How I got 100% off my train travel • Hacker News Board

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#231

Post by seabass-labrax » Thu, Mar 20, 2025, 10:56 PM UTC

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.

You're missing an axiom there - that efficiency is a superior goal to punctuality, or to something else entirely. Considering the amount of rolling stock just sitting around unused in sidings at depots, one can presume that many railway operators don't rank efficient allocation of resources quite as highly as you do!

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#232

Post by nobody9999 » Thu, Mar 20, 2025, 11:03 PM UTC

seabass-labrax wrote: post #230

nobody9999 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think we should also make it common practice to share grocery lists with your employer, as well as the date and time of sexual acts. This is even more justifiable than the status of the train that takes you to work. >I mean, trains are late not often enough to make any significant difference. Whereas unhealthy diet, or say, sleepless nights of lovemaking, can dramatically affect a worker's productivity almost perm…

Parent's comment was the sarcastic observation that if employers ought to be able to verify workers' commutes, they could justifiably also want to monitor other aspects of workers' lives outside of work that have a significant impact on productivity. The argument is valid whilst being entirely dystopian. There is a level of trust, or at least tolerance, between employer and employee that must be accommodated in socie…

>Parent's comment was the sarcastic observation that if employers ought to be able to verify workers' commutes, they could justifiably also want to monitor other aspects of workers' lives outside of work that have a significant impact on productivity.

Was it? Where did you get that idea?

Based on their posting history (and I did check before replying just to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding), that they were absolutely serious is most likely.

>The argument is valid whilst being entirely dystopian. There is a level of trust, or at least tolerance, between employer and employee that must be accommodated in society; otherwise there is no choice but brutally invasive surveillance of all workers.

Absolutely, and I never said anything different. In fact, the bit GP quoted and replied to was:

   >A fair point, but there are some circumstances where both employee and 
   employer may need to justify/document such circumstances -- but on the whole, 
   you're spot on.

Their response was orthogonal to my point. Which made me wonder why. And so I asked.

Keep an eye on my userid. If you don't like what I have to say, I strongly suggest you don't read my comments.

Have a great day!

Edit: Removed poorly supported assertions.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#233

Post by Aeolun » Thu, Mar 20, 2025, 11:06 PM UTC

devnullbrain wrote: post #205

Aeolun wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Passengers have to pay.

And trains have to reliably get people to their destination on time.

Regardless, my point is that the optimal amount of delay for profit and passenger satisfaction is not the same.

Ever since I’ve seen Japan’s trains drive perfectly as long as it’s not raining, on segments as short as 2 minutes apart, its become abundantly clear to me that delay is not an inherent property of any rail system.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#234

Post by seabass-labrax » Thu, Mar 20, 2025, 11:36 PM UTC

nobody9999 wrote: post #232

seabass-labrax wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent's comment was the sarcastic observation that if employers ought to be able to verify workers' commutes, they could justifiably also want to monitor other aspects of workers' lives outside of work that have a significant impact on productivity. The argument is valid whilst being entirely dystopian. There is a level of trust, or at least tolerance, between employer and employee that must be accommodated in socie…

>Parent's comment was the sarcastic observation that if employers ought to be able to verify workers' commutes, they could justifiably also want to monitor other aspects of workers' lives outside of work that have a significant impact on productivity. Was it? Where did you get that idea? Based on their posting history (and I did check before replying just to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding), that they were absolu…

> Based on their posting history (and I did check before replying just to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding), that they were absolutely serious is most likely.

I, on the other hand, didn't check their posting history, and it looks like you might be right... Poe's Law strikes in reverse, perhaps!

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#235

Post by rjmunro » Fri, Mar 21, 2025, 2:49 AM UTC

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #116

pjc50 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I think the original phrase was "North of the Watford Gap", but people often mis-abbreviate to "North of Watford". The Watford Gap is not the same place as Watford. It's about 75 miles north of London. Watford is within London's motorway ring road (The M25), and on the underground map. Its only about 17 miles away from the centre.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#236

Post by apexalpha » Fri, Mar 21, 2025, 6:32 AM UTC

shmeeed wrote: post #210

apexalpha wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's interesting to know, and I apologise for my premature judgement. The reasoning goes that it's a compensation, not a reimbursement. It seems to depend on company policy though, and whether you're travelling on paid time or not.

No need to apologise.

But you are correct, it is seen as compensation. The train company makes a lot of money selling first class tickets and wants to prevent these people from taking a car again.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#237

Post by stephen_g » Fri, Mar 21, 2025, 1:35 PM UTC

amiga386 wrote: post #226

stephen_g wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ROSCOs exist because trains are so expensive that neither government nor TOCs can afford them. Is this sarcasm that I am missing? There is absolutely no reason that Government (or a Government-owned business) couldn't "afford" rolling stock. That's a really poor excuse (and completely made up) if they claim that.

There are loads of reasons governments can't afford up-front capital expenditure! They have an income stream (taxes) but that all goes out the door on existing liabilities, including financing existing debts. They can only get money by raising taxes or cutting existing services. The third way is to try and attract external capital, e.g. "attracting inward investment" or "public-private partnerships", where someone el…

Not so! What you say is true for a country that has not achieved monetary sovereignty, or for a country who has given it up (like the Eurozone countries), but the UK, like the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, etc. originate their own currency (only issuing bonds in their own currency, which their own central bank issues, and not having any pegs to other currencies).

There is nothing that the private sector can afford in the UK that the UK Government can not afford!

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#238

Post by lmm » Fri, Mar 21, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

Lanolderen wrote: post #195

lmm wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Carsharing doesn't really help with peak time traffic which is the biggest issue. Motorcycles/scooters/e-bikes can work if you can figure out the right incentives to get people to use them. If you can get employers to support working from home that would help hugely, but that's a big if.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#239

Post by dangus » Sat, Mar 22, 2025, 3:39 PM UTC

tirant wrote: post #165

dangus wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The network is massive and the average and top speeds are very fast. China has more high speed rail than the rest of the world combined.

Compared to their size, Spain and Japan have a largest high speed network than China. And tickets, specially in Spain, are very cheap.

I would think that the vast amount of central/Western land in China that is sparsely populated might skew this statistic quite a bit, where Spain and Japan don't have that at the same scale.

Re: How I got 100% off my train travel

#240

Post by dangus » Sat, Mar 22, 2025, 3:41 PM UTC

elpalek wrote: post #164

dangus wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The network is massive and the average and top speeds are very fast. China has more high speed rail than the rest of the world combined.

China's land area is approximately 25 times of Japan, def has a bigger network. But the top speed is comparable in current generations[1] except the Maglev. 1. https://www.railway-technology.com/features/the-10-fastest-h...

Comparable and essentially identical for sure, but 30 km/hr slower is slower.