My bolding -- I gather that people doing this, can be a bit of a hazard for visitors to some parts of the world; locals asked for directions don't want to "lose face" by admitting they don't know: so they make stuff up, and the enquirer gets yet more badly lost. I've seen Latin America mentioned re this habit, a few times.
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Weird Things You See People Do on the Railway
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My bolding -- I gather that people doing this, can be a bit of a hazard for visitors to some parts of the world; locals asked for directions don't want to "lose face" by admitting they don't know: so they make stuff up, and the enquirer gets yet more badly lost. I've seen Latin America mentioned re this habit, a few times.
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Me too, this was a particular issue with the A stock at Kings Cross where the vestibules would be totally blocked despite there being empty seats available. The S8s may not be entirely suitable for long runs ot Amersham and Chesham but at least you can get on the wretched things in central London.
I get asked for directions all the time. I do try to help if I can, although trying to direct some monolingual Spanish tourists through Magenta RER station in my pidgin Castilian was a challenge. I had to give directions to a Turkish woman in (bad) Dutch, when she got the wrong train (it was our only common language) and to a French couple looking for the RLD in Amsterdam.
...wow, that's quite the assumption!
JBuchananGB
Member
Having got onto the subject of people asking directions. I was once in Wiesbaden having arrived by train, and was asked in German for directions to the Bahnhof, which I duly gave. I have visited Southport 3 times, only the first time was by train. On my third visit while walking in Lord Street I was asked for directions to the station which I duly gave.
I was on the westbound (anti-clockwise) Circle line platform at Liverpool Street when a lady asked me where she could catch a District line train. I asked her where she was going, she said Wimbledon, so I advised her to take the incoming Circle line train and change at Edgware Road. This did not satisfy her desire for a District line train, so she set off to find an LUL employee to help her.
I was on the westbound (anti-clockwise) Circle line platform at Liverpool Street when a lady asked me where she could catch a District line train. I asked her where she was going, she said Wimbledon, so I advised her to take the incoming Circle line train and change at Edgware Road. This did not satisfy her desire for a District line train, so she set off to find an LUL employee to help her.
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I was on the train last week, sat on a table with two empty unreserved seats opposite as we draw into Leicester.
Bloke gets on, sits in aisle seat, and plonks bag in window seat.
A few seconds later a lady comes up, points at window seat: "Excuse me, can I sit there, please?"
Bloke: "Why, have you reserved it or something?"
Lady: "No, I'd just like to sit there, please" (all very polite and well-mannered)
Bloke grabs bag, stands up and walks off down to other end of carriage, not to be seen again...
It was very busy, so seemed a little bit optimistic of him to find a pair of seats to himself...
Bloke gets on, sits in aisle seat, and plonks bag in window seat.
A few seconds later a lady comes up, points at window seat: "Excuse me, can I sit there, please?"
Bloke: "Why, have you reserved it or something?"
Lady: "No, I'd just like to sit there, please" (all very polite and well-mannered)
Bloke grabs bag, stands up and walks off down to other end of carriage, not to be seen again...
It was very busy, so seemed a little bit optimistic of him to find a pair of seats to himself...
Passenger asks for two adults and one child tickets.
From the conversation I listened to, it seems there were two adults and a small child present at the window at the time of buying.
Adult has now come back and had a go at the poor ticket office lady because they didn't need a child ticket (child too young). Ticket office lady says she sold what she was asked for.
A bit more telling off and they leave.
One adult comes back and says "if I ask for an OAP ticket, will you give me one?".
Ticket office lady says "no, as there's no OAP rate". They then go on to say "if you had a Senior Railcard, yes but..." and is interrupted by the customer saying something like it's clear he isn't an OAP.
A tough one but how did the ticket office person not know there was a child outside saying goodbye to a parent?
I would have thought it doesn't matter if a Railcard has been stolen from an OAP or whatever, if a passenger has one, that's the authority required to purchase a discounted rate ticket.
While ticket office people should perhaps challenge validity, this isn't practical every time for everyone.
Seems to be a classic case of "it's not our fault", but I definitely found it weird that the passengers accepted no blame at all, despite the ticket office person selling what they were asked for!
From the conversation I listened to, it seems there were two adults and a small child present at the window at the time of buying.
Adult has now come back and had a go at the poor ticket office lady because they didn't need a child ticket (child too young). Ticket office lady says she sold what she was asked for.
A bit more telling off and they leave.
One adult comes back and says "if I ask for an OAP ticket, will you give me one?".
Ticket office lady says "no, as there's no OAP rate". They then go on to say "if you had a Senior Railcard, yes but..." and is interrupted by the customer saying something like it's clear he isn't an OAP.
A tough one but how did the ticket office person not know there was a child outside saying goodbye to a parent?
I would have thought it doesn't matter if a Railcard has been stolen from an OAP or whatever, if a passenger has one, that's the authority required to purchase a discounted rate ticket.
While ticket office people should perhaps challenge validity, this isn't practical every time for everyone.
