Booking Bikes on Virgin - Easy

in message , Richard
') wrote:

"Simon Brooke" wrote in message
...
Why do people refer to case study (n=1) rather than useful
statistics (n=10000s).

Because I don't make tens of thousands of journeys, and I'm not tens
of thousands of people. I know that *every* time I've been on a
Virgin train (that's right, 100% score, no exceptions) in the last
five years they have ****ed up very badly, with an average delay per
journey in excess of 90 minutes (yes, that's an hour and a half) and
an average standing time per journey (yes, I've always pre-booked a
first class seat) of over an hour. I conclude from this that they are
not even nearly competent to run a railway.

If you care to tell us how many journeys you've made, I'll work out
just how unlucky you've been.

Ten. All of them Carlisle to London or the reverse. And none of those in
the past three years. My partner has made eight, with a similar 100%
record of non-service. Neither of us will use Virgin again. It's
possible that Virgin are now improving, but I won't be going back.

In the same period I've made roughly the same number of journeys on the
ScotRail sleeper, with no complaints at all.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

'You cannot put "The Internet" into the Recycle Bin.'

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 21:24:29 +0100, "[Not Responding]"
wrote:

A cycling Q: what's this Winnat's Pass like? I have no intention of
riding across all those contour lines but it might be on the agenda
for those of the stag party who are not nursing injuries. I'll have
almost doubled my in year mileage if I make the 5 miles from home to
the station.

OK, I'm posting from uk.railway - but I think I can answer that one in
two words - *bloody* steep - and that was in a car, not cycling.

A quick Google will bring up some pictures to give you an idea.

Neil


I'll second that. Its bad enough to walk up, so cycling must be even worse!
Another route you may wish to take is up to Lose Hill then carry on to Mam
Tor, where you can double back on the road and come down Winnets Pass. That
is I presume you're starting off somewhere around Castleton.

Hope that helps,
Jimbo.

"Simon Brooke" wrote in message
...
Why do people refer to case study (n=1) rather than useful statistics
(n=10000s).

Because I don't make tens of thousands of journeys, and I'm not tens of
thousands of people. I know that *every* time I've been on a Virgin
train (that's right, 100% score, no exceptions) in the last five years
they have ****ed up very badly, with an average delay per journey in
excess of 90 minutes (yes, that's an hour and a half) and an average
standing time per journey (yes, I've always pre-booked a first class
seat) of over an hour. I conclude from this that they are not even
nearly competent to run a railway.

If you care to tell us how many journeys you've made, I'll work out just how
unlucky you've been.

FWIW I travel with Virgin regularly and they have their share of cock-ups.
Probably about 15% of more than 10mins delay. Wow, that's just what the
stats say.

Strange some individuals seem to have such appalling records...

"Simon Brooke" wrote in message
...
Which translates to 20% of trains fail to arrive within even 10
minutes of the scheduled time. So on a multiple carrier journey with
nominal 15 minute connections, 20% of the time a given user will fail
to complete the journey. By missing their connection they may be
delayed further.

Bad maths. 20% will fail to make connection 1. of the 80% who make
connection 1, 20% will fail to make connection 2. So by the third train
only 64% of the original passengers will still have made their
connections, and by the fourth only just over half.

The bad maths is worse than that. With 15 minute connections, 100% of users
will complete the journey.

Most on the following connection, a few by taxi.

Richard

"Simon Brooke" wrote in message
...
Which translates to 20% of trains fail to arrive within even 10
minutes of the scheduled time. So on a multiple carrier journey with
nominal 15 minute connections, 20% of the time a given user will fail
to complete the journey. By missing their connection they may be
delayed further.

Bad maths. 20% will fail to make connection 1. of the 80% who make
connection 1, 20% will fail to make connection 2. So by the third train
only 64% of the original passengers will still have made their
connections, and by the fourth only just over half.

Not quite.

1 change:
80% arrive within 10 minutes, all make connection with at least 5mins to
wander over.

Of the 20% who are late, 20% will be meeting a delayed train.

Hence 84% will be on their planned train.

