London Euston to Milton Keynes. Before 9am. Go to machine, two fares listed, neither with route restrictions on the screen. The machine used normally states the restrictions in the button that has the fare in. One is £1 or so cheaper, no route restrictions listed in either, so I pick that. As they’re giant QR code things, I put them straight into the rucksack and not my pocket, where they can slip out.

Get on train. Announcement “if you have an Avanti route only fare; you will have to buy a new ticket”. Check the printed ticket. Says Avanti only?! Why was that not on the display?! Timing means I do just rush across 7-8 platforms. Losing me most of the time gain I had for buying an Anytime fare for almost double the price.

Check on fares. I’m actually eligible to request an excess, which is a ticket that lets you pay the difference. Obviously this person doesn’t announce that an “upgrade” is possible, the phrasing used is “brand new ticket” and no way am I arguing with someone that is announcing that up front on this much sleep! 😅

And why has the pricing display on those ticket machines changed, but in a way that looks the same but without the extra info 🫠 - I intentionally went to an older machine that I was familiar with to save effort.

For context, train is my primary mode of travel in the uk and has been for my adult life, including a job with 30% travel. I currently *work* in the rail sector, and I’ve recreationally presented on train fare rules. And broadly I’m better than most on handling it, but also, this environment is actively hostile even for those who *do* know some of the innards. Can’t imagine what it’s like for those who use it less often - it must be horrid.

#ukrailreform #ukrailway

The UK has been renationalising its railway:

“We’ve tried privatisation for two or three decades and it’s a complete mess”

"Several operators ...were brought into public ownership by the Conservatives from 2018 onwards."

"So far nine of the 16 major rail operators in Britain are now in public ownership ... the remaining seven will be nationalised by October 2027"

"Labour has pledged to improve reliability and affordability with nationalisation, banking on a unified Great British Railways to end what critics see as an overly fragmented system."

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2025/oct/13/most-of-great-britains-major-rail-operators-are-back-in-public-hands-is-it-working

#UK #railway #UKRailway #trains

Today has been a rollercoaster:

Me: OMG I found where the railnet station platforms are in this database (royal mail freight loading docks)

Also me: OMG they closed all this last year?! 😭

#ukrailway #railway #trains #freight

The online services https://departureboards.mobi/ and https://uktra.in/ are now back up.

I had a slight issue with the servers running the data feeds, so I've had to rebuild them from scratch.

This does mean that there's about 24 hours missing from the feed archives https://archive.area51.dev

NB: The NREA feed for UK Departureboard's desktop/wall boards should also be working again as I provide that feed to them

#railOpenData #openData #ukRailway

Hello fediverse do your thing. The uk government has opened a consultation on the formation of Great British Railways (yes, that big renationalisation of the privatised services). This will replace what is currently in the Grant Shapps plan for rail. Link here, deadline 15 April https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-railway-fit-for-britains-future

#UKRailway #railway #nationalisation #politics #politicsUK #UK

I have a Very Important Question for people who have experienced both and/or train nerds.

To the best of your knowledge, which one is less reliable: Deutsche Bahn or the UK Railway system?

Pls boost.

#trains #DeutscheBahn #UKRailway #poll #umfrage