Recent content by scragend

I've always used TPE rather than GWR to book seat/bike reservations online (I think I've used GWR once). I've just booked a seat reservation via TPE for travel on Avanti in June. I noticed that it now gives me a collection reference and tells me to collect the reservation from a station. Well...

I remember the ticket machines on the Rome Metro in 2004. The fare for a single journey was 77 cents and the machine would give change but the smallest coin it would dispense was the five cent. It wouldn't let you overpay either so as soon as you went over 77 cents by anything that wasn't a...

Interestingly the company we know as Autoglass is branded in a lot of European countries as Carglass - even in countries where the local language word for car is "auto".

Similar in a way to the Gare de Lyon crash in 1988. A passenger pulled the cord because the train's stopping pattern had changed in the new timetable and it no longer stopped at the station she wanted, so she pulled the cord and got off the train there anyway. The driver and guard then made an...

Rail Europe I think doesn't charge fees for that. I just tried a dummy booking on that route with InterRail and it was offering €29 with no booking fee.

Didn't realise that. Thanks. Another reason to go via Belgium & Germany then!

InterRail seat reservations on the TGV these days are €10 until the quota runs out and then €20 after that. It's not a fortune but it's just a bit of a niggle.

The 09:01 Eurostar would be a bit tight for my liking - the 05:46 is due in at Euston at 08:00. If it's on time then there would probably be enough time to get over to St. Pancras in time for the Eurostar check in but if there's any delays it could be pushing it. Last time I took the 05:46 it...

Both of these have already been mentioned but I'll add another vote to Berlin Hbf - truly a modern cathedral of the railways. With it being all undercover (well, nearly all, barring the extremities of the upper level platforms) and only served by electric trains it always seems so clean too...

Paris Nord is the only one where I've had someone argue with me after I declined to give him money. In a lot of places they will come up to you and ask for money, but if you politely decline they'll just walk off and head for the next person. At Gare du Nord once I'd come off the Eurostar and...

New Zealand uses Snicko (Real Time Snickometer, to give it its full name, or RTS) as well. It's currently being used in the series against West Indies. Most if not all the other countries use Ultra Edge. They are the only two systems approved by the ICC. Snicko is apparently cheaper. I don't...

Global passes for residents of the Netherlands come with three outbound/inbound days rather than two. So for the said Dutch-resident UK national that's a pretty good position to be in. https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/what-is-interrail/travel-your-own-country Also I think (but am...

They have an interesting take on "major European railway operators" too. If I had to pick five major European railway operators I wouldn't have put those two in there!

Thanks. I think it looks smart.

I don't know the reason for it - although the legibility and energy saving reasons are both plausible - but I like the look of it. Plus it's consistent with the station name boards, which are also white on blue. One thought I did have is what colour text are they using for delay...