunately when I mention Traveller they're not interested in bringing the scheme to the East Coast. I was told the costs of running the scheme were not worthwhile for the relatively small number of passengers that would benefit from it. They will continue to send out free tickets on an occasional basis to frequent customers like they did over Christmas.

As for the rest of the service my main concern is the evening meal remains, compare the evening offerings to the west coast and you'll see how much better VTEC is. A positive sign of this was the new winter menus were quite good in the evening meal items whereas if they were going to remove them (going just to 'all day') you'd expect the quality to drop.

They have committed to improving the breakfast this year.

So far apart from Rewards I don't think they've undone any good work by DOR, but if you've seen otherwise I'd like to know.

What do you think of the new service style in first class?

 

[SteveP29]

Free tickets eh?

I travel with VTEC usually once a fortnight, that's 26 journeys a year, what criteria is used to determine a 'frequent' enough traveller to qualify?

 

[All Line Rover]

Unfortunately when I mention Traveller they're not interested in bringing the scheme to the East Coast. I was told the costs of running the scheme were not worthwhile for the relatively small number of passengers that would benefit from it. They will continue to send out free tickets on an occasional basis to frequent customers like they did over Christmas.

That's a strange argument considering they could share the Traveller office used by Virgin Trains West Coast. The only cost I could envisage would be amendments to their booking engine (which is WebTIS' based, compared to VTWC's which is trainline based) to identify qualifying customers, but if they are already able to send out free tickets to frequent customers (which has a higher abstraction potential than Traveller if they are sending fully flexible tickets), they must already have the means of identifying how often customers are booking through their website, and for how much (season ticket holders aren't identified on the basis of the number of bookings made through the VTWC website, but use an online form instead).

The number of Traveller members on the West Coast is definitely in the high hundreds and probably in the thousands. Many season ticket holders qualify, including all yearly first class season ticket holders between Milton Keynes and London. While still a relatively low number of the overall number of customers using VTWC, it's a relatively high number of VTWC's most regular customers.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The free tickets were issued as rewards tickets, basically; you chose a train and got a free ticket if there was one available. The free tickets were just issued far less transparently; my partner got some and I didn't, despite the fact our spends and number of journeys were broadly the same with VTEC, given I go see her once a fortnight and she comes and sees me once a fortnight. That was the final nudge for me to switch my train ticket purchases to Hull Trains; so much for loyalty eh.

That said, I wouldn't say Rewards was the best thing DOR did, much as I benefitted from it.

The biggest notice I've seen in the last twelve months is how the cheapest Advance tiers have all but disappeared except in the extreme late evening. My journeys to London are costing me £30 more than they were under DOR. I guess someone has to pay for Brian's dividends...

 

[trainophile]

I'm on a freebie now, didn't fancy long haul in one day so having a short break in Edinburgh, and a day trip to Aberdeen tomorrow - very reasonable 1st Class Advances, around £36 (with railcard) for the return journey.

I have always used the EC website for all my bookings, most of which are with other operators. It has just occurred to me that I wonder whether the free tickets were targeted at people who always tick "Leisure" as their reason for travelling. Business travellers will be going anyway, but they might want to tempt leisure travellers to do it more often!

 

[bb21]

I guess someone has to pay for Brian's dividends...

Or rather, as I suspected long ago, the inflated premium payment money will have to come from somewhere.

Money don't fall out of trees.

 

[Starmill]

Build upon the improvements made by Directly Operated Railways, and introduce Traveller (even if availability is restricted, as on the WCML). It's an excellent scheme for rewarding regular passengers through the use of otherwise empty accommodation, and with the scrappage of East Coast Rewards, the ECML now lacks anything remotely comparable.

GR trains do not have loads of empty First Class accomodation at the weekend like VT 11-car ones do. First is often fuller at the weekend than it is in the week.

 

[westv]

I have always used the EC website for all my bookings, most of which are with other operators. It has just occurred to me that I wonder whether the free tickets were targeted at people who always tick "Leisure" as their reason for travelling. Business travellers will be going anyway, but they might want to tempt leisure travellers to do it more often!

I never bother to tick any of those boxes.

 

[Starmill]

I never bother to tick any of those boxes.

I select 'Other' and write "Save East Coast Rewards" or "No to Nectar" in the box

 

[trainophile]

I select 'Other' and write "Save East Coast Rewards" or "No to Nectar" in the box

Love it . Any response yet?

 

[Starmill]

Love it . Any response yet?

I do not imagine that I will ever receive a response - and that's not why I do it!

Although if anyone agrees with the sentiment I would encourage them to do likewise


Moving on, any sign of the third edition of The Red Report yet? The second was a massive disappointment, essentially telling us their biggest achievement was stocking some new overpriced fizz. Expect this one to go all crazy over 3 refurbished trains, without mentioning just how delayed the programme is.

 

[Chrism20]

Moving on, any sign of the third edition of The Red Report yet? The second was a massive disappointment, essentially telling us their biggest achievement was stocking some new overpriced fizz. Expect this one to go all crazy over 3 refurbished trains, without mentioning just how delayed the programme is.

Overpriced fizz that tastes as if it is is on a par with fairy liquid that has been through a Sodastream.

No sign of it yet, it's always worth a laugh though, you can't beat a nice bit of propaganda.

 

[yorkguy]

http://www.minsterfm.com/news/local...interested-in-serving-malton-and-scarborough/

I'm hoping that this speculation is true and that Scarborough and Malton finally get a direct London service.

 

[Iskra]

Personally, I'd be surprised if that was to happen. It's very much an article full of waffle with very little detail and definitely no commitments from VTEC.

