The Ticket Collector

FGW - Fare Strike Monday 28 Jan 2008 to go ahead.

In the next few hours, campaigners from More Train Less Strain (MTLS) will be getting prepared for another fare strike on First Great Western.

The campaign list now includes: Bath, Bristol, Bristol Parkway, Oldfield Park, Keynsham, Yate, Yatton, Burnham and Highbridge, Frome, Trowbridge, Warminster, and Bradford on Avon. On Sunday 27th January it was announced that the fare srtrike had spread to Plymouth and Penzance and also to Severn Tunnel Junction in Wales.
Travellers at Cardiff and Swansea have also expressed an interest to join the fare strike.

Collect your Fare Strike ticket from outside your station on the morning of the strike. Tickets will be available from 07.15 hrs to 08.45 hrs.
Show your Fare Strike ticket on the train and hand it in at the barrier at Temple Meads instead of your valid ticket. It is up to you how you access the platform.
Meet up with other Fare Strike ticket holders on the train. If you have some spare Fare Strike tickets, ask others on the train if they are willing to use them too.
At your destination, go through the barriers with other Fare Strikers. Avoid confrontations with staff – they are on our side.

The TV and press will be taking a keen interest in how the strike goes, and will be at some stations and on some trains.

Campaign organiser Mark Richardson says “FGW recent offer of increased compensation for annual season ticket holders is once again playing the public relations game but offering very little. Commuters want a decent service at a fair price instead of increased compensation for some and a continued poor service for all. Frankly, we have lost patience with FGW and would seriously question their ability and commitment to running a train service. They have become the laughing stock of the train industry and it is now time that Ruth Kelly seriously considers removing their franchise.

Thousands of passengers from Bristol, Bath and surrounding commuter towns will be taking part in this day of public action to demonstrate that their patience with FGW has come to the end of the line. FGW service has continued to deteriorate since taking over its new franchise in December 2006 despite putting up fares by around 20% over the same period.”

More train Less Strain organiser Tony Ambrose says “Passengers have had to put up with short trains that were too crowded to get on, unreliable thirty year old rolling stock and staff shortages. According to independent rail watchdog Passenger Focus FGW has the highest rate of cancellations and delays in the UK. We have had endless apologies and excuses from FGW management and yet we still have some of the highest fares and worst service in Europe. We would urge all train travelers to visit our website at www.moretrainlessstrain.co.uk and join the protest on Monday.

The fare strike has spread and protests will now take place at Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads, Oldfield Park, Keynsham, Yate, Yatton, Burnham and Highbridge, Frome, Trowbridge, Warminster and Bradford on Avon. Fare strike tickets will be handed out at these stations between 7.00 and 8.45. Passengers will be encouraged to show their fare strike ticket to station staff instead of any valid ticket that they may carry.”

Civil servent jailed for conning London Undergound

A civil servent working for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was jailed for 18 months for conning London Underground of £22,000 by claiming fare refunds.

Trushar Patel, 30, roped in his family to fill out thousands of forms which enabled customers to claim a fare refund if they were delayed.

Sentencing the family Judge Peter Fingret said the case showed “a high level of incompetence on the part of Transport for London [TfL] and London Underground [LU]”.

“I can only comment and hope that these sentences may deter other people from obtaining cash benefits out of public funds illegally,” he said.

Prosecutor Francis Sheridan said the scheme was a “positive idea” but “the administration of this scheme was a complete shambles of Monty Pythonesque proportions”.

“No checks were carried out on the services claimed for let alone checks on whether they were late or how many of the given tubes were delayed on any given day,” he added.

£1 tickets from Virgin

Virgin have re-released their £1 mobitix offer. Tickets are printed at home and you must take your debit/credit card with you to proove it was you that purchased the ticket.

Tickets are available now and there are still some £1 singles left. Most tickets are now around the £7-£9 mark which is seriously cheap compared to the normal fare.
You can go from London to Manchester or Manchester to London.

Catch is you must print the ticket out at home and must stick to the train your booked on.

http://www.mobitix.thetrainline.com/VT/advancepurchase.aspx

Fares to rise.

