Rail callers 'get wrong answers'

"LarryLard" <larrylard@m> wrote in message
news:cd173062.0408050845.39bf08f3@c om...
>
> ObRailway: I've got a Saver Return from London to Dumfries. Can I stop
> off at Cambridge on the way home, and, if so, where would I have to
> change?
>
They certainly found a *complicated* Routeing Guide question. Assuming that
routes via Kilmarnock are excluded by the fares rule, routeing point
Carlisle to London has 18 maps/map combinations, 7 of which include map ER
which permits routes via Cambridge. Without doing a full analysis, the
answer is yes, and one route would involve changing at Carlisle, Leeds and
Peterborough to get to Cambridge. You could then get a direct train from
Cambridge to either London Kings Cross or London Liverpool Street.

Peter

In message <ceu16q$ca2$1@titan.>, at 19:18:51 on Thu, 5
Aug 2004, Peter Masson <Peter.Masson1@> remarked:
>> ObRailway: I've got a Saver Return from London to Dumfries. Can I stop
>> off at Cambridge on the way home, and, if so, where would I have to
>> change?
>>
>They certainly found a *complicated* Routeing Guide question.

It seems to me that they were asking a question that would show up the
difference between someone doing the job entirely by rote, and someone
with a little experience. The latter would know you are permitted to do
Peterborough to London via either Huntingdon or Cambridge, and from that
it shouldn't be too difficult to determine whether or not that same
loop-choice is available for stations north of Peterborough. (Obviously
it ought to, because one could break the ticketing at Peterborough, but
the routing guide isn't always logical).

And as for knowing where to change if travelling Dumfries to
Peterborough, then once again that's experience (or trivial with a route
planner, which shows that just one change at Newcastle is possible, but
Carlisle and Newcastle is more common).
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote in message
news:+eAbZuylHpEBFAYI@donald.internetpolicynews.co .uk...
> In message <ceu16q$ca2$1@titan.>, at 19:18:51 on Thu, 5
> Aug 2004, Peter Masson <Peter.Masson1@> remarked:
> >> ObRailway: I've got a Saver Return from London to Dumfries. Can I stop
> >> off at Cambridge on the way home, and, if so, where would I have to
> >> change?
> >>
> >They certainly found a *complicated* Routeing Guide question.
>
> It seems to me that they were asking a question that would show up the
> difference between someone doing the job entirely by rote, and someone
> with a little experience. The latter would know you are permitted to do
> Peterborough to London via either Huntingdon or Cambridge, and from that
> it shouldn't be too difficult to determine whether or not that same
> loop-choice is available for stations north of Peterborough. (Obviously
> it ought to, because one could break the ticketing at Peterborough, but
> the routing guide isn't always logical).
>
> And as for knowing where to change if travelling Dumfries to
> Peterborough, then once again that's experience (or trivial with a route
> planner, which shows that just one change at Newcastle is possible, but
> Carlisle and Newcastle is more common).

But is Newcastle and Cambridge a valid route from Carlisle to London?
Peter