Trains!

[Avenged7Fold]

Are the oyster card pricing any different to standard contact-less cards?

 

[marc2003]

Nope.

 

[CorrectHorseBattery]

My understanding is Oyster will be phased out shortly.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Just LOL that anime is better than Britain's everything.

 

[Scam]

True, but I don't think you can just rock up and purchase a normal ticket that does the same thing? When London does that it will be more beneficial. At the moment you need to purchase an oyster card, which obviously not everyone wants to do, particularly someone like myself who only goes there once in a blue moon

Just use contactless. It's the same prices.

 

[Delvis]

Just use contactless. It's the same prices.

Not for above ground. We often get a discounted rate buying multiple tickets when a group of us go and order at the same time.

 

[marc2003]

My understanding is Oyster will be phased out shortly.

They can't do that.

I'm the forum peasant who doesn't have contactless because I only have a basic bank account/Electron debit card. Also plenty of others won't have contactless for reasons such as not wanting one or being underage. I know you can buy tube tickets with cash/debit cards for inflated prices at all stations but you can't get on a bus without contactless or an oyster card.

 

[Sankari]

So what would we have to do to get our rail system to Japanese standards?

Pay the Japanese to take over the entire British rail system, and run it for us.

Those of you that have used other rail networks across the globe, where would you rank ours from personal experience?

Australia's rail system varies in quality from state to state. In my experience, TransPerth offers the best train transport over here, and it compares very favourably with UK counterparts.

But Japan is the best, and always will be.

We'd need a complete culture shift, the rail companies seem to think trains are run for the benefit of the staff and management rather than for the customers. Salaries are sky high, trains are out dated, often late, sometimes cancelled. Any adverse conditions immediately result in trains delayed or cancelled. There's no apologies, refunds only given if more than 30 minutes late.

They only get away with it because people have no choice!

 

[dowie]

Why not? Do I travel in a different space continuum than the locals? When I get on a 8am train on a Wednesday the Japanese knows Raymond is around and they decide not go to work instead to give me to illusion of no commuters?

eh? I said of course not - why would there be any difference with you being on holiday if you're travelling back and forth each day during rush hour... bit odd though

You want proof, come see it for yourself, don't take anyone else's word for it. I am here, not seeing what you are suggesting, not even close. Sure there are people and lots of people but I've seen worse in Hong Kong tbh.

again... individual anecdote... see the comment by another poster who experienced something rather different to you

 

[Scam]

Not for above ground. We often get a discounted rate buying multiple tickets when a group of us go and order at the same time.

If you're coming in from out of London I guess so. But then it's all on a paper ticket anyway right? Been a while since I've done that but say you come in from Reading you can either get your day ticket to be Reading > Paddington (no tube), or Reading > Zone 1, 2, 3 for example. Is that still the case?

 

[Raymond Lin]

eh? I said of course not - why would there be any difference with you being on holiday if you're travelling back and forth each day during rush hour... bit odd though



again... individual anecdote... see the comment by another poster who experienced something rather different to you

individual anecdote to you. Seeing it in my very own eyes for me.

You want proof? Come see it for yourself and stop reading things on the internet.

 

[dowie]

individual anecdote to you. Seeing it in my very own eyes for me.

You want proof? Come see it for yourself and stop reading things on the internet.

you don't seem to understand the point being made re: individual anecdotes - another poster did exactly that, saw with his own eyes and his experiences directly contradict your own... ergo an individual's experiences isn't everything... it is perhaps better to draw a conclusion from the experiences of multiple people

this was the same issue in the Barcelona thread, people rather naively being insistent that there wasn't a big issue with pick pockets in Barcelona/it was the same as any other city because when they've personally been they personally not experienced it themselves - it completely misses the point!

 

[Delvis]

If you're coming in from out of London I guess so. But then it's all on a paper ticket anyway right? Been a while since I've done that but say you come in from Reading you can either get your day ticket to be Reading > Paddington (no tube), or Reading > Zone 1, 2, 3 for example. Is that still the case?

I'm near Milton Keynes so it'd be overground to Euston for example, then you can either get a all day travel card or get the tube separately when you are there. Or as you use my debut card but I'd rather just have a ticket personally

 

[gary996]

Doesn't the government/taxpayer still pump millions into rail?

 

[Spook187]

Doesn't the government/taxpayer still pump millions into rail?

Yes, London gets far to much of it though.

 

[Scam]

Yes, London gets far to much of it though.

London economy subsidises rest of UK, ONS figures show

 

[dowie]

indeed, cheeky northerners... if we ran a federal system in the UK then **** knows how say local authorities in say Liverpool or other areas of the north could operate if they were reliant on local taxation for the services they provided

 

[Telecaster]

Our rail network is typically British, in fact I think it's one of the few things left that typifies how we run things, busses are a close second.

We're too far gone to scrap it and start again so it's unlikely to ever get better, just slightly improved versions of very bad.

 

[Spook187]

Look at the rail electrification projects put on hold for the rest of the country, all its doing is creating even more bottlenecks, I'm well aware London is the capital lol, but they really need to get out of this bubble, let the rest of the country flourish with excellent transport links.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Haven’t the Japanese already got maglev trains?

I know they have been testing them but not sure if they are in operation.

We have not even got a high speed network yet! France has had the TGV since I can remember and I am 37. Any country that is not prepared to invest heavily in infrastructure may as well give up.