Disappointing Cologne
Cologne and its station disappointed me.
I was hungry and the hotel wasn’t exactly brimming with gluten-free food options. Or guests for that matter.
In fact, the whole city centre was dead.
Was everybody tucked up in bed watching the vEurovision Song Contest or because of the attacks in the city centre in the New Year, does everybody not go there any more.
In the end, I got supper in an Argentinian steak house, where the food was a lot better than the service.
In the morning, I didn’t have a ticket, so I arrived at the station a bit early, only to find that the machines didn’t seem to see the ticket I wanted and the ticket office wasn’t open.
It was a repeat of the customer service of the night before.
There are a couple of things to note in the pictures.
- I had to go through all the rigmarole of getting a number to buy a ticket.
- I had masses of paper for my ticket compared to what I get in the UK.
- Comfortable seats were thin on the ground.
- There was a smoking area on the platform.
- Lots of trains seemed to be locomotive-hauled.
Eventually, I arrived in Brussels with plenty of time to spare.
But surely the biggest disappointment about Cologne is why the Germans haven’t developed it as a gateway for Cross-Channel passengers.
Consider.
- Cologne has very good connections to major German cities like Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, which are much better than those from Brussels or Paris.
- A lot of visitors to Germany from the UK, may be going to Cologne anyway, so why force them to change trains in Brussels?
- According to the Demographics of Cologne, the city has around a million inhabitants and is in a region of three million.
- Cologne is about the same size as Birmingham, Glasgow or Liverpool/Manchester, so it could probably sustain a direct service.
- If you need to waste an hour or so in Cologne, whilst changing trains, you are by the cathedral and the Rhine.
- Cologne to London by train must be around four hours, which must be very competitive with flying.
- A Sleeper train between London and Cologne would probably work. I’d use it!
I think the Germans can’t be bothered, as they’d have more passengers to cater for, who knew about customer service.
I know there’s the problem of Customs and Immigration, but if Deutsche Bahn were serious about running a service, I’m sure the problems are solvable.
I’ve been through small airports where excellent, efficient and probably very thorough systems had been setup to encourage traffic.
The problem could of course be the UK Border Force, who in my experience don’t seem to be the best in the world.
But then, the world needs to develop fast, efficient, automatic border checks, that I’m certain if we got right, would actually discourage illegal immigration.
As it is, we set up such weak checks, that they encourage criminals to encourage and fleece, those that might want to come to countries, where work might be available.
I’m All For This!
This article on the BBC web site entitled Lib Dems pledge to halve London morning commuter fares, caught my eye. This is said.
London mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon has promised if she is elected in May she will cut Tube and rail fares for journeys before 07:30 by half.
As someone who has generally started work before eight, ever since I marked up newspapers at 05:30 in the morning as a sixteen-year-old, if I’d worked in London over the years, I would have saved money.
Now of course, I don’t pay, as I have a Freedom Pass. it would be interesting to see how many journeys, I do start before 07:30. It’s probably about four a week.
This is one of those ideas that could be tested using sound Control Engineering principles.
At the present time, any journey starting before 04:30 is in the Off Peak.
So for a period of six-months say, you would use 05:00 and see how the usage and revenue changes.
And then later, you move it to 05:30 for a period.
With some clever analysis of the data, I suspect that the time that is the best compromise between customer satisfaction, service costs and revenue can be found.
Giving a fixed time now, is totally wrong!
But in my view, if a politician said, they were aiming to increase the time in which Off Peak fares applied, it would be a sensible policy.
Do The English, Scots And Welsh Work Better Together Than The Belgians, Dutch And Germans?
If we take these two groups of three countries, they all have different railway companies, but do they illustrate a problem in the relations between various EU countries.
I know my experience of travelling between these six countries is mainly on the trains, but to travel between England, Scotland and Wales by train, is a lot easier than travelling between Belgium and The Netherlands and the Netherlands and Germany is full of little difficulties.
Strangely if you add France into the mix, that is generally as easy as the three home nations.
Judging by my experience in Europe, there are many ways that the Scots and Welsh could make the English unwelcome. But they don’t, except for the Seniors Bus Pass, although the same Senior Railcard is valid everywhere in the UK.
I know we’re all part of the same country, but I think where something has to be agreed across a border, we generally find a solution that is acceptable enough!
In the important area of rail ticketing, there seems little agreement on common standards between Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany.
Imagine how difficult it would be if ScotRail had different ticketing rules to say Virgin.
Surely, if Europe can’t get its act together in something like rail ticketing, how can it get something important like dealing with migrants working?
Den Haag HS Station
This is the station from where I left The Hague
Over the years, I have used it, Den Haag HS station has been cleaned up, but in some ways it is a rather soulless place, except for some of the old details.
I had bought my ticket earlier, but at least there was a machine at the station, where I could get a ticket to Brussels.
Unlike at Brussels, where there were no machines selling tickets to The Netherlands that I could find.
I’m Off To The Hague Today
Is there any other train journey between two capitals in the world, that is more difficult now than it was six or seven years ago?
When I first did this trip, I was able to buy a Eurostar ticket from London to Any Dutch Station, as many visitors to The Netherlands did.
But when Fyra; the high-speed train started, this was not possible any more. I couldn’t even get to the Dutch capital without a second change.
Today, I’ve bought a Eurostar ticket to any Belgian Station and will go to Antwerp for a spot of lunch, before I buy a ticket to Den Haag Laan van Nieuwe Oost Indie, so that I avoid all the hassle of using Dutch local ticketing, which will mean buying an Oyster-style card.
