SWT fare increases

[Tom]

Suppose. It is SWTs own fault with the way the ORCATS system works though.

I'm completely valid with a Bournemouth - Basingstoke, Basingstoke - Waterloo even though I'm paying lower than the actual full fare for that journey. RPIs technically can't do anything as it's a combination of tickets which ATOC recognise as a full journey for connection reasons, etc.

 

[Kris]

The only reason Southern used to run a Bomo - Gatwick service was so that they could cream of a percentage of takings from Bomo, Xchurch, Brock etc regardless of who sold the ticket.

 

[Tom]

Same with SWT and Brighton my friend

 

[Kris]

Same with SWT and Brighton my friend

True, true - and the proposed service to Okehampton which never came off. Shame that. Bristols too I suppose?

 

[Tom]

Indeed.... same with the Penzance service....

 

[Kris]

World domination ! :thin:

Hang on ........... Stagecoach already do that.

 

[Oracle]

I thought Bournemouth-Victoria started under NSE in BR days? Now it's cut back to Southampton it's still only SuX. I would seriously consider going by Southern from Central in the future as it's a nice trip via the coastway on a Saturday especially, and considerably cheaper if you go online BUT you have to get to Central somehow: by car and park (pay) or by SWT (and pay) or bus (pay and too long/inconvenient).

By the way how on earth are RPIs going to follow you on to the Underground and tail you? The only query I have is whether there is some evidence on the ticket that shows that you have not used it in the second part of your journey on NR.

 

[Kris]

I thought Bournemouth-Victoria started under NSE in BR days?

By the way how on earth are RPIs going to follow you on to the Underground and tail you? The only query I have is whether there is some evidence on the ticket that shows that you have not used it in the second part of your journey on NR.

Nope. NSE days we used to run the stoppers out of the bay.

Something that they used to do - tail people to work to see if they actually crossed London to use the ticket. I only found out becuase I used to try and sell my passengers the cheapest possible ticket.

Word of warning. SWT are very hot on everybody having a ticket before they board now. In theory nobody will be able to go to the guard - even honestly now and purchase the ticket they want. Certainly glad that I'm no longer a guard.

 

[paul1609]

Nope. NSE days we used to run the stoppers out of the bay.

Something that they used to do - tail people to work to see if they actually crossed London to use the ticket. I only found out becuase I used to try and sell my passengers the cheapest possible ticket.

Word of warning. SWT are very hot on everybody having a ticket before they board now. In theory nobody will be able to go to the guard - even honestly now and purchase the ticket they want. Certainly glad that I'm no longer a guard.

Brighton to Bournemouth Trains ran at weekends in NSE days I'm not sure what platform they terminated on but they used the path of Brighton to Portsmouth Fasts as far as Farlington Junction.

A Brighton to Bournemouth service had been part of the justification of the solent electrification but recession intervened and the service never ran daily. NSE did however start the Victoria to Southampton Service that was subsequently extended to Bournemouth by Connex.

A friend of mine reckons that there was never much advantage in terms of ORCATs to going to Bournemouth despite what SWT staff said and that the idea was to try to generate a Bournemouth to Gatwick traffic but as Bournemouth and southampton Airports grew this was never really a sucess. Certainly Southern didnt make much fuss about withdrawing to Southampton.

The Southampton service has been a big success for Southern I commute on the 7.04 Barnham to Southampton trains and there are a fair number of commuters to Southampton from Barnham onwards. Southern are supposed to want to increase the service to 2 tph when SWT pull out from Brighton in December.

The SWT fares are a bit strange because nobody seems to know how they apply to Southerns services to London Victoria. The posters at Havant today specifically say they apply to services to London Waterloo and a senior person from Southern told me the first thing he new about the new structure was when they read about it in Modern Railways.

 

[Kris]

Not saying that there weren't any but I honestly can't remember Bomo' Brighton trains in NSE days and we used to work everything except the Winfrith nuclear flasks and the gas tanks.

We puling out of Brighton? I thought that we were just swapping 159's for Disastros to run only as far as Basing?

I thought part of the Franchise agreement was that the South Western Franchise would run trains through to Terminal 5 at Heathrow?

 

[Tom]

SWT are indeed pulling out of Brighton as per the franchise agreement.

The replacement service I reckon will probably be an extra Basingstoke - Eastleigh or Southampton Central an hour.

AirTrack has another discussion thread somewhere!

 

[Oracle]

At ANF we don't even have a Permit to Travel machine as it has gorn! Disappeared! So you can't get a ticket from the machine (local fares were indicated on the right side) or even a Permit, so you have to in theory find the guard, and then hope that she/he has a machine that's working.

I can only recall Victoria-Bournemouth and not the previous Southampton service. The big deal was reputedly that a local MP had insisted that the new Vic service had to call at Swanwick, which was marvellous. In addition there still seems to be a handful of DMUs that stop at Swanwick early/late.

I wonder if the 0704 is one of the "stoppers" that calls at all stations from Fareham to St Denys? I used to catch a Class 33 and TC ex-Portsmouth set that called at Netley about 0730 and that stopped everywhere including little Burseldon and had a good trade.

If you look at Southern's special tickets, they can be cracking deals. Incidentally I was amazed that there is a Season Tikcet on Southern to London, which I would have thought impractical:
Weekly Monthly Annual
£98.80 £379.40 £3952.00

Train Fare including Travelcard
Weekly Monthly Annual
£110.20 £423.20 £4408.00

I don't know how this compares with SWT.

 

[Tom]

The SWT season ticket fares are exactly the same. It's an Any Permitted route.

 

[Oracle]

Ta!

