All Line Rover
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Feb 2011
- Messages
- 5,222
In contrast to Virgin Trains West Coast's habit of removing valuable facilities without meaningful consultation and celebrating every petty 'improvement' that is made, Virgin Trains East Coast sent me an interesting survey which suggests that management at the franchise wish to continue the passenger-oriented approach that was adopted by DOR (state-owned Directly Operated Railways).
The survey had a list of around 20 proposed improvements that Virgin Trains East Coast could make and asked if these would, and I paraphrase, make me have "a much higher opinion of Virgin Trains East Coast" (up to a maximum of 4 of the proposed improvements), "a slightly higher opinion of Virgin Trains East Coast", "no difference in my opinion of Virgin Trains East Coast", or "a lower opinion of Virgin Trains East Coast".
The range of proposed improvements was genuinely fascinating. They ranged from "quiet coaches with effective enforcement" (a big thumbs up from me!), to "advance fares which permit travel on trains either side of the booked train", to "different coaches for parties, families, business passengers, etc.", to "a chauffeur service for getting to and from railway stations", to simple improvements such as the ability to select a seat, signs indicating where to board for each carriage, luggage handlers, and so on.
One other novel suggestion was a Standard Premium class (it didn't say how many seats or carriages), but this seemed like a gimmick as it meant standard class seats with free Wi-Fi and tea/coffee. I'm not keen on this proposal because I don't want to see a reduction in the number of standard class seats (or in the number of first class seats, if VTEC changed their mind and proposed that first class seats be used for Standard Premium).
Slightly confusingly, some of the 'proposed' improvements have already been implemented, such as the seat selector. Perhaps VTEC want to know how much these different facilities are valued by passengers so that they know where to best direct future investment.
I forgot to take a screenshot of the list of proposed improvements, and because I have since submitted the survey I am unable to revisit it. If anyone else receives a link to the survey, could you please post such a screenshot.
The survey had a list of around 20 proposed improvements that Virgin Trains East Coast could make and asked if these would, and I paraphrase, make me have "a much higher opinion of Virgin Trains East Coast" (up to a maximum of 4 of the proposed improvements), "a slightly higher opinion of Virgin Trains East Coast", "no difference in my opinion of Virgin Trains East Coast", or "a lower opinion of Virgin Trains East Coast".
The range of proposed improvements was genuinely fascinating. They ranged from "quiet coaches with effective enforcement" (a big thumbs up from me!), to "advance fares which permit travel on trains either side of the booked train", to "different coaches for parties, families, business passengers, etc.", to "a chauffeur service for getting to and from railway stations", to simple improvements such as the ability to select a seat, signs indicating where to board for each carriage, luggage handlers, and so on.
One other novel suggestion was a Standard Premium class (it didn't say how many seats or carriages), but this seemed like a gimmick as it meant standard class seats with free Wi-Fi and tea/coffee. I'm not keen on this proposal because I don't want to see a reduction in the number of standard class seats (or in the number of first class seats, if VTEC changed their mind and proposed that first class seats be used for Standard Premium).
Slightly confusingly, some of the 'proposed' improvements have already been implemented, such as the seat selector. Perhaps VTEC want to know how much these different facilities are valued by passengers so that they know where to best direct future investment.
I forgot to take a screenshot of the list of proposed improvements, and because I have since submitted the survey I am unable to revisit it. If anyone else receives a link to the survey, could you please post such a screenshot.