On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:52:34 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

In message , Brimstone
writes

I used to be a guard on the Piccadilly Line. Passengers would ask me "Where
dos this train go to?" At forst I responded by asking where it was they were
trying to get to but some became quite stroppy so I stopped doing that and
simply answered the question.

Their blank faces when given the answer of "Cockfosters" (or which ever
north London station the train was terminating at) was a joy to behold (if
one was so minded). They would then ask the question they should have asked
in the first place, i.e. "How do I get to ...".

Yes indeed. Isolating what people "ask" from "what they want to know"
is a difficult task but one which is very important in a customer-facing
environment.

I guess the optimal response would be something like "we're going
through Central London to {Cockfosters|Arnos Grove|wherever}; where
are you trying to get to?" which covers most things AFAICS.

James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:52:34 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

In message , Brimstone
writes

I used to be a guard on the Piccadilly Line. Passengers would ask
me "Where dos this train go to?" At forst I responded by asking
where it was they were trying to get to but some became quite
stroppy so I stopped doing that and simply answered the question.

Their blank faces when given the answer of "Cockfosters" (or which
ever north London station the train was terminating at) was a joy
to behold (if one was so minded). They would then ask the question
they should have asked in the first place, i.e. "How do I get to
...".

Yes indeed. Isolating what people "ask" from "what they want to
know" is a difficult task but one which is very important in a
customer-facing environment.

I guess the optimal response would be something like "we're going
through Central London to {Cockfosters|Arnos Grove|wherever}; where
are you trying to get to?" which covers most things AFAICS.

True, but much quicker to give a simple direct answer to an equally simple
direct question. After which one can get down to providing the info the
passenger really needs which is often directions to a station on a different
line or, sometimes, to a different city.

On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 19:39:19 -0000, "Brimstone"
wrote:

James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:52:34 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

In message , Brimstone
writes

I used to be a guard on the Piccadilly Line. Passengers would ask
me "Where dos this train go to?" At forst I responded by asking
where it was they were trying to get to but some became quite
stroppy so I stopped doing that and simply answered the question.

Their blank faces when given the answer of "Cockfosters" (or which
ever north London station the train was terminating at) was a joy
to behold (if one was so minded). They would then ask the question
they should have asked in the first place, i.e. "How do I get to
...".

Yes indeed. Isolating what people "ask" from "what they want to
know" is a difficult task but one which is very important in a
customer-facing environment.

I guess the optimal response would be something like "we're going
through Central London to {Cockfosters|Arnos Grove|wherever}; where
are you trying to get to?" which covers most things AFAICS.

True, but much quicker to give a simple direct answer to an equally simple
direct question.

However, as you note, this often confuses people and (illogically) can
tend to annoy people (even though you've answered the question they
actually asked).

I must say, in my experience the question "where does this train go
to?" is much less commonly asked than "does this train go to X?".

James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 19:39:19 -0000, "Brimstone"
wrote:

James Farrar wrote:
On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:52:34 +0000, Ian Jelf
wrote:

In message , Brimstone
writes

I used to be a guard on the Piccadilly Line. Passengers would ask
me "Where dos this train go to?" At forst I responded by asking
where it was they were trying to get to but some became quite
stroppy so I stopped doing that and simply answered the question.

Their blank faces when given the answer of "Cockfosters" (or which
ever north London station the train was terminating at) was a joy
to behold (if one was so minded). They would then ask the question
they should have asked in the first place, i.e. "How do I get to
...".

Yes indeed. Isolating what people "ask" from "what they want to
know" is a difficult task but one which is very important in a
customer-facing environment.

I guess the optimal response would be something like "we're going
through Central London to {Cockfosters|Arnos Grove|wherever}; where
are you trying to get to?" which covers most things AFAICS.

True, but much quicker to give a simple direct answer to an equally
simple direct question.

However, as you note, this often confuses people and (illogically) can
tend to annoy people (even though you've answered the question they
actually asked).

I must say, in my experience the question "where does this train go
to?"

I don't recall that it happened frequently, merely that it did more than
once.

is much less commonly asked than "does this train go to X?".

Which much easier and straightforward to deal with as one can tell the
enquirer that it does or if not, give directions.

Peter Masson wrote:

IIRC before the Fares Fair era, London Transport buses worked on the basis
that you paid your cash fare for each separate journey, with few exceptions.
I don't think there were such things as bus season tickets, return tickets
on London buses, or through (or interchangeable) bus/tube or bus/rail
tickets. The only exceptions I can remember were schoolchildren's free
passes, Red Rovers, Green Rovers (freedom of Central or Country buses for a
day) and Twin Rovers (red buses plus tubes).

There were also period rover tickets, I can't remember if they were
still called 'Red Rovers', but I do remember the cards on the buses
advertising them; they were £6 per month and £60 per year. I think
that was in about the late '60s.

