"Britain By Britrail" book

Martin wrote:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:33:07 +0100,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:

Arwel Parry wrote:

[]
It's worth noting that the printed British rail timetable (a 2000+ page
book that sells for about £16) will no longer be produced from some date
in the not-too-distant future - sales have been declining for years and
it's no longer economic. They'll produce downloadable pdf files instead.

For a fee, I take it?

While not the same thing as a printed timetable, in the UK I find the
national rail information on WAP invaluable on the move

I find using it painful. Try looking up trains from Manchester
Airport to Sheffield.

I just did- took a minute including the gprs connecting time, and the
information is correct- I don't see the problem with it. (The web
interface works fine too- not just the WAP portal which I was referring
to.)

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org

Martin wrote:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:00:41 +0100,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:

Martin wrote:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:33:07 +0100,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:

Arwel Parry wrote:

[]
It's worth noting that the printed British rail timetable (a 2000+ page
book that sells for about £16) will no longer be produced from some date
in the not-too-distant future - sales have been declining for years and
it's no longer economic. They'll produce downloadable pdf files instead.

For a fee, I take it?

While not the same thing as a printed timetable, in the UK I find the
national rail information on WAP invaluable on the move

I find using it painful. Try looking up trains from Manchester
Airport to Sheffield.

I just did- took a minute including the gprs connecting time, and the
information is correct- I don't see the problem with it. (The web
interface works fine too- not just the WAP portal which I was referring
to.)

The idea of just entering the time date and start end locations seems
better than first having to find the operator for the route.

National rail's WAP and web portal isn't train operator specific, so I
don't understand why it is painful to use. You enter your start and end
destinations and time (default is for the 'next' train) and you get the
information you need.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org

Martin wrote:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:28:18 +0100,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:

Martin wrote:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:00:41 +0100,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:

Martin wrote:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:33:07 +0100,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:
[]
While not the same thing as a printed timetable, in the UK I find the
national rail information on WAP invaluable on the move

I find using it painful. Try looking up trains from Manchester
Airport to Sheffield.

I just did- took a minute including the gprs connecting time, and the
information is correct- I don't see the problem with it. (The web
interface works fine too- not just the WAP portal which I was referring
to.)

The idea of just entering the time date and start end locations seems
better than first having to find the operator for the route.

National rail's WAP and web portal isn't train operator specific, so I
don't understand why it is painful to use. You enter your start and end
destinations and time (default is for the 'next' train) and you get the
information you need.

In that case we are using different web sites. Can you give me the URL
you use?

www.nationalrail.co.uk

the WAP information uses the same source, but via a different address
for mobile phones. I think the web site is clear enough- in particular
the quick journey planner which is at the top of the page.


When I googled I got this link.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_...ownload_tt.htm
Whoops! I missed the box at the top RHS. Even so the list of trains is
not complete

It's quite possible, indeed likely, that not all operators print
comprehensive timetables, but that's not an issue when consulting
national rail's own timetable information- which brings me back to my
original point that "I find the national rail information on WAP
invaluable on the move."

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org

Martin wrote:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:08:13 +0100,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:
[]
It's quite possible, indeed likely, that not all operators print
comprehensive timetables, but that's not an issue when consulting
national rail's own timetable information- which brings me back to my
original point that "I find the national rail information on WAP
invaluable on the move."

The simple fact is that whichever UK online rail time table source you
use there is no guarantee of completeness or correctness.

I've yet to have a problem with national rail, though I can hardly
verify it's accurate al the time. What's the problem with its
information for Manchester Airport to Sheffield?

I have several times found the German website more complete and more
accurate, especially the journey my son made to somewhere in Devon
where the railway phone enquiries insisted that Beeching had closed
the line.

I always use DB for European enquiries, but I've never had a problem
with national rail's information, and I use it a lot. Which station in
Devon? I'd have been surprised if national rail's online information was
wrong on that. I would agree that phone enquiries are not always useful,
but I've not used them for a long time.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org

Martin wrote:

On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:33:46 +0100,
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of
the royal duchy of city south and deansgate) wrote:


I always use DB for European enquiries, but I've never had a problem
with national rail's information, and I use it a lot. Which station in
Devon? I'd have been surprised if national rail's online information was
wrong on that. I would agree that phone enquiries are not always useful,
but I've not used them for a long time.

Not only was the information provided by the phone enquiry wrong the
information provided at Paddington was the same. The station is
Umberleigh. It is on the "Tarka line". The journey was made about 5 or
6 years ago. National Rail Enquiries knows of it now.

Which brings me back to what I said at the start- about the WAP service
being invaluable on the move. It even shows live train running
information for Umberleigh on the mobile. The train service itself was
pretty awful here 5 or 6 years ago too, never mind the train
information, but things can and do change...

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org

Martin wrote:

In reality there was a least one train that wasn't listed on the web
site. My son caught it.

It happens. Sometimes, but very rarely these days, additional service
trains are operated "off the cuff" to cater for an event or just to
move some stock. Sometimes last-minute changes don't make it into the
interface (though why not I don't know, bar laziness).

Generally speaking it is a very useful service, and I use it a lot.

Neil

Martin wrote:

Not only was the information provided by the phone enquiry wrong the
information provided at Paddington was the same. The station is
Umberleigh. It is on the "Tarka line". The journey was made about 5 or
6 years ago. National Rail Enquiries knows of it now.

The phone service is bloody appalling, but why use it when you can
query the same information yourself? I haven't for a number of years
now.

Neil