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Hi - There are a number of puzzles that may be of interest to railway enthusiasts on the Hidden Underground Wiki. Please enjoy them!

What is the significance of tickets described as "Reserved - no seat allocated"? When I booked an advance fare on the SWT service from Bath to London Waterloo and back last month I was given three mandatory reservation tickets along with the travel tickets (Bath -> Waterloo, Waterloo ->...

I rarely visit London, and on previous occasions when I've travelled I've bought a one-day travelcard when I get there. However, I'm planning a journey this time where it looks as though an Oyster card may be better value. Two questions: (1) What's the difference between the Visitor Oyster...

Maybe a few people here will be interested in this bit of silliness that I put together for another forum - a setting of the names of all the London Underground stations to the tune of Offenbach's "Can-Can". All credit to Rob Mansell, who gamely agreed to perform it...

Hi - can anyone here point me to an explanation of how "up" and "down" lines are determined when neither direction is towards London? Thanks.

I've always thought that the Victoria line was the least satisfactorily named of the lot. No other Underground line shares its name with a station, and it's not the only line running through Victoria; in fact the name "Victoria line" could be misunderstood to refer to the mainline into Victoria...

I don't work in the rail industry and I'm not a great expert on it, so forgive me if I've misunderstood this. Yesterday I was waiting for my regular train from Chippenham to Bath. The indicator said there were delays "due to signalling problems between Swindon and Chippenham". As far as I...

I'm having a discussion on another forum about the intended location of this at King's Cross. Personally I think it's an entirely fictitious location like 221b Baker Street, and doesn't bear any relation to the real platforms 9 and 10 (which aren't in the main station). J. K. Rowling has been...

This is such a minor point that I hesitate to raise it, but I think there's a principle involved. I catch a train once a week whose advertised departure time is 0830. When I went to the station this week the timetable posters still advertised it as 0830. However, the platform indicator and...

Is there any reason why 24-hour clock times in railway timetables and posters are conventionally written with no separator between the hours and the minutes? It can occasionally be confusing - the other day I read a notice saying "until approximately 1000 buses will be replacing trains", and it...

Does anyone actually use these terms other than in official notices and announcements? I used them in a thread recently, but they sound very old-fashioned and pompous, and I wonder how many passengers actually know what they mean. I suspect there may be some who think the signs saying "do not...

At Chippenham station there's what might be described as a "false platform". It looks just like a normal station platform (and was presumably in use once), but there's no track running alongside it. It adjoins the main station building and it has entrances to the toilets and cafe, as well as...

I'm currently on one of those programmes that supposedly help the unemployed get back to work. I'm required to attend a training course in the next town for two days a week, and the arrangement is that the company running the employment programme buys my tickets in advance, so that I don't have...

I've just picked up a pocket timetable. It happens to be for the First Great Western lines from Paddington to Bristol and South Wales, but that's not specially important. It's the way the notes are indicated that bothers me. Here's an example: 0828 (weekdays) from Swansea to Paddington...

Who is responsible for allocating numbers to bus routes? Is it entirely a matter for the individual bus company, or does the local authority have any influence? What would happen if two rival companies wanted to use the same number on different routes in the same area? Also, what counts as...

This question relates to the opening of the modern Charing Cross tube station in 1979, comprising the Bakerloo line platforms (formerly Trafalgar Square station), Northern line platforms (formerly Strand station) and Jubilee line platforms (new construction, closed to the public in 1999). My...

I learned a new piece of terminology today. I was on a bus and the driver pulled up at a stop and started searching through his bag. He was clearly worried and, after saying something to a passing driver, phoned up the depot. He had apparently lost his "running card". This is the...

A quick question about terminology: What's the generally accepted term for a bus that's run instead of a scheduled rail service? "Rail replacement bus" seems to be the standard term, though train operators will often call it a "replacement bus service" and bus operators a "rail replacement...

Is there a definitive list anywhere of lines that have been reopened? The closest I can find is this section of the Wikipedia "Beeching Axe" article. (I don't mean heritage railways, but lines that have been restored to regular service.)

Bit of a newbie question! Is there any "official" list of names for railway lines? This list on the National Rail website seems to contain a mixture of traditional names (such as East Coast Main Line) and marketing names (such as Heart of Wessex Line), but the majority of lines aren't named...