ITSO - What's in a name?

This from, a fulminating, Captain Deltic...

Is there a more stupid name for an ITSO compliant transport smart card, than Southern's 'the key' - note the poncey lower case.

Must add Southern's Development Director to my harangue list.

UPDATE: This from Randy Scouse Git...

You should be so lucky!

Mersey Travel is calling ours the 'Walrus'.

'Daydream Believer' would have been so much better!

UPDATE: This from Mr Reginald Slicker...

One can only commend MerseyTravel on their capitalisation of the name.

And if I may say so - Goo goo g'joob goo!

UPDATE: This from Retired Railway Manager...

At least ‘Walrus’ shows knowledge of a bit of railway history (being the ‘Fishkind’ name of a bogie engineers ballast wagon).

However, what connection that may have with ITSO and or anything else connected with it is debatable.

Unless this is forward planning for when the Mersey floods?

Ticket office closures is first test for Greening

Good news for those concerned about proposals to reduce booking office hours and station staffing!

This from the constituency website of the new Transport Secretary...

Justine Greening said:

"These Government-backed plans will seriously inconvenience thousands of Londoners who use these stations every day. To slash opening times by over 200 hours is staggering- and that's just in London .

"Worse still, the serious cuts in weekend and evening services raise real concerns over passenger safety. Rail passengers already face delays and over-crowding, and now the Government is making it harder for them to simply buy a ticket."

Indeed.

Although these wise words were uttered whilst in opposition, it is surely inconceivable that the MP for Putney will change her tune just because she has moved to Marsham Street?

A word on today's ticket machine story.

This from a Mr Malins...

Did I not hear the Passenger Focus man Smith berating the TOCs for their failings on Radio 4 this morning?

Consider then that the response of Bus Barons and DafT to this failing is to install ticket barriers to "recover" the money for the tickets the TOCs did not sell properly in the first place!


With stockade station - HMP Walton-on-Thames the result.

UPDATE: This from Globetrotter...

I wonder whether the latest Passenger Focus survey is investigating the symptoms rather than the cause?

Does the dissatisfaction expressed by ticket machine users really reflect concerns over the problem of using the machines themselves, or is it really a reflection of the complexity of the current fare structures?

Given that a substantial number of booking office staff seem to have problems explaining and selling all the different ticket options, it is not surprising that passengers have problems navigating the system when left to do it themselves.

Particularly now that ATOC has helpfully 'simplified' the process by giving all the different ticket types the same names.

30% dissatisfied with rail ticket purchasing

Telegrammed by Our Man at 222 Marylebone Road
Clearly the train operators are living in a parallel universe when an SWT press release can glibly say:

"Passenger Focus research, shows around seven in every 10 customers are satisfied with rail ticket purchasing facilities".

And they expect us to consider this a major achievement?

Out in the real world, for any business to have an activity which left 30% of customers dissatisfied would see a rapid change in the management responsible.

Especially since this is the operation which delivers cash flow.

Perhaps Petrol-head should invite Archie Norman or Sir Stuart Rose to run the retail side of franchises?

People on the railways I would like to meet...

Telegrammed by Bulldog Drummond
The Person who Helps Test the Fast Track Ticket Machines

Although most Railway Eye readers, being lucky recipients of concessionary travel, do not use ticket machines they may want to pause for a moment to think about the extraordinary person who helps test the Fast Track ticket machines.

The main screen is ideally designed for someone around 5 feet tall and the module where payment is made is clearly designed for someone around 3 foot six inches (this screen is also very hard to read with anyone possessing normal eyesight).

To add to the challenge the main screen and payment module are so far apart that the traditionally shaped human being does not have sufficient reach.

So where do they find a five foot high individual with a double length right arm and the matching rubber neck required to read the small screen?

UPDATE: This from Captain Deltic...

Might I add to the list of Desiderata, the ability to touch type on credit card key pays with the numbers worn away.

Alternatively, infra-red vision able to see the outline where the numbers were.

UPDATE: This from The Major...

The Major suspects that that Fast Ticket machines have been designed to be suitable for those in wheelchairs.

He's not yet in one (the day cannot be too far ahead...) so would welcome views from anyone who is and has used these machines.

Before then doing battle with barriers and all the other impediments train operators put before their passengers...

UPDATE: Bulldog Drummond responds...

I note the Major's comments but the TfL ticket machines (the big ones are very similar to Fast Ticket) are much better laid out.

I cannot believe that TfL would do anything that is not DDA compliant.

Man loses shirt off back for rail tickets! - Official!

This from News:Lite...

Man tattooed with train logo... for free rail tickets

Story here.

Europe's High Speed Railways stuck in the past

This from the BBC with a bowler tip to the Commuter...

Railteam, the alliance of European high-speed rail operators, has shelved plans for a Europe-wide common booking system because of increasing costs... The new system would have created a one-stop-shop for tickets for complete high-speed journeys across Europe.

