It's a difficult one, which is why I've not voted (as none of the four options really suit my position). And I say this as someone who travelled a couple of hundred miles in First Class today (Grand Central, since you ask).
I've no problem (in theory) with the railway providing different levels of service to different people. I accept the concept of people paying more/less to travel at different times of day or for different levels of flexibility (pay more to travel at peak times than off-peak, pay less if you are restricted to a particular service).
I don't see anything wrong with the idea of offering different things to different people (if someone'll pay an extra twenty quid for a ticket just to qualify for a "free" cup of coffee and shortbread then who am I to stop them?
(there is the little problem that, in order to offer different tiers, you sometimes have to make the "cheaper" tier less attractive. For example, EMT offer free wifi in First but charge for it in standard - it really wouldn't cost them that much to extend the free wifi to standard class passengers but if they did then there'd be less need for people to upgrade to First - so you have to keep standard class worse than it ought to be because you need to keep some "clear blue water" between the two offerings)
The
big problem is that we've seen a combination of:
a) companies/government departments no restricting/ longer allowing First Class travel (something that generally happened in the belt tightening days of the recession but hasn't been reversed since)
b) a significant growth in demand for standard class travel
c) little change in the balance between First/ Standard seats due to the fixed formations of modern stock (only recently have Virgin/ FGW changed the balance - other TOCs are stuck with some formations unsuited to modern demand). For example, EMT's four coach 222s have one and a half coaches of First Class seating - quite a significant proportion.
Pre-DMUs/EMUs, we could have swapped the formations around fairly easily. But since it'd take some time to amend something like the 222s mentioned above (taking the whole train out of service to amend the seating in one coach, at a time when there aren't spare trains), it's not a decision to be taken lightly.
So we end up with large numbers of people standing in Standard at a time when few people are paying for full price First Class tickets (annoying people in Standard). But then that causes areas of First Class to be regularly declassified (annoying people in First - why bother paying for the posher seats only to find the plebs invading when the Guard declassifies your coach?).
If you could improve the balance then I'm in favour of First Class -
as long as there are sufficient seats in Standard and we don't see the "clear blue water" I alluded to above used as a reason not to improve facilities for all passengers - e.g. free wifi/ plugs shouldn't be the confines of those at the "London" end - we should all be sharing in improvements.
However, as things stand, First Class is a luxury we can't afford on a number of services. If you have more people standing in Standard than those sat in First Class (on full price tickets) then something is wrong.
If First Class was actually used by passengers paying First Class fares, that would be fine. However, we all know (however much some want to conceal it) that this does not happen.
Filling up First Class with people on bargain Advances which are substantially less than the normal Standard Class fare, just because you have provided too much First and too little Standard is silly. Among other things, it gives revenue dilution for the (few) who would actually have paid the First, but take advantage of this.
The demand for First may be there into London in the am, and leaving in the pm. For the rest of the time, and at weekends, it's not really there. However with fixed formation trains the class proportion stays the same all the time.
The West Coast has, for several generations of rolling stock now, had a gross overprovision of First Class, for a reason I've never understood. Even out of London in the early morning, much of it is empty stock
Some good points there
I would never pay extra for first class without at least free soft drinks, coffee and snacks but the alcoholic drinks and hot meals are what I really want.
This is one of the problems with First Class, the "luxury" isn't something that people will always pay full price for, hence TOCs having to give away lots of "perks" in order to justify it.
If people need a "passenger lounge", a dedicated member of staff handing out biscuits, a restaurant service and several bottles of beer to persuade them to upgrade to First Class (whilst significant numbers are stood in Standard) then something is wrong.
The point is that those (fewer) first class peak customers enable off peak standard customers to afford to travel. First Class cross subsidies standard.
Very, very simply, see this:
I need a train to bring me £10,000, so that it covers its costs and makes me a profit.
First Class revenue brings me £6,000.
Standard class (at 50% less per ticket) revenue brings me £4,000.
Therefore I am happy as I've met my target.
If I remove first class, to get that £10,000
First Class revenue would bring me £0
Standard Class revenue would bring me £4,000.
I now have a £6,000 loss. Customers aren't going to take a substantial fare increase, but maybe I can just about make £1,000 from less dramatic STD increases. I'm still £5,000 down. My only option now is to reduce capacity (to reduce access costs, fleet costs etc), to remove the train entirely, or cut staff costs, if possible
How many diagrams see 60% of their revenue coming from the (say) 20% of First Class seats over the course of a day? Say two coaches of fifty First Class seats compared to six coaches of seventy five Standard Class seats? You'll have a couple of busy journeys a day when First Class will be well filled, but for the rest of the day you're relying on some deeply discounted tickets.
How many people actually pay the full First Class fare then? how many just pay the supplement like at weekend or school holiday times of year? and then there,s the ones who have found a super duper fare after looking for ages.
True
Quality over quantity at all times is a good adage to follow.
One a number of lines, we don't have enough "quantity" to provide every fare paying passenger with a seat, yet we are putting a fair chunk of resources to provide a "quality" service for a minority of passengers.
The "quantity" should be the thing we get right first - before we start worrying about perks for a few people.
