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The 'We <3 Arriva' Thread.

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Went to Huddersfield today planned a trip to Manc Picc. Got to the ticket booth and I asked for a child return from Hudds to Manc Picc.

£4.15!!! there was no way I was paying that so me and a friend caught an Arriva train to Leeds. This is where the story starts.

I hopped on the train, and we pulled away, and the the guard came and asked for tickets, to which I replied 'can I have a child day ranger please?' and he kept saying 'what? what?' (to which I'd gone through dayranger, dayrover, dayeverything) so then I gave up and said 'oh I'll just have a return to Leeds then please' and then he was wiping his eyes and nearly falling asleep, then after pressing manically 600 buttons on his thing, he gave me one of those sticker-esque tickets. To which it said:

From: Huddersfield

To: Metro Train Dayrover

Price: £1.90

Expires: 3rd DMR 05

:lol:

Then I got off and took some photo's in Leeds (deleted them all as they were horrid)

Then I got on a TPE 158 back to Huddersfield, absolutely jam packed, just as I stepped on I heard the driver shout to a chav girl with a fag, 'OI! put the fag out! shouldn't you be in bed!' and then blew his horn and made her scream :lol:

Then a couple got on with a pram, and the driver told me to sit on the collapsable seat by the doors, and we set off and everytime the AWS cab bell rang (signalling device) this couple panicked 'what's that?!' 'WHAT'S THAT?!' so I told them what it was and the looked at me really strangely.

I figured if you stand by the doors on a 158, you can hear everything that goes on in the cab due to a little vent type thing in the wall.


Conclusion: Arriva is sh*t
 
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Guinness

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£4.15!!! there was no way I was paying that so me and a friend caught an Arriva train to Leeds. This is where the story starts.

Since when did Arriva run trains in the North East. :?


Conclusion: Arriva is sh*t

I fail to see how Arriva are 'sh*t' in that story. It doesn't make sense to me....
 

Dave A

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DescendingSadly said:
Then I got on a TPE 158 back to Huddersfield, absolutely jam packed, just as I stepped on I heard the driver shout to a chav girl with a fag, 'OI! put the fag out! shouldn't you be in bed!' and then blew his horn and made her scream :lol:

:lol: :lol: Brilliant!! :lol: :lol:
 

Max

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£4.15 - sadly, that seems to be what you pay for that distance these days. A child cdr Hull-Doncaster is a massive £7.50, and the journey is less that an hour :(

What you could have done is bought a Greater Manchester rover, and a WY day rover, and took a local Northern stopping service to Manchester Victoria. Then you could also have done some exploring in Manchester.
 

heart-of-wessex

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i dunno about the AWS thing hearing it through a vent, actually its cos the wall is thin you can hear it all. An AWS is that loud i can hear it some what 25m away sometimes, and thats out of the train!
 

evil_hippo

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£4.15 seems perfectly reasonable for a journey of that length. Appleby-Carlisle is half the length and when I got child fares that cost £3.55 CDR.

By contrast, the 563, which i still go on as a child, costs 20p home-school and £1.65 day return Appleby-Penrith.
 

TheSlash

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You get 3 routine equipment noises that can easily be heard in the door space behind the cab.
AWS 'clear' which i thought was a "Bing" {electronic sound rather than a bell} on 158's?
AWS caution / red which i think is a horn like sound
DSD timeout warning {telling you to release the pedal and re apply it} which is a "Beep beep beep beep beep beep...". If the driver does this correctly, the noise will stop, i can't remember what happens if the DSD is allowed to time out though {ie if the sound continues, changes noise or stops}.
Other more routine noises are the air horn and the sound of controls being moved. This is because the wall between you and the driver is just sheet plastic, very thin
As for having seats in this area, i was asked to move from the door by the bike rack on Voyager today, the guard said it's against the rules {possibly illegal}. By comparission i'd of thought the above mentioned area of a 158 was part of the crumple zone {even though they put seats there}
 

yorkie

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laverack222 said:
What you could have done is bought a Greater Manchester rover, and a WY day rover, and took a local Northern stopping service to Manchester Victoria. Then you could also have done some exploring in Manchester.
Well, yes, but you also need a CDR from Marsden to Greenfield as well, of course. £2.05 CDR for the 6 miles.

If he was just going to Manchester and exploring that area then a Huddersfield to Greenfield CDR plus a GM Rover would work, but Hudds-Greenfield is not great value at £3.35 (Hudds-Marsden being only £1.60!)

The problem is that the PTEs only subsidise the fares within their boundaries. The fares for journeys that cross boundaries are the expensive ones.
 

evil_hippo

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laverack222 said:
What you could have done is bought a Greater Manchester rover, and a WY day rover, and took a local Northern stopping service to Manchester Victoria. Then you could also have done some exploring in Manchester.

This was unsuccessfully tried by me and my dad when trying to get to Manchester. Fortunatley, as it was still MTL the conductor was happy to sell us a Marsden-Greenfield CDR rather than on open single from Huddersfield to Manchester as I suspect a TPE guard would have done.
 

AJP

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A return from Doncaster-York on a YP is 10 quid in peak times for 20 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Ben

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AJP said:
A return from Doncaster-York on a YP is 10 quid in peak times for 20 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Donny to York in 20 minutes?

i think Not
 

yorkie

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158 said:
Seth said:
158 said:
Donny to York in 20 minutes?

i think Not

Think again...

http://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/Traintimes/CurrentTimetable/

;)

22 Actually :P

And sorry AJP thought you meant on a Northern Service
This is getting daft!

What Northern service? :? Do you mean going via Leeds on Northern stoppers? if so you're looking at approx 45 mins plus 40 mins plus time to change trains.

