Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

It attempts to abstract from Cambridge-Birmingham, despite Central
running through trains that take less time. Try looking up
Cambridge-Birmingham on the NRE web site some time.

A quick query showed a few routes. None of them included the X5.
Putting in via Milton Keynes Central gave a load more - again not
including the X5.

The journey planner shows the quickest connection at any given time,
AIUI, so long as it is a ticketable permitted route (plus a few
exceptions to this).

Are you sure there wasn't engineering work on the day you tried the
query?

Neil

In article .com,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

It attempts to abstract from Cambridge-Birmingham, despite Central
running through trains that take less time. Try looking up
Cambridge-Birmingham on the NRE web site some time.

A quick query showed a few routes. None of them included the X5.
Putting in via Milton Keynes Central gave a load more - again not
including the X5.

The journey planner shows the quickest connection at any given time,
AIUI, so long as it is a ticketable permitted route (plus a few
exceptions to this).

Are you sure there wasn't engineering work on the day you tried the
query?

No, but recent WCML timetable changes did mess up the connections so it
may have been at a particular time when they were by chance better.
Before the timetable changes they cropped up every time.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

No, but recent WCML timetable changes did mess up the connections so it
may have been at a particular time when they were by chance better.
Before the timetable changes they cropped up every time.

So, not abstracting revenue, then, but offering the quickest multimodal
public transport journey for requirements. Sounds good to me.

(The X5 is very useful for journeys from MK to/from fGW's general area,
both in terms of price and time, incidentally).

Neil

In article .com,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

No, but recent WCML timetable changes did mess up the connections
so it may have been at a particular time when they were by chance
better. Before the timetable changes they cropped up every time.

So, not abstracting revenue, then, but offering the quickest
multimodal public transport journey for requirements. Sounds good to
me.

(The X5 is very useful for journeys from MK to/from fGW's general
area, both in terms of price and time, incidentally).

Except that it was slower. And no use for the journey I was looking up
as coaches don't accept unaccompanied under-16s.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

Except that it was slower. And no use for the journey I was looking up
as coaches don't accept unaccompanied under-16s.

It's more of an express bus service, so it probably does. I'm fairly
sure I've seen unaccompanied children who look well under 16 travelling
on it, indeed.

Are you sure there were not engineering works at the time you checked?

Neil

In article . com,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

Except that it was slower. And no use for the journey I was
looking up as coaches don't accept unaccompanied under-16s.

It's more of an express bus service, so it probably does. I'm
fairly sure I've seen unaccompanied children who look well under 16
travelling on it, indeed.

It's got some local bus service attributes (it provides the main
Cambridge-St Neots bus service these days) but is treated as a coach
service at our end.

Are you sure there were not engineering works at the time you
checked?

Pretty sure, yes. Clearly now it just tries to send you via London, even
though it is quicker and almost as frequent to use Central.

Thetrainline.com is still doing it now. Try a return from Birmingham to
Cambridge on 2 October around 16:30:

Return journey: Monday 2 October 2006
Station Arr Dep Travel by Service Provider
BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET 16:30 Train VIRGIN TRAINS
MILTON KEYNES CENTRAL 17:22 17:40 Bus VIRGIN TRAINS
CAMBRIDGE BUS STATION 20:00

Note the claimed provider of the X5 service.

Another 1630 option via London gets you back to Cambridge at 19:39 and
the 16:24 direct service gets to Cambridge at 16:29.

They are evil, trying to pass buses off as trains.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:19 +0100 (BST), Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

What about through fares to Underground zones? For example,
Cambridge to Morden?

Not sold as that AIUI. Cambridge to Zones 1 & 2 Saver Return:
29.00, with Network card: 19:15 66% of 29.00=19.14

Interesting. I thought that at least prior to the 2006 fares
revision, you didn't get the Railcard discount on the U12 part of the
fare. (The through fare would have been calculated as the sum of a
Cambridge to Finsbury Park Saver Return plus two Z12 Tube fares. Now,
it's done differently, though I'm not sure how.)

Even though most Cambridge-London services don't stop at Finsbury Park?

It could be King's Cross instead, but I assume Finsbury Park would be
valid (it's one ticket, not two, and the U12 part can be used between
FP and KX), and cheaper, so they'd have to issue that instead.

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:18 +0100 (BST), Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

Another 1630 option via London gets you back to Cambridge at 19:39 and
the 16:24 direct service gets to Cambridge at 16:29.

Gosh, that's quick.

They are evil, trying to pass buses off as trains.

And trying to pass off 2000mph maglevs as trains...

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

It's got some local bus service attributes (it provides the main
Cambridge-St Neots bus service these days) but is treated as a coach
service at our end.

In what way, other than it doesn't (I think) take standing pax? (It
used to, it's just that the current coaches don't have anything to hold
onto, being ex-National Express). I'm still pretty sure I have seen
under-16s on it on several occasions.

Pretty sure, yes. Clearly now it just tries to send you via London, even
though it is quicker and almost as frequent to use Central.

Thetrainline.com is still doing it now. Try a return from Birmingham to
Cambridge on 2 October around 16:30:

Interesting - TTL and NREKB appear to use different logic, odd given
that they're the same software.

Notably, though, while it does present the bus option it also presents
the via-London train service. Many people (including me) try to avoid
travel via London in the evening peak, as it isn't fun.

Press "earlier trains" and the direct service is there, incidentally.
It doesn't usually show trains before the specified time (though
sometimes it does, try 1615 and the 1612 is shown - perhaps it's a
5-minute threshold?)

Return journey: Monday 2 October 2006
Station Arr Dep Travel by Service Provider
BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET 16:30 Train VIRGIN TRAINS
MILTON KEYNES CENTRAL 17:22 17:40 Bus VIRGIN TRAINS
CAMBRIDGE BUS STATION 20:00

Note the claimed provider of the X5 service.

I agree this is misleading, if only from a ticketing point of view.
(Any P tickets are NOT valid on the X5 - there is a specific
destination and/or route). It's in as VT-operated because they added
it to the database.

They are evil, trying to pass buses off as trains.

Hardly.

Neil

In article ,
lid (asdf) wrote:

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:18 +0100 (BST), Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

Another 1630 option via London gets you back to Cambridge at 19:39
and the 16:24 direct service gets to Cambridge at 16:29.

Gosh, that's quick.

Oops! 19:29 at Cambridge, of course.

They are evil, trying to pass buses off as trains.

And trying to pass off 2000mph maglevs as trains...

Just my typo.

--
Colin Rosenstiel