On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 13:28:20 +0000 (UTC), Stephen Osborn
wrote:

Every can of beans / newspaper / magazine / item of clothing / etc you
buy is individually priced and you cope with that don't you.

Yes, but there is enough room in your average shop for all these items
to be out on display. With a probable average of, say, 5 or 6 ticket
types per relation (which would be N(N-1) where N is the number of
stations on the national system, or on LUL, as applicable), that ain't
practical. Even in the days of Edmondson (sp?) tickets, there was
duplication - I have somewhere a ticket from Liverpool Central to "any
station bounded by Rainford, Aughton Park or Formby" (or something
like that).

2. AFAIK, the reason, AFAIK, that fares structure takes 7 volumes or
whatever and it takes an age to buy a ticket is that BR had made
thousands of special terminal in the 1970s and these are what are still
being used by counter staff today. The memory capacity of these is very
limited indeed.

The complexity of the fares structure has nothing to do with the
machines which issue it, which as it happens are largely in the
process of being replaced with machines which do "know" the entire
fares structure.

A modern box (probably running Linux and with a cheap 80-120GB hard
drive) could easily cope with all of the data and spit out the cheapest
or quickest option in a fraction of a second. With a decent UI[*] that
is what the passenger accessible machines would have as well.

The cheapest/quickest *single* ticket, yes (where I mean one ticket,
not just a one-way). The number of possible fares *combinations* is
staggering, and because the fares system (if you'd call it that) is so
badly broken, it is necessary to investigate these for best value.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
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