As Jack Dee on I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue said: the Romans settled in Bath, and named it for its natural hot spring waters, and for its proximity to a toilet like Trowbridge.
IT error at Great Western Railway charging £10k for 63-mile journey ticket
Great Western Rail has been advertising the bargain of a lifetime; a first-class journey from Taunton to Trowbridge for £10,000. We don't know if anybody could hate cider that much, but the extraordinarily priced direct trip was advertised from 22 May to 14 July, leaving potential customers stumping up £156 per mile. Great …
COMMENTS
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 13:22 GMT CustardGannet
Amen. In 20 years of canal boat holidays I've been to an awful lot of English towns - and a lot of awful English towns - but never to any that were more awful than Trowbridge (not even Stoke).
If you ever get stuck there for an evening, just go straight to the Wetherspoons - it is the only vaguely-decent pub in town, so don't waste your time looking for any better ones.
Escape, if you can -> ->
-
-
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 17:44 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Great News!@ wolfetone
Insurance? Why would I want that on a "burner" car? Admittedly the filth might take a dim view if I were caught on the road without insurance, but these days they do little real road policing, preferring to rely on cameras and back office flunkies to issue tickets. Even were I caught on a speed camera, by the time the ticket arrives my disposable ride will be a mixture of ashes and crushed metal in a scrappies yard, and I'll be saying, "wasn't me driving it gov'nr, was some yoof that twocked it".
-
-
This post has been deleted by its author
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 11:22 GMT Spudley
Re: Not a denial
That was my thought - there's no 1st class available, so we put a "dummy" price in of £10k. It could then fall into an IT problem because the systems didn't exclude the £10k fare and mark it as "not available".
If you're willing to pay ten grand for the ticket, I suspect they'd be willing to add a first class carriage specially for you.
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 12:06 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Not a denial
"[...] there's no 1st class available, so we put a "dummy" price in of £10k."
I once contacted an eBay seller because an item price was ludicrously high. Apparently they were going on holiday - and it was easier to change the price to prevent a sale instead of temporarily withdrawing the long term listing.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 16:26 GMT Kubla Cant
Re: IT Error?
It's probably an instance of the classic code smell known as "magic values".
First class tickets aren't available, so the price should be null. You can't use null because it's not supported or it breaks something elsewhere. How about zero? No, we don't want to risk people travelling for free. A negative number? No, we might have to pay them to travel. OK, we'll use a big number.
Long.MAX_VALUE might have been a better choice. If it ever got printed it would be pretty noticeable.
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 12:00 GMT Anonymous Coward
Given the current state of the railways, British Rail and their legendary sandwiches look like a never to be repeated golden age.
OK, lets go back to a state owned railway system using ancient, slow and dirty rolling stock, providing half the number of journeys as our current system, and run apparently as a job creation scheme for the indolent and surly. I can recall the days of British Rail very well, and anybody who thinks things were better has clearly got their head wedged in the back pages of Socialist Worker.
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 13:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
Can I recommend rush hour journeys on Southern Rail?
Not materially worse than my recollection of the old Southern Region at peak time. Of course, back in those days you used to get Lillibolero played at Waterloo to keep everything moving along smartly, and I'll wager they don't do that any more. However, fans of the good old days of nationalisation will presumably be approving of the 1970s industrial relations that appear to have been reintroduced on Southern Rail.
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 14:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
Er????
Can I recommend rush hour journeys on any train into London
There fixed it for you.
FWIW one of the most overcrowded trains is the 07:30 something GW service from Reading into Paddington but yes Southen Services (or not) with all that Union action is bad. About time that came to an end. As all new trains are being designed (by government diktat) for DOO they should get used to having more staff not sitting in their compartment doing the crossword for the entire trip and actually interracting with the passengers. As the Union Leader is name Cash, I guess only a hefty solution in Cash would settle it..
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 15:06 GMT GingerOne
Re: Er????
But at least the union action is posted in advance so you can make alternative arrangements. It's the days when it is supposed to be working properly that the problems occur. Overcrowded trains running late, services cancelled at the last minute. Southern Rail are a terribly run operation, made all the more galling by the millions of pounds their shareholders take from Government coffers.
More taxpayer money is spent funding 'privately' run railways now than it ever was when nationally owned. We could re-nationalise, spend the same amount of money but return the profits to the treasury and have the same level of service we currently have.
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 18:34 GMT Steve Davies 3
Re: Er????
According to the last figures, the sums paid to the Government vs the sums paid in subsidy to the TOC's is around £816M per anum in favour of the Government.
This little factoid is glossed over by those who want to re-nationalise the railways.
Granted, the GW electricification has been an unmitigated disaster yet Crossrail will come in on time and on budget. Perhaps the lack of meddling by the government in Crossrail might have something to do with it?
The newly let Southwest Trains Franchise will have to pay mony to HMG right from day 1. No subsidy there. Crazy decision to axe the new class 700 trains for the Windsor/Reading lines before they have all been built... Railways seem to have this effect on people. Look at some of the frankly stupid schemes that received royal acent in the 19th Century.
-
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 14:48 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Was not that old
I detect the whiff of a railway nerd...
