Re: XPT Whinge,(cont)

[matthew@mail.usyd.edu.au (Matthew Geier)]

In article <913208531.803084@woody>,
Michael Walker <walker@hotkey.net.au> wrote:
>
>On the other hand we have the passengers. There are two types - those who
>pay full fare and those who get concession or free ride due to theri social
>status or because they have travel vouchers or are employees. The latter are
>a captive market who will ride the train whether it is the best service in
>the world or the worst.

 This is actually a more serious problem for them than it first appears,
even if CountryLink were totaly re-imbursed at an appropiate level for the
concession fares - the fact of life is that the concession travellers, due
to the way the concession system operates, are distorting the loading figures.

 If those concession travellers could get cheap/free airline seats, would they
travel by train ?. Probably not. A good number of them would probably swap
to road coach services as well, if the concession system was consistant
across modes.

 The result of all this is that the passenger loading figures are distorted
badly, making it well niegh impossible to target investment where it will
get the best return - full fare passengers that prefer to take the train 
instead of flying. Instead investment is concentrated on routes that carry
the most passengers, routes that might wither and die if the concession fare
travelers had other options of concession travel. While the reservation system
could probably be coaxed into providing proper full fare data, politicaly
they aint going to get away with it....