On Thu, 04 Jan 2007 16:52:50 +0000, JNugent
wrote:

Charles Ellson wrote:
On Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:25:34 +0000, JNugent
wrote:


John Rowland wrote:

Mark Goodge wrote:


On Wed, 3 Jan 2007 17:22:16 -0000, Nick Pedley put finger to keyboard
and typed:


"I never knew Paris was so close to London that we could see the
Eiffel Tower from the top of the wheel!"

At the risk of asking another tricky question, what is it that they're
seeing that prompts this remark?


The Blackpool Tower, of course!

(Actually, Crystal Palace television transmitter.)

It had to be.

Did they ask why there were two of them?


Is the view of both towers unobstructed ? IIRC the Beulah Hill
(ex-ITV) mast is smaller.

You can see both towers from most high vantage points,
including many in North London.

Agreed, but there are lots of high vantage points from which one or
both cannot be seen due to intervening high vantage points or
multi-storey hovels as found by various people who can't get a decent
television picture despite thinking their aerial is pointing directly
at what they think is the Crystal Palace transmitter, being too young
or foreign to have heard of channel 9.

On Thu, 4 Jan 2007, Arthur Figgis wrote:

Mike Cawood, HND BIT wrote:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...559786,00.html
Some people should have been strangled at birth.
Mike.

"Are there any lakes in the Lake District?" might seem silly, but "how many
lakes are there?" is a fairly common trick question.

[one, Bassenthwaite]

So in what sense is, say, Coniston Water not a lake? Is it just that it
doesn't have 'lake' in the name, or is it geologically different soehow?

tom

--
Batman always wins

On Thu, 4 Jan 2007, Adrian wrote:

Mizter T ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying :

I do however find someone saying they live "in London Bridge" somewhat
absurd, as if they actually live within the bridge itself (though
perhaps in the future they will! - see [1]).

Didn't one of the previous London Bridges have shops/workshops/dingy
hovels built along it?

All manner of things - shops, a palace, waterwheels, you name it. There's
a rather good model and loads of info in the Museum in Docklands. Struck
me as a top idea - and it worked better than Mr Brunel's attempt to
recapitulate it in a tunnel, too. I shall write to Ken and demand the
rebuilding of Waterloo Bridge in this fashion.

tom

--
Batman always wins

On Thu, 4 Jan 2007 21:19:25 +0000, Tom Anderson put finger to keyboard
and typed:

On Thu, 4 Jan 2007, Arthur Figgis wrote:

Mike Cawood, HND BIT wrote:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...559786,00.html
Some people should have been strangled at birth.
Mike.

"Are there any lakes in the Lake District?" might seem silly, but "how many
lakes are there?" is a fairly common trick question.

[one, Bassenthwaite]

So in what sense is, say, Coniston Water not a lake? Is it just that it
doesn't have 'lake' in the name, or is it geologically different soehow?

It is just the name. Technically, of course, there's a difference
between how many "lakes" there are in the Lake District (answer: lots)
and how many "Lakes" are in the Lake District (answer: one), but if
you get that pedantic then it ruins a nice trivia question :-)

Mark
--
Visit: http://www.OrangeHedgehog.com - Useful stuff for the web
"Lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it, you better never let it go"

In uk.transport.london message , Thu, 4
Jan 2007 01:02:09, David Biddulph posted:

You talk of Easter being "early enough". The earliest date on which Easter
can fall is March 22nd, but that doesn't occur within the period of my
current list (between 1875 and 2124).

URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/estr-tbl.txt tabulates Easter dates
for years 1900 to 2149.

URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/js-clndr.htm can show the Gregorian
Easter date for years 100 to 9999.

URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/estrdate.htm#CD can show the
Gregorian Easter date for years 0 to vast.

URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/estrdate.htm#CD can show the
Gregorian Easter date by an algorithm (derived therein) based on part of
the Book of Common Prayer, which is based on the Calendar Act.

Via URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/zeller-c.htm you can get
Gregorian & Julian Easter by Zeller's method.

Using Pascal LONGCALC.EXE (via sig line 3) at a DOS-16 prompt :

C:\longcalc 5702000 #eg wrt wrt

LONGCALC: www.merlyn.demon.co.uk = 2005-07-22
compiled with Borland Delphi.
+4 +23

you can get Easter dates for years of up to a bit over 240 digits
(command line size limit), and up to over 65000 digits (bases 2 to 16)
if you can contrive appropriate input. Using modulo-5700000 will save
some time, for large year numbers. Delphi LONGCALC can go higher.

--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v6.05 IE 6.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - w. FAQish topics, links, acronyms
PAS EXE etc : URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/ - see 00index.htm
Dates - miscdate.htm moredate.htm js-dates.htm pas-time.htm critdate.htm etc.