Thumper double header has the best noise though.
I did prefer compartments with my own light and blind though. The old EMU's were already about 40 years old when I started using them as a kid though. These had windows that let air in too which is also limited nowadays in sealed box trains.
All new plastic, uncomfortable, densely packed sardine tins that pass for trans nowadays. Hypnotising drivers going through a permanent tunnel of overhead cable gantries (trust me a font view needs effort at speed to see anything through the blur)
Ahhh, reminicences
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 15:00 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Was not that old
2-BIL or 2-HAL or possibly a 4-SUB gave way to 4-COR and 4-VEP and now you have Class 700's.
then spotting at Holme Box on the ECML as Diesels replaced the A3's and A4's. Oh, the good old days.
Hated the 2-BILs used on the Brighton Line. Got in one of the non corridor coaches at Victoria only to be joined by a bunch of Chelsea skilheads/boot boys who proceeded to kick the daylights out of me because Chelsea had lost at the 'Bridge' due to two goals by Greavsie. Even the guard wouldn't go near them.
Dammit it, showing my age.
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 23:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
I too can remember state owned BR and whilst it wasn't perfect atleast it was ours
Whilst I did not eat the food on the trains, I did however use the service daily for years to get A to B that is before it was "privatised" and I had to get a driving license.
Like every other service that we used to own that was "privitised" to make it more "efficent", things cannot be said to have improved and clearly "efficent" here doesnt mean less expensive, safer or better value.
"efficent" in this context clearly means sell off anything not bolted down such as real estate, research centres and associated patents etc. Then lay off the "expensive" highly educated and competent staff and replace them with cheap semi-skilled, disinterested short term contractors.
When the wheels invitably fall off then repeatedly demand yet more cash from the state to give to the share holders so the inept management can keep their sinecures. It used to be that only people buying a ticket paid for the service where as now every tax payer does and gets far less out of it to boot.
I also remember the "Socialist Worker" guys and they didn't work at BR or any of the "privatised industries", in my experience they worked for Socialist Worker Magazine itself simply because the "privatised industries" used to required you to have passed some technical exams. Now however if they keep stum they would fit right in, so the premise that privatisation removed them from the industry is shown as the lie it always was.
-
Wednesday 26th April 2017 08:01 GMT cantankerous swineherd
so we've gone "forward" to a system where the public subsidy doubled on privatisation; that exists to funnel taxpayers money to boards of directors and shareholders and that has to have at least two regulators because otherwise the chiselling twats wouldn't bother with maintenance, eg Hatfield.
we did actually go forward and have the ecml run by the state and it was something like affordable. of course, that didn't work, because the hereinbefore mentioned chiselling twats hadn't got their snouts in the trough, so they gave it to branson who recommenced the gouging.
hth, hand.
-
Wednesday 26th April 2017 08:26 GMT Anonymous Coward
<Quote> Given the current state of the railways, British Rail and their legendary sandwiches look like a never to be repeated golden age.
OK, lets go back to a state owned railway system using ancient, slow and dirty rolling stock, providing half the number of journeys as our current system, and run apparently as a job creation scheme for the indolent and surly. I can recall the days of British Rail very well, and anybody who thinks things were better has clearly got their head wedged in the back pages of Socialist Worker.</Quote>
some of the trains are newer, but the rest is the same...Now you just get a choice of one sandwich from a trolly that runs over your feet or gets stuck in crowded carriages and cant get to you.
Telling me it is better now means you have your own head stuck in Computer Weekly or some other periodical...
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 10:45 GMT Peter Gathercole
Re: small city
Yes, it has neither a Cathedral nor a University, although the Somerset College of Art and Technology (SCAT - what a bad acronym to use), rebranded itself first as Somerset College, and recently merged with Bridgewater College to form University Centre Somerset.
According to the list at https://www.gov.uk/check-a-university-is-officially-recognised/recognised-bodies, it cannot award degrees itself, and it's tag line is "In partnership with Plymouth University, Oxford Brookes University, UWE Bristol & The Open University", so I suspect that it relies on Plymouth, Oxford Brookes, UWE and the Open University for the award of the degree.
This does not make it a University, in my opinion, so Taunton does not qualify as a city.
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 11:25 GMT Spudley
Re: small city
...rebranded itself first as Somerset College, and recently merged with Bridgewater College to form University Centre Somerset.
Small point, but Bridgwater doesn't have an 'e' in the middle.
(No, I don't know why either. Probably down to some early map-maker who couldn't spell)
-
Wednesday 26th April 2017 07:58 GMT Peter Gathercole
Re: small city @Spudley
Yes. I do know. Typo.
I had two kids go to Bridgwater College and one of them then went to SCAT. One of the first things I learned was that the 'e' was missing, but when quickly typing a post, it's easy to forget. If you look back at my posts, it's hard to find one that does not have a spelling, typographic, punctuation or capitalization error, no matter how hard I try to get them right.
