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How I got 100% off my train travel

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Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#111

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

tdeck wrote: post #61
dylan604 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I suppose anything below 30 minutes is consideres "on time". sounds about right for the stereotype. it's the 'murikans that are the ones so uptight about time

FWIW Amtrak's policy is 15 minutes, but they're not known for being on time: https://www.amtrak.com/on-time-performance It's interesting how much effort here is dedicated to explaining that it's the freight rail companies' fault.

Because it is ... though Amtrak trains do sometimes break down, the vast majority of delays on long-haul Amtrak routes is caused by decisions made by the freight rail companies who own the lines.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#112

Post by curiousObject »

nprateem wrote: post #84
Symbiote wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's expensive for irregular users. If I want to visit friends in Derby, coming from London, that's £81. For no good reason, a return ticket is £84. If I need to travel at peak times, that's £123. Booked months in advance it might be £20, roughly what a bus ticket costs.

There is a good reason the return is only £3 more. It's so fare dodgers who buy a single have still basically paid the full fare.

I don’t understand. Wouldn’t most fare dodgers buy no tickets, not just buy a single ticket for part of a return journey?

What’s the reason that people try to dodge fares by buying a single ticket? Is it because they know when and where tickets are likely to be checked?

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#113

Post by probably_wrong »

weinzierl wrote: post #31

In Germany you can use https://bahnvorhersage.de It is meant to be used to find reliable connections, but of course you can use it to save money as described in the article. Here is the 38c3 talk about the project from one the creators: https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-wann-klappt-der-anschluss-wann-n...

The talk is great and I can definitely recommend it.

The website doesn't seem to work in any of my browsers.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#114

Post by jdietrich »

sarreph wrote: post #8

The UK train system is a dire, expensive mess. Attempting to avoid getting directly political here, but I strongly believe it’s one of the lowest hanging fruit a political party could act on to curry favour with the electorate. Would be amazing to see this productised à la the way split ticketing works.

Only 2% of all journeys in the UK are made by train. Only 8% of people in England use trains at least once per week.

The professional-managerial class grossly over estimate the social and economic importance of passenger rail, because the network was built to serve their needs.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66c5c0b6cbe60...

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a815d8e40f0b...

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#115

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

dijit wrote: post #108
tehjoker wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

china has elections you know

Any elections in the People's Republic of China occur under a one-party authoritarian political system controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It's not the same, and as a consequence of being one-party; means (like the parent suggests) they can be more long term focused, which seems to be working.

There's still blame, but it is attached to people, not "the party" (at least not in terms of action taken to enforce blame).

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#116

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

pjc50 wrote: post #38
thebruce87m wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that when an English person says the north, they expect everyone to know they are talking specifically about the north of England, not the north of the UK even if everyone else is talking about the UK.

It's a very moveable dividing line depending on where the speaker is from, there's no Mason-Dixon line here. Can mean anywhere north of London. No normal person refers to Scotland as "north UK" when they could say Scotland, though.

When I grew up (in London), Watford was always the "gateway to the north".

On the other hand, Balham was the "gateway to the south" (which reached as far as the Mediterranean).

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#118

Post by crazygringo »

jdietrich wrote: post #114
sarreph wrote: post #8

The UK train system is a dire, expensive mess. Attempting to avoid getting directly political here, but I strongly believe it’s one of the lowest hanging fruit a political party could act on to curry favour with the electorate. Would be amazing to see this productised à la the way split ticketing works.

Only 2% of all journeys in the UK are made by train. Only 8% of people in England use trains at least once per week. The professional-managerial class grossly over estimate the social and economic importance of passenger rail, because the network was built to serve their needs. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66c5c0b6cbe60... https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a815d8e40f0b...

Well yeah, you're not going to take a train to the corner store. Your PDF notes that 29% of trips are made on foot.

2% of trips by train is a lot higher than the number of trips by airplane... And again, 8% of people using trains once a week is a lot higher than they use planes...

...And yet I don't think anybody "grossly overestimates" the social and economic importance of airplanes.

People use trains to visit family, go sightseeing, and so forth. They're a hugely important part of infrastructure, even if most people don't use them daily.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#119

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

dlcarrier wrote: post #4

Where I live, in the US, the income from light rail fair payers is a laughably small portion of the operating budget, so all rides are effectively discounted by 90%+. The fares really only exist to keep homeless people from sheltering on the trains, but they do that anyway, without a ticket. Somehow the prices are still high enough that it's cheaper to buy a cheap used car and drive it instead.

I love trains. But ... the New Mexico Rail Runner (Santa Fe Albuquerque, though technically the southern terminus is Belen) is estimated to have a subsidy of US$28,000 per rider per year.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#120

Post by Aeolun »

zfnmxt wrote: post #98

> if the baseline chance of delay is 10%, engineering works add 25%, strikes add 35%, and bad weather adds 20%, then when all these problems happen, there's a 90% chance your train will be delayed. What if signal failures "add" 15%? Then all factors combined would mean that there's a 105% chance your train will be delayed! Adding up probabilities like this doesn't make sense. If you simplify these things as independe…

Most of these trains are one and done things straight from the departure station to London?

The only experience I have was taking them in the other direction though, because I opted for a flight instead of dealing with it again to go back to London.

Was a new experience booking a train ticket and seeing a quote of £250. I thought the machine was broken.

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