The Ticket Collector

Fares ‘revision’ 18th May.

On the 18th May the new revised fares will be coming into effect on the National Network. Some companies have withdrawn some tickets and replaced them with more expensive tickets.

In January 2008 the overall allowable average increase for regulated fares Peak day and Season Tickets was 4.8%, with variations by flow and ticket type up to a maximum 9.8% increase.

Some Train Companies did not use the full yearly increase and therefore will be increasing the tickets to the yearly maximum this time around.

National Express East Coast (NXEC) will be increasing their already expensive tickets some more in May. We have also received reports (from an unnamed travel centre clerk) that they will charge everyone without an advance ticket a seat reservation charge of £1 for each seat reserved. Is this to stop the season ticket holders reserving seats, or is it to pay for for a new seat reservation printer so they can finally put out reservations 07:20 at Peterborough and late night services out of Kings Cross?

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Tony Blair caught without a ticket, and then allowed to travel for free!

Former prime minister Tony Blair was left red-faced when he was caught travelling on a Heathrow Express train on Wednesday without a ticket and said he had no cash to pay the fare.

Blair, who has earned around 500,000 pounds being a speaker at various events since leaving office in June, was confronted by a ticket inspector as he travelled to Heathrow Airport to catch a flight to the United States on Monday.

He claimed he had no cash for the £24.50 pounds fare because money an aide had given him was no longer in his pocket.
Blairs bodyguard offered to pay the ticket, but the inspector said he could travel for free.

Blair’s spokesman was unavailable for comment.

Ticket names to change.

As if you were not already confused by the huge number of different ticket names, the powers that be have decided to change the names yet again.

So say goodbye to the SuperSaver, the Saver, the Cheap Day Return, the Standard Day Return and say hello to Super Off-Peak and Anytime.

The new ticket types are as follows.

Severe weather warning - Friday 1st and 2nd February.

Severe weather conditions have been forecast by the Met Office for the UK for Friday 1 and Saturday 2 February. The weather warning is valid from 0001 Friday 1st until 0600 Saturday 2nd February.

The Met Office continues to forecast colder weather to spread southwards across the UK during Friday and at first on Saturday giving heavy snow in places. Areas most at risk include Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland from early on Friday, extending to northern and central England and much of Wales on Friday afternoon, and perhaps into southern areas on Friday evening. Northern areas could see accumulations of 10cm of snow, with up to 20cm on higher ground, and blizzard conditions and snow drifts could occur in strong winds. Southern areas could see accumulations of 2 to 5cm of snow by Saturday morning. Disruption to transport and power networks is likely and the public are advised to take extra care. This warning will be updated by 1200 Friday 1st February unless superseded by Flash warnings.

No Smoking on ANY UK station.

Smoking Ban finally arrives.

So its finally arrived, the national smoking ban. All of the railway companies have decided to make all of their premises and property completely smoke free areas.

If you are caught lighting up in a enclosed public area or on a railway station you will face a fine of £50. Railway stations are covered by existing bye-laws and belive it or not were smoke free before the new national smoking ban even came into force.

Also dont drop your fag ends on the floor as this will result in a fine of £80. There are lots of Enforcement officers just waiting around the corner to fine you.

FCC is the worst Operator - National Passenger Survey

The National Passenger Survey was released yesterday and it comes up with some bad reading for many of the Train Companies mentioned.

The latest survey compared the passengers satisfaction levels for individual train operating companies with the survey carried out in Spring 2006. Since 2006 four Train Companies satisfaction levels have declined significantly (First Great Western, First ScotRail, First Capital Connect and Northern Rail), and three have significantly improved (Midland Mainline, Arriva Trains Wales and Heathrow Express). Fourteen have had no statistically significant changes in their overall satisfaction results compared with Spring 2006.

• The lowest ratings for overall satisfaction were given to First Capital Connect [First Group] (71%), First Great Western [First Group] (72%), One [National Express Group] (72%), Southeastern (74%), and Silverlink [National Express Group](76%).

• The highest ratings for overall satisfaction were achieved by Heathrow Express (94%), Gatwick Express [National Express Group] (92%), Chiltern Railways (90%), Midland Mainline [National Express Group] (90%), c2c [National Express Group] (89%), and TransPennine Express [First Group] (89%).