Ear plugs AND ear muffs? From own experience and some official advice. Though what to do if that bass gets right into your body and hits your innards, I don't know... - head to the exit?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, ++Justin, for total lack of, well, irony would be a good start.
In today's The Archbishop Interviews on BBC Radio 4 he had as his guest the actor Gabriel Byrne, and they were speaking about GB's abuse as a 12 year old at Oscott seminary. ++Justin came out with this "We cannot allow ourselves to preserve the institution at the expense of the abused" - this just two weeks after the CofE disbanded its Independent Safeguarding Board and sacked the members thereof.
I thought ++Justin was only hanging on until after the coronation? When is he going to retire? If he stays in post much longer there'll be precious little church to hand on to his successor.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, ++Justin, for total lack of, well, irony would be a good start.
In today's The Archbishop Interviews on BBC Radio 4 he had as his guest the actor Gabriel Byrne, and they were speaking about GB's abuse as a 12 year old at Oscott seminary. ++Justin came out with this "We cannot allow ourselves to preserve the institution at the expense of the abused" - this just two weeks after the CofE disbanded its Independent Safeguarding Board and sacked the members thereof.
I thought ++Justin was only hanging on until after the coronation? When is he going to retire? If he stays in post much longer there'll be precious little church to hand on to his successor.
Frankly both Archbishops should have resigned in disgrace over that maneuver, and preferably spent their remaining time on this earth cloistered in silent prayer. It's a sign of how diminished the church is that this scandal is not more public.
My Spy reports that Our Place's neighbouring parish (population 30,000, MOTR Anglican, with two churches, a full-time stipendiary priest, and a self-supporting Associate priest) mustered just 30 attendees between them last Sunday...
I just popped in to say how annoyed I am with the latest Twitter shenanigans whereby we now have a ration of posts, which includes scrolling past tweets you don't stop to read, and ads every 4th post, which eat into your Tweet ration. And then you are cut off.
I joined Twitter originally partly for breaking news and commuting updates, but stayed for the wit, fun, and interesting, enjoyable things I wouldn't easily find elsewhere. It seems to get harder and harder to be on Twitter, which seems to be deliberately being run into the ground for some reason.
Yes, there's Mastodon, Spoutible, Bluesky, Post and all the others that have sprung up but they're not what Twitter was in its heyday.
Is it a case of that ****** Musk controlling it because he can?
I briefly had a Twitter account, but I couldn't really get "into" it - I seemed to keep getting the same posts over and over again and eventually gave up. It's not as if I have anything of import to say that anyone would take notice of.
I've found that there is a relationship between how awful the music is and how loudly it's played. I can always switch my hearing aids off of course, but I still have too much residual hearing.
I just popped in to say how annoyed I am with the latest Twitter shenanigans whereby we now have a ration of posts, which includes scrolling past tweets you don't stop to read, and ads every 4th post, which eat into your Tweet ration. And then you are cut off. [...]
I've found that there is a relationship between how awful the music is and how loudly it's played. I can always switch my hearing aids off of course, but I still have too much residual hearing.
This is particularly true of car stereos. And to be fair Metallica are notoriously loud and they're one of the best bands around. But the thing is, if I go to see Metallica that's exactly what I've gone to do.
I just popped in to say how annoyed I am with the latest Twitter shenanigans whereby we now have a ration of posts, which includes scrolling past tweets you don't stop to read, and ads every 4th post, which eat into your Tweet ration. And then you are cut off.
I can't help but wonder if M*** is doing it deliberately to cause Twitter to fail to get a huge tax break.
I just popped in to say how annoyed I am with the latest Twitter shenanigans whereby we now have a ration of posts, which includes scrolling past tweets you don't stop to read, and ads every 4th post, which eat into your Tweet ration. And then you are cut off.
I can't help but wonder if M*** is doing it deliberately to cause Twitter to fail to get a huge tax break.
Yes, I was wondering that too. He's certainly putting a lot of energy into it.
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
I have Heard Tell of these apparent shenanigans but don't know anything about cricket - is there a succinct explanation you could link to that doesn't assume any cricket knowledge? Was someone called a flaming galah or told to rack off?
