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PCSO is a Police Community Support Officer, these are not Police Officers, they have very limited powers (they cannot Arrest somebody) and are typically wannabe that cannot cut the grade and have very limited knowledge of the law and in this case even the English language given their confusion of the semantics difference between Abstration and Extraction.

UK Trains provide charging points for laptops and mobile phones and have signs announcing this, and this is also on the national rail website . These are low power and not suitable for a heavy load like a vacum cleaner.

"WiFi and power points for laptops and mobile phone chargers are available on some trains"
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/...

The guy was immediately 'de-arrested' and released by the custody Sergeant and why he will get compensation is due course for false arrest.

I love how you called it an "official area of outstanding natural beauty". ;) Are the swans trained to stand in just the right places? ;)

I wasn't even thinking of standing-room only trains, I was picturing being in with a bunch of people sitting down. Yeah, crammed together standing up like a Tokyo subway would be even worse! And you have to "work flexible hours" to be able to avoid that? Geez...

OMG, I just looked up the Surrey Hills, and its literal name as marked on the map is "Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". I thought you were just reading off of a brochure or something - that's hilarious!

I just went to a UK rail planner website - http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/ - and picked a site downtown at random - Hyde Park (all stations) - and the nearest town I saw to "Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" (snicker), which was Guildford (all stations). The cheapest ticket is 89 bloody pounds and takes 4 hours 28 minutes. I then tried to Dorking (all stations) on the other side of SHAONB... same cost, same time.

Okay, so maybe it's absurdly long by rail not but not by car? Google Maps says 1-2 hours each way. Judging from the current traffic report, much of it spent dawdling along in-town.

(BTW, your opinions of "outstanding" are rather different than mine, apparently ;) )

Since privatisation they are known as National Rail - http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

And ScotRail - http://www.scotrail.co.uk/

Bzzt -- wrong. "National Rail" doesn't exist -- "National Rail Enquiries" is the company responsible for centrally managing and communicating train running information to the public. Network Rail is the state-owned company that operates the entire UK rail network, including Scotland. Meanwhile, ScotRail is the operating name of the rail franchise that operates trains.

It has always amused me that in England the railways were known as British Rail, in Scotland they were known as ScotRail.

Since privatisation they are known as National Rail - http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

And ScotRail - http://www.scotrail.co.uk/

Train companies in the UK do something similar. If you go through London at peak-time (8am - 10am) or (5pm and 7pm), then there is higher ticket price than at other times (x1.5 to x2) . But This applies to any journey starting at these times, not necessarily in London. So you could split your journey into separate ticket segments (8am Liverpool to Oxford) (12pm to 2pm Oxford to London), and avoid this "surcharge".

One difference is that in the UK splitting/combining railway tickets is explicitly allowed by the rules National Conditions of Carriage. Though tickets are non-transferrable.

Don't know how it works in the states, but in the UK there're Conditions of Carriage (essentially terms and conditions). The back of the tickets refer you to them.

In there it's explicitly stated that tickets can not be transferred to another person (page 7, section 6)

Breaking those rules mean the ticket(s) and invalidated and thus both commuters would effectively be travelling without a ticket.

That condition dates back to the Victorian era when railways first started and some people tried doing exactly this sort of thing until the companies banned it. I'd be very surprised if BART and others don't have almost identical conditions.

Its capacity and cost. A return from Leeds to london tomorrow will cost £123 off peak. That's just under 200 miles so its chaper to drive. If you want the chapest travel then you would go by coach for £9.50. It seems to me that for the same or less than HS2 they could have longer platforms, double decker coaches (like in France) and get the cost down. I would rather have a 2 hour service for about £30 that I could actually use than a 50 minute one for £200.

Actually, by taking an off-peak train you saved about 50% of the standard fare of GBP 249 ... strengthening your case on the cost front.

But the cost is significantly affected by the constraints on capacity. Unfortunately, simply putting more capacity on individual trains (longer double deckers) won't create any more competition ... and the level of current competition is approximately zero.

What we really need is lots more track ... preferably track that's cheaper to lay than HS2

Its capacity and cost. A return from Leeds to london tomorrow will cost £123 off peak. That's just under 200 miles so its chaper to drive. If you want the chapest travel then you would go by coach for £9.50. It seems to me that for the same or less than HS2 they could have longer platforms, double decker coaches (like in France) and get the cost down. I would rather have a 2 hour service for about £30 that I could actually use than a 50 minute one for £200.

On top of that, the rail system here is also hub-and-spoke, so for a lot of journeys you end up connecting somewhere and changing trains as well. That part, I'm not sure there is a solution for, but I thought I'd point it out.

Most rail systems are hub and spoke, but with more hubs than in the US. (e.g. Britain [PDF] -- most trains will stop at all the 'big blob' places, but only some will stop at the small-blob ones.).

Running a new direct service that isn't more-or-less already existing can require new track, new junctions (if running across existing lines would slow down existing trains too much), bigger stations, ... but it's a lot different here than in a big country, where you might reasonably spend over six hours on a train.