 

[paul1609]

At ANF we don't even have a Permit to Travel machine as it has gorn! Disappeared! So you can't get a ticket from the machine (local fares were indicated on the right side) or even a Permit, so you have to in theory find the guard, and then hope that she/he has a machine that's working.

I can only recall Victoria-Bournemouth and not the previous Southampton service. The big deal was reputedly that a local MP had insisted that the new Vic service had to call at Swanwick, which was marvellous. In addition there still seems to be a handful of DMUs that stop at Swanwick early/late.

I wonder if the 0704 is one of the "stoppers" that calls at all stations from Fareham to St Denys? I used to catch a Class 33 and TC ex-Portsmouth set that called at Netley about 0730 and that stopped everywhere including little Burseldon and had a good trade.

Permit to Travel machines have been removed from a lot of Southern Stations but have generally been replaced by Fasticket machines. its not a problem here Guards welcome selling tickets as they get 5% commision. Although we are officially a penalty fares area its still very much a country railway set up. Passengers at the halts queue up by the guard to buy tickets in the short hop between stations. The Guard goes down the train enquiring if anyone needs a ticket between Barnham and Chichester and then again between bedhampton and hilsea. Even the Chichester RPIs remind me more of a party of undertakers than the SWT squads. long may it continue.

The 07.04 has last december called at fareham, Swanwick, Netley, Woolston and Southampton central when it took over stops formerly made by a FGW service that was cut from 4 to 2 cars. Apparently Woolston commuters are very excited about their " fast train" and are now being educated that gentlemen buy their weekly season tickets to Waterloo from the Guard!

 

[paul1609]

According to a source in Hampshire CC, Southern will be running 2 tph to Southampton from either next December or May 08 both trains will run via Horsham and the Arun Valley Line. One train will come in to Littlehampton and reverse offering a cross platform connection to Worthing and Brighton.
Its possible that there will be a Littlehampton to Southampton service on a Sunday for the first time but these trains wont run through to London

 

[Oracle]

Nice line, Arun Valley, but a long trip. Also means a change for Brighton then.

 

[paul1609]

I've done a PDF based on the info I have from the SWT website and the current fares, average increase for the "CDR" fare is 18.5% roughly, the super off peak (valid all weekend, and on trains arriving into London after 12pm generally) is 2.5%

www.no444.co.uk/files/swtfares.pdf (fare details, shows percentage increases)
www.no444.co.uk/files/swtfares1.pdf (shows rough child/railcard fares)

The fares shown are fares to LONDON TERMINALS.

Standard Open fares have stayed roughly the same which means season tickets shouldn't rise too much. A certain few stations to keep an eye out for are ones with two fares, where SWT are in competition with Southern or FGW, so Portsmouth or Havant for instance where fares haven't increased too far.

Anyone travelling from Havant might like to consider a Cheap Day Return from Warblington (Any Permitted) £21.60 set by Southern and valid on the 8.40 from havant to London Waterloo. Warblington is a suburb of Havant about 15 mins walk.

 

[Tom]

Anyone travelling from Bournemouth or the surrounding area may wish to know the following:

The start of CDRs from Basingstoke is on the 1008 arrival (at London) from Portsmouth Harbour. This train calls at all stations between Portsmouth Hbr and Eastleigh (0943), then Shawford (0849), Winchester (0855), Micheldever (0905), Basingstoke (0917), Farnborough (0931), Woking (0940) then London Waterloo.

Buy a SDR (CDR if available) to Basingstoke (£19.70 SDR/£19.10 from BMH) then buy a CDR to London Waterloo (£16.40). An ODT (route WOKING) is £23.80 so I suggest you buy your ticket in London (buy a Surbiton - ODT or something!). A cheaper ODT is available (route READING) by the looks of it at £20.60 or around that.

To connect with the 1008 arrival, you will need to get the following from these stations;

Weymouth - Bournemouth inclusive: 0654 ex-Weymouth
Pokesdown - Sway inclusive: 0720 ex-Poole
Brockenhurst: 0654 ex-Weymouth
Beaulieu Road - Totton inclusive: 0720 ex-Poole
Millbrook & Redbridge: 0801 ex-Totton
Soton Ctl: 0654 ex-Weymouth
St Denys & Swaythling: 0801 ex-Totton
Soton Airport Parkway: 0654 ex-Weymouth

Passengers from Millbrook and southwards should change at Southampton Central. Passengers from St Denys to Swaythling should change at Southampton Airport Parkway.

ALL passengers should change at Winchester for connection to the 1008 arrival.

 

[paul1609]

It appears that SWT's ticket machines are unable to sell you the new super off peak ticket!
or rather that they can at Portsmouth Harbour but will charge you £1.50 more than the price recently displayed on SWTs website..
and that no railcard discounts apply on these fares!
Is this just incompetance or have swt accidentally revealed phase 2 of the Great Stagecoach Robbery?

Southerns "Pricebuster Return" that undercuts SWT by arround 50% has disappeared from the menu so you need to ask specifically for it at the the ticket office!

(Sorry about the quality of the fots indoors on my mobile.)

 

[yorkie]

They could be reported to ATOC. They have to offer the cheapest tickets or they are in breach of ATOC rules.

I don't know what 'punishment' they can recieve though. They think they're above the law and rules, and the sad thing is: they're probably right :x

 

[Oracle]

At least Southern's cheap tickets, some of which are bargains from Southampton Central>Fareham, Cosham, Havant and Portsmouth Stations, are still there!

 

[Tom]

Ironically some ticket machines can't sell those tickets at the moment....

 

[Guinness]

(Sorry about the quality of the fots indoors on my mobile.)

Poor Quality is no excuse for not smiling, despite SWT New SuperScam Fares. http://www.railforums.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=320&d=1179855811