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Wrongly Assumed Facts by Passengers

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infobleep

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I was talking to a friend the other day and they thought you needed to buy a train ticket from West Norwood to Gatwick Airport. I explain that Oyster will do that job and if they had time to change trains at East Croydon, they could save further by touching in and out. I didn't check the last bit but I'm fairly certain that is the case. They don't have time though.
 
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infobleep

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If a train departs from platform 1a, as opposed to 1b, then it will that shown on National Rail Enquiries live departure boards as 1a.
 

bb21

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Safe is not a binary thing.

If you cancel trains then you force people out on to the roads. How do the risks of emergency DOO compare to the risks of road travel?
This is not the place. Thank you.
 

anme

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"But I've paid £x thousand pounds a year to use the train and it's a disgrace." Yeah pal, but divide your season ticket by 363 and you've paid a lot less than anyone whose bought a regular ticket on this train.

The hatred many posters here feel for season ticket holders is one of the least attractive features of this message board.
 

bb21

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The hatred many posters here feel for season ticket holders is one of the least attractive features of this message board.
Without season ticket revenue, there wouldn't be a service most likely on many lines, but of course the casual one-off leisure travellers paying rock bottom fares three times a year still think they get priority because "divide your season ticket by 728 you get a cheaper journey". ;)
 

BigCj34

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Also if the train isn't reliable for working hours then it's not feasible to commute. If you're standing for 40 minutes and paying thousands to do so then the trains should at least run on time.

Up north there is certainly more commuter potential that's limited by the size and amorunt of rolling stock rather than full track capacity. If we want to go green then rail commuting needs all the support it can get.

This is without even comparing the perks overseas season ticket holders have, like the BahnCard 100. A Gold Card pales in comparison.
 

RLBH

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This is without even comparing the perks overseas season ticket holders have, like the BahnCard 100. A Gold Card pales in comparison.
Something like BahnCard 100 would never get traction in the UK - you can extrapolate its' likely cost from the rates for 7-day and 14-day All Line Rovers. Most people in the 'my season ticket costs me eleventy squillion pounds' group would buy one, and the railway would scream about how they were losing money from people travelling by train using their 'Railcard 100'.

Such a scheme would be great for rail use, but not so clearly advantageous for the farebox. Even a National Railcard available to everyone isn't acceptable, despite the fact that the increase in passenger numbers would probably more than offset the reduction in fares paid.
 

anme

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Something like BahnCard 100 would never get traction in the UK - you can extrapolate its' likely cost from the rates for 7-day and 14-day All Line Rovers. Most people in the 'my season ticket costs me eleventy squillion pounds' group would buy one, and the railway would scream about how they were losing money from people travelling by train using their 'Railcard 100'.

Such a scheme would be great for rail use, but not so clearly advantageous for the farebox. Even a National Railcard available to everyone isn't acceptable, despite the fact that the increase in passenger numbers would probably more than offset the reduction in fares paid.

Why does it work in Germany?
 

Peter C

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To get this thread back on track (pun intended):
Another fact which passengers assume is correct but isn't:
"The ECML is entirely closed between London and Peterborough during the Bank Holiday weekend - how dare Network Rail close it when big sporting events are happening? Do they not care about the lives of the passengers?"
I saw this on Twitter this weekend, with one gentleman even complaining to LNER about how they hadn't publicised it. I actually responded and said something along the lines of "They've been publicising it for weeks, do your research."! :)

-Peter
 

Llama

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Wrongly assumed fact -

That 'shortage of train crew' means the TOCs don't employ enough train crew.
 

infobleep

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Turning up for a train because you know the time it leaves, only to find the train doesn't run any more or it departs at an earlier time to what you assumed it was.

An example of this would be the 19:25 Woking to Portsmouth service. It ran for a long time and now the service from Waterloo skips Woking, so no 19:25. I've only just noticed this, as I was comparing service frequencies with Effingham Junction, so could easily have been caught out.

I can imagine some people turned up for the x10 Guildford to Gatwick Airport when the May 2018 timetable came into being as they would have assumed that was the time the train left. Alas no it now became any time between x06 and x13.
 

paddington

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You still get mentions of BR now and again!


I heard this last year on the Bakerloo/Watford line, someone got on an Overground at Wembley Central or thereabouts and asked if this went to Oxford Circus because it "looked different". An elderly guy replied that this was a British Rail train and they then spent 5-10 minutes repeating the same things over and over about the differences between "BR" trains and which trains go to Euston or Elephant and I had to tune it out as it was so vacuous.
 

Llama

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Well it hardly suggests that they employ too many!
What it usually means is a shortage of competence. Perhaps people would be surprised that at Andy Burnham's favourite TOC during the disruption which started last May, and still has effects to this day, that at many traincrew depots headcounts were/are overcomplement.
 

Red1980

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Hahahaha "facts" and "passengers" in the same sentence always makes me chuckle.

It is amazing how some suddenly become a scholar of all things railway simply by setting foot on a station or reading a newspaper.
 

hwl

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I was talking to a friend the other day and they thought you needed to buy a train ticket from West Norwood to Gatwick Airport. I explain that Oyster will do that job and if they had time to change trains at East Croydon, they could save further by touching in and out. I didn't check the last bit but I'm fairly certain that is the case. They don't have time though.
Yep touch in and out will save them. With West Norwood the cheeky solution is to go to Clapham to change rather than Norwood Jn and East Croydon as the service level is better and journey times lower...
 

prod_pep

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A strange misconception around these parts is that Merseyrail or Merseytravel actually own the tracks and signals. It has even spread amongst some enthusiasts - I've had to politely correct a couple of people on that assumption.

Video125 got it wrong in their Wirral Line cab ride as well, saying Merseyrail was vertically integrated. They later doubled down on it by filming a caption board with all trains showing as on time, the narrator quipping 'it certainly seems to work!'
 

CEN60

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People assume that because i work in the "Rail Industry" I know the time of the next train from whatever station & how much it costs! (they are politely told to "get the app")
 

CaptainHaddock

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People assume that because i work in the "Rail Industry" I know the time of the next train from whatever station & how much it costs! (they are politely told to "get the app")

People also assume the same if you make the mistake of wearing your orange PPE jacket while waiting for your train home!
 
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