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
I have Heard Tell of these apparent shenanigans but don't know anything about cricket - is there a succinct explanation you could link to that doesn't assume any cricket knowledge? Was someone called a flaming galah or told to rack off?
As far as I understand it (which isn't very far) is that an England player got "out" because the Australian players took advantage of a well-known but not often used loophole, and caught the English player unawares. Some have suggested that this loophole violates the spirit of the rules, though not the letter.
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
I have Heard Tell of these apparent shenanigans but don't know anything about cricket - is there a succinct explanation you could link to that doesn't assume any cricket knowledge? Was someone called a flaming galah or told to rack off?
As far as I understand it (which isn't very far) is that an England player got "out" because the Australian players took advantage of a well-known but not often used loophole, and caught the English player unawares. Some have suggested that this loophole violates the spirit of the rules, though not the letter.
Is that all???? I thought it was some horrible racist incident or something going by the reaction!
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
I have Heard Tell of these apparent shenanigans but don't know anything about cricket - is there a succinct explanation you could link to that doesn't assume any cricket knowledge? Was someone called a flaming galah or told to rack off?
As far as I understand it (which isn't very far) is that an England player got "out" because the Australian players took advantage of a well-known but not often used loophole, and caught the English player unawares. Some have suggested that this loophole violates the spirit of the rules, though not the letter.
Is that all???? I thought it was some horrible racist incident or something going by the reaction!
Not quite all. There was v. ungentlemenly behaviour in the Long Room. Instead of dignified sotto voce harrumphing, and studious ignoring, there was actual barracking of Australian players and some members may even have ‘squared up’ to them. People have had their membership suspended. This was so important that it even made the front pages of the English and/or British press.
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
I have Heard Tell of these apparent shenanigans but don't know anything about cricket - is there a succinct explanation you could link to that doesn't assume any cricket knowledge? Was someone called a flaming galah or told to rack off?
As far as I understand it (which isn't very far) is that an England player got "out" because the Australian players took advantage of a well-known but not often used loophole, and caught the English player unawares. Some have suggested that this loophole violates the spirit of the rules, though not the letter.
Is that all???? I thought it was some horrible racist incident or something going by the reaction!
Not quite all. There was v. ungentlemenly behaviour in the Long Room. Instead of dignified sotto voce harrumphing, and studious ignoring, there was actual barracking of Australian players and some members may even have ‘squared up’ to them. People have had their membership suspended. This was so important that it even made the front pages of the English and/or British press.
Well in Smith and Warner (Australians) you do have 2 peopel who have both had long bans from cricket for proven cheating. There was a strong argument for a lifetime ban .... if you break the actual rules, then isn't bending the spirit of the game rather more likely?
Surely the England Team lost whatever moral high ground they thought they had by that behaviour in the Long Room - that was hardly "in the spirit of the game"
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
No ospreys? Just come over here and sit in our back garden for a while - they are regular visitors, coming down for fish in the river. The electricity company has even put platforms on some of their poles near the river for nesting.
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
No ospreys? Just come over here and sit in our back garden for a while - they are regular visitors, coming down for fish in the river. The electricity company has even put platforms on some of their poles near the river for nesting.
So, my local railway station's losing its ticket office.
I've already submitted my POV and protest, not that it will do any good at all as while it may be a legal requirement to get passengers' views first, it won't affect the decision that seems to have already been agreed.
There are quite a lot of reasons why this is a lousy idea.
"Passengers will be alerted to the proposed changes with notices at stations and invited to write to the rail watchdogs, Transport Focus and London TravelWatch, to share their views as part of the consultation process, which is a regulatory requirement."
"Customers are encouraged to visit www.transportfocus.org.uk or www.londontravelwatch.org.uk before 26 July to participate."
That definitely merits a Consign to Hell, Ariel. The station here is manned some of the time; it's a right pain if you want something more complicated than a day-return to Waverley but the machine decides to play silly-buggers and there's nobody there to ask.
That definitely merits a Consign to Hell, Ariel. The station here is manned some of the time; it's a right pain if you want something more complicated than a day-return to Waverley but the machine decides to play silly-buggers and there's nobody there to ask.
