Killingworth
Established Member
Certainly a lot on Northern Hope Valley stoppers did avoid payment in the past but enforcement is increasingly effective, made easier as more are using electronic methods of payment. It's much quicker for guards to check the whole train and users can't count on escaping as they did in years gone by. The Dore TVM is now used infrequently.
Although the option via Doncaster is used by a small number (e.g. 8.04 TPE from Dore, single change at Donny) I doubt many would normally consider a double change at both Sheffield and Doncaster/Retford.
The relative numbers in the data tally with very easily observed activity on the platform.
A lot less reliable on a 97/98 bus due every 15 minutes during the core part of the day for a journey timed to take 30-35 minutes against 7 minutes on the hourly train. Bus wins on frequency and convenience of more stops. Loses to cars because buses can fail to appear for half an hour or more.
There are 3 trains an hour in the core 2 hour commuting period to/from Manchester - but this is a topic for another thread.
Very true. I used to use the car almost every day even though TPE run between Dore and Meadowhall every hour taking only 13 minutes. By car I needed to allow 30 minutes minimum, at rush hour rather more. Time taken to get from home to Dore then from Meadowhall to work and an hourly service that doesn't even stop at Dore most hours killed that option stone dead! I jogged in more often than taking the train - and used tram/bus back, usually taking over an hour.
Suffice to say these statistics are a very useful source of information but they need to be used with care and local explanations.
That's at least a couple of $64,000 questions! Wait until we see what happens in 2025-6.
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