Railway Myths (2013)

[Clip]

Myth 7: The tube is not a catch all term for the London underground and when you speak about the London underground you have to serperate them from 'The Tube' for the deep level lines(even though most of them spend an awful lot of time in the open air) and 'Sub Surface lines' because if you dont then no one ever,anywhere on the whole of this planet will understand what you are on about.

 

[quarella]

Passengers never lose dark blue/black medium size suitcases with no distinguishing marks. Those who do lose items always have a clear recollection of what train they were on and whereabouts they were sat.

*Wasn't lost property but on ATW's Twitter feed today Chief Twit asked what train a complainant about a dirty carriage had travelled on. The reply was "The one between Cardiff Queen St and Cardiff Ctl." At least 175s and 158s can now be excluded.

 

[SuffolkRaider]

If HS2 goes through my back garden it'll be a worry for the allotment people behind me and 9 mile further on is the sea.......oooo new tunnel ???

Yes myth...you can please some of the people some of the time unless they believe they have the inalienable right to the seat you have booked 3 millennia in advance and those crutches next to you are just for show laddy

I sense a caffeine deficiency here must be lack of a buffet car :roll:

 

[12CSVT]

Myth 1,000,000,000,000,000.000001 : If you are careless enough to leave all your valuables on a train, the TOC must find the item(s) and take them to that TOC's lost property office within 10 minutes, irrespective of whether the items have been stolen / disposed of before you report them missing or whether you can remember which train you lost the items(s).

 

[atlasduff47]

What's this were? They're still in bloody service!

Indeed they are still in use but thankfully I no longer have to put up with the bloody things!

 

[AndyLandy]

I suppose we should have Myth #43a - HSTs are multiple units. Or loco hauled. Or whatever suits some people's agendas.

Myth #43b: The distinction beween LH and MU is an important issue for passengers, or indeed anyone else.

 

[A-driver]

Myth no. 165: Turbo DMUs would be completely out of gauge if used anywhere other than the GWML and Chiltern local services.

You'd be surprised, 365s and 465s are quite restricted in terms of routes they can run on. There are some moves they make where they have to have the step boards removed. Wouldn't be surprised if there were similar problems with 165s.

 

[thenorthern]

Myth 168: just because there is an open ticket office with signs saying "Please buy your tickets here" and "Please buy before you board" that doesn't mean you should buy a ticket, it is perfectly acceptable and reasonable board a packed peak time train and buy a ticket on board.

 

[Captain Chaos]

Myth something or other: The railways are a fully privatised entity. The government has no say in fares, investment, rolling stock, ticketing policies or any other railway related thing that involves the running or future direction of the network. The companies are free to do what they believe is best and everything that is done is because First Group wanted it so. Not because they have been told to by the government.

 

[tbtc]

#733

Patrick McLoughlin is offering to hold passengers' coats while they keep getting mugged every year by the same set of spivs. Apparently.

 

[thenorthern]

Myth 334? A direct rail link to London is more important than one to Birmingham in all cases and expecting passengers from Shrewsbury to change at Wolverhampton is completely unreasonable.

Myth 335: Thousands of passengers are wanting to use Teeside Airport, Pilning and Barleston its just trains companies just don't want to stop there out of spite.

Myth 336: The footbridges at Norton Bridge and Polesworth have not been replaced because rail companies want to close the stations by stealth and when the stations were operational thousands of passengers were using both of them.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Myth#[insert number here]: Having asked a specific question, it is perfectly reasonable to ignore the answer given by a member of staff if you do not agree with it.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Myth 336: The footbridges at Norton Bridge and Polesworth have not been replaced because rail companies want to close the stations by stealth and when the stations were operational thousands of passengers were using both of them.

Myth 0605 (FO): The parliamentary trains still run because the TOCs are gricers at heart and just love riding along unusual tracks.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Myth 142061: The 142s are showing their age considerably less than the mk1-based DMUs they replaced were in the mid-late 1980s.

Myth 142062: Admitting to being an 'enthusiast' on RUK forums means that everything you subsequently post can be dismissed as 'wibble'.

 

[Buttsy]

Myth 99 Red Balloons: Railway staff are always defensive when critisied on forums...

