London Midland pulled the Trolley Services from their trains for this very reason. They even said themselves that "Many of our trains stop for extended time periods where catering facilities are widely available"

But I think pulling Buffet Services from Long Distance InterCity services would be a very very bad idea...!

This is the problem that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are going to have. When it was little advertised the service was faultless and speed for ontrain WiFi was incredible.

These days there are places where it is worse than useless. Particularly on busy trains.

It's the same issue with sharing a 2MB/s connection in the workplace. Might be fine for 2 or 3 people for casual browsing. But try running that in an office with a couple of servers and 40 workstations... (Which I came across a couple weeks ago)

It's like the motorway congestion effect. If you have a 4 lane motorway with just a small handful of cars. You can do speeds in the hundreds as the capacity is there to do so.

But if you have a 2 lane motorway which now has several hundred cars and a few lorries... Speeds are going to be much slower as there is too much traffic for the motorway to handle...

That is what happens when you try to share a 3G Modem between a couple hundred passengers... But things like iCloud or Google+ Photo Backup (Which is programmed to run over WiFi rather than 3G/4G) are what kills connections. Uploading data on a connection where upload is limited WILL have serious impact on it.

The passenger charter is perfectly clear.

If no seats then we pay out.

It's also considered a done thing that if you cannot get a seat in First Class and as a result you take a seat in Standard Class (which is available) then you are compensated. Rightly so in my opinion.

I can't see how a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) can justify not refunding the additional First Class part of the fare if you didn't actually use the service on the train.

---

A long time ago I had issue on a Southern Trains service where I purchased a First Class Ticket to travel from Brighton - London Victoria. The train was short formed and had 5 Carriages instead of 10. There was a "Celebrity" onboard and some passengers who claimed they had rights to deny me entry to First Class Private Security told me First Class was off limits. Any other passenger I think would have accepted this, sat in Standard Class and claimed back from the TOC if they could be bothered.

I however being the awkward sod I am, was having absolutely none of it. To cut a long story short. A vicious verbal argument broke out, I quoted NRCoC^▸ (National Rail Conditions of Carriage), that got the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) called and the train delayed.

Southern kinda missed the point and said that First Class would have been refunded if the accommodation was full (it wasn't) but refunded me the fare in full + a good will gesture for the distress I received and subsequent severe delays I encountered as a result (A missed flight from Stansted )

Faresaver, can I confirm if this applies to Wiltshire Pass Holders only?

For example a Somerset County Council pass can be used for Child Fares on pre 09:00 / 09:30 services anywhere on the network? Say X34, 267 and 87?

Also this is limited to OAP Passes only or can Disability Passes be used for the offer in addition?

Interesting read that Brucey. I have some issues with it though.


Well a ^30 "Administrative Charge" is in itself a penalty, so how can it enforceable if you are just being warned. It also says "may" be charged. So if I may play devils advocate, it won't be charged if it gets referred to prosecution? You cannot warn someone and then charge them for the privilege... That is a contradiction.

If I ever found myself in this situation, I wouldn't pay an "Administrative Charge" for a warning. You cannot have it both ways.

The website then goes on to say:


Proof of posting is NOT proof of receipt. Letters get lost all the time in the postal system. Why would one need to respond to a warning anyway? So if you don't respond to the letter then you will get the case referred to prosecution? So if again I may play controversially and ask "What defines a response?" signing for a recorded delivery letter? a grovelling apology? a sob story? Or just an "OK"


No mention of a administrative charge here? Simply pay the fare due and case closed? Seems very reasonable to me if you owe the fare in question.


Again, what is it with this "may result" nonsense?! Now looking at this it appears that Northern are using their own Parking Enforcement teams rather than a Private Parking Company...


So they're using the Byelaws then?

Oh and look at this............



Loving that 0844 number!

I believe that's possibly from when Virgin Trains tried to go for a 3 Class Railway. Standard Class, Silver Service and First Class?

This was the same Virgin Trains that with their XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) Franchise originally named First Class as Club Class.

Except you could never buy a Club Class Ticket so technically you could never travel legitamately under the NRCOC^▸ (National Rail Conditions of Carriage) as a ticket for the service didn't exist...

Oh... wow...

I recognise some of those names from my dubious secondary school years.
For all the wrong reasons... Karma is a wonderful, wonderful thing...

...Even if it does take 10 years!

I was looking at the opportunity for a Birthday Bash when I stumbled across this fantastic little anomaly...







