going somewhere on a train in britain is a symmetric processs (first you buy tickets, then you get somewhere 2-5 hours late, then you refund the tickets)
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@whitequark curious which rail companies you travel on to get such bad train luck
@mynotaurus considering the causes of delays have been mostly been failures of trackside equipment i don't think the train operating company matters
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there's entire infrastructure built around the expectation of this happening
i'm going to enter UK politics. if elected prime minister i will make sure that every timetable displays train headcodes and then immediately resign
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@mynotaurus considering the causes of delays have been mostly been failures of trackside equipment i don't think the train operating company matters
@whitequark huh i guess its a region thing then. my only major delays have been because someone literally died or because armed police were called for a gas leak for some reason or smth
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going somewhere on a train in britain is a symmetric processs (first you buy tickets, then you get somewhere 2-5 hours late, then you refund the tickets)
@whitequark my favourite is when you don't even have to apply for the refund. Depending how you buy the ticket sometimes the refund is automated.
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there's entire infrastructure built around the expectation of this happening
@whitequark fond memories of searching for public documentation about venerable train status monitoring software TRUST, and encountering the archives of the Delay Attribution Board, the body that adjudicates disputes for responsibility for delay between the train operating companies and Network Rail
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there's entire infrastructure built around the expectation of this happening
@whitequark managers don't turn everything into a KPI challenge (impossible)
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there's entire infrastructure built around the expectation of this happening
@whitequark The system that DB has was also surprisingly smooth. (though weirdly enough I had to use it because the NS fucked up, not DB)
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@whitequark fond memories of searching for public documentation about venerable train status monitoring software TRUST, and encountering the archives of the Delay Attribution Board, the body that adjudicates disputes for responsibility for delay between the train operating companies and Network Rail
@whitequark there was a fascinating incident where the Caledonian Sleeper service arrived hours late in the Highlands due to a signalling fault on the WCML somewhere, so much so that after taking the minimum overnight rest the train crew were about 20min late clocking in the next day, delaying the service. they blamed Network Rail and the signalling fault for the 20min delay
but, no, it was actually Caledonian Sleeper's responsibility to ensure their staff start on time, so if they want to avoid this kind of occasional incident and possibly financial penalties, they'd need to keep an entire standby traincrew at Fort William, Inverness, Aberdeen... cheaper just to eat the penalty though!
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i'm going to enter UK politics. if elected prime minister i will make sure that every timetable displays train headcodes and then immediately resign
@whitequark *gets indefinite leave to remain*
5 seconds later
I'm going into politics -
going somewhere on a train in britain is a symmetric processs (first you buy tickets, then you get somewhere 2-5 hours late, then you refund the tickets)
@whitequark Germany and Britain are two evil twins
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i'm going to enter UK politics. if elected prime minister i will make sure that every timetable displays train headcodes and then immediately resign
@whitequark It's one of the stranger aspects of the GB rail network, basically everewhere else I have seen puts the train number in the public timetable. Even Amtrak which doesn't publish timetables as such anymore still has the train number on tickets and the train times search and so on.
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going somewhere on a train in britain is a symmetric processs (first you buy tickets, then you get somewhere 2-5 hours late, then you refund the tickets)
@whitequark Reversible computing meets mass transit, I can dig it.
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@whitequark Reversible computing meets mass transit, I can dig it.
@xek you get it!
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@whitequark It's one of the stranger aspects of the GB rail network, basically everewhere else I have seen puts the train number in the public timetable. Even Amtrak which doesn't publish timetables as such anymore still has the train number on tickets and the train times search and so on.
It would be useful. Most stations ensure that there are not two trains with the same (timetabled) departure time, so you know that the 15:27 is your train. Occasionally there are two departures at the same time, but to different destinations. This is often a bit annoying because you have to get the 15:27 to Faraweighburough stopping at Mydestinationton and the latter bit isn’t shown on most of the signs.
Somehow @whitequark saw a thing I have never seen, of two trains with the same departure time and destination (and different operators).
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
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It would be useful. Most stations ensure that there are not two trains with the same (timetabled) departure time, so you know that the 15:27 is your train. Occasionally there are two departures at the same time, but to different destinations. This is often a bit annoying because you have to get the 15:27 to Faraweighburough stopping at Mydestinationton and the latter bit isn’t shown on most of the signs.
Somehow @whitequark saw a thing I have never seen, of two trains with the same departure time and destination (and different operators).
@david_chisnall @crzwdjk it happened because of a really unlucky delay affecting one of them!
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@david_chisnall @crzwdjk it happened because of a really unlucky delay affecting one of them!
Ah, so not the same timetabled departure time?
