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National Rail Enquiries
I should use local trains more often, but there are several reasons why I don’t. One is I’ve no idea where most of my local stations are, let alone the ones dotted further afield around Manchester. Secondly, I can’t be bothered picking up timetables. The new National Rail Enquiries app solves both these problems and could …
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 11:25 GMT Anonymous Coward
Agreed, if you travel by rail a lot £4.99 is worth it, if you don't then the free version is there so people can't complain - something has to pay for all that dev work but most people think they are entitled to things for free.
£4.99 is probably less than I'll spend on my central London lunch today, so really, how expensive is it in the grand scheme of things?
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 15:16 GMT dotslash
ads for free
well the ads aren't as obtrusive as any other ad laden app, so I think free with a few ignorable ads is good value.
When this was released a long while ago for £5, I shunned it for the free versions provided by various train companies offering pretty much exactly the same functionality.
Competition works :)
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 11:32 GMT jonathanb
My recommendations
For purchasing tickets, don't use TheTrainline, use an app provided by one of the train operating companies, it doesn't have to be your local one. That way, you don't pay booking fees.
On iDevices, TheTrainline is probably better for general information on services, as you can download timetables, and it doesn't have adverts. The Android version isn't anywhere near as good as the iVersion, as it doesn't have the ability to use GPS to find your nearest station, or download timetables.
If you want to buy tickets to London to connect with a Eurostar service, RailEasy sells a "London International" ticket which allows peak-time travel at off-peak prices for Eurostar ticket holders. There is a booking fee, but it can still work out cheaper than paying for a full price ticket elsewhere.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 12:45 GMT cynic56
Re: My recommendations
Still waiting for the retraction of "The Trainline has a more-than-serviceable app for that and it generally offers the best prices". It doesn't. Trainline is just about the only agent to charge booking fees and credit card/Paypal fees and their ticket prices are no better than anywhere else. Does the Reg get a 'bung' from Trainline?
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 16:02 GMT handle
Corruption?
Because in this case it's far more than an "opinion disagreement" - it's very peculiar to recommend thetrainline.com with its booking fee when it's simple to use other methods to avoid it. But I go for cockup rather than conspiracy on this one.
It's ironic that thetrainline.com uses the sheep analogy for its TV advertising - it's the sheep who use thetrainline.com rather than the free alternatives.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 11:44 GMT Magnus Ramage
Actually I don't find the mobile version works very well at all for me - the buttons are in the wrong positions relative to the keyboard, and it's quite slow, so I often select the wrong option by mistake. It's good to have a mobile site, but it could be improved upon.
Unfortunately this new app only supports Android 2.2+, which I don't have (stock ROM on Orange San Francisco for me still). Another reason to visit CyanogenMod and bite that flashing bullet!
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Monday 14th May 2012 14:11 GMT fattybacon
Orange San Francisco
I've steered clear of CyanogenMod, too much volitilty and dozens of different but similar roms. I've standardised all my SFs on Swedish Snow RL7. Very stable with lots of nice cyanogen features built in.
Also install Ad Free from the Marketplace (Play) and you won't see any of the adverts this app purports to have saving you a fiver.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 11:35 GMT syllabub
Shameless rip off
Please do not buy this application. It is a poor copy of the previous 'official' National Rail app, now called 'UK Train Times' which works very well. It won Mobile Product Of The Year, UK IT Awards.
It can't be right for NationalRail to licence this to a software developer and then create a new version themselves.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 11:57 GMT Piloti
Switzerland.....
I'm currently workling in Bern, Switzerland right now and the main operator here is SBB [in Swiss German]. Their application is also very good, and is free. Ad' free and free to download. For Andriod, Nokia N9 [my device] and the Apple stuff.
The Swiss view is : this will generate revenue by 'helping' people to get the correct train at the correct time. What is the word I am looking for.... it is a SERVICE!
Why does Blighty have to be like Little America and charge for SERVICE ?????????
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 12:35 GMT Ommerson
Re: Switzerland.....