So First Great Western have (as we know) higher Advance Fare Tiers than the most flexible Anytime Single Tickets... What's worse is they are actually selling them!!

I brought this to the attention of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) via Twitter and received the following response from Sam:


This did make me a little mift. Normally the tickets are cheaper? As far as I am concerned this is something that SHOULD NOT be able to happen. Maybe I'm overreacting... But lets look at this one:



That's really bad... The most expensive First Advance tier we learn is ^194 when an Anytime First Class Single is ^126.05 (Railcard Prices)

I started a twitter conversation with FGW Dave who said he logged my concerns and would get managers to check the price flows for the routes. As far as I am concerned it should not be allowed that FGW sell train specific tickets for a higher price than Any Train tickets... It just doesn't make sense and is a dubious practice.

A further conversation ensued with another Twitter Member who suggested I posted this example on RailForums (A political place I'd rather not venture too... Far too ehm... ok I'll be quiet on that one!) But he thought I might actually get somewhere with it.

I am of the personal belief that it is of public interest that ALL Train Operators are banned from selling Advance "Train Specific" Tickets when the most flexible the Like for Like ticket is cheaper than the tiers in question. Am I just making a mountain out of a molehill or is this something worthy of pressing with FGW and potentially the regulatory bodies / DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)?

---

Ok now onto my next issue...



What on earth is that all about... The sickening thing being that I would be liable for a Penalty Fare if I stayed on that first Ipswich Bound Train... But I am conscious of the "Through Train Rule" in the National Rail Conditions of Carriage so maybe if the first train I was on from Peterborough was the booked train, my ticket would remain valid despite an advertised change onto a second Ipswich train to change at Ipswich?

Even that one doesn't make sense... But the idea of being liable for a penalty fare when you're on a train going to the same place, but the ticket you have states you must change or be potentially liable does not sit well in my view...

Knights Templar near Bristol Temple Meads has one also.

Alcohol is available in Bath Spa Starbucks. But the coffee is depressingly overpriced. Dashi which is an independent outlet is both cheaper and nicer IMO^▸ (in my opinion).

But for the price of Starbucks when I know I can get a comp coffee on the train 98% of the time if traveling HST^▸ (High Speed Train). Then sorry. Train wins every time. Even if the coffee isn't as good.

But Coffee in First Class has made a notable improvement over the months. Particularly with the availability of fresh milk

Preston Park is how far they are able to run at present:

http://www.southernrailway.com/

Be very careful with Chrome Spellchecker...



It's default language checker is English (United States) - Which you should change to English (United Kingdom)

and as you can see; I'm using Chrome and mine still works

An Empty Coaching Stock Move from Lovers Walk Depot near Brighton has derailed outside the station:

From the Argus:


http://www.theargus.co.uk/video/4174850886001/?ref=vidshare

Love getting hospital appointments with 23 hours notice till the appointment

I'm going to have to rule out tomorrow evening. Things are getting too tight for time now. However I have the green signal for Friday for most in not all of the day

See you Friday

Pressing the like button on Google Chrome does indeed do something strange:







I'm no expert in PHP, but I would either suggest this is just a Google Chrome issue, or that it's a feedback of the PHP script throwing up the Asterisk * as a feedback of conclusion.

But without seeing the code or testing on another browser, I am purely speculating

I typed that from my Galaxy S5 so forgive my perhaps poor explanation of my example.

I was elating to the fact that the rule does not prohibit excessing onboard. But on the flip side of this it does not say "You are entitled to" as you state.

My argument to that if stopped by a gate line member would be. I know it's not valid for this train, so I would like to excess onboard.

If told you must buy beforehand and I had a train to catch leaving in less than 5 minutes. Then I would politely say that I can excess onboard without penalty, so that is what I will do.

Not having staff onboard the train or barriers at the end of the journey is hardly the passengers fault. But if they are made aware that it is not valid for this train and make no subsequent effort to rectify this, then this is clear avoidance of paying the Anytime Upgrade Excess.

Bearing in mind particularly for Paddington station, the platforms for trains are often announced with as little as 5 minutes notice. Making someone miss a train so as to purchase their excess before boarding in my view is unreasonable. It may also create the crazy situation where the customer then goes to the ticket office, pays the excess for a train. But then finds out their original [Super] Off Peak is valid for the next train they end up getting on.

I think excessing should be allowed onboard for the pure reason that once onboard, you know you are on the more restricted train. Whereas going off to buy an excess doesn't dictate the train you will then be able to use.