A colleague has made the interesting suggestion that it may be time to rethink how classes of service on trains are described or branded. He comments that the standard of accommodation on many first class train services is similar to premium economy on an aircraft.

He also speculated that occupancy might rise if the service was branded Premium or Business Class, since most companies have a travel policy which is aimed at finding the best business class service.

In addition, he raises the question of airlines which offer a rail service as a complimentary feeder service between airport and specific domestic destinations for certain fare types. Should this be a premium rail service for a premium air traveler? This is likely to depend on the traveler profile and the policy of the individual carrier.

Fascinating stuff!

As an economist, I approve of the concept of providing a number of classes and therefore a number of prices. It helps to maximise revenue, and it improves customer choice.

However, one needs to be culturally aware - in particular, of what to call the two classes.

In Japanese trains, there is Ordinary Class and Green Class. On some, you pay less if you have to stand: you can also have a compartment in Green Class which costs more than the ordinary Green Class, effectively making 4 classes.

On the Dubai Metro there is Gold and Silver Class.

I'm glad the UK rail network changed form Second Class to Standard Class: the argument was that you shouldn't be calling 80% of your passengers "second class"!

Heathrow Express had a big debate about what to call its classes: they decided on First and Express (and the term 'Express' was my idea!). First and Business was decided against, on the grounds that lots of people weren't travelling first class and were not travelling on business!

Amtrak provides coach and business class on the Acela Regional trains, and business and first on the Acela Express.

I was fascinated to learn recently about the Club Car on New Jersey Transit. A group of people pay to have a dedicated car attached to one peak train each way: the car has more comfortable seating and more leg-room than the average commuter car. Passengers pay their fare to NJT and a supplement for travel in the Club Car. You can pay by the day or for a month.

Moving on to the second point, I'm pretty sure that those airlines which offer complimentary rail travel in conjunction with a flight only offer first class. I also understand that the take-up of rail is good - at one stage, people like Virgin Atlantic and Emirates were offering their preferred passengers a choice of a limo or Gatwick Express to London, and most chose the train because of its reliability.

On both the Stuttgart and Cologne to Frankfurt and the Brussels Midi - Paris CDG air-rail code shares, all rail travel is in first class.

One reason for the unpopularity of the short-lived code-share between SN-Brussels and Thalys on the Paris Gare du Nord - Brussels Airport sector was that rail travel was in Confort-2 class and not Confort-1.

I'm not sure what happens on other rail-air code-shares.

It was also interesting to see that American Airlines now offer what they call Express Seats! Customers can buy seats in the first few rows of Coach, including bulkhead seats. In addition to sitting in the front of the main cabin, the Express Seats option also includes being in Group 1 of General Boarding, providing the benefit of being among the first Coach customers to board the plane. Express Seats can only be purchased at airport Self-Service Check-In machines between 24 hours and 50 minutes before flight departure, on flights within the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This has been done by Ryanair for a while - passengers can pay a priority boarding fee to be among the first to board - and therefore to have the best choice of seat. I do not know whether there is any limit on the number sold - could everyone buy priority boarding?

So what do you think? Should first class rail be re-branded? To what?

According to a recent issue of the weekly electronic newsletter AERBT (An Executive Review of Business Travel), there are several anomalies in the UK's present system of Air Passenger Duty (APD).

One of these discourages passengers from rail + air journeys in favour of air + air journeys.

If you fly economy class from (say) Newcastle to Heathrow and then Business Class on to New York, you pay APD on the first leg of your journey only - the economy class domestic trip.

If however you go by train from Newcastle to London then fly out Business Class to New York, you pay APD at Business Class rates for the transatlantic journey - significantly more.

Click to visit www.aerbt.co.uk, the AERBT website

The leaflet about the 747 express bus service between Montreal and Trudeau airport says it runs 24 hours a day.

A quick look at the timetable in the leaflet shows that the departure at the top of the list was at 6:00 from the city. 24 hours?

I then looked at the bottom of the list to see when the last one was - and it was at 5:13!

There was indeed a 24 hour service: early morning departures are at the memorable times of 0:25, 0:55, 1:26, 2:12, 2:57, 3:43 and 4:28.

Why are these not at the top of the column?

And at one of the stops, someone got on wanting to pay for his ticket. His US dollar bills were rejected, as was his Canadian $5 bill. The driver would only accept $7 in coin.

I'm not sure where I'd get $7 in coin in Montreal at 6:15 in the morning; and if I'd been turned off the bus for that I'd be tempted not to use it again! It's better at the airport - there is somewhere selling tickets!

First Great Western, the UK train operator of the franchise running out of Paddington west to the Thames Valley, is to introduce an intersting season ticket idea from 6 September.

This builds on the fact that the morning peak is always much more concentrated than the evening peak.

Passengers from major stations east of Reading will be offered season tickets which give first class travel to London in the morning and standard class back again in the evening, when trains are quieter.

Prices will be 13% - 15% above the standard class fare.

This is an idea other congested railways could try, to ease crowding in the morning peak. However, in order to work, the first class area needs to be policed and (ideally) consistently in the same part of the train.

I can only think of one similar system - and that goes back to the 1960s. Passengers travelling between London and Ireland by train and ship could buy tickets which were valid for travel in second class on the train, but first class on the boat: for reasons lost in the mists of time, these were labelled "Second class and saloon" - presumably because the first-class area of the boat was called the saloon.

Are there other examples?

Vancouver International Airport published two interesting articles in its latest on-line newsletter: both were about the Canada Line light metro between airport and city, which opened 3.5 months early last month.

One tells you what the 80,000 people who used the line on its first half-day, when the ride was free, did. Many rode to the airport, which very sensibly laid on a whole series of family-friendly events. I'd expect nothing less from this airport - it's stunning!

The other gives you practical information about the line - fares, times, stops and so on.

Look at Vancouver Airports Authority website

I'm looking forward to riding the line next month. On 19/20 October, IARO is running its next conference, "Successful light rail to airports", at the Fairmont Waterfront hotel adjacent to Canada Line's downtown terminus. On 20th, we are having a half-day behind-the-scenes trip to see the operations and maintenance centres. For details, look at IARO's web-site