So whilst nearly everybody is now convinced that High Speed Rail is the right method of travelling around Europe it would appear that the flabby state owned operators still can't be arsed to offer their customers single transaction ticketing.

Europe's railways - the transport of tomorrow (if you're living in the 1950s).

UPDATE: This from D1062...

Whilst the European ticketing dream alluded to is mere pie in the sky, there are a couple of institutions well served to guide you through the maze of European ticketing and serve as a one stop shop (albeit one that will give you lots of tickets) this side of the border.

I can recommend Deutsche Bahn UK (have your details ready and email them, they will call you back - ruthlessly efficient), and Ffestiniog Travel. Note for any rail staff, Ffestiniog Travel do not issue European FIP tickets.

UPDATE: This from the Globetrotter...

I am no apologist for Railteam, but as one who actually attended the presentation in Brussels last week (unlike the BBC), can I comment on your recent report.

The cancellation of the Broker ticketing system is really no surprise, given that it was hugely ambitious to try and develop something that could sell tickets from any station in Europe to any other, comparing and combining all the different fare options for each leg. After all, as any Doe can tell you it's bad enough negotiating the UK fares minefield alone! If Railteam are to be faulted, it is perhaps for thinking that it could all be achieved for EUR30m in the first place.

According to ticketing insiders, the biggest problem was combining 'closed' ticketing systems like SNCF and Eurostar, where inter-city trains are reservation-only, with the German camp that favours an 'open' walk-on strategy.

Because of EU competition rules, Railteam cannot set fares itself, but only act as a joint marketing facility. So as a more realistic option, the partners are negotiating bilateral agreements which will, I am told, put in place a basket of international fares between 7,000 principal destinations, to be sold via www.railteam.eu. There may also be zonal add-ons for connecting journeys to and from these hubs.

Because airlines only serve a relatively limited number of O-D pairs, we have come to expect that through tickets can be booked and paid for online with one or two clicks. Given that there are so many more rail destinations, the options are orders of magnitude greater.

Only when airlines start to sell multi-modal through tickets from Little Piddling to Jernbacksnortle via Gatwick and Frankfurt, can we realistically demand that rail operators do the same. (Even assuming that the EU will let them!).

Oyster to be valid on National Rail someday soon - Official

This from the BBC...

London commuters will be able to use pay-as-you-go Oyster cards on the city's suburban overland rail network by early next year, officials said.

The devil's in the detail - still no start date.

UPDATE: This from John Bull over at London Reconnections...

Official announcement is likely to happen next week - which is conveniently AFTER Mayor's Question time (tomorrow).

Means Boris doesn't have to answer awkward questions from his betters (Shawcross, Pidgeon etc.) on why he completely bottled it in the negotiations and allowed the TOCs to force Oyster Extension Permits on him.

Après le Déluge...

Surely First Great Western won't be allowed to profit from this?

According to thisiscornwall.co.uk...

TRURO railway station has been closed after torrential rain caused the roof to cave in above the ticket office on Thursday morning.

Passengers can only buy daily tickets in cash from a machine on platform two; all advance tickets and payments by card are unavailable.

Eye trusts that Passenger Focus is on the case, even though it's the weekend?

Lies, damned lies and TrainLies

So the supine Advertising Standards Authority has finally decided to act on the TrainLine's misleading and frankly rather insulting 'sheep ads'.

Not before time.

However, the spin has been spun and the resulting media coverage of the ban will probably give greater exposure to the TrainLies poxy website than the entire ad campaign.

The full ASA report can be found here.

There must be a better way to regulate crap advertising?

UPDATE: This just in from 'Sword of Truth'...

I was one of the complainants to the ASA about this TrainLies advert.

I initially took it up with Passenger Focus, who proved as much use as a chocolate fireguard. In fact I've lost count of the number of times I've received replies from the alleged passenger watchdog saying: “Passenger Focus is unable to help you on this matter”.

What do Passenger Focus actually do, apart from turn up on the TV, whinging about fares, overcrowding or rail passengers on buses?

All of which seems not to make a jot of difference to the journeys of real rail passengers.

UPDATE: Matthew Engel in his new book Eleven Minutes Late offers the following reflection on Passenger Focus...

Anthony Smith (is) the chief executive of something called Passenger Focus which purports to represent rail passengers.

Smith is appointed by the Board of Passenger Focus which in turn is appointed by the Government... this puts Smith roughly in the position of the court-appointed defence lawyer in a Soviet show trial.

He is allowed to put in the odd word on behalf of his clients - and indeed is frequently quoted in the news media - provided he does not do so too vigorously.

In the Soviet Union that would have got him shot. This being Britain he would merely endanger his OBE.

DafT's abysmal PPM

The Commons' Public Accounts Committee has published its report into the Department of Transport: Letting of Rail Franchises 2005-2007.

Predictably the media focused upon the PAC's call to make discounted fares more easily available to those without internet access.

