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ScottR96

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On 05/07/2023 at 20:17, Todd_is_God said:

Would it, though? If I want to get from A to B along an unfamiliar route I can access route info, departure times, live train location and ticket info in Scotrail's app. I can also buy a ticket there.

The cold truth is that Ticket Clerks offer very little to no added value to the majority of travellers in 2023 and, as such, can be redeployed in other roles that may be more useful and/or financially viable.

With respect, going by your long missives when Covid was on the loose, you wouldn't know cold truth if it jumped up and bit you on the bum.

The real truth about rail travel is that every effort must be made to attract people back to the public transport, and to make it attractive. 

All that the operators of train companies talk about is cutting costs, and cramming more people into existing spaces. 

At root, your views are little different..., utilitarian, lowest common denominator stuff.

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3 hours ago, strichener said:

Yet more rail subsidies.  Just what the country needs.  £15m extra funding for which the vast majority will go on Glasgow to Edinburgh travellers.

The vast majority will only go to Glasgow to Edinburgh travellers if that route carries the vast majority of peak time travellers. It's a blanket policy.

Peak fares are an absolute nonsense and in no credible meaning of the term are ScotRail or any other operator being subsidised to cover the running costs. The fucking 100 folk per carriage already more than cover that. 

What we actually need to do is reverse the massive subsidy of private car travel since fuel duties were frozen by a shitebag government in 2011. 

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I would have gone further scrapping rail card acceptance and cutting fairs by 1/3rd.

No chance the £30 sign up fee covers the discount over the whole year and why should only people of a certain age and who can afford the 1 off payment get access to cheaper rail fairs.

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Irritating as f*** on routes that only offer anytime tickets for trains that would otherwise be 'off-peak' elsewhere.  I feel robbed, which makes getting a free ride feel even better when re-using a ticket that didn't get marked or sooked up on a previous trip.

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10 hours ago, virginton said:

The vast majority will only go to Glasgow to Edinburgh travellers if that route carries the vast majority of peak time travellers. It's a blanket policy.

Peak fares are an absolute nonsense and in no credible meaning of the term are ScotRail or any other operator being subsidised to cover the running costs. The fucking 100 folk per carriage already more than cover that. 

What we actually need to do is reverse the massive subsidy of private car travel since fuel duties were frozen by a shitebag government in 2011. 

Stick to history.  The vast majority of subsidy will go to Glasgow to Edinburgh travellers because they are seeing the largest reduction from the current peak fare rate and the new all-day fare is based on the current cheapest ticket.

I would like to see the calculation (be very specific) that shows that private car travel is subsidised at all, let alone comparable with the railways.  I'll give you a start to your calculation - subsidies for rail are nearly £1 per passenger mile.  Good luck in finding £27,000,000,000 in Government subsidies to private car drivers.  If that were the case, the government could actually afford to replace everyone's car every year.

If there is money to be found to subsidise public transport then the government would do well to put it into busses which make up 79% of all public transport journeys and have seen subsidies cut.

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16 minutes ago, 101 said:

I would have gone further scrapping rail card acceptance and cutting fairs by 1/3rd.

No chance the £30 sign up fee covers the discount over the whole year and why should only people of a certain age and who can afford the 1 off payment get access to cheaper rail fairs.

Anyone who uses a rail card on a halfway regular basis more than covers the fee over a year. One journey a week between any two stations (required standard fare: £2) would do it. A single away game or other cross-country journey can take £10 off it at once.

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21 minutes ago, 101 said:

I would have gone further scrapping rail card acceptance and cutting fairs by 1/3rd.

No chance the £30 sign up fee covers the discount over the whole year and why should only people of a certain age and who can afford the 1 off payment get access to cheaper rail fairs.

They aren't intended for commuters, which is who this trial is aimed at. 

If you're booking intercity trains in Scotland or trains to England, they are definitely worth the money. 

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3 minutes ago, virginton said:

Anyone who uses a rail card on a halfway regular basis more than covers the fee over a year. One journey a week between any two stations (required standard fare: £2) would do it. A single away game or other cross-country journey can take £10 off it at once.

Sorry yes that's what I meant.

The £30 fee is just a token amount almost every user will save more than £30 over the year and some of the sign up fee is presumably to service the application process and generation of rail cards. Cut them out and cut rail fares by 30%.

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47 minutes ago, strichener said:

Stick to history.  The vast majority of subsidy will go to Glasgow to Edinburgh travellers because they are seeing the largest reduction from the current peak fare rate and the new all-day fare is based on the current cheapest ticket.

Except that absolutely none of it is a 'subsidy' because it didn't actually cost 29 fucking pounds 80 (or more) to transport each user of that service by rail in the first place. Nothing about peak fare pricing bears any resemblance to the cost price of running the service - it is as much of a cash grab as that shite pub chain planning to increase prices on a pint at 'busy times'. 

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I would like to see the calculation (be very specific) that shows that private car travel is subsidised at all, let alone comparable with the railways.  I'll give you a start to your calculation - subsidies for rail are nearly £1 per passenger mile.  Good luck in finding £27,000,000,000 in Government subsidies to private car drivers.  If that were the case, the government could actually afford to replace everyone's car every year.

Fuel duty has been frozen for the last 12 years by government fiat while public transport fares have increased with inflation. That is a subsidy for private car use.

The enormous negative externalities from private car use and fossil fuel consumption has never been priced appropriately into transportation costs. That is a de facto subsidy from the rest of the population for private car use, which is in no way sustainable.

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If there is money to be found to subsidise public transport then the government would do well to put it into busses which make up 79% of all public transport journeys and have seen subsidies cut.

Couldn't agree more that other public transport needs funding - so let's slap sufficient levies on car driving and fuel to pay for it. 

Edited by vikingTON
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 14/09/2023 at 08:45, strichener said:

Stick to history.  The vast majority of subsidy will go to Glasgow to Edinburgh travellers because they are seeing the largest reduction from the current peak fare rate and the new all-day fare is based on the current cheapest ticket.

The new all-day fare is based on an off-peak fare, which wasn't the cheapest on the route. That was the super off-peak fare.

As someone who doesn't really travel at "peak" times, I'm very much missing the super off-peak options, which have all been scrapped it seems.

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