The Ticket Collector

So just what is “on time” when it comes to the Railway?

The term ‘on time’ normally means that a train arrives at the correct time publicised in a timetable - correct?
No, not on the railway its not.

When it comes to punctually - the figures which the Railway Companies print huge A1 posters and show off and say “hey look at us we have 98% punctually, blah blah” and which also determines your season ticket discount . You’d expect that when they say they have 98% that 98% of trains arrived at the destination at the timetabled time.
Wrong! The trains only have to arrive within 5 minutes of the timetabled time.

So the train arrives 5 minutes late and it is still on time! Even better is that long distance ‘intercity’ services have an extra 5 minutes allowance. So now the train can be up to 10 minutes and be still on time!

Now what the Railway Companies are getting wise to is that they can add extra minutes into the timetable here and there as ‘recovery time’. So if they are regularly failing the 10 minutes time the can always add extra minutes into the working timetable to compensate. Now what the Train Company would say is this ‘recovery time’ is to compensate for engineering works and speed restrictions.

When it comes to compensation for the trains running late, you have to be delayed by 30 minutes before you even get to start to get compensation. But what with the extra minutes being added here and there just how late is it in real terms?

Ticket names to change.

As if you were not already confused by the huge number of different ticket names, the powers that be have decided to change the names yet again.

So say goodbye to the SuperSaver, the Saver, the Cheap Day Return, the Standard Day Return and say hello to Super Off-Peak and Anytime.

The new ticket types are as follows.

Free Family Railcard.

Basicly the same offer as last year.

The Daily Mail in conjunction with ATOC are giving away free Family Railcards valid until 30th June to anyone that fills in their details on line at http://www.family-railcard.co.uk/dailymail.

Your Family Railcard should be with you towards the beginning of April, and will also include a voucher for a half price 12 month Family Railcard.

But be quick as this offer is only available online until midnight 23rd March 2008

Police seeking Tube photographer attacker

Have you seen this person?

He is wanted by police for assaulting an amateur photographer. This picture of his attacker was taken by the amateur photographer.

PC Ben Dawson said the incident occurred on the escalators leading to the main concourse at Waterloo mainline station at around 10.17pm on Wednesday 12 December.

“It would appear the victim, an amateur photographer, who enjoys taking snaps of London street scenes, was taking shots on the escalators when a member of the public took exception to having his photo taken and asked him to delete the photo.

“The photographer told him he could not delete the shot as it was not a digital camera. The man then attempted to grab the camera and punched the victim in the face. The victim suffered cuts and bruising to his face as a result of the incident.

“We have released this photo today, which was taken by the victim prior to the incident and we are appealing to members of the public to assist us in identifying the man pictured.

“The man is described as white, 34-38 years-old and about 5 ft 9 in tall. He was wearing a dark jacket and carrying a dark rucksack.

“Anyone who may be able to assist us with our inquiries is urged to call the BTP on 0800 40 50 40 or the Witness Appeal Line on 020 7391 5275 quoting background reference B5 of 15/02/08.”

NXEC £8 singles. TheLondonPaper token collect.

Thanks to an email from one of our browsers we have been informed of an offer which NXEC have quietly released.

You can travel for as low as £8 single from London to Leeds and £11.50 from London to Edinburgh.
Collect two out of the six differently numbered tokens printed in the londonpaper over the next two weeks (starts Monday 14th). Upto four people can travel together with one set of tokens.

Book your tickets now. Dont wait for the tokens before you book, as everybody else will be trying to book the same tickets.

Last date of travel is Sunday 16 March (excludes 8 to 17 Feb 2008). Website bookings close 3 Feb 2008

Seats are available on off-peak services with limited availability on Friday and Sunday afternoons. Bookings must be made at least seven days in advance.

Book at http://www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/londonpaper

Commuter Misery - Its all Notwork Rails fault.

What a good day for the Railway!

Firstly we have the fare revisions. This has made most tickets rise in price by around 4.8%. Some other fares have increased even more!

Secondly Notwork Rail have overrun on the Liverpool Street and Rugby engineering projects
The Liverpool Street Over run.

The bridge demolition outside Liverpool Street, the station work at Stratford and the trackwork at Shenfield was completed on time, however there have been serious problems with the overhead line replacement at Liverpool Street station. Notwork Rail informed ‘one’ Railway that the engineering work was hunky dory and running on time, but very late last night Notwork Rail decided to change their minds.

Notwork Rail engineers are continuing to work at Liverpool Street. Four of the six lines are now available into Liverpool Street, although there are a reduced number of platforms available in the station.

The Rugby Over run.

Notwork Rail has over run yet again on overhead line replacement in the Rugby area. The work was originally planned to have finished by New Years Eve. Notwork Rail have now stated that the line should be reopened around 0500GMT on Friday.

The works at Rugby have left the line closed between Birmingham International and Northampton and Virgin has advised passengers not to use its trains.

A spokesman for Virgin Trains, said: “This is a frustrating time for us and what we are particularly upset about is Network Rail’s inability to say exactly when the line will be back to normal. We would normally have carried around 50,000 to 60,000 people today and it is clear from the numbers travelling today that many people have found other ways of reaching their destination.”

ORR Enquiry.

The Office of Rail Regulation has annouced an urgent enquiry into the over runs and Notwork Rail could possibly recive multimillion pound fines as well as having to pay compensation to the Train Companies concerned.

20% Off NXEC advance tickets, till 2nd Jan 08.

National Express the new owners of GNER have started a new promotion on their advance tickets purchased online via their website.

You can get 20% off advance purchase fares which can already be as low as £12.90 (London to Newcastle, and with the discount this would bring it to £10.20.

You must book by 2nd January 2007 and can travel between Saturday 29 December 2007 and Wednesday 19 March 2008 inclusive. There are limited advance tickets between Friday 8 February and Sunday 24 February.

You must book at least the day before outward travel. Seats are subject to availability, so please book early to avoid disappointment. The most popular tickets are for travel at weekends – if you can travel mid-week, you will have more choice and are more likly to get a cheap ticket.

Your ticket is only valid for the date, train and reserved seat shown on your ticket. Traveling on any other train then is on your ticket will result in you being asked to pay the full standard ticket which can be in excess of £100 single.

http://www.nxeastcoast.com/Special-offers/Over-one-million-advance-tickets/