In message , at 08:18:55 on
Fri, 22 Jun 2007, Paul Corfield remarked:

* A new hourly service between Kettering and London, increasing the
number of off peak services on the midland main line to five trains per
hour. It has also been agreed in principle to extend this service to a
new station at Corby from December 2008. This removes the need to split
and join trains at Leicester.

I don't follow this at all. What removes the need to split trains at
Leicester - the Kettering service, or the extension to Corby? And why
does the new Kettering service mean they "don't need to" run one stopper
from London to Leicester per hour, then send two separate sections to
Derby and Nottingham. If anything it would make it *more* of the right
thing to do.

* The new station at East Midlands Parkway will be served by two trains
an hour from December 2008,

One fast and one stopper perhaps? Alternating each between Derby and
Nottingham, or what?

And they'd better get cracking - still no sign of them breaking ground.

* More investment including more than £5m on improvements to stations,
at least 1250 extra car parking spaces

Double-counting the parking spaces at EMP, perhaps?

and the introduction of smart card technology by 2010.

Oyster, or something else?

* 50% of the price paid for a single-leg journey delayed by between 30
and 59 minutes;

* 100% of the price paid for a single-leg journey delayed by between 60
and 119 minutes; and

* 100% of the price paid for a return journey delayed by more than 119
minutes.

So you can "tot up" the delays on a return trip, presumably.
--
Roland Perry

In message om, at
01:25:53 on Fri, 22 Jun 2007, Bob
remarked:
Are there any secret plans to raise off peak fares or to issue guards
with instructions to treat passengers wanting to buy tickets on board
as fare dodgers - see thread concerning SWT. I think we should be
told.

MML already operate a fierce "no ticket = Fare Dodger" policy. Have done
for about a year.

--
Roland Perry

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jun 22, 9:18 am, Paul Corfield wrote:

Therefore discounts in renewal for season tickets valid between one
month and one year in compensation for poor punctuality and reliability
will be replaced by compensation based on delays to individual journeys,
known as Delay/Repay. Under the new system, all passengers will be
entitled to claim compensation for all delays, whatever their cause.

Interesting. Perhaps this is in the hope that it will look good but
at the same time reduce claims as people won't be bothered to make
them?


Thats definitely the conclusion we came to yesterday in the thread 'Season
Ticket Delay compensation'...

Paul

In message .com, at
01:37:25 on Fri, 22 Jun 2007, W14_Fishbourne
remarked:
I think you'll still see very low bargain fares available - it's
mainly the off-peak walk-up fares that'll be affected.

So Saver fares aren't regulated? Is it just the CDRs which are.
--
Roland Perry

In uk.railway Neil Williams wrote:
On Jun 22, 9:18 am, Paul Corfield wrote:

* The Community Rail service between Matlock and Derby will be increased
to every hour and extended directly to Nottingham.

Wonder how long that is guaranteed for if it becomes a big cash-
waster?

At a guess the Derby-Nottingham leg will subsidise the Matlock-Derby
end...

pete
--
"how many clever men have called the sun a fool?"

I posted back in February my thoughts on bidders and my first choice read:

1) Stagecoach. Not only winning by several lengths, but almost a one-horse
race. Their bid manager, Rufus Boyd, really impressed me with his clarity of
vision, understanding of region and understanding of problems.

So on balance this is the best I could have hoped for I suppose.

The dropping of the silly idea of splitting/joining Meridians at Leicester
is good, but from where has NR found the path that wasn't there before? The
Lincoln - London service is interesting.

But, the press release is largely about ex-MML. It doesn't say a great deal
about ex-CT rural lines.

David

W14_Fishbourne wrote:

On another topic entirely, this announcement means that National
Express - once the biggest owner of TOCs is now down to one railway
and c2c. (I expect these two TOCs to be merged, making the name "one"
strangely prophetic!)

Do you mean that you expect the DfT to merge the franchises (in which case,
why wasn't LTS included in Greater Anglia in the first place?) or that you
expect NatEx to market them as a 'common' entity (as with Virgin Trains as
the trading name for both Virgin West Coast and Virgin CrossCountry)? In the
latter case the TOCs cannot be merged as they are required to be accounted
for independently, in line with the franchises, although a common branding
can be applied.

Jack Taylor wrote:
Do you mean that you expect the DfT to merge the franchises (in which case,
why wasn't LTS included in Greater Anglia in the first place?)

The idea is once the current c2c franchise expires, that it gets merged
into the Greater Anglia setup.

They both expire in 2011, at which point (assuming they have done well)
NX can get a 3 year extension to One, which is likely to include c2c

Great Eastern wrote:
Jack Taylor wrote:
Do you mean that you expect the DfT to merge the franchises (in which
case, why wasn't LTS included in Greater Anglia in the first place?)

The idea is once the current c2c franchise expires, that it gets merged
into the Greater Anglia setup.

They both expire in 2011, at which point (assuming they have done well)
NX can get a 3 year extension to One, which is likely to include c2c


Forgot to add, c2c and One Railway already share certain departments
(Accounts/Payroll and Customer Services for c2c are done by One)

I suppose it wasnt included to begin with as there was no guarantee that
NX would get Greater Anglia, and c2c didn't expire the same time as
FGE/AR/WAGN

On 22 Jun, 09:37, W14_Fishbourne wrote:
On another topic entirely, this announcement means that National
Express - once the biggest owner of TOCs is now down to one railway
and c2c. (I expect these two TOCs to be merged, making the name "one"
strangely prophetic!)

Did someone say "Bowker effect"?

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org