Technology: 0, Paper: 1

WRITTEN ON May 12th, 2005 BY Richard S AND STORED IN Uncategorized

Good to see that National Rail Enquiries Online is working again. These days, I take such useful online enquiry services for granted:

On Tuesday evening, despite trying Firefox, then Netscape, then Internet Explorer; the National Rail Enquiries web site allowed me to waste my time entering journey data but refused to progress past its initial page.

The WAGN train company web site just redirected me back to this faulty site.

Half remembering that there was a new enquiry service, I guessed “Travel Direct” but found only a holiday company.

In desperation I searched “Direct.gov,” to find the proper URL: “www.transportdirect.info”

However, Transport Direct was locked into a strange form “mockney”: It was determined to send me to “Laindon” rather than “London Zone 1.” It was also very very slow.

Transport Direct also suggested a “30 second” bus journey from St. Pancras to Kings Cross!

Result: Technology failure; I had to revert to an antiquated paper timetable and was unable to explore any journey options.

4 Responses to “Technology: 0, Paper: 1”

Toby wrote on May 12th, 2005 12:39 pm :

The German Train Timetable site is

1) Better designed
2) Quick
3) Reliable
4) Not rubbish

It is at http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/e and provides UK journeys as well. I have stopped using the frankly embarrassing UK site.

Tom Steinberg wrote on May 12th, 2005 12:52 pm :

Matthew Somerville’s Accessible National Rail Enquiries is also excellent – http://www.traintimes.org.uk

Richard-s wrote on May 12th, 2005 10:37 pm :

Thanks for the links. They are both impressive.

It’s fitting that our German built trains run to a German timetable. I especially like the option to travel yesterday – perfect for those forgotten appointments.

However I don’t like the German requirement to declare my age.