 

[AndyLandy]

Myth 99 Red Balloons: Railway staff are always defensive when critisied on forums...

Myth 99b: It's entirely reasonable to criticise someone, yet not permit them to justify their case.

Myth 99c: It's always the fault of the railway staff. The customer is never to blame.

Myth 99d: It's always the fault of the customer. The railway staff are never to blame.

Myth 99e: None of this would come up if people on both sides of the table were just that bit more civil to one another. Oh, hang on, I don't think that one's a myth at all!

 

[ainsworth74]

I have deleted a post from this thread that was would have taken us massively off topic. This thread is meant to be fairly light hearted. If someone wishes to discuss serious issues, in detail, then I would advise them to create a new thread for that purpose.

 

[thenorthern]

Myth 400?: If a train at Birmingham New Street is being diverted away from Wolverhampton and you ignore all the many warnings telling you not to board it then gives you the right to swear at the conductor and refuse to pay for a ticket to the next stop (Stoke-on-Trent) and you can then become aggressive when the conductor calls for platform staff at Stoke to escort you onto the next southbound CrossCountry train because its all the fault of the railway company. Because of this unforeseen problem its also ok to board this train without any ticket.

 

[Robinson]

Enthusiasts' Myth: Voyagers are the curse of the British railway and should be removed immediately to be replaced with anything and everything going spare which can take over.

Enthusiasts' Myth: Virgin Trains are all hype and should not be given any credit whatsoever for running a successful franchise, while we must all divert praise to the publicly-run East Coast.

 

[Eagle]

Enthusiasts' Myth: Voyagers are the curse of the British railway and should be removed immediately to be replaced with anything and everything going spare which can take over.

And then placed on second-tier interregional routes that don't go anywhere near 125 mph, such as Cardiff to Portsmouth (and never mind that replacing a 3-car FGW 158 with a 4-car 220 represents no additional seats, and a significant reduction in standard class seats).

 

[Robinson]

And then placed on second-tier interregional routes that don't go anywhere near 125 mph, such as Cardiff to Portsmouth (and never mind that replacing a 3-car FGW 158 with a 4-car 220 represents no additional seats, and a significant reduction in standard class seats).

Myth: XC is top-tier

 

[Gareth Marston]

And then placed on second-tier interregional routes that don't go anywhere near 125 mph, such as Cardiff to Portsmouth (and never mind that replacing a 3-car FGW 158 with a 4-car 220 represents no additional seats, and a significant reduction in standard class seats).

Surely it's a myth you can find a seat on XC Voyager.

 

[atlasduff47]

Enthusiasts' Myth: Voyagers are the curse of the British railway and should be removed immediately to be replaced with anything and everything going spare which can take over.

Enthusiasts' Myth: Virgin Trains are all hype and should not be given any credit whatsoever for running a successful franchise, while we must all divert praise to the publicly-run East Coast.

Being an enthusiast means that you are incapable of having a valid opinion..................

 

[Andrew Nelson]

Myth 0605 (FO): The parliamentary trains still run because the TOCs are gricers at heart and just love riding along unusual tracks.

Well the first bit may be true, but I doubt the last bit.

 

[thenorthern]

Myth 16:28: A ticket marked "LONDON MIDLAND ONLY" from Stoke-on-Trent should be valid on Virgin Trains because London Midland trains take too long.

 

[Eagle]

Myth 16:28: A ticket marked "LONDON MIDLAND ONLY" from Stoke-on-Trent should be valid on Virgin Trains because London Midland trains take too long.

"But it is valid because I'm going via London and the Midlands!"

 

[AndyLandy]

"But it is valid because I'm going via London and the Midlands!"

With that mentality, I wonder how you'd prove "VIRGIN ONLY" validity...

 

[Mike395]

Myth 12345679*9: Forum staff here have no sense of humour and one of them hasn't just spent the last 15 minutes reading and chuckling at the last few pages of this thread :P

 

[ainsworth74]

Myth: The forum staff are very hard working and have busy lives therefore can't spend lots of time reading one thread...

 

[tbtc]

Myth number 754: Moderating a transport forum (as I do elsewhere) is always a thankful task

Myth number 755: The C2C class 357s are re-engineered EMUs, rebuilt by Brush Traction at Loughborough from redundant class 347 EMUs