My record timing is 19 minutes, with no TSRs, a clear run and on an HST* (before they got the 9th coach). So 20 minutes? Yes, it's possible, however I don't think so at the moment due to a TSR.

Back to the price, it's £5.95 CDR off-peak (YP) and it's about £11 SDR at peak times (without a railcard), which for 35 miles isn't that bad really, is it?

AJP said:
A return from Doncaster-York on a YP is 10 quid in peak times for 20 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure if you're saying the price is expensive for a 20 minute journey, or if it's good value for such a high speed service?

Logically you would expect to pay more for such a fast service than an all-stopper. If the service was as slow as (for example) the Central Line then £10 would not be such great value! ;)

By the way, did you know GNER actually introduced the York-Doncaster and York-Grantham CDRs? (about 5 and 2 years ago, respectively) They did not exist before, and have decreased the cost of these journeys by a few quid! In fact the York-Doncaster CDR was too cheap (£5 adult, £3.30 YP, £2.50 U16, £1 CHFAM :shock: making it by far the best value short-distance walk-on fare in the UK) as it undercut the Leeds fare, the price increased steadily over the years before levelling out at just a few pence more than the Leeds fare.

* Note that for some journeys HSTs can be a few seconds quicker than 91s, as the HSTs can get away with accelerating from speed restrictions a bit sooner ;)
 

yorkie

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Back to the original post (I am posting this as a seperate reply to avoid confusion with the seperate GNER pricing issue).

DescendingSadly said:
Conclusion: Arriva is sh*t
DescendingSadly said:
:o :o :o Sorry, I meant Northern, I'm thinking of the bus company colours! :oops:
I doubt Northern set the fares for Huddersfield-Manchester Stations.

The fares would almost certainly be controlled by TransPennine, however they were set long before TPE took over, and TPE are hardly likely to reduce the fares. Yes, they can do if they really wanted to (see GNER example above), but it's not a franchise commitment and as there are capacity problems on that line then it's hardly likely.

It's not really fair to blame Northern (or TPE) for that fare being the price it is.

As for the cheap Metro ticket, it's priced and subsidised by Metro (West Yorkshire PTE).

It is not always logical to determine who sets the fares. Some companies set cheaper fares than others. You can travel on a ticket priced by (for example) Virgin and yet never take a Virgin train. Sometimes (although it is is rare) it can be cheaper to pay to go further, as the fare is then set by a different company.

Companies who decrease prices by introducing new CDRs to shift people onto off peak trains should be applauded. On the other hand, companies (like Central Trains) who abolish CDRs should be severely criticised, IMO. <( As far as I am aware, Northern/TPE have not committed such acts, so I don't believe it's fair to have a go at them.
 

AJP

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Doncaster-Chesterfield is 3.75 YP CDR for 40 minutes 35 miles,

And thats Virgin :roll:
 

yorkie

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AJP said:
Doncaster-Chesterfield is 3.75 YP CDR for 40 minutes 35 miles,

And thats Virgin :roll:
But you are comparing a 2 to 3 direct 125mph trains per hour service and peak time pricing that is not subsidised at all, with the off-peak price of an only hourly service that is considerably slower and is subsidised by South Yorkshire PTE for much of the way.

Not a fair comparison, IMO.

Is it even Virgin who set the Doncaster-Chesterfield fare? Possibly, but I am not sure. In any case the fare is definitely subsidised by SYPTE.

Oh, and all that's before you take into account the fact that Virgin recieves a massive subsidy, while GNER has to pay a premium.

If Virgin are so cheap, why is it that York-Donny (GNER) and Donny-Sheffield (Metro) combos are marginally cheaper than York-Sheffield? (Admittedly not enough to make me do that, as I prefer the flexibility of a through ticket).

Also, why is York-Fiskerton (Virgin) almost double the price of York-Rolleston (GNER)? Those stations are about a mile apart, yet they are either side of the Virgin/GNER pricing divide.
 

AJP

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Is it even Virgin who set the Doncaster-Chesterfield fare? Possibly, but I am not sure. In any case the fare is definitely subsidised by SYPTE.

Since when as Chesterfield been in South Yorkshire :roll: :?:
 

yorkie

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AJP said:
Is it even Virgin who set the Doncaster-Chesterfield fare? Possibly, but I am not sure. In any case the fare is definitely subsidised by SYPTE.

Since when as Chesterfield been in South Yorkshire :roll: :?:
It's not relevant whether it is, or ever has been in Yorkshire or not (as far as I'm aware it hasn't), the fact remains that the Doncaster-Chesterfield fares are subsidised, in part, by SYPTE.

If they were not then it would be considerably cheaper to buy Doncaster-Sheffield (subsidised) and Sheffield-Chesterfield (non-subsidised) CDRs.

BTW one more reason why Donny-Chesterfield isn't a fair comparison: the distance between the two is quite a few miles less than Doncaster-York. The fact the railway line zig-zags is not relevant when assessing the value of the fare to the passenger who just wants to get there, IMO.
 

steve158

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interesting thread :shock:

who do you think then has run the north eastern area best since privatisation?

thieving scouse b*******(MTL)
Arriva
Northern
 

steve158

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i hope not!

just looking at your signature, mojo - it was mentioned in friday's BEP(when i did the H-0-W and stroud valley)that fares are going up 20%. it seems the other first bus companies are doing the same, particularly in sheffield.

are they still using those old yellow double deckers??
 

Mojo

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No old yellow DDs anymore, we still got loads of the old DDs, with a handful refurbished, plus some old GM (Manchester) buses, with original seats and posters :shock:
 
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