Welcome to the world of those who would love to see you fail, it covers
their own short comings - personally I find your product superb.

--
DAS,

All opinions are mine and mine alone
http://merseyjcn.fotopic.net/
http://www.wirralfinescale.com/
Quality modelling and no politics

"David Skipsey" wrote in message
...
Welcome to the world of those who would love to see you fail, it covers
their own short comings - personally I find your product superb.


What do you expect when the OP ends by claiming to have 'The Original and
Best UK Journey Planner'. As I and others have shown, it doesn't work for
the journeys we make. Transport Direct's offering seems to work much better
for PT, although the timings for car journeys are usually way out.

Ian

"Philip Hardy" wrote in message
...
Iain Wilkie Logan wrote:
Please visit http://www.planajourney.co.uk/ where you will find our
multi-modal journey planning alternative to 'Transport Direct'.

I've used your Palm Rail Journey Planner for a few years now and it's
indispensable.

I also am a user of the Palm Planner.. just done my monthly update. I never
leave home without it.

--
Ken Ward

"Society for the production of Maritime Reefs using MerseyRail 142's"
(For membership email... )
"Leave the Mobile Phone at home day Oct 25th 2006"

Ian wrote:
"David Skipsey" wrote in message
...
Welcome to the world of those who would love to see you fail, it covers
their own short comings - personally I find your product superb.


What do you expect when the OP ends by claiming to have 'The Original and
Best UK Journey Planner'. As I and others have shown, it doesn't work for
the journeys we make. Transport Direct's offering seems to work much better
for PT, although the timings for car journeys are usually way out.

Ian


Nope, but it got him a load of hits to his site as well as some
constructive help.

Mark

"David Skipsey" wrote:

[Dave, your email address appears to be wrong - should it be
"ntlworld" with two 'L's?]

Welcome to the world of those who would love to see you fail, it covers
their own short comings - personally I find your product superb.

Far from it. I would love to see a fully functional multi-modal
journey planner developed and available online.

But when someone pops up out of nowhere claiming that they have
created such a thing, and it is nowhere near, you can't be surprised
that people are somewhat critical of it.

--
Stevie D
\\\\\ ///// Bringing dating agencies to the
\\\\\\\__X__/////// common hedgehog since 2001 - "HedgeHugs"
___\\\\\\\'/ \'///////_____________________________________________

In message , at 13:38:36 on Sat, 9
Sep 2006, Iain Wilkie Logan remarked:

please go to our site and try out our planner for yourself

A few constructive criticisms.

1) I entered my Town (West Bridgford) and it isn't listed in the
drop-down list. Nor is there an entry for "none of the above".
The only way to review my selection seems to be to press the
Browser "back" button, which is inelegant. (Transport Direct
does list West Bridgford).

2) I'm going to Stansted Airport (for no better reason than that's
where I drove to yesterday). I know it's a Sunday (and trains
are a bit dodgy) but it only shows routes via London, and
therefore much more expensive than via Ely. Perhaps I should
have the choice of "Not via London", and "Cheapest", as well as
your assumption that I want "fastest".

One of the suggestions is a coach (which is good) but pressing
the "fares" button gives no results.

I'm impressed that you seem to know what platform a train will
arrive at Kings Cross - the station announcers often don't,
until a few minutes beforehand.

3) Trying Melton Mowbray (the only nearby place for a through-train
on a weekday evening), you suggest going via Leicester, which is
the opposite direction to normal. OK, if it's faster at that
particular time I suppose it's OK, but have you checked this
with the routing guide?

4) So let's check "Foxton to London"... but this defaults to
"London Bridge LU", and I apparently need to know which terminus
I'll be arriving at (how does that work for places with two
terminii, such as Cambridge to KX and LS). [ps What's "Larkhill
London St Cadzow St"??]

... and Ooops, it suggests a trip via Cambridge, which is
doubling back and not a permitted route.

5) A famous problem with Cambridge Station to Newmarket (in
Transport Direct) seems to be repeated in your planner. If you
specify the destination as Newmarket Bus Station, it completely
ignores the direct train (21 minutes) plus a few minutes walk in
Newmarket, preferring: Walk to Cambridge Bus Station (25 mins)
then a further over 3 hours getting coaches via Stansted [yes,
that place again].

That'll do for now.
--
Roland Perry

Stevie D wrote:

But when someone pops up out of nowhere claiming that they have
created such a thing, and it is nowhere near, you can't be surprised
that people are somewhat critical of it.

Hardly popping up out of nowhere - Iain's been posting to u.r on and off
for the past 8 years at least, and developing journey planning software
for even longer than that.

Then again, the earliest post of his that Google can find says

Please don't be disheartened at what may seem rather a harsh criticism, but
it's probably what a lot of your visitors haven't bothered to tell you.
First impressions count for a lot on the web, and that's the first problem
you must address.

Ah well, welcome to Usenet!
--
Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
=================================

Iain Wilkie Logan wrote:

The Original and Best UK Journey Planner

Haven't looked at the system, but if you ever want coverage anywhere
(apart from when posting ads on newsgroups), please drop the 'original
and best' bit.

If we ever get a press release that starts with "world's first"
"original" or "best" it's bound to be ignored! In most cases the
product or service isn't the first in the world, totally original or
the best!

Jonathan

On Sat, 9 Sep 2006 13:38:36 +0100, Iain Wilkie Logan
wrote:


Please visit http://www.planajourney.co.uk/ where you will find our
multi-modal journey planning alternative to 'Transport Direct'.

The September 15th issue of 'Bus and Coach Professional' will contain a
comprehensive feature article on our system.

Ironic then that it doesn't seem to know about any buses at all.
Doesn't know any of the regular public buses that I get in London or
Newcastle.

Also I tested it with Kensington Olympia (LU) to Shepherd's Bush (LU).
Now anybody that knows the area would walk it or perhaps get the bus
between the two, but I suppose it can be forgiven for suggesting a 53
minute tube route - however it priced the journey at £6.00 when it
should only be £3.00 - it counted two of the three tube segments as
separate journeys for some reason!

On Sun, 10 Sep 2006 12:15:14 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

I'm impressed that you seem to know what platform a train will
arrive at Kings Cross - the station announcers often don't,
until a few minutes beforehand.

Well every train has a particular booked platform in the full
timetable (differing public editions of the timetable info may not
show this data though). Things may get swapped around last minute some
days but that should only be when things are going wrong and
departures are late.

There used to be a monitor a little way down one of the platforms that
was for the station staff that showed the anticipated platform, ages
before (30-60 mins) the public display did, I always used to wander
over and check it out - but I think they took it away now.

Pretty sure they just choose not to announce it at KX until the last
minute to avoid mad dashes of departing passengers or huge crowds of
meeters and greeters.