Southeastern has become the latest commuter train operator to discard first-class carriages as the Department for Transport orders companies to cut costs due to low demand post-pandemic.
Whitehall officials approved a call to axe first class tickets and free up seats after rail bosses revealed only 28 annual season ticket holders paid the premium fare.
The nationalised southeast operator, which operates 1,500 services from Sussex to Kent, is the latest to ditch commuter first class tickets, following Greater Anglia, West Midlands, East Midlands, and the Stansted Express.
According to a newspaper outlet, with train travel demand still lower than pre-pandemic levels, the DfT welcomed the move as a spokesman said it would benefit commuters.
He said commuters repeatedly grumbled of having to stand and look at empty first-class seats from packed standard carriages, adding that Southeastern had taken measures to make commuters’ travel more comfortable and ease overcrowding.
First-class tickets have gradually begun to vanish from non-intercity routes across the country and Whitehall sources said the impact of the latest culling would be closely scrutinised.
Great Western Railways removed first class seats from most of its regional services in 2016, citing a shift in expenses policy due to economic circumstances and also converted about half of their long-distance first class carriages to provide additional space for its patrons.
A spokesman for Northern, the Liverpool to Newcastle operator, confirmed the line no longer had first-class ticket options, despite being intercity.
First-class tickets on commuter routes have almost dropped off altogether, with operators such as Thameslink and Transpennine among the last to offer the premium service.
As train travel demand is still below pre-lockdown levels, the train network continues to drain public funds, with £10 billion of taxpayer money spent during the pandemic to keep operators afloat and almost £17 billion spent on the rail industry in total during that time.
Despite the removal of the first class commuter experience, Government sources said there were no plans to enforce the axing of premium long-distance services.
So, now it seems that we’re all cattle class, but then, on the other hand, many of the first class carriages have remained empty for a long time, so it seems a waste of space to leave them totally empty while ordinary people have to stand all their journey due to there being no seats.
But then, on the other hand, some people have discovered that you don’t actually have to purchase a first-class ticket to sit in a first-class area, they will sit there anyhow, and on the rare occasion the ticket inspector comes along, they will just feign ignorance and move to standard, and to be completely honest, it’s extremely rare that a ticket inspector comes to check.
There seems to be no penalty for doing this, apart from the humiliation of having to move, and there really doesn’t seem to be many inspectors to check tickets these days, and there definitely isn’t anyone there when a fight breaks out on a late-night train.
Everyone should be able to get a seat, especially with all this technology that we have these days, surely it’s not that difficult to figure out, and all that first class is simply a white napkin over the headrest, laughable really.
Things were so much better before the pandemic, but if you look at it logically, it was just a planned demic.
Travelling by train used to be so enjoyable, but now there are no inspectors and too many disrespectful and antisocial passengers, even in first class, but then again I suppose we could always ride on the roof like in India.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 