Most ridicuolous change to ticket printing

[northwichcat]

What used to be printed as 'Hale' on train tickets is now printed as 'Hale (Manchester)' Hale is on the boundary of Greater Manchester and Cheshire and most residents seem to refer to it as being in Cheshire. Apparently the reason for the change was it got confused with Tottenham Hale! I'm sure people should notice the difference between a £5 off peak ticket and a £80 off peak ticket.

Can anyone think of a more ridiculous change that's been made?

 

[VideozVideoz]

Nope, no idea but i do know that Hale is in Greater Manchester as it comes under the 'Borough of Trafford'

 

[northwichcat]

Nope, no idea but i do know that Hale is in Greater Manchester as it comes under the 'Borough of Trafford'

Yes. Trafford in Greater Manchester not the City of Manchester in the same way as you would say Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside not Newton-le-Willows, Liverpool. However, like I said most people in the area refer to themselves being in Cheshire and for postal addresses they have an address of Cheshire, WA14 not something like Manchester, M33.

 

[Lad Brookes]

What used to be printed as 'Hale' on train tickets is now printed as 'Hale (Manchester)' Hale is on the boundary of Greater Manchester and Cheshire and most residents seem to refer to it as being in Cheshire. Apparently the reason for the change was it got confused with Tottenham Hale! I'm sure people should notice the difference between a £5 off peak ticket and a £80 off peak ticket.

Can anyone think of a more ridiculous change that's been made?

Depends where they're coming from!
Peterborough-Hale SVR (Any Permitted) £67.00
Peterborough-Tottenham Hale SVR (+Any Permitted) £66.70

 

[trickyvegas]

There is also a Hale in Halton Borough, which is also in Cheshire so maybe this is to avoid confusion with the two places even though only one them has a rail station.

 

[tbtc]

Yes. Trafford in Greater Manchester not the City of Manchester in the same way as you would say Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside not Newton-le-Willows, Liverpool. However, like I said most people in the area refer to themselves being in Cheshire and for postal addresses they have an address of Cheshire, WA14 not something like Manchester, M33.

Postcodes are nothing to do with "political" boundaries though.

For example, Sheffield's "S" extends into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, whilst Doncaster (in South Yorkshire) has a different postcode altogether.

I know there are some on the Wirral who like their posh "Cheshire" postcodes, but it doesn't change the fact that they are administratively part of Merseyside.
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Depends where they're coming from!
Peterborough-Hale SVR (Any Permitted) £67.00
Peterborough-Tottenham Hale SVR (+Any Permitted) £66.70

Easily done if you are buying tickets online. I can understand why they've made the change.

 

[northwichcat]

Postcodes are nothing to do with "political" boundaries though.

For example, Sheffield's "S" extends into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, whilst Doncaster (in South Yorkshire) has a different postcode altogether.

I know there are some on the Wirral who like their posh "Cheshire" postcodes, but it doesn't change the fact that they are administratively part of Merseyside.

The point about Hale (and Altrincham) is as well as the postcode their postal county is Cheshire, so if you posted a letter to Hale ticket office you would write "Hale, Altrincham, Cheshire". The postal county for somewhere like Chesterfield is Derbyshire, despite the S postcode.

 

[radamfi]

Royal Mail no longer require postal counties on letters. They say you can put whatever county you want on the letter. Postal counties are very inconsistent. Some modern counties are observed, such as Merseyside, whereas Greater Manchester was never introduced as a postal county so Rochdale stayed in Lancashire postal county and Hale stayed in Cheshire postal county.

There was further confusion after 1986 when the Greater Manchester Council was abolished. That led to some people believing that they had returned to the previous pre-1974 counties, whereas in fact they were still in Greater Manchester and there was merely a conversion to unitary authorities.

It has become common practice in recent years for Greater Manchester to become shortened to just 'Manchester', particularly in the media, similarly to how London is now almost never 'Greater London'. I have noticed a lot more acceptance of this usage in the outer areas, particularly in south (Greater) Manchester.

In strict urban area terms, the Office of National Statistics has defined a Greater Manchester Urban Area (not taking into account any administrative boundaries) that includes Hale as there is continuous urban area between Hale and the city centre with no gap in countryside of more than 50 metres.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Manchester_Urban_Area

Tickets to Castleton are printed as Castleton (Manchr) even though Castleton (G Man) might be more acceptable to Manchester refuseniks.

 

[deltic1989]

Postcodes are nothing to do with "political" boundaries though.

For example, Sheffield's "S" extends into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, whilst Doncaster (in South Yorkshire) has a different postcode altogether.

I know there are some on the Wirral who like their posh "Cheshire" postcodes, but it doesn't change the fact that they are administratively part of Merseyside.
[.