I really expect an app from National Rail to be arriving any time now based on the squirming exhibted in the corrspondense.

Well, nearly: they charge companies for the right to implement the apps for them, who then sell them to the public at £5 a time.

Except when they revoke licenses without warning, and get investigated under competition law. See my other comment further down the page somewhere.

I was sending emails to people about this all last week - if all the people who use the API now get in touch with one another, they might be able to collectively demonstrate just how much NRE is hindering innovation. And then the regulator can step in. (Email me via my website if you're interested!)

I really expect an app from National Rail to be arriving any time now based on the squirming exhibted in the corrspondense.

Based on this list it looks like their business model is to charge for the feeds and lets others manage the hassles of development, testing and publishing.

You'll notice that they are all pretty expensive, I read somewhere else that this is because the cost for the licence to use the API is a lot of money and this forces up the pricing.

No, we do not provide this service for you - some poor sap does for free - and will not be doing so in the future.

Er, no they don't, except at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/.

Stations:

AbcdEfghIjklM (where A, E, I and M are major stations, jkl is the metropolitain area of I and M)

Services:
AbcdEfghIjklM (stopping service)
A---E---I---M (express service)
AbceEfghI---M (stopping to I, fast to M -- commuters from the countryside)
--------IjklM (suburban only service, since there is higher demand)
----E-------M (premium-price service to major airport, or similar)

I've more-or-less described the service between Brighton (A), Gatwick Airport (E), East Croydon (I) and London (M) (see here, although it won't be very interesting when it's nighttime in the UK). On a less busy route you might only have the first two services. On this route they're scheduled so you can often travel from c to E, say, then wait a couple of minutes to change to the fast train to M.

(I live in London.)

I visited Portsmouth a few weeks ago (it's good if you're interested in naval history, but there's not much else to see). The train takes 90 minutes from London. I think it's an additional 20-30 minutes to take the ferry to Ryde (put those places into here to see). That's easily day-trippable. I'd take my bicycle (free on both the train and the ferry).

The island is bigger than I thought though... Alum Bay (radio place) is 20 miles from Ryde. You could take the train to Lymington and a ferry to Yarmouth, about 3 hours, but that's no longer my idea of a day trip.

Is Bletchley Park easy to get to from London using public transport?

I haven't been (yet), but the website says it is. There seems to be a train every 15 minutes (check times and fares here) and the museum/park is opposite the station.

If you book longer-distance train journeys in advance you save loads of money, but you do have to take the specific train you booked. (e.g. a standard one-way ticket from London to Sheffield (170mi, 2hrs) is £20, book in advance and you've a good chance of paying just £5).

If you're any sort of transport geek, UK railways will be a delight for the mixture of ancient and modern, and the more changes the better.
For rail-only journeys, go to http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ and use the journey planner. This site also has fares (including very cheap advance ones), live train timing info and major incident info. It also has info about 'traintracker' which allows you to send an SMS such as 'dep nottingham to derby' and get a reply with the next few trains and any delay info. I use this all the time when out and about.

Don't forget the many 'heritage' railways (mostly steam, with some vintage diesel**) - although a lot of these have very restricted timetables (or no trains at all) in Winter. This site:
http://ukhrail.uel.ac.uk/
indexes them all.

The most convienient heritage railways have an interchange with the national railway network. Watch out for some rather disappointing ones which only go a couple of miles. Ten miles each way is a good journey on an HR since they are generally limited to 20mph (which is good - scenery etc.).

**The vintage diesels may be less photogenic, but often you can sit behind the driver and see out the front.

The Bluebell railway is best known abroad, but as a result it does get rather crowded and it is not currently connected to the National network, although they are working on it:
http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/ext/extprog.html

The Severn Valley Railway is delightful from just about every point of view (route, stations, locos, towns, length of ride, access from national rail network etc.). Take a look at this:
http://www.svr.co.uk/route.php

More convenient for London is the Mid-Hants railway (Watercress line) - just over an hour from London, direct.
http://www.watercressline.co.uk/qkguide.htm

Apologies to the other excellent HR's I didn't mention!

The UK has a good London - North train network. For about £10 - £15 you can get a ticket from London to Leeds and vice versa, and it only takes 2hrs.

That is a hugely optimistic best case scenario, both on the fare and the journey time. Maybe if you booked it months in advance, traveled at "super off peak" times, and stuck rigidly to the service you have booked you could get from London to Leeds for £15. But probably not. I've just priced the journey up on National Rail Enquiries and the walk-up non-advance fare is £84. Travel in peak times and that will go up to £134.

London and England are almost two different places (I'm a Brit who loves both). Depending on how long you're going, I'd recommend a day trip to England proper. Immediately west of London there is a lot of accessible, beautiful country side, villages and great pubs (it's a wealthy part of the country), and its easy to get to by train (although for those pubs a car is better). Winchester is a beautiful city and is about 1 1/4 hours by train, Windsor & Eton are more tourist orientated, but also beautiful places and even closer.

