SWT - stuff the passenger, bank the lolly

Good to see that SWT is maintaining its unrivaled reputation for dry shafting the passenger.

This nonsense via Yahoo:

A couple have had to pay a £114 fine after getting off a train two stops early.

Emma Clark and Davyd Winter-Bates were travelling to Southampton from London with South West Trains when they decided to get off two stops early at Eastleigh.

When they handed over their tickets at the station, they were told they were each being fined £57 because they had not stayed on the train until their destination.

The fine was twice the standard fare of £28.50.

Eye suggests that SWT should consider diversifying into the catering trade.

Using the same perverse 'revenue protection' logic they could then fine diners for failing to finish their meals.

Get a grip.

UPDATE: This from SharpSharp...

I run a coffee shop.

If I did a half price offer on americano's it would make them cheaper than espresso's. But if someone asked for an americano without the water I'd tell them they could have their usual espresso and that they should stop trying to pull a fast one.

When you buy advanced purchase tickets you don't have the option to change your plans and it is made very clear that they are valid only for the journey on the tickets.

If Emma and David were traveling to Eastleigh they should have purchased a ticket to Eastleigh.

UPDATE: This from Billy Connections...

I'm not sure why you have posted the anti-SWT rant - the couple were in breach of the terms and conditions of a special offer ticket they were sold - good on the SWT gripper for fining them.

Too many people here never consult terms and conditions of any

purchase and then assume that if they've made a mistake that they are still in the right.

Caveat Emptor!

UPDATE: This from Captain Auto...

Further to the furore:

Am I to assume that common sense on the part of ticketing staff is no longer to be encouraged?

Those who have replied are indeed entirely correct in their application of the standing rules and regulations.

I would suggest however that such heavy handed treatment of passengers (fare paying passengers, not ticketless scrotes intend on avoiding paying at all costs) is likely to damage both the reputation of SWT and ensure that the couple involved are unlikely to travel by train again.

I'm with TFC - a wonderful own-goal by the winners of Passenger Operator of the Year 2005*.

* What a difference a franchise change makes; they said they'd pay £1.2 billion in 2007. I suppose that £114 fine is at least going to cheer up the Treasury in some small way.

UPDATE: This from D0260...

I notice that SWT charged a couple £114 for getting off the train two stops early.

The question I would like to ask is:

Just how much would SWT have charged if the couple had failed to make the journey at all?

When choice and competition doesn't matter

Telegrammed by Bulldog Drummond...
Nick Hassell in his Times Tempus column today does quite a good job analysing Stagecoach's recent (fairly creditable) performance.

But he ends up talking, as most analysts do, of upcoming sector consolidation.

Have any of these deep thinking hacks paused for a moment to think what the Competition Commission response will be?

The Government contracted passenger transport industry is already reduced to a handful of serious players.

Any fewer and CoCo will, rightly, see huge conflicts of interest.

What buses and railways want are more varied and interesting players rather than the present narrow field dominated by European nationalised railways and Scottish bus bandits.

Stuff Weary Travellers; count the money.

Telegrammed by The Master
One of the beauties of rail over air travel is that you don't have to turn up two hours ahead and queue for check-in.

Alas the modern railway is doing its best to bugger up this benefit.

Despite arriving 28 minutes early at Waterloo today all my time was spent queuing at the self-service machines to try and buy a ticket.


Fifteen machines are provided, but despite this chaos descends as soon as anyone unfamiliar with them joins the queue.

Each transaction takes an age - and it's not as if you can just walk on to the train and buy your ticket.

Of course Waterloo is now gated and SWT take great pleasure in administering a penalty fare to any passenger foolish enough to attempt buying a ticket on the train.

So much for a pleasurable travelling experience.

I made my train with only a few minutes to spare and sans any refreshments.

Thanks SWT.

UPDATE 26/05/09: This just in from 'Mike'...

Victoria on 19th May...

Despite the two companies operating services there both being owned by Govia, there are separate machines, with only two on the South Eastern side. Only one of which was working.

Off to the South Central side only to see a notice taped onto all machines "Due to a download problem, Southeastern destinations are not available from this machine".

If it wasn't for the barriers, Southeastern are pretty good at selling tickets on Ramsgate/Dover trains.

How un-joined up is that?

Straitscoach woes

All appears not to be well between Stagecoach and DafT.

This from Stagecoach's Trading Update:

The Group is also providing an update on the status of discussions between it and the Department for Transport (“DfT”) in respect of the South Western Trains (“SWT”) rail franchise.

More to follow...

UPDATE: This from PA via Business East Midlands...

South West Trains operator Stagecoach has warned of a "significant" operating loss in two years if a dispute with the Government is not resolved.

Bodes well for discussions on the South Central franchise...

How the railway works #1

There's gratitude!

This from Stagecoach...

Passengers using megabusplus.com will be able to travel between London’s St Pancras Station and nine key locations in the North of England - Hull, Scunthorpe, Doncaster, Castleford, Harrogate, York, Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield.

The fast, integrated journey will be by comfortable coach and high-quality train, provided by East Midlands Trains, running in and out of St Pancras.

Nice of First to give their class 222s to EMT, so that Stagecoach have enough rail capacity to mount a raid on Hull Trains' flows.

Straitscoach

On top of EMT's announcement yesterday that it is shedding 162 jobs come other strange rumours.

The latest of which is that the SWT and EMT press offices are being combined.

Is this good news for joined up communications or a disaster waiting to happen.

We'll probably never know as the new, improved, press desk is bound to be hopelessly understaffed!

UPDATE: This from a delighted Straitscoach employee...

You might also be interested to hear that Souter has taken to personally perusing all SWT driver workings.

The last time he took such a keen personal interest you may recollect SWT ended up short of drivers for about two years.

No matter - passengers are free to write to their MPs!

The good news is that Brian won't see those who contributed to his profits thrown on the scrapheap!

Those "displaced" are invited to apply for jobs elsewhere in the Stagecoach empire.

Managers, catering staff and booking clerks now have the unrivalled opportunity to tackle exciting new career challenges, such as errr... cleaning buses in Kettering.

Of course, were the DfT to sit down and re-organise figures and franchise payments in exchange for employment protection we might not be in this mess.

But with the Treasury having to pay all those bankers' pensions there just isn't the money...