Re: Boxing Day Services: Transpennine Express to give it a go?


"Neil Williams" <wensleydale@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:495dd821.650216176@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 2 Jan 2009 08:34:40 -0000, "Graham Harrison"
<edward.harrison1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Why is it that people will commit to a flight (even for a domestic journey)
but are reluctant to do the same for a train over a similar distance (I'm
talking about Inter City here, not local)?

Because there is usually no "walk-up" option[1] for the kind of
distance of travel/international travel where flying would come under
consideration.

For most domestic journeys I do with any regularity, the choice is
between car and train. Other modes don't really come into it. Both
of these modes cost about the same (in the case of my car with just me
in it vs. Off-Peak Return), and both offer a similar level of walk-up
flexibility. This usually leaves the choice down to what I feel like
at the time and how much luggage is required.

For the kind of journey where flights would come into play, the
distance is usually far enough that car (the ultimate flexible option)
is not a viable choice.

That I can recall, I have never taken a UK domestic flight, and if I
was doing the only likely one would be to Scotland, which I would
consider a bit far to drive in one go. Though the flexibility and
lower price when booked nearer the time of travel (or bought on the
day) would probably make it an easy choice in favour of rail.

[1] Even a fully-flexible ticket on a flight isn't really "walk-up"
because flights are often booked full. Eurostar *almost* is, because
of the overcapacity they have, but only for now.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

Thank you. Until the beginning of this century I would probably have given serious thought to flying even from London to Manchester (I did live only 15 miles from Heathrow at the time) and did indeed fly quite a lot domestically. However, with all the "security" faff now associated with flying I probably wouldn't consider it except (as you say) going to Newcastle or beyond.

It sounds like I'm in a better position to consider trains these days since I retired. I find it depends on a whole range of criteria what form of transport I use. I go from Somerset to Berkshire a couple of times a month and FGW fares can be quite reasonable if booked in advance and provided you have flexibility in the time you travel. The problem I face is the amount of stuff I want to carry *and* the fact that once in Berkshire I need to move around after midnight.

Despite all that I really don't believe that the railways have yield control properly organised yet. They seem to assume that you just put a few seats on each yield "bucket" and let them sell (or not). They fail to recognise that it is sometimes beneficial to reopen the cheap buckets very close to departure to gain some revenue/cash flow that would otherwise have been lost. I always remember a flight from Manchester to Los Angeles that, about a week before departure, was full. Then every class had 4 seats available (the aircraft was a 767 with Business and Economy). What was interesting was that it didn't matter which bucket you pulled a seat from, the availability dropped to 3 in all classes (yes, Business and Economy). Of course the airlines have a controlled environment that allows upgrades etc when overbooking occurs (and I'm pretty certain that someone on that plane would have been upgraded had those 4 seats sold)..

.

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