I quite agree, but, if the machine is out-of-order, it's OK to get on the train, and buy your ticket from the conductor/guard, isn't it?
Alex Carey for 'not playing in the spirit of the game' and the whole Oz team for their general un-British attitudes. It's just not cricket (don't you know).
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
No ospreys? Just come over here and sit in our back garden for a while - they are regular visitors, coming down for fish in the river. The electricity company has even put platforms on some of their poles near the river for nesting.
You're on .... where do you live?
South west Ontario, right beside the Grand River. It's the house with the red mail box.
That definitely merits a Consign to Hell, Ariel. The station here is manned some of the time; it's a right pain if you want something more complicated than a day-return to Waverley but the machine decides to play silly-buggers and there's nobody there to ask.
I wanted a return to Oxford recently and the machines all said my choice wasn't valid. I had to ask to be let through the barriers, sprint to the ticket counter, sort this out with 5 minutes before the train was due, then sprint back again.
The ticket machines don't always like you leaving at short notice. They used to insist you booked a seat on a particular train and would then tell you there weren't any left. They were programmed only to sell that quota, not the other spare seats that are available to the general public.
How this should work is you presenting your debit card as you enter and leave the platform and the computer working out the cheapest way to do the journey you just did.
All these options are just bullshit intended to baffle us.
I don't trust a computer to do it correctly. I'd rather a human being sold me a ticket over the counter. And I don't want to have to wait for it to arrive (or not) in the post with a booking fee and delivery charges added on because I don't have a smartphone.
(And I won't get one because when I had retinal problems I couldn't use it to phone for help because it had no damn buttons I could feel and the screen was so bright it was painful, even at the lowest possible setting. Every electronic display glowed unbearably. I had to spend my recovery in a darkened room until I could cope better with light again. And a merry Christmas that was.)
I don't trust people to sell me the best ticket, to be honest.
There shouldn't *be* a best ticket. This is part of what’s wrong with the railways now. Having to book in advance is a pain - I want to walk on when I need to make a journey, flash my debit card and that be that.
I don't trust a computer to do it correctly. I'd rather a human being sold me a ticket over the counter. And I don't want to have to wait for it to arrive (or not) in the post with a booking fee and delivery charges added on because I don't have a smartphone.
(And I won't get one because when I had retinal problems I couldn't use it to phone for help because it had no damn buttons I could feel and the screen was so bright it was painful, even at the lowest possible setting. Every electronic display glowed unbearably. I had to spend my recovery in a darkened room until I could cope better with light again. And a merry Christmas that was.)
You don't need a smartphone to use tap on, tap off systems. A debit card that can do contactless payments works just fine - you can use a phone for this but the card itself works just as well as eg Applepay. This is possible on the Tube as you can use a contactless payment bank card instead of an Oyster card, and also one of my local bus companies has introduced this with no problems. It uses the exact same terminals on the buses that people would use for their top-up travelcard or bus pass. It would be simple to put those terminals on platform barriers or better yet on the train so barriers became unnecessary.
I don't trust people to sell me the best ticket, to be honest.
There shouldn't *be* a best ticket. This is part of what’s wrong with the railways now. Having to book in advance is a pain - I want to walk on when I need to make a journey, flash my debit card and that be that.
Exactly. It already happens on the Tube so there's no reason it can't happen on normal trains too.
I don't trust people to sell me the best ticket, to be honest.
There shouldn't *be* a best ticket. This is part of what’s wrong with the railways now. Having to book in advance is a pain - I want to walk on when I need to make a journey, flash my debit card and that be that.
Exactly. It already happens on the Tube so there's no reason it can't happen on normal trains too.
It still does, in some places, and was, of course, the norm in Days Gone By (although some trains did have seat reservation facilities).
Yep. And how's a gateline terminal going to know whether I have a railcard that gives me a discount or not?
Perhaps you could present that to the reader alongside your debit card? Or you could register it with the ticketing body so your railcard was associated with your debit card. I'm sure it's not insurmountable. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that should be able to stop a really simple and convenient system from being introduced.
Yep. And how's a gateline terminal going to know whether I have a railcard that gives me a discount or not?
