{"id":4484,"date":"2012-10-23T07:35:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T06:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4484"},"modified":"2012-11-04T11:41:53","modified_gmt":"2012-11-04T11:41:53","slug":"when-trains-stop-at-stations-but-passengers-cant-use-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/10\/when-trains-stop-at-stations-but-passengers-cant-use-them.htm","title":{"rendered":"When trains stop at stations but passengers can’t use them…"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I paid for a ticket to for the rail journey into London this morning, I was reminded of my anger and frustration the last time I made this trip, herded like cattle onto a packed commuter train, whilst being refused access to one of the many trains that stop at my station but which travellers are unable to use because they are either \u201cto pick up\u201d or \u201cto set down\u201d only.<\/p>\n

As a nation, we tend to blame all that is wrong with our railways on privatisation but this practice is not new. Indeed, it serves to show that, even in the halcyon days of nationalised rail service, some ludicrous decisions were made – and that some of those decisions still stand today.<\/p>\n

I live just outside Milton Keynes, a town 50 miles north of London with a generally good rail service, from two train operating companies, London Midland<\/a> and Virgin Trains<\/a>. London Midland operates stopping and semi-fast services whilst Virgin runs the express (formerly inter-city) trains (Southern<\/a> also operates services via west London). But there is a flaw – and it\u2019s a big one. Between 07:14 and 09:19 southbound, and between 15:43 and 18:43 northbound, passengers are not allowed to board Virgin trains that stop at Milton Keynes. And yes, you read that correctly, passengers are not allowed to board trains that already stop at their station at the busiest time of the day!<\/p>\n

Last week, faced with huge queues for a the 16:48 London Midland service for which the inbound train had not yet arrived, I tried to board the 16:43 Virgin train instead. At the ticket barrier I was told \u201cthis train\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0stop at Milton Keynes\u201d but, when I pointed out that it does, at 17:13, the Virgin Trains official still refused me access to the platform.
\n\"\"How do I know about the unadvertised stops? Well, aside from working timetable information being available online<\/a>, looking at Milton Keynes arrival and departure information on the public timetable clearly showed a train at 17:13 which was the 16:43 from Euston.<\/p>\n

I can understand the desire to keep seats free on long-distance trains for long-distance travellers: that\u2019s why seats are sold with reservations and also why there are fare structures that limit travel on peak-time journeys. I can also see the timetabling logic (when I have travelled to Manchester, trains are often \u201clate\u201d when they stop at Stockport \u201cto set down only\u201d but \u201con time\u201d when they make it to Piccadilly a few minutes later, due to the recovery time built in to the timetable). But there is a difference here: Milton Keynes is 50 miles from London;\u00a0 it\u2019s not a suburb of the same conurbation, like Watford is to London or Stockport is to Manchester. Preventing travellers from boarding\/leaving trains here is equivalent to saying that passengers can\u2019t use Virgin trains from Wolverhampton to Coventry or from Manchester to Stoke-on-Trent and that they should use local services instead. Madness!<\/p>\n

When I vented my frustrations on Twitter<\/a>, Virgin Trains backed up their position, but some people suggested that those with cheap tickets\u00a0shouldn’t\u00a0be able to use the fast trains. Let me just be completely clear: there are discounted Virgin-only or London Midland-only fares but I was attempting to travel with a full-price peak ticket – in other words a ticket that should allow travel on any service between Milton Keynes and London.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the real point of this 500-word missive?<\/p>\n

Give Milton Keynes the express train service that it deserves!<\/strong> Network Rail spent millions adding platforms to our station<\/a> so that more trains can stop here, yet one of the train operating companies\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0let the passengers get on or off at the busiest time of the day.<\/em><\/p>\n

The trains may be privatised but the railway is a piece of national infrastructure, and Richard Branson et al would do well to remember who their customers are when\u00a0 complaining about losing lucrative franchises to rival bidders<\/a>*…<\/p>\n

*I appreciate that this decision was later reversed due to issues with the bidding process<\/a> – that doesn’t change the fact that Virgin Trains sometimes seems to forget who its customers are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I paid for a ticket to for the rail journey into London this morning, I was reminded of my anger and frustration the last time I made this trip, herded like cattle onto a packed commuter train, whilst being refused access to one of the many trains that stop at my station but which … Continue reading When trains stop at stations but passengers can’t use them…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[490],"class_list":["post-4484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inane-waffle","tag-travel"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen trains stop at stations but passengers can't use them... - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/10\/when-trains-stop-at-stations-but-passengers-cant-use-them.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When trains stop at stations but passengers can't use them... - 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I've got the week off work too but I've got a huge list of outstanding jobs to do at home, so I'm only spending part of the week with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Waffle and randomness"","block_context":{"text":"Waffle and randomness","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/inane-waffle"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1530,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/09\/technology-actually-saved-me-some-time-this-morning.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4484,"position":1},"title":"Technology actually saved me some time this morning!","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 16 September 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be spending the next couple of days at Fujitsu Laboratories' European Technology Forum listening to presentations on some of the new and upcoming technological advances that could well be making their way into our daily lives (disclosure: I work for Fujitsu but that has no bearing on the contents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5379,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/10\/dreaming-of-a-better-commute.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4484,"position":2},"title":"Dreaming of a better commute","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Thursday 30 October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Travelling in and out of London this week for the course I've been attending has reminded me why working from home (mostly) is a huge blessing. At least 4 hours' travel a day for a relatively simple 60-mile commute? No thank you! I did, however,\u00a0use two different routes with contrasting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Waffle and randomness"","block_context":{"text":"Waffle and randomness","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/inane-waffle"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5079,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/12\/collecting-train-tickets-at-the-station-seems-it-doesnt-matter-where-you-are.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4484,"position":3},"title":"Collecting train tickets at the station? Seems it doesn’t matter which station you select…","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Monday 9 December 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"At least once a month, I travel to Manchester for work. I tend to use the train, rather than drive because: it's pretty straightforward; I can work on the journey; and I'm not so tired at the other end (although having the car with me can be more flexible at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5351,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/10\/the-sleeper-train-to-no-where.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4484,"position":4},"title":"The sleeper train to no-where!","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 7 October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There's something about travelling long distances by train that seems much more civilised and pleasurable than flying. Certainly, for me, the glamour that may once have been associated with taking a jet plane is no longer present - at least not in economy class - and there was nothing pleasant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Waffle and randomness"","block_context":{"text":"Waffle and randomness","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/inane-waffle"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/caledonian-sleeper.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8818,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/08\/a-two-week-trip-around-europe-by-train-markandbensexcellentadventure.htm","url_meta":{"origin":4484,"position":5},"title":"A two week trip around Europe by train #MarkAndBensExcellentAdventure","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 28 August 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"My June\/July 2024 retrospective was written as I was preparing to head off for a couple of weeks\u2019 travelling with my youngest son, Ben. Well, after a few weeks back at work and with August's roundup on the horizon, I thought I'd look back over what we got up to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/IMG_3600.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/IMG_3600.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/IMG_3600.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/IMG_3600.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/IMG_3600.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4484"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4541,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions\/4541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}