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  1. Bob Ames

    Pricey food outlets at stations

    Yes, The Station Cafe is pretty good (and less than 100 m away :) ) but in defense of the platform outlets, there is nothing else open if you are starting early (e.g. 1K14, 1S34 etc.). I would imagine that the staff appreciate them (I often see dispatchers buying coffee from them).
  2. Bob Ames

    Changes to Auto Annie

    Heh. At Wigan, on the other hand: "The next train does not stop here, please sta" [unable to hear rest of announcement due to freight set crashing through the station at 75 mph]. Totally agreed. What's needed is an upbeat/cheerful and less snooty voice.
  3. Bob Ames

    New TPE Train Discussion

    I think TPE do just fine at 100 mph. What they need is more seats and more luggage space, which they won't get with tilting plastic tubes. :D
  4. Bob Ames

    Driverless HGV convoys being trialled

    I think it would be better to join the other convoy rather than overtake it. Better yet, change the law to allow them to run in the fast lane at 80 mph, thus keeping them out of the path of other traffic (but a limit of 80 mph might annoy BMW drivers :lol: ).
  5. Bob Ames

    Cumbrian Coast evolutionary question.

    Nah, they will always have big heads. :wink:
  6. Bob Ames

    Poor connection at Holyhead off some boats, and general SailRail discussion

    The Superfast X - now there's a ship with a history! Didn't know it was now working this route, cheers for the info!
  7. Bob Ames

    Most reliable stock

    Heh, but I wouldn't exactly call Northern's refurbed 144s 'rubbish' (they are pretty decent units and I would say 144004 is the best DMU I have had this side of a 175 - certainly way better than Northern's 158s which are well overdue for a refurb).
  8. Bob Ames

    Poor connection at Holyhead off some boats, and general SailRail discussion

    Ghastly. It is ridiculous that you had to wait 8 hours in Dublin and then another 4 hours at Holyhead! They ought to put displaced passengers on other ferries, even if means using other ferry companies or a car-only ferry (e.g. Epsilon). Swift did the same to me last year, although it meant...
  9. Bob Ames

    Pair of Northern 153s

    Speaking of double dogboxes, can you claim haulage for both units or just the unit you rode in?
  10. Bob Ames

    The 'Emergency' Budget

    So how much would be fair to you? £30K? £40K? Where do you draw the line? This might just be the incentive they need to get a job (or move the f**k out of London! :lol: )
  11. Bob Ames

    New posters threatening car park fines at Preston

    Ghastly - so glad I no longer own a car! VT appear to have gone poster-mad recently. My favourite new poster is in the bike space on Voyagers - they essentially say 'if you don't have a reservation, see the TM.' Yeah, as if the c***munching one-stop wonders are gonna rat themselves out...
  12. Bob Ames

    10 years of RailUK Forums

    Many happy returns! (and some happy singles, too! :lol:)
  13. Bob Ames

    Telltale sìgns of newbie rail travellers

    Groups of passengers that, after asking me the location of the station exit, then proceed to follow me all over the freakin' station! Passengers that ask me a series of questions and then ask, "What's a Pendolino?" (er, it's that big red and grey thing behind you)
  14. Bob Ames

    SailRail Halifax to Belfast NI

    Funnily enough, my last SailRail Advance had code '6I' which states, "Reservations are compulsory on the ship leg." Sounds to me as if 6I should be the Standby and 6J for the Advance. Perhaps the ticket issuer has mixed-up the codes?
  15. Bob Ames

    Could ticket splitting be banned?

    Yes, under current rules, it could not be banned; you would have to change the NRCoC to something like the conditions that Iarnród Éireann have: "11. Re-booking at intermediate stations 11.1 Except where specially authorised, passengers are not permitted to re-book at an intermediate...
  16. Bob Ames

    Surprised that some people pay for everything by card

    Cheers for the info radamfi! I've just looked on Yorkshire Bank's website for the sterling conversion fees - 2.75%, yikes! In contrast, Mastercard only charged me 11p for the Pound-Euro conversion at Connolly...
  17. Bob Ames

    Surprised that some people pay for everything by card

    Interesting. Funnily enough, this morning I received a replacement for my Maestro card - a Debit MasterCard. Would this work abroad?
  18. Bob Ames

    Surprised that some people pay for everything by card

    I've also never needed to borrow money, but I have found that credit cards are very useful for travel. Case in point: on a recent bash in Ireland (full write-up coming, honest! :lol:), I was able to buy a ticket for DART from the TVMs at Connolly station using my Mastercard and hopped onto my...
  19. Bob Ames

    Thoughts on smart card ticketing

    I take your point, but considering how fast the technology is evolving, I think it would be a mistake to settle on a particular system at this stage in the game. Let the TOCs build their competing systems and a winner will eventually emerge...
  20. Bob Ames

    Driverless Trains

    Ah, so you want Network Rail to spend billions of tax-payers money on upgrading infrastructure so that a few greedy TOCs can save on driver bills and line the pockets of shareholders? If a TOC wants autotrains so badly, they should make them work with the existing infrastructure rather than...

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