Because in such a system your railcard could be combined with a travel card (eg, like the London Freedom Pass which gives both free bus transport and discounted train travel) so you could simply scan it like you would a bus pass.
I don't support the closure of ticket offices as there will always be people needing assistance, but tap on tap off cashless transport functions perfectly well alongside things like railcards.
I don't trust people to sell me the best ticket, to be honest.
There shouldn't *be* a best ticket. This is part of what’s wrong with the railways now. Having to book in advance is a pain - I want to walk on when I need to make a journey, flash my debit card and that be that.
Exactly. It already happens on the Tube so there's no reason it can't happen on normal trains too.
It still does, in some places, and was, of course, the norm in Days Gone By (although some trains did have seat reservation facilities).
Sorry, I don't understand this comment. How was using a contactless debit card or payment app for tap on tap off transport the norm in Days Gone By? I think something has been misunderstood somewhere as that's what me and @KarlLB are talking about.
O dear. Once again, I'm not making myself clear - please accept my sincere apologies for confusing you.
I meant that, in Days Gone By, it wasn't usually necessary to book tickets in advance, although the facility was available on some services. The procedure was to simply go to the station booking office, and buy a ticket with cash. This is, in fact, still possible in some places...
Before the mass closures of the 1950s and 1960s, there were quite a few stations (often called *Halts*) which had no ticket office, and it was necessary to buy one's ticket from the guard. The introduction of *paytrains* in the 60s and 70s led to more unstaffed stations, so the process is not a new one.
Yep. And how's a gateline terminal going to know whether I have a railcard that gives me a discount or not?
Perhaps you could present that to the reader alongside your debit card? Or you could register it with the ticketing body so your railcard was associated with your debit card. I'm sure it's not insurmountable. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that should be able to stop a really simple and convenient system from being introduced.
I'm not in favour of setting up yet another account with yet another password and login just so I can get through a ticket barrier. It's perfectly easy to go to a ticket counter, hand over some money and get a ticket in return, and you don't have to give your details to anybody. It's already a simple and convenient system.
I know the modern fashion is to put as much as possible in the e-zone and opt for the intangible, but I don't feel that way myself. YMMV.
Yep. And how's a gateline terminal going to know whether I have a railcard that gives me a discount or not?
Perhaps you could present that to the reader alongside your debit card? Or you could register it with the ticketing body so your railcard was associated with your debit card. I'm sure it's not insurmountable. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that should be able to stop a really simple and convenient system from being introduced.
I'm not in favour of setting up yet another account with yet another password and login just so I can get through a ticket barrier. It's perfectly easy to go to a ticket counter, hand over some money and get a ticket in return, and you don't have to give your details to anybody. It's already a simple and convenient system.
I know the modern fashion is to put as much as possible in the e-zone and opt for the intangible, but I don't feel that way myself. YMMV.
I suppose the question is to what extent others should have to subsidise your preferences (that's not meant as an attack, goodness knows where and how I choose to live is enabled by public subsidy).
Yep. And how's a gateline terminal going to know whether I have a railcard that gives me a discount or not?
Perhaps you could present that to the reader alongside your debit card? Or you could register it with the ticketing body so your railcard was associated with your debit card. I'm sure it's not insurmountable. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that should be able to stop a really simple and convenient system from being introduced.
I'm not in favour of setting up yet another account with yet another password and login just so I can get through a ticket barrier. It's perfectly easy to go to a ticket counter, hand over some money and get a ticket in return, and you don't have to give your details to anybody. It's already a simple and convenient system.
I know the modern fashion is to put as much as possible in the e-zone and opt for the intangible, but I don't feel that way myself. YMMV.
You wouldn't need to have another account with username and password to add a debit card to an existing railcard which is presumably already reissued online anyway - I know Disabled railcards are very specifically *not* ones that you can apply for at a ticket office. In London a Freedom Pass is issued instead of a bus pass and replaces both bus pass and Oyster card for people who would have been using an Oyster card anyway, and uses the same account.
It's not more convenient to have to queue up for ages because only one window is open at the ticket office, and to have to navigate 10 different varieties of tickets which are all subtly different from each other with different restrictions. Just getting straight on a train and tapping a debit card or Oyster card on the sensor seems a lot easier than queuing at least?
