"Recliner" wrote:

Actually, Chiltern has shown very little interest in picking up more
commuter traffic from the London suburbs. It's more interested in
becoming a regional operator, focused on moving people from towns more
than 50 miles to London. I say this sadly, as my nearest station is on
the Chiltern line, and it gets a derisory service.


That's probably because Chiltern gets derisory revenue from TfL for
services within Travelcard zones 1-6 and also stations from Amersham
to Rickmansworth.

For example, Chiltern has reduced peak services to and from Amersham
because the returns simply don't justify providing services. I feel
sure that this problem is shared by other TOCs with London termini,
plus cross-London services, so let's not use it as an excuse to bash
one particular TOC, eh?

I don't know whether this was the reason behind last year's swingeing
price rise for Travelcards from Amersham. The price of a one day off
peak Travelcard rose from £9.00 to £11.00, a 22% rise, set against an
average LUL fare rise of 6%.

Coupled with a significant increase in parking charges at Amersham,
this has caused me to revise my travel plans for visits to London,
almost all of which are off peak.

Previously, driving to Amersham, parking and taking the train to
London was an easy and logical choice. Now, if I am travelling alone,
I either take the train from either Aylesbury (taxi to/from station)
or Stoke Mandeville (drive and park), or drive all the way. I have
used the train just once in 2011.

Most of my trips to London are with my partner and now we always
drive, because using the train makes no financial sense when two or
more are travelling.

Thanks, Boris! ;-)