Exactly 5 years on, I'm simply going to 'bump' this topic, to offer that information again to our more recent readers - and to encourage them to register.

Chris from Nailsea. 

 

Direct quote from GWR "We had a reduced timetable in place due to engineering work and crew shortages and severe weather has affected the remaining services I am afraid" - so a bit of everything.

They are also telling their customers that they won't be rearranging replacement transport but if you can arrange your own they will reimburse, and whilst not being quite so explicit, suggesting that hotel bills will be met for those stranded. Apparently Paddington is predictably appalling.

What arrangements will be made for any vulnerable customers, or those who don't have the means to make upfront payments, God knows.

 
1.  Reading, transfer deck.

Blimey!  I'd forgotten I was there on that day. 

 
'Heavy rain flooding the railway' is perhaps understandable - Storm Bert and all that. 

But such a litany of 'cancellation due to a shortage of train crew' shows that GWR are now merely providing a 'Monday to Friday' train service. 

CfN. 

 

Yes - lots of "and"s.   

I have put a calculator at https://www.greatwesternrailway.info/fairfare.html and you can experiment from there. Please forgive the poor formatting so far.

 
I have mentioned FOI before Mark's URL because the abbreciations system has "got at it".  The original link probably worked initially for those of you with "expand off" selected.

 
Maybe for the DfT - GWR aren't able to do much about the problem currently

 
Does for me!

 
Nope. Shortened link doesn't work either.

 
Convenient weather for GWR.

 
Ah, sorry, let's try a shortened link.

Mark

https://tinyurl.com/4ypmuhf6

 
Weather-related, it must be clarified

 

Ah, OK, thanks. That explains the absence. I wasn't disappointed not to see Minør; foolishly I thought it would make for a more challenging 'Where was Red Squirrel'!

 

And demonstrate to the DfT that they won't lose a shed load of income as a result.

And fend off the press when they find the fares that will go up significantly as a result.

And... 

 
Can't get that link to work Mark.

 

Getting complicated


 
-

 

21:15 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:05
21:15 Penzance to London Paddington due 05:05 will be cancelled.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

23:50 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:54
23:50 London Paddington to Penzance due 07:54 will be cancelled.
This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

 
13:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:57

13:42 Swindon to Weymouth due 15:57 will be started from Westbury and terminated at Yeovil Pen Mill.
It will no longer call at Swindon, Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Thornford, Yetminster, Chetnole, Maiden Newton, Dorchester West, Upwey and Weymouth.

This is due to heavy rain flooding the railway.

 

The second link worked for me - including a lesson in the correct pronunciation. 

The other engine is pictured there:



CfN. 

 
Further changes:

 
Now reporting that all trains between Plymouth/Cornwall to London are cancelled

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/trains-plymouth-cornwall-london-cancelled-9740819?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0l7rev06oErhJt_UhQ0Kn-CZzMUfqwGwKvX58hM0aKKtAU4aHqUvFOtxc_aem_wH6PWkvCEX59WFuDKklasw#Echobox=1732458165

 
One of the fascinating things we have available these days which we did not have when the fares were set is computing power to allow much more complex dynamic calculation - for the calculations to be more complex but the algorithms simple.

Let's start with routing for walk-up tickets:
1. The shortest route is always allowed. And It is the basis for fare calculation.
2. Direct (through) services are always allowed
3. When you walk up the train combination that will get you there earliest is always allowed.

If it does not add more than 10% to the distance, this route too is treated as the shortest route
If you are following a route according to 1, break of journey is allowed, otherwise not.

Pricing. For an anytime single ticket

1. Each station to station leg has a price based on the distance between stations - in other  word "x pence per mile".  However, there may be a quality of service and infrastructure factor applied to that, somewhere (bar exceptional circumstances) between 0.8 and 1.2. A "for instance" might be that the Pilning to Severn Tunnel Junction factor is 1.2 and looking at the other end of the scale, some northern legs already mentioned (Hammerton to Cattal) might come in at 0.8.

2. Add a fixed fee - call in "station use" if you like - of "y pence"

3. Add up the grand total and it's a base fare of "z".

4. Actual fare charged is the full base fare up to amount "a", then discounted by 20% up to amount "b" and discounted by 40% in excess of that.  Sort od inverse way that taxation works.

You ARE allowed to chose your own "via"stations in which case it's price that way

For a return ticket - work out the distance in just the same way - except it's double.  So when you come to step 4, a return ticket will be cheaper than 2 singles because of the discount levels.   Return ticket validity based on distance - valid for out and back journeys completed within 50 hours.

First Class, plus 40%

Off Peak - valid for travel except at any time 07:30 to 09:00 and journeys starting between 16:30 to 19:00 on Monday to Friday - minus 20%. 

Season tickets - based on a fare cap of 7.5 single journeys per week; Rangers and rovers based on a fare cap within the areas covered. 

All I need to do now is to define the factors and write a script to work out your fare.

 

Prior to the introduction of "Savers", and at least as late as 1982, the general offering seemed to be Standard Single / Return, Monthly Return, Weekend Return and Day Return, in decreasing order of price per mile.

The day return didn't have a distance cap, either. Certainly, Newport-Newcastle was available in Feb 1982 (£27).

I have a leaflet for an early form of Groupsave, back in 1977. The quoted fare from Newport to Newcastle (available Saturdays only)  was £6.84 

 

Well - that did something  . ...



200 = good request
302 = redirection
403 = forbidden
404 = page not found (hardly any of those)

We do appear (last 24 hours) to have had an over-enthusiastic search engine - it has made 7,000 requests since 03:30 this morning and I have asked it to cut the rate.  I have also asked a visitor from Tehran who's looking at ticket flows every 2 seconds and has called up 1000 so far to desist! We'll see how it goes

 
Moved to look up how TfL handles edge cases, I found this from 2017 (mention FOI)

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/foi-request-detail?referenceId=FOI-1798-1718

The FOI return has info on the grace periods for touch in / out allowed at the start / end of peak segments. How do the national rail gatelines handle the boundaries of peak travel times, does anyone know? This is presumably going to be further complicated by easements on individual journeys though.

Mark

 

Good. Sorta. I suspect the 12:37 from Westbury will leave before the 11:00 from Weymouth arrives, mind.  The whole solution would seem to be to have more available train (drivers and TMs) and not have to employ so many bus (drivers). Oh - and it would be just one train and not two buses!

 

This chimes with an account I read from a couple of young residents of Nottingham who travelled to Leicester on a (rail-related) explore,  day returns from Victoria to Loughborough and Loughborough to Leicester making the excursion rather more affordable than it would otherwise have been.

Mark

 

And of course, having replies turned off means that GWR don't have a public record of the justifiable complaints about the woeful service they provide far too often. Today is another example of the all too regular Sunday meltdown due to GWR's inaction in addressing crew shortages. Handily today though GWR can somewhat use the weather excuse to hide behind.