@Bishops Finger oh I see, I have never used a train ticket machine that required booking a seat. Even on trains where specific seats can be booked outside of First Class, it's not a requirement on Cross Country for instance. But also you don't need a smartphone to buy tickets online or at a machine, you can order online using a debit or credit card and pick up the tickets from the machine that way. You still get normal physical train tickets.
You wouldn't need to have another account with username and password to add a debit card to an existing railcard which is presumably already reissued online anyway
Nope. You can reorder it online but you don't have to. Might be so for the Disability one but I haven't had to do that for the others.
Btw, CrossCountry in my part of the world have until quite recently required you to book a seat if you go via the ticket machine. Which is a pain if you're travelling at short notice, because they have a quota set aside for the machine, and once that's exhausted you're told no more seats are available. But if you go to the ticket office they will be able to sell you one that doesn't need to be booked.
I ran into a residue of this problem last Saturday trying to buy a ticket from the machine for a CrossCountry journey because it was within 10 minutes of travelling time. Luckily there wasn't any queue at the ticket office, and they had no difficulty issuing me one even though the machine had said it wasn't a valid request.
If I'd had more time I'd have told the machine I was travelling by a later train, and whether I wanted it or not it would probably have booked me a seat on that one and issued a ticket, which would still be valid for me travelling on the earlier one I wanted to be on. This is an irritating quirk of the machines.
Another quirk of the machines is that if you try asking them for a London Travelcard at weekend you'll be charged the full price instead of the weekend price, if you press the preset "London" ticket option. Instead you need to go behind the scenes and get it to issue a London Travelcard the long way round, which will then be the correct weekend price. Or you could just go to the counter and they will give you the correct one without any dispute.
Quirks of the machines as they are at the moment isn't an argument for not having them - the solution to the seat booking requirement above is just to reprogram the machines to offer non seat booking tickets - it's an implementation problem, not a flaw in the concept itself.
I'm sure we can have manned ticket offices as well, but if you let people like me tap in and out then your queue will be shorter.
The real barrier is the ridiculous plethora of different ticket options, restrictions and requirements. Simplify that (the system seems to be absolutely opposed to anyone just walking onto a train when they find they need one) and everything gets easier to implement.
Case in point - some companies require pre-booking bikes on trains. So if I use train and bike to get to work, I need to know which train I'll be going and coming home on. However, mornings are chaotic enough to make that difficult; the unpredictable nature of my job makes the homebound train impossible to book. Now *that* definitely needs condemning to Hell.
I would have been well jiggered in my commuting days if I'd been bound by a particular train. I quite often managed to get the 17:09 (or whatever it was), but if the buses to get me into town were playing silly-buggers, as they frequently were, then I didn't have a hope of getting it.
Comments
In today's The Archbishop Interviews on BBC Radio 4 he had as his guest the actor Gabriel Byrne, and they were speaking about GB's abuse as a 12 year old at Oscott seminary. ++Justin came out with this "We cannot allow ourselves to preserve the institution at the expense of the abused" - this just two weeks after the CofE disbanded its Independent Safeguarding Board and sacked the members thereof.
I thought ++Justin was only hanging on until after the coronation? When is he going to retire? If he stays in post much longer there'll be precious little church to hand on to his successor.
Frankly both Archbishops should have resigned in disgrace over that maneuver, and preferably spent their remaining time on this earth cloistered in silent prayer. It's a sign of how diminished the church is that this scandal is not more public.
My Spy reports that Our Place's neighbouring parish (population 30,000, MOTR Anglican, with two churches, a full-time stipendiary priest, and a self-supporting Associate priest) mustered just 30 attendees between them last Sunday...
I joined Twitter originally partly for breaking news and commuting updates, but stayed for the wit, fun, and interesting, enjoyable things I wouldn't easily find elsewhere. It seems to get harder and harder to be on Twitter, which seems to be deliberately being run into the ground for some reason.
Yes, there's Mastodon, Spoutible, Bluesky, Post and all the others that have sprung up but they're not what Twitter was in its heyday.