On that point Doncasters DN Extands into Lincolnshire as Gainsbro has a DN postcode and Peterbro's PE Does the same as Skegness and Mablethorpe are PE, as car insurance goes on postcodes Skeg is a bitch to get insurance in (ive tried) a mate told me that for the same car as me they wanted £100 more for skeg than Lincoln. So as far as car insurance is concerned a postcode is a political boundry, Back OT though i can see the point of the change it may be more to help visitors from out of the UK as they may not have the best idea of the geography and end up hundreds of miles off course, its easy for us who know the railwyas in the UK like the back of our hands to scoff but it could be a real help to a french family on holiday.

 

[northwichcat]

Royal Mail no longer require postal counties on letters.

They don't use them in addresses (unless the sender adds it in themselves.) However, they are still used on franked mail, for instance a franked letter from Bury says 'Bury, Lancashire.'
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Back OT though i can see the point of the change it may be more to help visitors from out of the UK as they may not have the best idea of the geography and end up hundreds of miles off course, its easy for us who know the railwyas in the UK like the back of our hands to scoff but it could be a real help to a french family on holiday.

I can't see hundreds or thousands of tourists flocking to Hale.

Anyway wouldn't it cause more confusion? Adlington (Lancs) and Adlington (Cheshire) are very clear about which ones they represent. I would have thought it would be more sensible to say Hale (Altrincham) as how would someone unfamiliar with the area know that Hale (Mancehster) means somewhere 10 miles outside of Manchester and isn't a different stop in or near central Manchester?

 

[radamfi]

Anyway wouldn't it cause more confusion? Adlington (Lancs) and Adlington (Cheshire) are very clear about which ones they represent. I would have thought it would be more sensible to say Hale (Altrincham) as how would someone unfamiliar with the area know that Hale (Mancehster) means somewhere 10 miles outside of Manchester and isn't a different stop in or near central Manchester?

I think the idea is to use relatively big areas as the qualifier as not everyone knows where Altrincham is but most people know where Lancs, Cheshire and Manchester are. Similarly, Castleton should really be Castleton (Rochdale) but Castleton (Manchr) maybe more useful outside the area.

 

[RPI]

could also be confused with Hayle in Cornwall, different spelling but easilly confused particularly for foreign tourists, interesting that tickets to Hayle dont say Hayle (Cornwall).

 

[northwichcat]

could also be confused with Hayle in Cornwall, different spelling but easilly confused particularly for foreign tourists, interesting that tickets to Hayle dont say Hayle (Cornwall).

Doubtful they'd change it for that reason. Hartford, Cheshire is shown on tickets as just Hartford, despite being pronounced the same as Hertford and even causing confusion on this very forum when people post about Virgin previously removing Hartford calls from Liverpool-London services.

 

[steamybrian]

Station names can be confusing to tourists. I heard about a tourist getting confused between Liverpool Street and Liverpool Lime Street.
Postcodes- my postcode starting TN ... based around Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells area covers not only West Kent from Biggin Hill (North West Kent/border with Greater London) to the Romney Marsh but to Crowborough and Hastings areas in Sussex.

 

[WillPS]

I've had to double take a couple of times when I've hit "Kirkby" on a TVM rather than "Kirkby In Ashfield"

 

[northwichcat]

Station names can be confusing to tourists. I heard about a tourist getting confused between Liverpool Street and Liverpool Lime Street.

Norwich has direct trains to both and it's been reported on here that the display screens at Norwich show "Lime Street. Liverpool" and "London. Liverpool Street" because it causes confusion when people see the first word as 'Liverpool.'

 

[yorksrob]

Having grown up in Ashford Kent, I have always found the term "Ashford Intl" faintly ridiculous.

 

[Greenback]

Postcodes are nothing to do with "political" boundaries though.

For example, Sheffield's "S" extends into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, whilst Doncaster (in South Yorkshire) has a different postcode altogether.

I know there are some on the Wirral who like their posh "Cheshire" postcodes, but it doesn't change the fact that they are administratively part of Merseyside.

Correct. I have a friedn who is adamant she hails (poor pun sorry) from Lancashire, depsite the fact her aministrative area is Merseyside.

Royal Mail no longer require postal counties on letters. They say you can put whatever county you want on the letter. Postal counties are very inconsistent. Some modern counties are observed, such as Merseyside, whereas Greater Manchester was never introduced as a postal county so Rochdale stayed in Lancashire postal county and Hale stayed in Cheshire postal county.

Also correct. Royal Mail did away with the sorting of m,ail by counties when I was working ther ein 1993. Counties in an address are now ignored by sorting machinery, which only sort mail by codes. Manually sorted or encoded mail is done through the city or town, if ther eis no postcode or it is unreadable.