It is not correct to say that therefore 80% of 84% will arrive on time
(67.2%) but it will not be far off, due to the tendency of some trains to
make up time en-route and others to become delayed.

Thus the number arriving on time will be greater than 64%.

[Not Responding] wrote:


Final rail Q: Having not travelled with VT before, can I expect to get
grub?

IF the buffet thing is open, it's the usual selection of sarnies,
American muffins, wine in 1/3 bottles, beer, cookies. The sarnies are
quite edible. Everything is hugely expensive.

A cycling Q: what's this Winnat's Pass like? I have no intention of
riding across all those contour lines but it might be on the agenda
for those of the stag party who are not nursing injuries.

Hahahahahhaha ;-)

Very unpleasant to cycle up during the day. The road is v. narrow, and
cars don't give you enough room as they don't want to stall driving up
the slope, bless them. And it's a little bit steep.

What's far more interesting is to take the old road across the face of
Mam Tor. It's closed to vehicles, on account of the surface not being
terribly flat ;-), and is beautifully quiet. Those with full road bikes
may need to walk them over a few steps but otherwise it's perfectly
passable. Then you can cycle DOWN the Winnats at ridiculous speeds.
Watch for the one-car-wide cattle grid at the bottom with Very Big Gaps.

Good place to eat: the Castle, in Castleton (or any of the pubs, really).

JohnB of The trikeshed is full wrote:

"[Not Responding]" wrote:
Final rail Q: Having not travelled with VT before, can I expect to get
grub?

Of course. The buffet is open between Poole and Southampton, but only
when the train starts in Reading. It will also close 10 minutes before
you leave your seat due to staff shortages ;-(

And always closes before Birmingham and re-opens after for a staff change.
Also expect to sit at Birmingham New Street for 15 minutes (scheduled time,
but often a lot longer in reality) if you have no change there.
--
Atheists have no invisible means of support.
Steph Peters delete invalid from lid
Tatting, lace & stitching page http://www.sandbenders.demon.co.uk/index.htm

Mike Ellwood of Healthy Skeptics wrote:

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004, Richard wrote:

Why do people refer to case study (n=1) rather than useful statistics
(n=10000s).

Rather more than n=1. Every single one of his return journeys between
Oxford and either Sheffield or Manchester in the period 2000-2004 suffered
a delay or cancellation, on at least the outward or return phase,
sometimes both, often serious delays. That's a 100% failure rate in the
perception of one young passenger, with a lifetime of journeys ahead of
him, none of which will now be made on Virgin thanks very much, or
probably not UK rail at all.
There does seem to be a problem with this particular line's reliability. I
did Manchester to Basingstoke return once a month for two years. The
morning train from Manchester was fine, I always caught my connection on
from Basingstoke even though it left only 12 minutes after the Manchester
train was scheduled to arrive. But the return journey in mid or late
afternoon to mid or late evening was an hour or more late about 3 times in
4, and never ever on time. I complained in writing and got a travel voucher
which I used on the next journey. I think I only ever paid the full fare
twice!
--
Atheists have no invisible means of support.
Steph Peters delete invalid from lid
Tatting, lace & stitching page http://www.sandbenders.demon.co.uk/index.htm

Richard wrote:


Why do people refer to case study (n=1) rather than useful statistics
(n=10000s).

somewhere aroundabout 80% of trains arrive at their destination within 10
minutes of the scheduled time.


The Japanese railways average 6 seconds late.

Tony

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 09:11:49 +0100, Tony Raven
wrote:

[Not Responding] wrote:

Bugger. Didn't think of that; I've just bought a first open return. I
suppose it would have only partially worked as I'm travelling up on
Friday.


food is available and (b) if it is, how I get hold of it. I think I
can assume there isn't a dining car.


In First they have a steward who will serve you sandwiches, coffee, tea
etc. at your seat. Unless they have run out or find they have out of
date sandwiches in which case you can get them from the shop free if you
show your First Class ticket.

Tony

I have an ambition; to eat sufficient complementary food to make up
the difference in cost between std and FC tickets.

With coffee costing upwards of £1.20 a cup, I don't think this is an
impossible aim.