European Railroad Discussion > Maybe 6 yr old girl should stay up later?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11354772/Girl-6-writes-heartbreaking-letter-to-rail-bosses-begging-them-to-stop-making-her-father-late.html

Commuting on Southern must be pricey: "...Daddy says you take all his money, that is why I can't go to Disneyland...."

Sad? Yes. But "heartbreaking?" Heartbreaking would be if daddy didn't come home at all. Perhaps he should take an earlier train, drive to work, or look for a job closer to home.

I have some sympathy for her as my commute over 20 miles of the same route has been a nightmare since Christmas. Basically Network Rail has reduced the approach tracks to the six terminal platforms at London Bridge to facilitate the long awaited construction of the two new through tracks and the associated grade separated junctions east of the station, work which will be ongoing to 2018. The timetable they modelled simply proved unworkable, consequently they and the operator, Southern Railway, have been forced to recast it, removing a number of peak hour services, rescheduling others and adding extra stops. I'm not sure we're out of the woods yet, but today my train, the 07:48 from London Bridge ran on time for the first time in over two weeks. Maybe the Uckfield trains will too.

JPB Wrote:
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> Commuting on Southern must be pricey:

I'll say, looks like with the conversion from pounds to dollars, the father is spending over $500/month on his train ride alone. My Metra monthly and parking work out to $160/month.

kevink Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JPB Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Commuting on Southern must be pricey:
>
> I'll say, looks like with the conversion from
> pounds to dollars, the father is spending over
> $500/month on his train ride alone.

Metro North Railroad in NY metro area is $249 per month, North White Plais to Grand Central. 24 miles one way.

And Uckfield to London Bridge is about 50 miles so the Metro North fare is comparable?

It's amazing how far people will commute to get to London. At one point in my career I worked in Fleet Street (at the time when it was still dominated by newspapers) talking to someone one day I discovered he came from Coventry (110 miles) 4 days a week. I was surprised but he pointed out that his journey was as quick as from Brighton and lots of people did (and do) that commute. He also pointed out that his fare, because British Rail (as it then was) didn't expect people to commute that far was lower than the equivalent from Brighton.

At one point BR worked out what they thought was the maximum time people would commute for and set the fares accordingly. That means that the season ticket from my local station to London is cheaper than the next sation 20 minutes nearer to London!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/15 13:01 by Hartington.

Hartington Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And Uckfield to London Bridge is about 50 miles so
> the Metro North fare is comparable?
>
> It's amazing how far people will commute to get to
> London. At one point in my career I worked in
> Fleet Street (at the time when it was still
> dominated by newspapers) talking to someone one
> day I discovered he came from Coventry (110 miles)
> 4 days a week. I was surprised but he pointed
> out that his journey was as quick as from Brighton
> and lots of people did (and do) that commute. He
> also pointed out that his fare, because British
> Rail (as it then was) didn't expect people to
> commute that far was lower than the equivalent
> from Brighton.
>


Yes, the fare is comparable. I would also add that for that for the Southern fare and the UK and local transport taxes levied it is encouraging to here about the construction of through running at London Bridge as mentioned by 86235.

As you say: the distance some will commute! Metro North offers service up to 82 miles north of Grand Central. For these marathon commuters I hope they eventually find something closer at an acceptable income.

Hartington Wrote:
---------------------------------------------
... I was surprised but he pointed
> out that his journey was as quick as from Brighton
> and lots of people did (and do) that commute. He
> also pointed out that his fare, because British
> Rail (as it then was) didn't expect people to
> commute that far was lower than the equivalent
> from Brighton.
>
> At one point BR worked out what they thought was
> the maximum time people would commute for and set
> the fares accordingly. That means that the
> season ticket from my local station to London is
> cheaper than the next sation 20 minutes nearer to
> London!
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Do I have this right? BR makes a calculation of where the regular commuters are and RAISES those ticket prices?

Given that the origin of the word "commuter" comes from having their ticket prices reduced (think of a state governor "commuting" a prison sentence), this seems backwards at best, bizarre at worst.

Buying tickets on a daily basis was (and is) more expensive than buying a "season". BR (and successors) has always been under pressure to reduce the cost to the public purse. (It hasn't worked!)

And yes. They raised the fares deliberately within what they considered to be the commutable London area.

The approach BR took was always to charge what the market would bear, which meant that captive commuters saw the highest fare increases. BR would also raise fares more on newly electrified lines where passenger growth could be expected - the so-called sparks effect. It's a little different today, but not much.

I think you've missed the point. Over the last several years, UK passenger server
has become more expensive and less reliable. A lot of services have been so cut
back that some routes (like the old Great Western from Bath to London) are almost
standing room only!.

I find it very complicated to go into a London station, ask for a ticket, and first
be asked, "Which Company?" How should I know? They're all going over the same
tracks to the same places!

JPB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-ra
> il-transport/11354772/Girl-6-writes-heartbreaking-
> letter-to-rail-bosses-begging-them-to-stop-making-
> her-father-late.html
>
> Commuting on Southern must be pricey: "...Daddy
> says you take all his money, that is why I can't
> go to Disneyland...."

I must admit that's not something I recognise. Services cut back you say? I don't think so, there are more and more trains on the network, that's one of the problems. Too many trains, not enough track. I agree about First Great Western, I was on the 18:00 Bristolian from Paddington to Bristol last night and it was full and standing as far as Didcot. But that's a consequence of success rather than cutbacks. And by 2018 electrification will result in more trains, and hopefully faster end to end journey times.

On most routes there isn't any REAL competition between different train operating companies, the only one which I can think of where different TOCs provided almost identical services was between London and Gatwick Airport, but as all three - Southern, Gatwick Express and Thameslink - are now part of the same group, GoVia, I'm not sure they 'compete' anymore.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/15 01:32 by 86235.