I think the real reason for the tone of my comment is that the conversion of first Polytechnics, and now Further Education colleges to 'University' status has, in my opinion, devalued degrees, and damaged the vocational education system in the UK. The current system still churns out graduates in 'soft' disciplines, who then struggle to work in their chosen field, and end up not using their education in the jobs that they end up in. And the flip side is that 'real' universities are starved of resources and funds for the required 'hard' disciplines, leading to shortages of STEM graduates in industry and education, and very valuable intermediate level qualifications in these subjects (BTEC HNC and HND for example) have pretty much disappeared.
-
This post has been deleted by its author
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 22:43 GMT Robert Baskerville
Re: small city
Sadly the presence of a University has no bearing on the modern legal definition of a city in the UK. If it has a royal charter to make it a city, then it is a city. Otherwise, it is not.
Take Guildford - University, Cathedral, decent size. City? No - it has no royal charter, thus it is not a city. In fact, there are no cities in the whole of Surrey (a county so strange that the County Council HQ is actually outside of the county!)
Take St Asaph in sleepy North Wales. Smallest cathedral in the country, no university, population of a large village (~3-4k). City? Yes - it was granted its royal charter for the most recent jubilee, and thus it is, quite laughably, a city. The only city in Denbighshire (Denbigh is not a city) so maybe it should be renamed St Asaphshire or Llanelwyshire / Sir Llanelwy?
-
-
-
-
This post has been deleted by its author
-
-
This post has been deleted by its author
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 12:49 GMT Anonymous Coward
I was thinking they could take off and nuke the site from orbit
If you are going to do that, can you wait until the wind is from the south? That way, the fallout will end up somewhere that doesn't really matter, rather than in Wiltshire[1].
[1] Prevailing wind is usually from the south-west..
-
-
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 14:41 GMT AndrueC
Re: El reg adds to the problem
I like the way the diesel motor flies out of the top of the loco :)
The US did a similar test but went with planes instead of trains. I love the way 95% of the plane just 'goes away' :)
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 21:17 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: El reg adds to the problem
Mythbusters did similar with a car, and you get to see it in very slow motion!
-
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 10:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Demand pricing...
Someone else had searched for this weeks ago and probably got a 1st class ticket for £6.50. Each search ratchets it up (you can try this for yourself if you open multiple browser windows, you don't even have to buy a ticket to have fun at the expense of the next customer...).
Wonders if the ratchet tops out at £10,000...
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 12:23 GMT Nick Ryan
Re: Demand pricing...
Airlines/online travel agents have done this for a long time. It's not the searches that ups the price, it's the cookies on your local computer. For a long time (haven't tried for a while) the only safe way to buy such things online was to search using one browser and then go back with a different browser (or clear all cookies) and then buy the damn ticket/holiday/flight at the original price. Operated by Utter Bar stewards.
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 11:07 GMT Anonymous Coward
Maybe they could donate it to Lindley House?
In my misspent youth I stayed there, lovely place, had a resident crazy who used to run round naked singing "the ace of spades".
Also if you want the proper cider you have to ask for it in the shops as it was usually hidden away at the back due to it's proper strength and questionable contents.
I managed to escape to Torquay on the train, it was free for me back then.
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 11:07 GMT Anonymous Coward
Cheaper to fly
So let look at Private Jet.
The nearest airport to Towbridge is Bristol Airport (BRS / EGGD).
The nearest major airport to Trowbridge is Exeter International Airport (EXT / EGTE).
So look in to flight with a "small jet" that comes in as £2350.
https://www.privatefly.com/private-jet-charter/estimate-prices.html?flightSearch=3630370
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 11:34 GMT Michael B.
Taunton to Bridgwater - Somerset Solar Walk
Taunton isn't all that bad as between Taunton to Bridgwater alongside the canal there is a scale model of the Solar System that really enforces how empty the outer solar system is. Also, you can use phrases like "have we missed Uranus" and "Uranus is coming up".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Space_Walk
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 12:06 GMT Tony S
City
Officially, the part about having a cathedral to be a city was done away with in the 19th century; the only criterion now is that the town has received a charter from the monarch making it a city.
Hence Taunton is a town; and the only city in Somerset is Wells, because it has had a cathedral for centuries, which gave it city status a long time ago. (Bath hasn't been in Somerset for some time; it's now within BANES).
An interesting point is that Rochester lost their city status because of re-organisation; and it took 4 years before they realised that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13841482
But to get back to the main point; probably not an "IT Problem" but a "Data problem". I.e., someone put the wrong data in the system, and it output a bogus result.
-
This post has been deleted by its author
-
-
Tuesday 25th April 2017 20:56 GMT SkippyBing
Re: Surely something better than a Dacia Sandero ...
'(1) charter a helicopter or light aircraft (along with pilot)'
Yes, I have flown people much further for less! Something like a Jetranger or Robinson R66 is ~£750 an hour and will get you around 100-120 miles (nautical) in that time. Depressingly the pilot's cut is only around £45.
-
-
Wednesday 26th April 2017 00:00 GMT Fruit and Nutcase
The Great Western Train Robbery
@Alexander J Martin
The loco in the picture at the head of the article bears no resemblance whatsoever to those that are in service in that area - not unless Taunton is over on the other side of the pond.
So to make up, here are some pictures of the Great HSTs around Taunton, Somerset.