However, as those without internet access won't be reading the Eye probably not worth focusing on this overly much.

Of greater interest is the criticism the PAC reserved for the Government's endless spin over the alleged 1,300 vehicles the department keeps promising the network.

The PAC report stated:

The Department promises of bringing 1,300 new rail carriages into service by 2014 look over-optimistic.

There are only 423 on order so far, and another 150 carriages are the subject of negotiations. It takes 30 to 36 months to mobilise the supply chain, suggesting deliveries running into 2011–2012 for the current work in progress.

If Daft were an owner group, and this piss-poor rate of delivery were translated into a Public Performance Measure, it would forfeit its franchises.

Now there's an idea!

MacCranks embrace ITSO

Exciting news from Scottish heritage railways

Transport Scotland is planning to introduce an integrated ticketing system based on smart card technology.

Quick off the mark, the Heritage Railway Association's Scottish Committee is lobbying hard to be part of the scheme from day one.

Alas, south of the border, the luddites still rule.

Despite a trial with Season Ticket holders on the Windsor-Staines route, SWT "is still in discussion with the Department for Transport to finalise timescales for (Oyster) rollout to other lines on the network".

A mere five and a half years after the cards were first introduced.

Listening government

Where Railway Eye goes, ministers are sure to follow.

Within hours of our Independent Expert posting that rail fares need to fall because of deflation, what happens?

Ministers let it be known that "rail fares will be allowed to fall in line with deflation".

In the land of the one-eyed the blogger is king!

Ticket to be taken for a ride?

Telegrammed by our Independent Expert
My old colleague Simon Calder rallied to the defence of rail fares in his Indy column this weekend.

But I fear he misses the point.

It's fine to claim there are bargains to be had, but in this deflationary world they are simply not good enough.

It's all about public perception. My petrol is cheaper, my gas bill fell last week, my mortgage is down, I can name my price if I want a new car. Last week I booked exactly the same summer holiday for my family as last year but it is £300 cheaper.

By contrast train fares seem to most people to be extortionate and inflexible.

Last week I went from Preston to a meeting in Carlisle, a couple of stops up the WCML. My standard class one-way ticket cost the best part of £30. My colleagues, using their cars on the M6 for around a fiver, thought I was insane. And come to think of it maybe I was.

Oliver Price from Chislehurst, published on the Telegraph letters page last week is more realistic than Simon Calder.

He says: 'You highlight the scandalously high cost of rail fares. I can only endorse this. Since the rise in the cost of tickets coincided with a lowering of petrol prices it's now cheaper to drive to my work in Chiswick (about 20 miles) than to take the train.'

Rail buffs still chant the mantra about 'managing demand'.

But what demand?

I'm posting this on the almost empty 10:46 Euston to Lancaster.

Privately I hear that Virgin first class bookings are down by thirty per cent.

Well it may be even worse - there were probably as many ticket staff at the barrier as there are passengers in all four first class coaches this morning.

Calder on the nail

Unusual words of wisdom in the Independent this morning.

This from Simon Calder...

Plenty is still wrong with Britain’s rail pricing: if you miss your train, you can throw away your Advance ticket... But much is looking good – and, as business travel declines, leisure travel deals should get even better.

Indeed they should. What with several InterCity TOCs already recording a 30% year on year fall in first class traffic.

The wrong trousers

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
Railway Eye was delighted to receive the following in a press release from The Stonewood Group:

"Data Breeches A Thing Of The Past - Guaranteed
Stonewood Group, the World’s leading designer and manufacturer of accredited encrypted hard drives, has announced the launch of the first ever fully encrypted, fully portable family of products for today’s mobile workforce".

The Stonewood Group are to be congratulated for abolishing ITSO compliant keks before they've been invented.

ITSO out-of-date

***The perils of modern technology explained***

Entente cordiale

An RMT press release announces that the brothers are off to France tomorrow.

The union has organised a Eurostar train to Paris so that members can demonstrate against the privatisation of Europe's rail networks.

The Fact Compiler assumes that Privs won't be valid on RMT's Eurostar either.

I am not a number

The Fact Compiler has been asked to help with a survey on ticket machine use.

Normally this sort of request would be placed in the circular filing cabinet, under recycle.

However, just as the delete button was about to be fingered, a press release from Passenger Focus thudded into the inbox:

"South West Trains and Passenger Focus have today released research showing passengers are still queuing at ticket offices despite knowing that ticket machines are available.

Although 78% of people questioned in the survey said they had used ticket vending machines, a variety of reasons were highlighted for those who had not tried them including wanting a more personal service, being unable to get the ticket they required and not being sure how to use the machine."

Sounds like the wrong question was asked.

Therefore, Railway Eye readers may like to answer the right question which can be found at the I work for First Great Western website.

That should save FGW a couple of bob on research - which The Fact Compiler hopes they will put in the new train kitty.