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Journey by Journey / London to the West / Re: Night Riviera to be reduced for eight weeks due to engineering work - Jan 2022
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on: January 23, 2022, 17:22:47
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I hear across Europe a lot of previously axed sleeper services are being revived as there is an increasing market for them. People increasingly turning away from air travel for a multitude of reasons, environmental impact being one of them.
It would therefore seem against current trends if the UK▸ was to close any of its sleeper services, although I might be comparing apples with oranges. I wonder if recent impact on domestic aviation would have affected demand for long distance rail
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Sideshoots - associated subjects / Heritage railway lines, Railtours, other rail based attractions / Re: Low pressure sodium lamps now hard to find.
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on: September 25, 2020, 17:05:21
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I collect light bulbs. This is not something I thought I'd ever admit to in public, and probably puts me fairly high on the nerd scale.
A few years ago I bought a few SOX lamps, along with a means to drive them, to add to my collection.
With the way LED's are going, I don't think it'll be long before High pressure sodium, Mercury, Metal Halide and even fluorescent go the same way. Although for heritage purposes these might be easier to simulate with cleverly disguised LEDs solutions.
Some time ago at the Peak Rail heritage railway in Matlock I found gas mantles simulated with incandescent pygmy lamps. These are probably LED as well now...
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All across the Great Western territory / Fare's Fair / Re: GWR mobile tickets
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on: August 18, 2018, 14:22:30
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Just thought I'd chip into this thread and write my experience of using an e-ticket for the first time about a month ago.
I was travelling from Heathrow Airport and was not able to plan my journey in advance. Because I was travelling from there to Pewsey on a Sunday trains were sporadic. Made worse by the line closure at the time meant that I had to get bustitution from Swindon. Whilst trains to Swindon were frequent, the replacement buses to Pewsey were as sporadic as the trains would have been, as they were just that, a replacement.
I realised being at terminal 5 I had a chance that if I used the Hex direct to Paddington, I would have 5 minutes to change at Paddington for a Swindon train that would connect me just in time to a replacement bus. Failing to connect to this bus would have added at least two and a half hours to the journey time.*
I was concerned about the tight connection time at Paddington and the time involved in purchasing (or even buying online and collecting) a paper ticket before boarding the connecting train. After boarding the Hex much to my complete astonishment I noticed I had a very good 4G signal in the tunnels. I can only assume they have some sort of leaky feeder arrangement going on in there for mobile services. I much prefer that over some dodgy wifi where I have to sign in / give all my data away etc.
I purchased the tickets on the web from GWR▸ . I already had an account, but it said I needed the app in order to use the purchased e-tickets. A bit annoying - surely this can be done with web only technology?
So I downloaded the app (I was just starting to emerge from the tunnels by this stage) and was pleasantly surprised I could at least log in with my GWR account and the tickets were there ready and waiting. This was fairly good from a user experience standpoint.
The Hex arrived at PAD» a few minutes late making the connection even tighter. A dash straight to platform 1 (no ticket barriers) and straight onto the train just in time for it to depart.
I had bulky luggage, the train was full and standing. I was very, very tired and didn't fancy fighting my way through the train to find somewhere to stand (I boarded near the micro-buffet). Despite the fullness of the train, there was however plenty of seats still in first class. So I sat there with a view to upgrading should seats not be wanted by other ticket holders. I felt this was not likely, since the train was already pulling out by now.
After about 10 minutes the train manager came through asking to see tickets. I showed my e-ticket and asked if I could get a first upgrade on such a ticket. He said absolutely and proceeded to try scan my e-ticket. This took absolutely ages due to the wobbling of the train and the camera on his device struggling to focus. I felt a little embarrassed and sorry for the TM‡ having to put up with this. After that he then sold me the first upgrade which took no time at all. All in all I probably wasted several minutes of the TMs time due to the e-ticket.
Great though this technology is, it would have been much better and quicker for both me and the TM to simply purchase the entire ticket on-board the train - the good old fashioned way. The only reason I bought an e-ticket was so I could make the connection and not risk a penalty fare / prosecution.
When I arrived at Swindon, the ticket gates appeared to be equipped with optical scanners, but they were not working. Staff at the gate-line just waved me though.
10 days later when I made the return journey (same return e-ticket, again via Swindon), gate-line staff saw I was about to use the e-ticket scanner and just waved me though without inspecting my phone at all. I was not checked on the train, and arrival at Paddington was at a non gated platform so the ticket went unchecked.
At this moment in time I intend to stick to paper tickets where possible as they are less faff when on board. Despite all this technology, I struggle to see how much progress has really been made, except saving on ticketing stock.
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* I know there are other routes available such as the bus to Reading. From terminal 5 you can also get a fairly good connection with a local bus to Staines and then train to Reading. However on this day due to the fact some of the journey was already a replacement bus I was fairly determined to keep my exposure to buses to a minimum. Although at least on a bus you normally get a seat.
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