Seems to be a classic case of "it's not our fault", but I definitely found it weird that the passengers accepted no blame at all, despite the ticket office person selling what they were asked for!
trainophile
Established Member
In 1st on a VTWC coming back from Glasgow yesterday, we reached our reserved seats to find a woman sitting opposite with a rather large and overweight dog on the floor under the table, on the side where our feet should go.
I politely suggested she could get the dog over to her side, and she got quite nasty with me... “don’t you like dogs then?”. I said I have nothing against dogs but would like not to have to share my foot space with one for three hours. She had her own legs under the table, forcing the dog across to our side. I suppose I could have used it as a footrest!
Eventually her daughter appeared, who seemed to have a seat further along, and took mum and dog back with her. I don’t know where they ended up, but I hope it wasn’t in the space of someone else who was too polite to say anything.
I politely suggested she could get the dog over to her side, and she got quite nasty with me... “don’t you like dogs then?”. I said I have nothing against dogs but would like not to have to share my foot space with one for three hours. She had her own legs under the table, forcing the dog across to our side. I suppose I could have used it as a footrest!
Eventually her daughter appeared, who seemed to have a seat further along, and took mum and dog back with her. I don’t know where they ended up, but I hope it wasn’t in the space of someone else who was too polite to say anything.
Killingworth
Established Member
But that's what many would have done on LNER trains 70 years ago, although not so many on an express at Carlisle!
Stampy
Member
Caught the 1534 train from Nottingham back to Peterborough yesterday - from Platform 3C, and despite at least 3 tannoy "warnings" and a member of staff telling people that the 4-car train would split here and that the FRONT TWO cars only would go onwards to Norwich - people were still hammering on the button of the unit that was going to be DETATCHED there at Nottingham...
They then try to shove their way onto the (now) two-car train and moan that there's no seats - whilst the people who LISTENED to the advice are sat (relatively) comfortably in their seats...
There was even some people who quite literally "followed" the train down along Platform 3.....
They then try to shove their way onto the (now) two-car train and moan that there's no seats - whilst the people who LISTENED to the advice are sat (relatively) comfortably in their seats...
There was even some people who quite literally "followed" the train down along Platform 3.....
Was early for work this morning.
Witnessed a couple of people enter the ticket office that was in darkness (it was clear it wasn't open yet!). More fool the ticket office lady for opening the doors, but if the lights are off, why would you go in?
Witnessed a couple of people enter the ticket office that was in darkness (it was clear it wasn't open yet!). More fool the ticket office lady for opening the doors, but if the lights are off, why would you go in?
Spartacus
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To be fair I think the strange behaviour is opening the office when it’s not open, if I needed a ticket I’d probably check it out in case a fuse had blown taking the lights out or something.
Bulb gone ?
I have had the same experience in England with a Vermin train running exactly one hour late on an hourly service.
Scotrail84
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xotGD
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Lights operated on motion sensors?
And pressing the door open button before it is lit is quite sensible on a lot of trains. If you do that the door operates as soon as the light comes on saving the eyes-brain-finger delay which can be as much as a whole second.
atraindriver
Member
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atraindriver
Member
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I will check tomorrow
Gareth Marston
Established Member
It's not uncommon for some people to aggresively pretend that they haven't made a mistake. Not sure what they hope to achieve.
atraindriver
Member
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Kite159
Veteran Member
The only modern stock I know will 'remember' when the button is pushed is the Metrolink trams.
AlastairFraser
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oh was it a voyager or pendolino? Voyager are usually quite messed up relating to seating arrangements,several times I've been RDG to BMH with my family on XC and there's a coach missing in the regular alphabetical order for some obscure reason. The worst time though is when my family's reservations on a GWR long distance service turned out to be in a First Class coach by mistake and we were reassigned to unreserved Standard Class coach at the Reading end, we only found out from an announcement at Taunton where we alighted that the reservations for the coach X had been all shifted to another Standard Class coach
sprinterguy
Established Member
Crosscountry Voyager coach lettering all follows the same scheme, they are not messed up:
4-car trains are formed
A - C - D - F
5-car trains are formed
A - B - C - D - F
Where coach B on 5-car sets is the unreserved coach. This is done so that seat reservations are standard across both 4 and 5-car sets, allowing a 4-car set to deputise for a 5-car, and vice versa, without affecting seat reservations.
Both formations omit coach E, I think to accommodate any hypothetical lengthening to six carriages.
The Virgin sets are simply lettered A - E in sequence.
Class 334s do, but Class 321s and Class 318s on the same routes don't.
Killingworth
Established Member
They may not be "messed up" but it causes no end of confusion on platforms for those not used to XC's practice. Might help the reservation system but baffles users, even more so when two units are worked together and first is at back and front causing those with reserved seats to have to gamble as to which end they need to place their bet!
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sprinterguy
Established Member
You're not wrong; it's certainly not helped by the fact that Crosscountry trains can run either way round, and that the only identification of the coach is a small letter on the external electronic display...when they're working...
AlterEgo
Veteran Member
On a Voyager, you can denote if First Class is leading by looking at the coupler. A yellow bar above the coupler indicates that vehicle carries first class.
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