This 'National Rail' application is in fact produced for the Association of Train Operating Companies, which is a private company limited by Guarantee, whose members are UK train operators. It provides passenger information services to consumers, including the National Rail Enquiries phone service.
ATOC has a track record of trying to monetize these services (its other funding stream is from its member companies).
Does rather seem to be me like double dipping. You might like to write to your MP and Justine Greening (secretary of state for transport) - who is currently in the process refranchising a large proportion of UK rail services - asking why unfettered public access to this data is not a requirement of all future franchises.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 12:59 GMT The BigYin
Re: Switzerland.....
@Ommerson
It's triple-dipping. My taxes are subsiding the service in the first place.
I had recent cause to use the train in Germany. A one-way cost €60 bought at the station on the day, not cheap I grant you but still around half the price of a UK equivalent ticket (some of the changes were tight, so I took flexible).
The train left on time, was spacious, clean, quiet, had a comfortable dining car, good and reasonably priced food. Even the more rural trains were all clean and well turned out. For half the price I felt like I got four times the service.
In the UK I would have been on a slow, dirty, overcrowded train which served cardboard and paid through the nose for the privilege.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 12:20 GMT ukgnome
Strains
My local station has this information on screens and they never charge me for looking tat them. They even let me know about delays to a service.
As for get me home, usually the staff can figure this out, if not then I pick up a paper timetable and read. Honestly folk, do you need your smart phone to tell you everything?
If so then I may just develope an app called breath, that when running it sounds a beep every time you need to take a breath.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 12:46 GMT Richard 81
Re: Silly Strains
What's the point of having a smart phone if not to extend the internet, and the information available on it, to wherever you happen to be?
OK maybe you need a personal organiser. You should have bought a PDA before they became obsolete. If you only need a phone that you can carry around, just buy a simple button phone. It'll be cheaper, get better signal and its battery will last forever.
If you own a smartphone this is precisely the kind of use it might have on a day-to-day basis.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 14:55 GMT the-it-slayer
Re: Strains
What a troll-lol-lol-lol.
Seriously, just what are you on about? For people who go on long commutes or want to look at the train info on the go on the way to the station (especially if you don't have 5 minutes to gorp at the information boards at the larger stations), it's perfect. Especially when things can change on the UK train system within the matter of seconds.
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Wednesday 9th May 2012 06:59 GMT HipposRule
Re: Drinks trolley
Not just cheapo- the Exeter to Waterloo services (I get it from Yeovil occaisonally) have nothing till Salisbury then a trolley from thereon in. Far prefer trolleys to buffets, you don't have someone knocking into you every two minutes carrying drinks - that's why I hate the Paddington/Taunton trip.
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 13:12 GMT mdava
What about traintimes.org.uk?
This site works for me - whether on a PC or a smartphone - no pointless graphics, just information. I believe that it scrapes all the info from the National Rail website, so is just as up-to-date.
You can bookmark your favourite stations, departure boards or the "get me home" function as (eg) http://traintimes.org.uk/nearest/london
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Tuesday 8th May 2012 14:52 GMT the-it-slayer
UK Trains Times it is...
...for iOS. The neatest feature is when it swaps the destination and arrival stations for the common commuter doing the same route everyday. An it's much more fussless than all the fancy graphics on this new dancy one.
This new app is obviously a reaction to disassociating themselves with UK Train Times and forcing them to not use the National Rail logo. Anyway, should they not be concentrating making the trains actually arrive/depart on time at any said station than battling for £5 of your squids?
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Wednesday 9th May 2012 15:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
No votes for the accessible train timetables?
Traintimes.org.uk has worked on any phone I've had for the last ten years. It gives you routing, and more usefully it gives you live views of every departure and arrival board in the UK, filterable by destination, and these days also supports geolocation. To be honest, I only use the (mostly inaccessible) official train websites to book tickets, and even then it's often cheaper and quicker (albeit more effort) to look up the route on the accessible train timetables site then go to a manned train station and buy your tickets there.
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