The good news is, this post is not just me ranting into the void ... I have written to my MP about some of the ideas at the end.

I've been missing my 26-30 Railcard badly. Combined with booking as far in advance as possible (12 weeks) and split ticketing, it was possible to get the cost of travelling first class between Oxford and Cheshire down to a just-about-bearable level. But with that nice fat discount no longer available to me because of advancing age, I've been back to standard. And I hate it. Take last Sunday's journey, for instance:

  • I had to print off my (many many split) tickets from the machine in Oxford; there still seems to be no paperless ticketing on this route.
  • As usual, the train was a mere four carriages (three normal and one first). This really feels like taking the p**s on a Friday night, but even a train before 10AM on a Sunday was pretty busy - the food trolley just about made it through, but one more standard carriage would have made a big difference.
  • The rolling stock is getting a bit tatty, and the amount of space allowed in the standard seats wasn't very generous to begin with. You can just about use a laptop at a funny angle, but it gets tricky if you want to fit your overpriced cup of tea on the little fold-down table as well...
  • There was a rail replacement bus for the last two stops, adding the best part of an hour to the process. (Thought experiment: would I have been refunded the extra for that leg if I'd paid for first class?)
  • The bus had better legroom, comfier seats and much less of a crowd than the train!

And as usual, we've had an annual price rise without the service getting any better. The XC Trains Limited accounts for 2019 aren't available yet, obviously, but the dividend the shareholders enjoyed in 2018 looks suitably chunky.

Positive suggestions for going forward, then...

  • The government should legislate to put an end to the split ticketing nonsense. Force advance fares from A to Z to be capped at the same price that can currently be achieved by booking in smaller legs. This will be fairer to consumers and put a stop to the environmental impact and delays caused by people like me having to print six or more bits of cardboard for a single journey.
  • Print-your-own or barcode-on-smartphone tickets should be an option on all routes. If the companies won't buy the equipment, make them pay the postage to send out the paper tickets in advance
  • More carriages, more carriages, more carriages.
  • Consider reducing the number of seats and increasing the leg room and table space.
  • Rail replacement busses which take longer than the train they replace should count as a delay and thus come with the associated compensation to passengers.

Some of this is not easily done overnight, but the first two are easy and way overdue.