Train tickets and timetables: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

I'm not suggesting it for everywhere, just central London (I live in London, how anywhere else manages parking is up to the residents).

There are alternatives in London: everyone in Greater London, and pretty much the South East of England, can get to central London by public transport (railway lines in Greater London, and in South East England). Most people do -- even people that live in the middle of nowhere (relatively) would most likely drive (or cycle) to the nearest station. I just think it'd be nicer if the 0.5% of people that do drive, weren't allowed to (or had no reason to because they couldn't park).

There would be other benefits. It's awful when waiting on a jammed-up street in Soho to see an ambulance with lights and sirens take 10 minutes to just get along the road (they have medics on bicycles, but they can't carry much equipment). It's annoying that it also takes the buses 10 minutes to go down the street.

(Note -- I'm referring to the very centre of London, with the theatres, bars and nightclubs, and offices. There is more space, and less people, outside the centre, so parked cars are OK.)

There are plenty of possibilities, but the current mayor isn't going to support any of them as he's too conservative.

I'm not suggesting it for everywhere, just central London (I live in London, how anywhere else manages parking is up to the residents).

There are alternatives in London: everyone in Greater London, and pretty much the South East of England, can get to central London by public transport (railway lines in Greater London, and in South East England). Most people do -- even people that live in the middle of nowhere (relatively) would most likely drive (or cycle) to the nearest station. I just think it'd be nicer if the 0.5% of people that do drive, weren't allowed to (or had no reason to because they couldn't park).

There would be other benefits. It's awful when waiting on a jammed-up street in Soho to see an ambulance with lights and sirens take 10 minutes to just get along the road (they have medics on bicycles, but they can't carry much equipment). It's annoying that it also takes the buses 10 minutes to go down the street.

(Note -- I'm referring to the very centre of London, with the theatres, bars and nightclubs, and offices. There is more space, and less people, outside the centre, so parked cars are OK.)

There are plenty of possibilities, but the current mayor isn't going to support any of them as he's too conservative.

Off-topic: Live departure and arrival times for British trains -- type in a station, e.g. Clapham Junction. Then click "Details" for one of the listed trains, and you can see the times it passed through all the preceding stations on its route, and if it was late, and the predicted time it will arrive at the rest of the stations on its route (depending on why the train is delayed, it might make up the time). This is the same information as is displayed in the station (actually, more information). Also available by SMS, but at 25p a go it's a bit pricey.

In fact, there are 600-ish stations in London according to this map, including London Underground (subway), Docklands Light Railway, Croydon Tramlink and National Rail ('heavy rail', with 'proper' trains but still a very frequent service) [I counted 611 stations: the number of stations in the index, minus the number outside the pink shaded area, it should be about right].

In central and inner London you are usually within 5 minutes walk, perhaps 10. In outer London it's a bit more.

Depends on the website. If it is likely to be used by people on the go, then yes, I'd say it was worth it. E.g. TFL (Transport For London) have a reasonable site that can be used by people on GPRS enabled mobile phones with the limited browsers they contain. You can lookup schedules and the best route from location(a) to location(b) for your needs. Very handy when you're in London and don't know the system well or need to know estimates of when you'll get somewhere. (the address is http://www.tflwap.gov.uk/ for the mobile friendly site)

Same for the UK rail network (National Rail - http://mobile.nationalrail.co.uk/ ) and at least some of the train companies.

Various other companies have cut-down sites for mobile use, although I have seen a few really disappointing ones (british airways comes to mind)

If, however, the website is for, say, a company that sells cardboard boxes and only deals in bulk orders from other companies, then I'd say the usefulness of a mobile site would be rather less.

What is sorely needed is a standard place to look for mobile content. Every bloody place is different!

British Rail was the name used by the last nationalised rail network. Since the government sold off pretty much everything to private companies (with or without various unenforceable guarantees about service levels, etc.) there has been no such entity as British Rail.

Railtrack (alias Railcrack, railcrap, etc.) gave way to the current quasi-non-governmental organisation (Quango) called 'Network Rail'.

Network Rail STILL cannot work out the easiest route between Ryde Hoverport and Ryde Esplanade (Clue: Use the footbridge, the distance is fifty feet). If you'd like ask them yourself, enter the necessary details at Their journey planner page

While you are doing this, please spare a thought for those of us who have to use their service on a regular basis. Thanks.

You can get realtime info for British trains on the Internet here: www.nationalrail.co.uk.

It certainly is if you travel first class.

A quick search on National Rail shows the standard first class fare is 267.00 GBP (~ 491.55 USD)

FYI Other fares:

Saver Return (But has some travel restrictions) 87.10 UKP (~ 160.35 USD)

Standard Open Return 186.00 UKP (~342.43 USD)

Cheaper fares are available but are a pain in the ar^H^H^H^H^H^H to get.