What does everyone think about the proposed congestion charging on the railway for peak hours?

It's ok for the train companies to say that travelling at off peak times needs to be made a more attractive option, but if people have got to be at work at that time, what can they do?

I thought the idea was to encourage commuters to leave their cars at home and use the train. And can commuters expect any service improvements in line with these congestion charges? Thought not! :rant:

The only solution seems to be to not bother travelling to work at all. :rolleyes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4112360.stm

sounds like a complete con to me. Prices already vary depending on the time, certain tickets (super saver for example) are only available at certain times and each station - station journey can be priced individually. The granularity to manage congestion by varying price is already there, this is just an excuse to wack some more onto the people who have no choice about the time they travel.
The net reduction in congestion will be about 12 people (all oap's who decide to wait for the 10 train instead of the 8:30).

It's ridiculous. I saw a TV programme recently about commuter rail travel in the SE. Some of those poor sods have to stand for 90 minutes every day...often to and from work !

If our stupid politicians had to endure that something would be done about it PDQ.

HAHAHAHA the most stupid thing ive ever heard..............almost


tax em from the roads to get em on public transport then kick em in the nads when they catch the train...........if they want to cut train congestion put more trains on, or even carriages??
and charging for the commuter times is off, so the people that need to catch them for their job are going to be paying more and more and more for the privilidge????

Originally posted by melthebell
HAHAHAHA the most stupid thing ive ever heard..............almost


tax em from the roads to get em on public transport then kick em in the nads when they catch the train...........if they want to cut train congestion put more trains on, or even carriages??
and charging for the commuter times is off, so the people that need to catch them for their job are going to be paying more and more and more for the privilidge????

The man speaks sense! Bigger, longer carriages is what's needed. It's as if the train companies want to limit the amount of people using their service by pricing them out.

What nonsense!

Originally posted by Deavon
The man speaks sense! Bigger, longer carriages is what's needed. It's as if the train companies want to limit the amount of people using their service by pricing them out.

What nonsense!

there argument is that they want to move customers from the peak times to the off peak.
Bigger carriages and more trains is basically not an option, the network is running pretty much at capacity. In order to get more people on at peak times, more track would be needed in addition to more train space.

Anyone who's caught a train to London will have already come across these measures, no supersaver (or whatever they are :)) tickets at certain times. Is it still called the Master Cutler in the mornings? That would certainly put a dent in your wallet to buy tickets for that out of your own money!

Originally posted by Cyclone
there argument is that they want to move customers from the peak times to the off peak.
Bigger carriages and more trains is basically not an option, the network is running pretty much at capacity. In order to get more people on at peak times, more track would be needed in addition to more train space.

What about extending platforms (particularly at main stations) and having longer trains?

Originally posted by Zamo
What about extending platforms (particularly at main stations) and having longer trains?

They're thinking about that ... main city stations don't have a problem with longer commuter trains, but most of the rural and small town stations in between do.

I suspect as usual the real argument is about who pays for extending the platforms.

They're also thinking about double-decker trains but most tunnels and bridges would too low for this unless they put trains on six inch diameter wheels :P

Silly idea to say the least, i mean, at the moment we pay through the nose for a mostly manky, late, crowded service as it is, without more charges on top. If trains ran on time, and were of a decent standard, the over crowding may be less of an issue. Its not exactly a great idea when your trying to get people to travel on trains and and public transport either.

Joel