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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

#191

Post by isaacremuant »

Until there's better transparency of the train system in London, I'd say that most of the excuses they give are iterative bullshit and cost saving measures.

We need the peasants to go to work but we don't need to offer these low traffic route on Sundays so we won't and we'll call it "Planned engineering works" every time, every year.

If someone has detailed transparency on what they are instead of blind authoritarianism like in the train forums/Reddit please be my guest.

I wonder if they have re-enacted their refunds page which was down for months "due to cyber security incident".

Such a scammy, partially tax funded service that costs an insane amount.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#192

Post by shmeeed »

apexalpha wrote: post #173

I did something similar in the Netherlands. Due to an array of issues the train company has abysmall on-time records on our only high speed line, connecting A'dam to Brussels, Paris and London. I mean we are still talking about 82% on time, not 60% lmao. But compared to the 97,6% of normal trains it's bad. But anyway you can ask for your money back just like in the UK. The trick is that when you travel on a business…

>The trick is that when you travel on a business card your company pays, but you get the reimbursement when delayed.

TBH that sounds just like fraud to me, and on discovery could (probably, IANAL) justify immediate lawful termination. It's a nice loophole though, if you don't give a f*.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#193

Post by dataengineer56 »

sebtron wrote: post #27

> Avanti West Coast offers customers: > 15 minutes — 25% off > 30 minutes — 50% off > 1 hour + — 100% off To me they look like very generous refund policies. I checked Italy's Trenitalia and what they offer is[1]: > 30-119 minutes: 25% > 120+ minutes: 50% I suppose anything below 30 minutes is consideres "on time". [1] https://www.trenitalia.com/it/informazioni/indennizzo_per_ri...

This is UK law(?) or standard across all rail networks. It's automated too, you don't have to fill in a form. Immediately after arriving at your destination you get an email telling you that your train was delayed by enough to give you compensation, click a link and the money is in your bank account in a couple of days.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#194

Post by isaacremuant »

sksksk wrote: post #35
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.

I agree that it's a dire , expensive mess. But it doesn't seem like low hanging fruit at all... Anything that will improve the situation will be expensive and/or take a long time to achieve.

That's why we focus on the important stuff like spending several million to call lines suffragette and lionness.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#195

Post by Lanolderen »

lmm wrote: post #175
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you'd need to reduce car dependency for any public transit system to make sense, and I don't think Americans care for that This is what I mean. To reduce car dependence given America's built infrastructure, demographics and geographic spread, you'd have to build such a massive amount of public transportation that I think--outside major metropolitan areas--it would be cheaper to stick to cars.

Most major American cities have terrible traffic and air quality problems already, which are only getting worse as cars get bigger and heavier (and electric cars can be worse). America might need thirty years of densification before some of the high speed rail boosters' ideas make sense, but congestion charging, better zoning rules, and gradual elimination of street parking coupled with improving bus and rail infrast…

Just quickly gonna shill that carsharing and motorcycles/scooters are a pretty good option as is home office/decentralized offices for many current commuters.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#196

Post by Spare_account »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #148
nobody9999 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What is a late slip? I imagine (I don't live in the Chicagoland area, so guessing here, perhaps someone from the 'burbs there can chime in) it's a note from the CTA saying the train was delayed so you can limit your negative exposure when you boss wants to know why you're two hours late. Which is actually much more than NYC does. Although that has its advantages as well. The linked fortune[0] (actually an excerpt fr…

CTA never did that; I don’t think they could if the wanted to. Metra did it, I’m 99.9% sure they stopped years ago. But yeah, there would be a person at the platform when the train arrived downtown with a piece of paper saying that the train was delayed. A late slip. Nowadays, you have real-time location tracking of the train. If it’s late, you can tell your employer what train you’re on and they could verify it. At…

Somewhere else in the thread, it was suggested that these 'late slips' might be useful for proving to one's employer why they were late to work.

Is this the only use for them?

I am reminded, once again, how lucky I am to have been employed by people who trust me.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#197

Post by lozenge »

dataengineer56 wrote: post #193
sebtron wrote: post #27

> Avanti West Coast offers customers: > 15 minutes — 25% off > 30 minutes — 50% off > 1 hour + — 100% off To me they look like very generous refund policies. I checked Italy's Trenitalia and what they offer is[1]: > 30-119 minutes: 25% > 120+ minutes: 50% I suppose anything below 30 minutes is consideres "on time". [1] https://www.trenitalia.com/it/informazioni/indennizzo_per_ri...

This is UK law(?) or standard across all rail networks. It's automated too, you don't have to fill in a form. Immediately after arriving at your destination you get an email telling you that your train was delayed by enough to give you compensation, click a link and the money is in your bank account in a couple of days.

Automatic Delay Repay depends on your train company and which company you used to buy the ticket.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#198

Post by apexalpha »

shmeeed wrote: post #192
apexalpha wrote: post #173

I did something similar in the Netherlands. Due to an array of issues the train company has abysmall on-time records on our only high speed line, connecting A'dam to Brussels, Paris and London. I mean we are still talking about 82% on time, not 60% lmao. But compared to the 97,6% of normal trains it's bad. But anyway you can ask for your money back just like in the UK. The trick is that when you travel on a business…

>The trick is that when you travel on a business card your company pays, but you get the reimbursement when delayed. TBH that sounds just like fraud to me, and on discovery could (probably, IANAL) justify immediate lawful termination. It's a nice loophole though, if you don't give a f*.

My company has an enterprise arrangement with the train company. All employees have a business card.

This is the correct and legitimate use of said system.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#199

Post by Aeolun »

devnullbrain wrote: post #187
Aeolun wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it’s hard to see why a properly planned train journey would have any delays at all.

The optimal amount of train delay is non-zero. You need high redundancy to avoid many causes - and their knock on effects - and redundancy is antithetical to efficiency.

That’s only true if your goal is to optimize for profit instead of passenger satisfaction.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#200

Post by lozenge »

devnullbrain wrote: post #178
curiousObject wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I believe the PC is hinting about station barriers. Major stations need you to scan a ticket (or con a guard) to get off the platform or out of the station. Minor stations sometimes don't - and if it's your station you'll know. I think the real reason is less sensational: trains that go full in one direction still have to go back in the other direction whether they're full or not.

The real reason is the government has set return fares and let private companies freely set the price of single fares.
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