I will then use Shanks’s Pony to get to my final destination.
If that is progress, you can stick it up your backside.
Suppose to go between London and Edinburgh, you had to change trains at Newcastle or Berwick! Even the most rabid of Scottish Independence advocates, would never want a service like that between Scotland and England!
Also, if I was going to most important stations in Switzerland, I can buy one ticket from London.
Surely, this should apply to all major cities in Europe, that are within say five or six hours from London.
Going the other way, I could buy a ticket from say Paris direct to virtually anywhere in the UK.
I Buy My Train Tickets On Abellio Greater Anglia
I’ve started buying some of my train tickets on the Abellio Greater Anglia web site.
The reasons are as follows.
- I can buy any UK ticket, without having to bother with loyalty schemes.
- Some companies automatically subscribe you to their junk mail.
- It is a simple site cut to the basics.
I think the best thing to do, is get a site you like and use it for all non-simple purchases.
The simple purchases like a Day Off-Peak Return between Here and There, I buy from the machines at Dalston Junction or Dalston Kingsland stations, as the prices are the same as the Internet, but without any login, passwords or eight-digit codes to remember.
I even bought tickets from Edinburgh to Tweedbank from the machines before the Borders Railway opened and they were inspected many times.
Note that on many machines in Europe you can buy tickets between two stations, so I suspect that some rail companies in the UK might not offer the facility, so that they capture your details on-line.
The West Midlands Day Ranger Ticket
For my trip around Birmingham last week, I had decided to use a West Midlands Day Ranger Ticket.
I had hoped to purchase one in the Booking Office at Lichfield Trent Valley station, but it was closed and only with difficulty was I able to purchase one on the train into Birmingham.
But I didn’t get a map with the ticket, as I have had in Lancashire before, where Northern Rail have a leaflet detailing all their Day Ranger tickets. There’s one here on the National Rail web site.
On the Thursday, I walked to New Street and bought a ticket, but the only map they had was a photocopy.
The area covered by a West Midlands Day Ranger is large and covers the area bounded by Crewe, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Worcester, Stratford-on-Avon, Leamington Spa, Northampton, Rugby, Nuneaton, Lichfield and Stoke.
As trains are generally frequent between all stations, it was an ideal ticket for my purposes and I got good value on both days in Birmingham. Coming back to London on the Thursday, I used my Day Ranger Ticket to get to Northampton, where I bought a ticket for Watford Junction and travelled back on a virtually-empty London Midland train.
The Overground from Watford Junction wasn’t empty, as I caught the aftermath of the rush hour on the day of the Tube stroke.
The two possible disadvantages of the West Midlands Day Ranger Ticket, is that it must be used after 9:30 and isn’t valid on the Midlands Metro.
Next time, I want to visit several places in the West Midlands, I’ll go to Leamington Spa or Northampton and then use a West Midlands Day Ranger.
A Benefit Of The Hackney Downs/Central Link
I don’t pay for my public transport in London, as I have a Freedom Pass, but most people get charged. The cost is very often an important factor for passengers.
This article in The Wharf explains how for some passengers the new walkway at Hackney will save them money, by helping them to easily avoid Zone 1. The article says this.
Funded by Transport for London (TfL), it means passengers at Hackney Central can now easily access trains to north London or Liverpool Street from Hackney Downs, while those at Hackney Downs have fresh options to travel eastbound to Stratford.
Previously passengers had to travel into Zone 1, incurring a higher cost for their journey, or walk 600m.
The article also uses the phrase Hackney Overground interchange. I wonder how long it is before, TfL investigate a new name for the whole complex.
Perhaps it should be one station, as after all the walk between Hackney Downs and Hackney Central is probably about the same length, as some of the longer walks inside the Underground at stations like Bank, Green Park and Kings Cross St. Pancras.
It’s now step free, which can’t be said for some of the Underground treks.
The Chat On The Overground
This morning, I went for a wander on some of the new Overground lines that have been incorporated today, just to see how much there is to do, to bring them up to an acceptable standard.
But the chat between staff and passengers wasn’t about refurbished trains or stations, but about the fact that those with Freedom Passes now have no restrictions on any of the lines taken over by the Overground.
So older commuters can now use their Freedom Pass to travel to and from work, even if it’s the rush hour.
Thank You Transport for London
On the 31st May 2015, Transport for London take over the lines out of Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt, Chingford and Shenfield and two days ago they published this press release on their web site, which is entitled Passengers set to benefit as key commuter rail services transfer to TfL.
So what does that mean?
1. The services currently operate with National Rail pay as you go fares, which are generally higher than TfL fares. When services transfer, over 80 per cent of current rail journeys will reduce in price and TfL concessions will apply – giving customers substantial savings. The remaining 20 per cent of fares will remain unchanged.
2. All TfL concessions and discounts that currently apply to London Underground, the Docklands Light Railway, and London Overground will apply on the rail services transferring to TfL. I think that means I can travel free to Brentwood and Shenfield using my Freedom Pass.
3. There are a few other technical things that seem beneficial, like Brentwood being moved into Zone 9.
4. I suspect too, that the level of customer service will be better under TfL than Abellio Greater Anglia.
I can’t see any average passengers complaining about this package. Except perhaps those who commute on lines like c2c into London, where there are no fare reductions.
So it’s probably a big thank you to Transport for London.
The Anonymous Widower 