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Trivia: Common railway related fallacies

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birchesgreen

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That there are huge fleets of buses and drivers ready to begin a rail replacement service within minutes of a line being blocked.
 
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mrcheek

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That if Standard Class is full, you can sit in First Class for no extra charge.

Also, that the definition of "full" means there were no free double seats in the first carriage they looked in, even though there will probably be an empty carriage at the front
 

Logan Carroll

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Multiple units are like locomotives and you can simply add more carriages for busy services.

Old one but the strategic steam reserve.
 

43066

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That bottles of yellow liquid found on or near the line contain Lucozade.
 

O L Leigh

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Folks on the Overground routes out of Liverpool Street disappointed when 378s didn't appear on Day 1 back in 2015, and it was the old trains with "Overground" stuck on the side.

...which is not quite as amusing as all the drivers that had opted to stay on the TfL side of the split thinking that they would immediately get a massive pay-rise in line with their other TfL colleagues on the NLL/ELL without realising that they were actually going to be TUPEd and stay on GA rates of pay and conditions until such time that harmonisation could be completed.
 

yorkie

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Here are a few I can think of which I have seen/heard; many of these are due to poor messaging by the rail industry:
  • Off Peak fares can't be excessed for travel at a restricted time
  • Off Peak (SVS/SVR) fares outside the London area can be restricted during the evening peak
  • Route restricted fares can't be excessed for travel via a different route
  • No seat reservations displayed means you can still eject someone from a seat you had reserved
  • Seats labelled as being in 1st class accommodation cannot be used when the service is advertised as Standard Class only
  • As York to Doncaster only takes 20 minutes, therefore they must be very near each other, so the fare must be really cheap (also applies to other quick journeys)
  • PAYG fares are based purely on the Zones travelled through and do not take into account the mode deemed to be used
  • Electric Class 323 units at Manchester Piccadilly will form a TPE service to Huddersfield or beyond
  • The quickest way to get to the Victoria Line at King's Cross is to follow the signs
  • An LNER service timed to depart around the time of a Grand Central service is, in fact, a Grand Central service, if they saw the TOC code 'GR' on a timetable; and vice-versa, that a Grand Central service is the train they need to catch, if they see TOC code 'GR' shown on their ticket or itinerary.
 
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mrcheek

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That the best way to compare airfares and rail fares is to compare the walk up rail fare, with a cheap airfare booked weeks in advance...

That there are huge fleets of buses and drivers ready to begin a rail replacement service within minutes of a line being blocked.
or similarly, that in the event of any staff absence or sickness, there is a whole mess room full of spare staff available to take over wherever and whenever they are needed
 
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Lemmy99uk

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That HS2 is being built simply to allow Brummies to get to London quicker.
 

Mcr Warrior

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Have we had booking tickets through Trainline is always cheaper? Even if we have, it's probably worth repeating! ;)
 

CyrusWuff

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Staff who work at central London stations know how to get to anywhere else in London solely by bus, as well as walking directions to anywhere within a couple of miles of their station.
 

Gloster

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That all doors on any train anywhere in the country will open automatically as soon as the train stops. This belief seems particularly prevalent among Londoners.
 

norbitonflyer

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or similarly, that in the event of any staff absence or sickness, there is a whole mess room full of spare staff available to take over wherever and whenever they are needed
An old one from my grandmother, back in the 1970s.

"Your uncle's train was cancelled because the guard hadn't turned up again" This, in her book, being because rail staff were undisciplined overpaid workshy layabouts, rather than because BR(SR) was not paying enough to recruit sufficient staff to cover absences due to sickness etc. I did once ask her if she would be happy to travel on a train on which the guard was seriously ill, but she didn't have an answer. I'd have expected a little more understanding of railway matters given that two of her brothers had worked on the railways, the "Swilly" in Ireland, and the Beira Railway in Southern Africa.

Another one - A green signal means a train is coming. Probably a throwback to the olden days, when semaphore signals were indeed only cleared when a train was accepted from the previous box - this was itself a measure introduced after the Abbotts Ripton disaster in January 1876, when signals couldn't be put to danger behind a train because they had got frozen in the "clear" position.

Slightly off-topic, but the Rev Awdry was always very particular about only describing train movements in the "Thomas the Tank Engine" books that could happen (and usually had happened) on the real railway, and would turn in his grave at some of the things depicted in the TV show - trains being stopped at level crossings, two locomotives running one behind the other a few feet apart, broken down locomotives being carried on railway wagons (even if its a lowloader, how do they fit the loading gauge?) or, in one episode, a train's brakes failing because its brake fluid (sic) leaked out.
 

Western Sunset

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The Underground is all, well, underground. Though to be honest when I was a lad I saw a picture, in a book, of a large tube depot lit up at night and I thought that it was underground.
 

py_megapixel

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Southport is big enough to merit impeding other places' services so it can have a direct connection to Manchester Piccadilly.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Northern Powerhouse Rail will be built in full, will serve Bradford city centre, and will revolutionise travel across the North of England.

Related:- Northern Powerhouse Rail is a really good name, and isn't cringeworthy at all.
 

317666

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That you can't walk through the train between carriages and have to jump off and run down the platform instead. (I know this is actually true in some cases but I've seen it many, many times with fully-gangwayed units!)
 

Dai Corner

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There is no requirement to pay a fare if not challenged by a member of staff.
 

Mcr Warrior

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There is no requirement to pay a fare if not challenged by a member of staff.
Think we may have a winner there. ;)

Another similar one is, if having bought a railcard discounted ticket, it subsequently transpires that the railcard has expired, it'll just be necessary to pay the fare difference when challenged, and there'll be no other consequences.
 

43096

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That train drivers are more important than any other member of staff.
 
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