I briefly had a Twitter account, but I couldn't really get "into" it - I seemed to keep getting the same posts over and over again and eventually gave up. It's not as if I have anything of import to say that anyone would take notice of.
This is particularly true of car stereos. And to be fair Metallica are notoriously loud and they're one of the best bands around. But the thing is, if I go to see Metallica that's exactly what I've gone to do.
Yes, I wish he'd get bored and just sell it on.
FatherInCharge often has to be told to switch his neck-mike OFF, for reasons which I think may be obvious...
He's quite good, though, at choosing suitable hymns, except when he picks some ghastly metrical version of something, as sung by Cliff Richard.
I can't help but wonder if M*** is doing it deliberately to cause Twitter to fail to get a huge tax break.
Yes, I was wondering that too. He's certainly putting a lot of energy into it.
Sorry this is late. Just home (hurrah!) Mrs RR been birdwatching two days and took me with her. Never saw a glimpse of a (f***ing) Osprey. I consign them to the nether regions too.
I have Heard Tell of these apparent shenanigans but don't know anything about cricket - is there a succinct explanation you could link to that doesn't assume any cricket knowledge? Was someone called a flaming galah or told to rack off?
As far as I understand it (which isn't very far) is that an England player got "out" because the Australian players took advantage of a well-known but not often used loophole, and caught the English player unawares. Some have suggested that this loophole violates the spirit of the rules, though not the letter.
Is that all???? I thought it was some horrible racist incident or something going by the reaction!
Well in Smith and Warner (Australians) you do have 2 peopel who have both had long bans from cricket for proven cheating. There was a strong argument for a lifetime ban .... if you break the actual rules, then isn't bending the spirit of the game rather more likely?
No ospreys? Just come over here and sit in our back garden for a while - they are regular visitors, coming down for fish in the river. The electricity company has even put platforms on some of their poles near the river for nesting.
You're on .... where do you live?
I've already submitted my POV and protest, not that it will do any good at all as while it may be a legal requirement to get passengers' views first, it won't affect the decision that seems to have already been agreed.
There are quite a lot of reasons why this is a lousy idea.
"Passengers will be alerted to the proposed changes with notices at stations and invited to write to the rail watchdogs, Transport Focus and London TravelWatch, to share their views as part of the consultation process, which is a regulatory requirement."
"Customers are encouraged to visit www.transportfocus.org.uk or www.londontravelwatch.org.uk before 26 July to participate."
I quite agree, but, if the machine is out-of-order, it's OK to get on the train, and buy your ticket from the conductor/guard, isn't it?
South west Ontario, right beside the Grand River. It's the house with the red mail box.
I wanted a return to Oxford recently and the machines all said my choice wasn't valid. I had to ask to be let through the barriers, sprint to the ticket counter, sort this out with 5 minutes before the train was due, then sprint back again.
The ticket machines don't always like you leaving at short notice. They used to insist you booked a seat on a particular train and would then tell you there weren't any left. They were programmed only to sell that quota, not the other spare seats that are available to the general public.
All these options are just bullshit intended to baffle us.
(And I won't get one because when I had retinal problems I couldn't use it to phone for help because it had no damn buttons I could feel and the screen was so bright it was painful, even at the lowest possible setting. Every electronic display glowed unbearably. I had to spend my recovery in a darkened room until I could cope better with light again. And a merry Christmas that was.)
There shouldn't *be* a best ticket. This is part of what’s wrong with the railways now. Having to book in advance is a pain - I want to walk on when I need to make a journey, flash my debit card and that be that.
You don't need a smartphone to use tap on, tap off systems. A debit card that can do contactless payments works just fine - you can use a phone for this but the card itself works just as well as eg Applepay. This is possible on the Tube as you can use a contactless payment bank card instead of an Oyster card, and also one of my local bus companies has introduced this with no problems. It uses the exact same terminals on the buses that people would use for their top-up travelcard or bus pass. It would be simple to put those terminals on platform barriers or better yet on the train so barriers became unnecessary.
Exactly. It already happens on the Tube so there's no reason it can't happen on normal trains too.
It still does, in some places, and was, of course, the norm in Days Gone By (although some trains did have seat reservation facilities).