Also, Scarborough does have the EMT direct London service in summer.

 

[me123]

Agree, it's tantamount to VTEC saying "we're aware that Scarborough would be an easy expansion for our network".

But, it would be an easy expansion for them to achieve. They already do terminate some services at York. Although a quick look at RealTimeTrains suggests that no services currently stay there for long enough to go all the way to Scarborough and back, a recast could allow the York terminators to do so with minimal additional stock utilisation and at a relatively low cost.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

There is a significant amount of london bound traffic throughout the day so an early morning direct service along with an evening return would be of benefit to the route. It would also take pressure off the TPE commuter runs by providing additional capacity. No doubt tho TPE yield analysts would probably scream "Revenue Abstraction!" at any proposal VTEC was to put in.

 

[David Dunning]

I think it could well happen. He was more positive than I thought he'd be when I asked about Malton and Scarborough. Of course in a year or two there will be 2 trains an hour along the line so would there be the capacity for any more ?

 

[All Line Rover]

Are there plans for Leeds to have 3 trains per hour? With 1-2 tph, Leeds gets a raw deal compared to Manchester.

 

[johntea]

For me going to London I always seem to use GC going to London then VTEC coming back as the limited GC service isn't too much of an issue outgoing but return it can be.

Case in point £11.30 on GC from Pontefract Monkhill to Kings Cross booked on the 14th April. Monkhill is a lot closer to Leeds for me too, if I can nick a lift off the parents that is

 

[DarloRich]

yeah - lets celebrate the 1st anniversary of the government, to further it's own political ends, destroying a successful and profitable publicly owned company!

 

[yorkguy]

I think it could well happen. He was more positive than I thought he'd be when I asked about Malton and Scarborough. Of course in a year or two there will be 2 trains an hour along the line so would there be the capacity for any more ?

Thanks for this useful insight David. With a threshold population of around 200,000 this eastern area of Yorkshire is an untapped market. It compares favourably with VTEC's other peripheral routes in terms of the size of the potential market. And with the main road link (A64) being as poor as it is, the railway scores well. The A64 is jammed on a daily basis between York and Malton, all year round.
The single platform at Malton is still long enough but the fenced off, unused bits would need upgrading before being brought back into use.
But how many trains an hour can a single platform take with trains running in the opposite directions? With two TPE per hour and potentially two Northern per hour it could be a bit congested if you added VTEC in as well.
Ryedale District Council takes no interest in the rail links at all, but local councillors will have a field day when they wake up to the fact that Malton crossing gates will be more than doubling the number of times they'll close every day. The "gridlock whingers" will be out in force - great story potential for you there, Mr. Dunning!

 

[David Dunning]

Ive just added the audio clip to the story too . So if you click again you can hear David Horne in his own words .

 

[JaJaWa]

yeah - lets celebrate the 1st anniversary of the government, to further it's own political ends, destroying a successful and profitable publicly owned company!

And replacing it with a more successful, more profitable company, delivering far more money back to the government (£3.3 billion vs £1 billion) and more benefits to passengers.

The company has already committed to invest more than £40m on fleet improvements with almost £18m invested in the first year, equivalent to the amount its predecessor, Directly Operated Railways (trading as East Coast) spent in their last three years (£17m). A total of £140m will be invested over the length of the franchise to help deliver a more customer focused, more Virgin travel experience.

Very glad to see the end of the East Coast 'make do and mend' era.

 

[ScotGG]

Cheap advances all but gone. Flying much more now to Scotland. Even with time + costs to reach the airport, door to door times are similar and costs much lower.

Ryanair have put on an additional flight so demand must be up.

 

[yorkguy]

Ive just added the audio clip to the story too . So if you click again you can hear David Horne in his own words .

Thanks David. Encouraging to hear that from the man himself

 

[Chrism20]

Cheap advances all but gone. Flying much more now to Scotland. Even with time + costs to reach the airport, door to door times are similar and costs much lower.

Ryanair have put on an additional flight so demand must be up.

They have well and truly done a hatchet job on advance tickets that's for sure.

I understand things have to go up in price etc etc but within weeks of it changing to Virgin every ticket I was purchasing was notably more expensive than it had been previously whilst they were churning out lines such as we haven't changed the fares.

That and the closure of rewards was a double blow for a lot of people.

The refurbed trains look nice but other than that and the first class service changing I haven't really noticed much of a difference personally. I'm not disputing the figures but I certainly don't see £18m worth of change.

 

[DarloRich]

And replacing it with a more successful, more profitable company, delivering far more money back to the government (£3.3 billion vs £1 billion) and more benefits to passengers.

We will see.

 

[David Dunning]

Thanks for this useful insight David. With a threshold population of around 200,000 this eastern area of Yorkshire is an untapped market. It compares favourably with VTEC's other peripheral routes in terms of the size of the potential market. And with the main road link (A64) being as poor as it is, the railway scores well. The A64 is jammed on a daily basis between York and Malton, all year round.
The single platform at Malton is still long enough but the fenced off, unused bits would need upgrading before being brought back into use.
But how many trains an hour can a single platform take with trains running in the opposite directions? With two TPE per hour and potentially two Northern per hour it could be a bit congested if you added VTEC in as well.
Ryedale District Council takes no interest in the rail links at all, but local councillors will have a field day when they wake up to the fact that Malton crossing gates will be more than doubling the number of times they'll close every day. The "gridlock whingers" will be out in force - great story potential for you there, Mr. Dunning!

Indeed, tune in tomorrow morning. Although the first bite at this is a Cllr who says the benefits are worth the extra time the barriers are down .