Old Timer
Established Member
evil hippo
Your attitude is a perfect example of why modern Society is heading the way it is.
Firstly, when you come onto the Railway and buy a ticket you accept a legal contract to comply withn the rules. If you don't like the rules well you have alternative options you can exercise, although National Express coaches for example will also have rules and byelaws that are not dissimilar in many respects.
Set down only and pick up only stops are not the result of some planner making indiscriminate and irrational decisions but are the result of experience of train loadings.
Take overnight trains, some of which may convey only sleeping vehicles and one or two conventional carriages. The capacity of these trains is set to meet a pre-determined demand. Now one of these arriving at (say for the purposes of this example) Milton Keynes at the start of the Peak, offers a rapid service to London as opposed to the other serevices. So what happens ? Punters jump on and suddenly the train looks like a LUL train with peoople stood about everywhere. Now in addition to the fact that it causes congestion within the train, as a long distance passenger do you really want to have to worm your way past people standing in the corridors or in the isles ?
It is for this reason that many sleeper services were denoted to set down, as well as the obvious issues about timekeeping. What do you do for example if the train is advertised but is running late ? People expect another Class 1 to be pulled in to compensate.
Pick up only stops are to prevent disruption to long distance passengers. Commuters and others have a habit of aiming for the table seats, even though they are travelling maybe only 10/15 minutes. Long distance passengers who may preferr to be at a table for a variety of reasons then have to move when someone bales out at say Watford Jct or Runcorn. Damned annoying and then impacts upon joining passengers at that stopm as people move around like musical chairs.
A perfect example is the Coventry Corridor on the Up where there is a continuing problem, and always has been with people doing short hop journeys between New St and International in the Peaks and sitting at table/window seats. Centro tickets never used to be valid on InterCity services and I presume it is the case now.
In the reverse having started to use these services recently I am becoming more irritated with the groups of people who will insist in jumping into the First Class section even though they are obviously travelling on std class travelcards, simply to be alongside the stairs on arrival. They stand and block the corridors at times and will not let you get up to pack away laptops, or get prepared to alight, and if you are going forward on a connecting service you then have the issue of having to wait for them to get off.
Rules are the glue by which Society as a whole is retained, even Moses had to come down the Mountain with rules which regulated that Society.
Once you reach the point where people decide that they can pick and choose which rules THEY will obey, then you are on the slippery slope. Hence we have uninsured, unlicensed motorists, driving untaxed and unroadworthy cars.
I know of people who would drink and drive because it suits them to do so, I have listened to a radio show where a man admitted to buying, using and returning clothes under a shop's relaxed returned policy on the basis that he wanted to "dress well" but held the view that why should he pay for it.
Virgin serve free meals and drinks including alcoholic drinks on their services in First Class. Why should I be restricted to one item, why can I not have as many sausages as I want ? why cannot I have as many alcoholic drinks as I want ?
Similar arguments can be made for a number of other matters on the basis you propound, such as using radios and personal music players.
Who is to be the arbiter of what is causing annoyance or harm in your scenario ? You ? Someone else ? Me ? and what about differences in perspective ?
Your attitude is a perfect example of why modern Society is heading the way it is.
Firstly, when you come onto the Railway and buy a ticket you accept a legal contract to comply withn the rules. If you don't like the rules well you have alternative options you can exercise, although National Express coaches for example will also have rules and byelaws that are not dissimilar in many respects.
Set down only and pick up only stops are not the result of some planner making indiscriminate and irrational decisions but are the result of experience of train loadings.
Take overnight trains, some of which may convey only sleeping vehicles and one or two conventional carriages. The capacity of these trains is set to meet a pre-determined demand. Now one of these arriving at (say for the purposes of this example) Milton Keynes at the start of the Peak, offers a rapid service to London as opposed to the other serevices. So what happens ? Punters jump on and suddenly the train looks like a LUL train with peoople stood about everywhere. Now in addition to the fact that it causes congestion within the train, as a long distance passenger do you really want to have to worm your way past people standing in the corridors or in the isles ?
It is for this reason that many sleeper services were denoted to set down, as well as the obvious issues about timekeeping. What do you do for example if the train is advertised but is running late ? People expect another Class 1 to be pulled in to compensate.
Pick up only stops are to prevent disruption to long distance passengers. Commuters and others have a habit of aiming for the table seats, even though they are travelling maybe only 10/15 minutes. Long distance passengers who may preferr to be at a table for a variety of reasons then have to move when someone bales out at say Watford Jct or Runcorn. Damned annoying and then impacts upon joining passengers at that stopm as people move around like musical chairs.
A perfect example is the Coventry Corridor on the Up where there is a continuing problem, and always has been with people doing short hop journeys between New St and International in the Peaks and sitting at table/window seats. Centro tickets never used to be valid on InterCity services and I presume it is the case now.
In the reverse having started to use these services recently I am becoming more irritated with the groups of people who will insist in jumping into the First Class section even though they are obviously travelling on std class travelcards, simply to be alongside the stairs on arrival. They stand and block the corridors at times and will not let you get up to pack away laptops, or get prepared to alight, and if you are going forward on a connecting service you then have the issue of having to wait for them to get off.
Rules are the glue by which Society as a whole is retained, even Moses had to come down the Mountain with rules which regulated that Society.
Once you reach the point where people decide that they can pick and choose which rules THEY will obey, then you are on the slippery slope. Hence we have uninsured, unlicensed motorists, driving untaxed and unroadworthy cars.
I know of people who would drink and drive because it suits them to do so, I have listened to a radio show where a man admitted to buying, using and returning clothes under a shop's relaxed returned policy on the basis that he wanted to "dress well" but held the view that why should he pay for it.
Virgin serve free meals and drinks including alcoholic drinks on their services in First Class. Why should I be restricted to one item, why can I not have as many sausages as I want ? why cannot I have as many alcoholic drinks as I want ?
Similar arguments can be made for a number of other matters on the basis you propound, such as using radios and personal music players.
Who is to be the arbiter of what is causing annoyance or harm in your scenario ? You ? Someone else ? Me ? and what about differences in perspective ?
That is not the point of the debate at this stage anymore, it has moved on to the legitimacy of boarding a set down only train.Oh stop the bickering!
On any train, you need a ticket which is valid between two stations at which it picks up passengers.
Whilst you're getting on at a SD stop, your ticket is valid from that trains last calling point, even if it was 100 miles north of where you are now.
Your ticket is valid, you can't be charged anything, end of discussion.
Now give it a rest?
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