Re: XPT Sleepers

["WhaleOilBeefHooked" <daproc@sd5.mailbank.com>]

Ron BESDANSKY (formerly Ron BEST) wrote in message ...
>A hotel or motel does not charge twice as much if a room is occupied by two
>people rather than one.

But a hotel or motel does not miss out on revenue if only one person, as
opposed to two, occupy a room. Try asking an airline for two seats, and see
what they will charge you (this ia a more appropriate comparison).

>It should be possible to pay a "single supplement",
>less than the full berth fee, to have exclusive use of a twinette.

Why? You are preventing someone from occupying the berth - you should have
to pay what they would have paid.

>At least
>at times of relatively light loading, when the sleepers are unlikely to be
>fully booked. It comes down to a gamble - if the train operator books N
>compartments for "exclusive use" at, say, 1.5 times the normal berth
charge,
>they risk having to turn away a maximum of N potential passengers. But (a)
>those people may well choose to travel on a different service, or sitting
>up, and therfore not be "lost",

You used the word "may" - those same people "may" get so fed up with being
constantly turned away that they "may" ring QANTAS or Ansett the first time
in the future, thus ensuring that those people are lost to the system
forever.

>and (b) the train operator  may get an
>overall increase in patronage if people know they can get exclusive use of
a
>compartment. It would be interesting to see some estimates on this. Anyone
>in Countrylink interested?

If there are, they are mad.

DaveP