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SIR - It was good of Larry Heyman, FCC s Integration & Partnership manager to write and effectivally confirm what many of us already know that by combining tickets to a station such as Elstree and Borehamwood it is quite legal to bypass the evening off-pe
SIR - It was good of Larry Heyman, FCC's Integration & Partnership manager to write and effectivally confirm what many of us already know that by combining tickets to a station such as Elstree and Borehamwood it is quite legal to bypass the evening off-peak ticket restrictions.
The only requirement being that the train actually stops there. For this reason the restrictions are rather pointless.
Further in the year before they came into effect the worst overcrowding occurred in the morning peak and I have no reason to believe that this has changed.
By making the off-peak fares less useful much of the incentive to travel later was removed by these restrictions which no doubt made the morning overcrowding worse whilst doing little if anything to ease overcrowding in the evening, indeed few passengers noticed any reduction in overcrowding in the evening.
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Things have moved on since then and with much more rolling stock available there are relatively few overcrowded four-car trains.
Looking to the future when the Thameslink upgrade is complete in a few years time, we can look forward to 12-car trains on fast services.
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However the slow trains will remain at a maximum eight cars as at present. Difficulties in lengthening Kentish Town and Cricklewood stations ensure that this is unlikely to change.
So soon we will have the situation where these evening ticket restrictions will not only be removing the incentive to delay travel until after the busier morning peak they will also be encouraging travel on what will no doubt be the more overcrowded slow trains. A double whammy in anybody's terms.
ROSS MIDDLETON
Berkley Close
St Albans
