I hate Rail Transport.....

PinkFloyd

PinkFloyd

PinkFloyd

Soldato
Joined
21 Sep 2005
Posts
14,941
Location
Bradley Stoke, Bristol
Before I start my rant, I've never used trains before.....




It does my head in.
Have spent the last hour trying to organise how to back home for the weekend to visit freinds and family.....

Couldn't go via coach, and no-one could give me a lift, leaving trains......yay

Trying to book the ticket online, using the national rail site. Bit by bit I added in the times and stations, only for it to keep telling me I'd be making 4-5 stops and the journey would eventually take 4 hours.......
At last I found some convenient times without having to keep changing trains, approx 2 hours there, 2 hours back. (friday evening / monday morning)

Go to buy the tickets...... I have to choose a vendor for my ticket. Chose virgin as they run the trains I'll be going on (no other reason)
I get redirected to the virgin site where I once again have to input all the times again and go through the whole procedure again...

Get there atlast, click to see how much its gonna cost me...
Oh look I have to register on the virgin site before it tells me how much the tickets cost. How convenient. So I go and register get the email saying "thankyou" (yeh thanks for that virgin)
Go to look at the ticket prices, and realise the times I had chosen aren't doable unless I pay £40 for a single.....





Needless to say I got there in the end, £38 for a return back to bristol.
It was driving me mad..... The site was slow, a pain to use, and had no real information on what all the ticket names meant.... I'm just presuming a Saver Return is gonna get me home and back here (please say this is the case )

And they wonder why most people won't use public transport. Wish I had learnt to drive whilst in six form......
 
I agree, the train booking sites are awful. Still beats busing it though! Virgin trains, for the most part, are actually quite pleasant. A Saver Return is a special descounted ticket, and yes it will get you there and home again ;).
 
Seems to me that your complaints are more with the ticket-booking side of things than anything else :)

As a commuter I buy a season ticket every month (from the ticket office) - makes things a lot easier in terms of not having to queue up.

www.megatrain.com is good depending on your location and how flexible you are on travel time, we're going to see Keane in London later this month so I picked up 2 tickets from Southampton to Waterloo for £2.50 total including booking charge.

edit: For me the biggest problems with rail transport are:

-The unreliability. Trains can be late and there's nothing you can do about it.
-Having to get there early. If you drive/walk/cycle to work, being 1 minute late isn't a disaster, it just means you go that little bit quicker to catch up, or at worst you arrive 1 minute late - big deal. Whereas missing a train by 1 minute can mean waiting around for ages for the next one.
-The timetabling. I've looked around at various other towns to see how feasible they would be to commute to. Some just don't work out well, with say a train arriving at 8:15 or 09:05. So unless the employer is flexible with working hours, you could end up having to get a really early train every day.
 
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cant say i find trains or buying tickets online difficult....

maybe its you at fault? :rolleyes: :p
 
Yup, the booking system is a nightmare. Now all you have to look forward to is either engineering works, which will result in a hot, sweaty, smelly, rail replacement bus. Twice as long, and be twice as uncomfortable. Or them cancelling the train completely. Which is why I've not visited anyone since early this summer. My train from Ely to Machester was cancelled. So a 1 train 2.5 hour trip became a 4 train 8 hour nightmare.

So I vowed that at the age of 30 I'd actually learn to drive. Hating every second of it too, but anything has to be better than the train.
 
branddaly said:
Yup, the booking system is a nightmare. Now all you have to look forward to is either engineering works, which will result in a hot, sweaty, smelly, rail replacement bus.
Click to expand...

Pretty much the only engineering work which takes place is monday (closes the line) to friday 11pm-5am (unless they have absolutely no choice) and Saturday through to Friday. But even then 90% of it is planned well in advance.
 
The online booking system is easy to use once you've used it 50 million times like I have had to :D (Company forces this on us otherwise we can't claim expenses).

What I hate about rail transport is that for cross country journeys or popular commuter routes the trains never arrive on time. Ever. And they smell of urine. And the air con doesn't work. And despite spending £70 on a ticket there are no seats left. And... *rants* :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
comp builder said:
BUY A CAR!!
LOL (no offense) :D
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I would but:

I can't drive
I can't afford to learn
I can't afford to run a car

Next time I'll plan in advance and hopefully find them cheaper, that and I'll know how to use the damn website.

HangTime said:
Seems to me that your complaints are more with the ticket-booking side of things than anything else
Click to expand...
True, but if getting tickets is that much of a pain I'm not looking forward to finding the right platform, in particular the change I have to do in Birmingham
Will check out that website though.

I really hope the train is on time on friday, I want to get home friday night to go out! - not so bothered if it is a bit late on monday though....
*tempts fate*

Pretty much the only engineering work which takes place is monday (closes the line) to friday 11pm-5am (unless they have absolutely no choice) and Saturday through to Friday. But even then 90% of it is planned well in advance.
Click to expand...
I hope this doesnt effect me.....
 
Book online? almost 10 years of using the train i've never booked online, and only ONCE hav i ever pre-book any seat. I've always found a seat, always get the ticket on the day, and it's what the railcard is for - 1/3 off. I get online to check the time, write down when and where i need to change, and sometimes i make an emergency route should one connection get delay or cancelled.

With the connection timed in my pocket, on the day i get the ticket and get on the train, thats it.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Book online? almost 10 years of using the train i've never booked online, and only ONCE hav i ever pre-book any seat. I've always found a seat, always get the ticket on the day, and it's what the railcard is for - 1/3 off. I get online to check the time, write down when and where i need to change, and sometimes i make an emergency route should one connection get delay or cancelled.

With the connection timed in my pocket, on the day i get the ticket and get on the train, thats it.
Click to expand...

I suppose it depends where you are going and what stations you get on at. I often get the Reading - Manc train to get to Birmingham at weekends, and without a pre-booked ticket I don't have an ice-cube's chance in hell of getting a seat.
 
^Indeed. I usually adopt the Raymond route of buying my ticket on the day with a rail card, no reservation, but some routes are jam-packed.

Ironically the London trains often aren't too bad because they usually have loads of carriages. The Cardiff<->Portsmouth line can be pretty nasty sometimes towards the end of the week though with only 2 carriages, standing room only.
 
I would always suggest sticking with a saver return over some of the advanced tickets. With the saver return you can get any train outside of certain times (usually rush hour period) but with the advance ones they are often tied to a specific train. Miss it, or perhaps a connection, and you're screwed.
 
SiD the Turtle said:
I suppose it depends where you are going and what stations you get on at. I often get the Reading - Manc train to get to Birmingham at weekends, and without a pre-booked ticket I don't have an ice-cube's chance in hell of getting a seat.
Click to expand...

Well, I used to have to travel back from Brighton to Hereford. There are basically 2 routes.

1 - Go along the south coast via Southampton...never taken this as it took so long and the trains are uncomfortable

2 - Go straight to Victoria - tube to Paddington - then I have a choice of go via Newport (the south route) or via Oxford (the north route).

I've taken both the North and South about equal number of times as the time taken on either are almost identical. Except the Newport route cost about £10 more. Both route however are BUSY commuter routes, and I've often finish my tutorial on a Friday and then taken the train home that day. Which means lucky me get to go through London in rush hour along with all the suits. I knew this so i travel as light as possible, 1 bag usually and you just have to sit where ever you can. i've sat on reserved seats when the guy who's seat it belong to never turned up (happens a lot).

The whole journey is a minimum 4 hours discounting the 30-45 mins in the tube and any waiting time in paddington or Newport, it can be as long as 6 hours. I knew this before i set off, you just have to be calm and prepare for any delays.
 
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