Perhaps you could present that to the reader alongside your debit card? Or you could register it with the ticketing body so your railcard was associated with your debit card. I'm sure it's not insurmountable. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing that should be able to stop a really simple and convenient system from being introduced.
Because in such a system your railcard could be combined with a travel card (eg, like the London Freedom Pass which gives both free bus transport and discounted train travel) so you could simply scan it like you would a bus pass.
I don't support the closure of ticket offices as there will always be people needing assistance, but tap on tap off cashless transport functions perfectly well alongside things like railcards.
Sorry, I don't understand this comment. How was using a contactless debit card or payment app for tap on tap off transport the norm in Days Gone By? I think something has been misunderstood somewhere as that's what me and @KarlLB are talking about.
I meant that, in Days Gone By, it wasn't usually necessary to book tickets in advance, although the facility was available on some services. The procedure was to simply go to the station booking office, and buy a ticket with cash. This is, in fact, still possible in some places...
Before the mass closures of the 1950s and 1960s, there were quite a few stations (often called *Halts*) which had no ticket office, and it was necessary to buy one's ticket from the guard. The introduction of *paytrains* in the 60s and 70s led to more unstaffed stations, so the process is not a new one.
I'm not in favour of setting up yet another account with yet another password and login just so I can get through a ticket barrier. It's perfectly easy to go to a ticket counter, hand over some money and get a ticket in return, and you don't have to give your details to anybody. It's already a simple and convenient system.
I know the modern fashion is to put as much as possible in the e-zone and opt for the intangible, but I don't feel that way myself. YMMV.
I suppose the question is to what extent others should have to subsidise your preferences (that's not meant as an attack, goodness knows where and how I choose to live is enabled by public subsidy).
You wouldn't need to have another account with username and password to add a debit card to an existing railcard which is presumably already reissued online anyway - I know Disabled railcards are very specifically *not* ones that you can apply for at a ticket office. In London a Freedom Pass is issued instead of a bus pass and replaces both bus pass and Oyster card for people who would have been using an Oyster card anyway, and uses the same account.
It's not more convenient to have to queue up for ages because only one window is open at the ticket office, and to have to navigate 10 different varieties of tickets which are all subtly different from each other with different restrictions. Just getting straight on a train and tapping a debit card or Oyster card on the sensor seems a lot easier than queuing at least?
Nope. You can reorder it online but you don't have to. Might be so for the Disability one but I haven't had to do that for the others.
Btw, CrossCountry in my part of the world have until quite recently required you to book a seat if you go via the ticket machine. Which is a pain if you're travelling at short notice, because they have a quota set aside for the machine, and once that's exhausted you're told no more seats are available. But if you go to the ticket office they will be able to sell you one that doesn't need to be booked.
I ran into a residue of this problem last Saturday trying to buy a ticket from the machine for a CrossCountry journey because it was within 10 minutes of travelling time. Luckily there wasn't any queue at the ticket office, and they had no difficulty issuing me one even though the machine had said it wasn't a valid request.
If I'd had more time I'd have told the machine I was travelling by a later train, and whether I wanted it or not it would probably have booked me a seat on that one and issued a ticket, which would still be valid for me travelling on the earlier one I wanted to be on. This is an irritating quirk of the machines.
Another quirk of the machines is that if you try asking them for a London Travelcard at weekend you'll be charged the full price instead of the weekend price, if you press the preset "London" ticket option. Instead you need to go behind the scenes and get it to issue a London Travelcard the long way round, which will then be the correct weekend price. Or you could just go to the counter and they will give you the correct one without any dispute.
I'm sure we can have manned ticket offices as well, but if you let people like me tap in and out then your queue will be shorter.
The real barrier is the ridiculous plethora of different ticket options, restrictions and requirements. Simplify that (the system seems to be absolutely opposed to anyone just walking onto a train when they find they need one) and everything gets easier to implement.
Case in point - some companies require pre-booking bikes on trains. So if I use train and bike to get to work, I need to know which train I'll be going and coming home on. However, mornings are chaotic enough to make that difficult; the unpredictable nature of my job makes the homebound train impossible to book. Now *that* definitely needs condemning to Hell.