Yes its that time of the year when everyone grumbles that ticket prices are going up more then inflation, then still travel. Most people will forget the price rises a month later.

Season tickets, Saver (SVR) and Standard Day Returns (SDR) will rise by 4.8% on average.

Other tickets, such as Cheap Day Returns(CDR) and long-distance open(SOR) and advance fares will go up by 5.4%. The increases will come into effect in the New Year.

A weekly season ticket from Hayes in Kent to London will rise by 14.5% from £24.80 to £28.50.

Bexleyheath to London will go up from £25.10 to £28.50 or 13%, and for commuters in Ashford, Kent, a London-bound journey will rise by 10.5% from £78.30 to £86.50 a week.

Family Railcard for Half Price (£10)

It’s possible to buy the Family Railcard for £10, half the normal price of £20. The railcard lasts 12 months and gives a third off many adult fares and 60% off childrens’ fares throughout Great Britain.

To use the railcard at least one child and one adult must travel although up to four adults and four children can go, plus there’s no need for them all to be related. For the purposes of the family railcard a child is aged between 5 and 15 years.

This means even if you’re just doing one big journey in the year in these conditions, the purchase price of the ticket should easily be saved.

What should I do?

Simply go to the Family Railcard website (link below), complete the application form and in the promotional code box enter either of these two codes: FRACXG10 or FREXPN10. Offer ends 31 October.

Are there any restrictions on use?

The railcard can’t be used during peak times Monday to Friday if the journey is entirely in the London or South East area.

http://www.railcards-online.co.uk/Family.do

Help Eurostar prepare for the big day, and get free travel.

Help us prepare for the big day and get free travel on Eurostar

On 14th November 2007, Eurostar will begin running train services to and from Paris and Brussels on the new high speed line from St Pancras International. The last services in and out of London Waterloo International will be on 13th November. On 19th November we will open our brand new station in North Kent, Ebbsfleet International.

To ensure that services from the our magnificent new stations run as smoothly as possible we are planning a period of intensive testing and to help create a realistic environment we would like as many people as possible to act as travellers in the various test scenarios.

If you interested in participating as a passenger in one of these test days and to be one of the first to see the new stations you just need to register your details and we’ll let you know where and when to come along.

You will be acting as a typical traveller – picking up tickets, going through check-in, security and passport control, boarding and departure and finally arrival – up to 3 times in one day.

Testing will take place on the following dates:

Tuesday 30th October,
Wednesday 31st October,
Thursday 1st November,
Wednesday 7th November and
Thursday 8th November.

You will only need to be available for one of these days. You will need to arrive at St Pancras some time between 08:30 and 11:30 and will be required for somewhere between 5 and 6 hours.

Although trains will not be going through Eurotunnel (they will either turn round outside St Pancras International or go to and return from Ebbsfleet International), all participants will need a passport/national ID card (valid for international travel).

Refreshments will be provided during the day, including lunch, and travel expenses will be reimbursed up to a limit of £25.

As well as the chance to take part in this unique phase of testing, participants will also get a voucher to be redeemed for a free standard class return ticket to Paris, Lille or Brussels on HS1 (terms and conditions will apply).

For the link to register etc, check out this link:

http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/travel_information/testing.jsp

Rail Watchdog refuses to investigate ‘excessive’ fare rises.

Arrivia Trains Wales (ATW) and South West Trains (SWT) have recently increased their unregulated fares by as much as 34%.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) said the increases were unwelcome to the travelling public but it was “not appropriate to open an investigation”.

Examples of SWT’s increases, which were first announced in March, include a cheap-day return from Alton, in Hampshire, to London rising from £15.80 to £19 - a 20.25% increase.

A Bournemouth-to-London cheap-day return will go up from £36.40 to £43.70 - a 20.05% rise.

The real reason for these increases is the fact that the South East is getting so overcrowded that the only way to decrease passengers is to increase the fares.

In other news FCC have very quietly increased their fares from stations in the London Zones, apparently according to a Letter from Customer Services the original price increase in January was incorrect and now they are adjusting them to the correct prices.