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    Nearly 20,000 people prosecuted for fare evasion on London’s transport

    https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/nearly-20000-people-prosecuted-for-fare-evasion-on-londons-transport-70089/ Further down, the article mentions this case: This bears a remarkable similarity to a matter for which our help was recently sought...
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    Oxford Parkway to London Victoria?

    Can anyone please tell me what kind of train this was and why it ran? https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U92053/2024-02-21/detailed Furthermore, is there any publicly available information I could have looked up about this myself without bothering the good people of RailForums...
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    Where the “Action” is (Acton Mainline typo)

    The attached was seen at Reading (P12/13) just now. I’m just saying: it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. EDIT: I see someone has appended a description of the images to my title. I apologise for not doing so in the first place in accordance with the accessibility rules.
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    Complaints about Revenue Protection behaviour

    I am well aware that those requesting our help here may feel they have every incentive to exaggerate, if not entirely invent, the RPI rudeness or worse that we often see reported. They may feel that gaining our sympathy will elicit better advice from us, or that their case will somehow be...
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    Additional calls to compensate for cancelled trains

    Today, the intermediate stations between Reading and Didcot Parkway (at least those with Main platforms) were graced by a few additional calls from various express services which normally wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. There were a couple from Paddington to Cheltenham Spa, and from...
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    Leaving a platform through a staff-only exit

    At Paddington, there is a large gate between P1 and P2/3 which swings open under power when one of those buggy things needs to get through, then closes again afterwards. Actually, it’s a pair of gates. Yesterday, unusually, it had been left open, and passengers were casually walking through...
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    Northern Line: what are the analogue gauges you see on trains?

    I’m talking about the barometer-looking things that are set in to the seat housing, near the floor. They seem to climb as the train progresses, only to climb more when the doors open, followed by a rapid decline to nothingness. What are these, why do passengers need to see them, and why don’t...
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    Embarrassing things you’ve done while travelling by train

    Posted in General due to the thread’s frivolous nature. Please move if this is in error. I’ll start off, naturally. Many moons ago, at Paddington, I was running for my train which was either on P2 or P4. Having got through the ticket barrier, and while running at full pelt, I looked up at that...
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    Online passenger load levels for trains

    Wouldn’t it be great if RTT et al could tell you how busy each train (or maybe even each carriage) was? And I’m not talking about the hit-and-miss “reported full and standing” that one sometimes sees. Something nerdy and automated, please! Let’s say you’re waiting at Reading for an up fast. The...
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    Dealing with an incorrect colleague in front of a customer

    My interest was piqued by this post: I’ve been trying to think how I would deal with this. Finding some pretext to get the errant colleague to go and assist with some other task (“I can finish up with the customer”), maybe? It seems to me that the only way of immediately giving the customer...
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    IET evacuation at Iver

    After my up train ran slow for a while and moved onto the relief lines, I just passed what I presume was the reason: this service from Hereford was apparently being evacuated at Iver. Sorry if that doesn’t merit a thread but it’s one you don’t see too often (thankfully). Looks like it only took...
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    Twyford platform length

    On the 1850 London Paddington to Didcot Parkway, I just saw several people alighting from Coach 12 at Twyford, despite the announcement saying that the doors would only open in Coaches 1-8. Has Twyford really had its platforms extended to accommodate 12 coaches, and, if so, then why?
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    Total passengers passing through a station (stopping or not)

    I would like to be able to calculate the number of rail passengers that pass through a particular station each day/year, including not just those who don’t join or alight there, but also those passing through on services not even booked to call there. Is there any way of getting even a ball park...
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    Possible stupid question: Is there a list of routes for which Advance fares are available?

    From playing with the GWR journey planner, it seems that you can get an Advance ticket from Swindon to London Paddington (subject to availability, of course), but not from Didcot Parkway or anywhere further up. Is there some list or map somewhere that tells you the above information for each...
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    TRIVIA: Station with the most platform entrances

    A discussion mentioning the Penalty Fare regulations requiring valid signage at every platform entrance prompted me to wonder which station has the most separate platform entrances. Without looking anything up, I can think of 25 at Reading: 1 for each of P1-P6; 3 for P7 (the one from the...
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    Boarding as doors are closing

    A few times lately, I’ve witnessed passengers boarding trains as the doors are closing and ignoring platform staff shouting at them not to, with no obvious repercussions. What are people’s opinions of these passengers? Would anyone here ever board as doors were closing, and, if so, would a...
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    Could a TOC still prosecute after a settlement is paid?

    As above, really. If a settlement offer is accepted and the amount paid, are the TOC then no longer able to prosecute for the offence(s) “covered” by the settlement? Does that still hold if the TOC subsequently discover additional aggravating factors (but not any new offences)? I suppose that...
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    Can TOCs do contactless revenue inspections yet?

    GWR service just now. Not sure what flavour of inspector he was (I don’t like to peer too obviously at people’s badges), but when I produced my contactless card and said I’d touched in (which I had!), he produced a yellow machine and appeared to scan my card with it. I seem to recall that a...
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    Validity of contactless during disruption

    Let’s say, entirely hypothetically, that there’s significant disruption between London Paddington and Reading, and announcements advise using London Waterloo to Reading instead, and that tickets will be accepted on the latter services. Contactless is valid on the whole route from Paddington to...
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    TRIVIA: Examples of a rail replacement bus passing through a large town with no station

    What it says on the tin, really. As a starter, I would assume that when Didcot Parkway - Radley - Oxford is a bus, it usually comes off the A34 at Abingdon and goes straight through its centre. A supplementary question: in practice, if a reasonable number of passengers on the bus wanted to...

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