In praise of Merseyrail cancelling ã1 Christmas cracker deal for shoppers
News that Merseyrail has cancelled its Christmas cracker ã1 fare for late night Christmas shopping has today filled me with a bit of festive cheer.
As regular readers will know I travel to work each day by Merseyrail. Over the past three years I've noticed the trains getting busier and busier, to the extent that commuters getting on at Moorfields to travel home on the northern line often struggle to get a seat in the evening rush hour.
In years gone by the trains have been even more jam packed as Christmas shoppers (often carrying lots of bags) and commuters jostled for space getting home when the Christmas cracker deal was on.
It may appear like bah humbug but it always grated that I paid for my season ticket while others were able to travel for ã1 to do a spot of Christmas shopping. If it had not led to congestion and I'd still be able to get a seat I probably would not have minded. And transport authority Merseytravel have recognised this, see full story HERE for more.
The truth is that Merseyrail is becoming more and more overcrowded and the real solution is that more trains that run more frequently is the only long term solution.
Overcrowding is now a real issue and as Merseytravel has identified it is now posing a reputational risk.
On the day that commuters are told some fares will raise by 5.4% from January, the cancellation of the Christmas cracker deal is a little bit of welcome news.
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David Bartlett
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When i have done late night shopping the trains going to Liverpool at 5pm have only had shoppers on them(workers going in the opposite direction).Equally coming back at 8 the trains are largely full of shoppers. Were trains built for just going to work in?When trains are too full in the rush hour which workers should we discourage or not want on them?
Lets not help local business or the environment or local people for that matter by cancelling ã1 fares.
"On the day that commuters are told some fares will raise by 5.4% from January, the cancellation of the Christmas cracker deal is a little bit of welcome news."
Perhaps the most absurd bit of writing I've ever read.
Whatever happened to balanced journalism, hmm? This article screams 'sod local businesses, sod people keen to get into town to do some Christmas shopping, sod people out of work. The only people that matter are journos from Formby'
Hi SuperBlue thanks for the comment. The point I am making here is that overcrowding is becoming a real problem on Merseyrail. Too often commuters are taken for granted, seen as easy targets because they have no choice but to use a service because they have to get to work. The vast majority of the people who have taken advantage of the Christmas cracker in previous years will almost undoubtedly still travel into the city centre to shop. They may chose to do so via train, bus or car . If they travel by train the only difference will be that they don't get a subsidy. Like I said in my post if there were loads of empty seats no one would mind. I believe that decent affordable public transport system is essential, but that does not mean encouraging overcrowding.
As for the unemployed, you make a good point. I am not aware of any other form of public transport being subsidised for the out of work at this time of year, but maybe we should. Perhaps the way I concluded my post was a little insensitive, but I stand by the wider point.
As a regular user of MerseyRail myself, I appreciate it is crowded at peak times. Hence the 6 x carriage trains which run, and which I imagine will run more frequently during the next few weeks.
As you say, most of the people will still find a way to get into town to shop. But why should those people be deterred towards much slower busses, and much less environmentally friendly cars which will clog up the roads.
And a further point - do commuters only use trains? Do commuters not also use busses which will now be doubly packed, or roads which will now be even more gridlocked than they already were?
The Christmas Cracker deal seems to me to have been a good way of keeping those routes flowing, whilst not causing more discomfort than is already suffered for commuters.
i for one am glad that Merseyrail are scrapping this cheap fare( and im not from Formby), we all know it was just to get folk into city centre -and it made my journey home complete hell with ridiculous overcrowding and anyone with any sense coming in shopping would drive - envronmentally unfriendly or not
This is common sense for the full fare paying commuter as well as stopping a loss maker for merseyrail - and some opposition councillors in Liverpool need to see why its been done and stop trying to make capital out if it
The gold brass hardware and red-edge dying are certainly pleasing on the eye.
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