Capacity problems. Birmingham to London.

[markskoda]

It seems to me that this is one of the major arguments being advanced in favour of HS2. I have been in the U.K. for my Xmas/New Year family visit and am about to return to The Czech Republic. In my time here I have used Birmingham New Street Station on many occasions. It appears to me that at all times of the day and night including so called peak times the First Class carriages which form such a large proportion of the long distance trains in the U.K. are grossly under utilised, some with not a single passenger (customer/client whatever the latest marketing speak is). While Second Class (Oops Standard) is massively overcrowded.
So here is a simple suggestion for the marketing people at the train operating companies.
On a controlled basis, permit 2nd class season ticket holders who spend large sums of money with you and travel in cramped conditions, to use First Class accomodation at all times.
You could trial this in stages and control numbers at the outset by the length of journey or expenditure , or a combination of factors to release a large number of seats in Second Class and award First Class seats to those who contribute most. You may lose a few First Class season ticket holders but surely this would address an important issue?
Forgive my ignorance if this has already been "trialled" or "rolled out" or even tried. I live in a land of simple value fares and am unaccustomed to the complexities of the pricing structure in the U.K.

 

[tbtc]

There are weekend "upgrades" available to Standard Class passengers (those with "full priced" Standard Class tickets can move through to empty seats in First for an extra fee).

However there is the "danger" that allowing lots of people to use First (without paying the full First Class price) will mean fewer people pay for a full First ticket (since you can get away with having a cheaper ticket and being upgraded).

I'm not a big fan of First Class myself, but the TOCs would probably rather have one person in First Class paying £200 than ten upgraded passengers on £20 tickets. Not saying I agree with this, but they are very keen to squeeze as much money as they can (and keeping the "prestige" of First Class is one way of doing this).

Sorry to sound negative, you've made a point here that I am sympathetic to, a 390 that was wholly "Standard" class would improve capacity by a fair bit (one poster on here pointed out that a three coach 323 EMU has around as many Standard Class coaches as a nine coach 390)

 

[Cherry_Picker]

If we are talking specifically about Birmingham to London, then you can do precisely what the OP is suggesting with a five minute walk to Moor Street and catching a train to Marylebone instead.

 

[markskoda]

By any measurement, running a long distance train with half the carriages virtually empty is inefficient. I am suggesting that they could allow for example any one spending over a certain sum over a certain number of months validity of their season ticket should be allowed to travel in First Class. For example £500 over 3 months.
I was pleased to see that you too refer to yourself as a passenger.

 

[GingerSte]

Part of the problem is that Virgin/SRA/DFT specified these trains very early into the franchise, and IMO got it wrong. I think that they imagined they could induce people to upgrade into first if standard was crowded enough, and probably also included this in their franchise bid.

I agree that giving annual season ticket holders one week in first would be a good idea. It would advertise the upgrade, and essentially remove about 2% of loading (for one week, 4% for two weeks, etc) from Standard.

If I was to do this, I would make it the last week of the annual ticket. This would
a) stop people from buying longer tickets to get an upgrade to first in the first week, and then cancelling their ticket for a refund, and
b) advertise the premium service at the time when people are looking to renew. There's no point in advertising something that people won't be buying for 51 weeks.

I understand that annual tickets are bought throughout the year, rather than concentrated into one month. If they are concentrated, then something else could be done to smooth the peaks (ie ask the passenger when they would like their week in first, or do it at random).

I think the above would still maintain the integrity of the first class system, and also would give VWC some brownie points in the passenger's eyes.

Of course this could also be sorted by taking one of the first class carriages and reconfiguring the seats for standard. But this will cost money and is best left to mid-life service intervals. Another thing that will help is that the new carriages being added to the Pendolinos are both standard class (I think), so that will ease congestion in a lot of cases.

 

[Badger]

It is an atrocity that 4 out of 9 carriages be taken up by first class on such an over capacity line. Fortunately what you say may not be needed once the additional coaches are added (making it 7 std coaches).

If they cared about the capacity issues all 390s would be standard as said above. But they don't, because the railways operate on money and profits, be that right or wrong. First class is always going to be used to substitute standard class. See XC 170s: extremely overcrowded, with part still taken up to squeeze what, eight first class seats in?

 

[SS4]

Perhaps a book of 12 first class tickets with one's annual season or 1 per month would be better? It may entice them into going first class next time if the service is good but it won't alienate existing ticket holders

edit: off-peak if necessary

 

[the sniper]

By any measurement, running a long distance train with half the carriages virtually empty is inefficient. I am suggesting that they could allow for example any one spending over a certain sum over a certain number of months validity of their season ticket should be allowed to travel in First Class. For example £500 over 3 months.
I was pleased to see that you too refer to yourself as a passenger.

Most season ticket holders travel in the rush hour. In the rush hour, first class is often full/well loaded with first class ticket holders who have paid for the privilege.

Or are you suggesting that season ticket holders should be able to travel in first class off peak for the standard fare? That's fair enough I suppose where there are plenty of free seats available, like on the Cl.390s. Especially given that not many season ticket holders travel off peak.

 

[WatcherZero]

The Pendolino lengthening from 9 to 11 car trains is also addressing the First/Standard ratio with both additional cars being standard.

 

[HSTEd]

Don't worry, just wait for the 400m double decker trains with 1200+ seats each.