Peter Sarf
Established Member
I think one concern is that the big loss in numbers has been travel associated with season tickets so there is a nice wedge of income up front gone missing. It is more a rise in off peak travel compared to a loss of peak travel.There has not been a journey of over 50 miles that I have taken in the last 12 to 18 months where there hasn't been some form of disruption and a good few under the 50 or 60 mile threshold as well, especially when said journey involves Thameslink in or out of North Kent or the Elizabeth line
Has somebody said above, it's a minor miracle that passenger numbers have climbed back largely to pre-pandemic levels, somehow doubt they will do a great deal of growing while the current order persists
Going back in time to the invention of the cheap day return. It was always a device to fill underused off peak services. Perhaps we have at last achieved that - bye bye off peak returns (I hope not).
I am seeing a pressure for people to return to working from work.
My bold - I do hope it was a folding bike !.I've been around London early this Sunday morning. No Marathon or similar. Grey, cold, wet and windy. Yet the trains are notably busy. District Line from Earls Court to Paddington, a less-frequented branch, was well-filled. Elizabeth arriving at Paddington at 0900 from Reading, not Heathrow, full and standing (including one with a real Penny Farthing bicycle!).
I did notice the trains well-filled but the buses empty.
A lot of my journey are off peak Monday-Friday.Hopefully. Another part of the problem is the shorter trains just outside of the peaks, I'm finding it can be close to full and standing on the five car services.
East Croydon to Victoria 10:00-12:00 these are getting very crowded meaning platform dwell time at East Croydon gets extended. These seem to be mainly 8 car services where 12car would have been the norm before Covid. So would need these services to be 150% loaded to justify return to 12 coaches. Obviously some would be extended first leaving others to catch up later.
Back to East Croydon from London, usually 18:00 or later, I find both Thames link and Victoria routes are busy, possibly Thameslink worse.
Also yesterday (Saturday) East Croydon to Victoria at about 17:40 8car was standing passengers. I really struggled to get from the rear to the front. Got a seat at Clapham Junction.