On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:33:21 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
It is not widely known that, while the rest of the Civil Service is
headed by people from many universities, the Treasury is almost wholly
Oxbridge.

Doesn't surprise me. Most of the chinless wonders seem to float to the top.
I wonder if any of them actually have economics or maths degrees or its
just a swathe of useless liberal arts degrees.

--
Spud

On 26/04/2014 11:37, wrote:

Surely it's time that train operators were required to offer passengers the
cheapest fares, allowing for options like this and have done with it?

Because only tight-fisted anoraks would do (say) Cambridge - London via
Ipswich, splitting tickets at every halt, arriving a fortnight on
Tuesday but saving 5p on the direct train which is just about to depart.
But somebody somewhere would no doubt complain if the ticket clerk
didn't do the calculations at 7.30am on a Monday.

Selling the cheapest A-Z ticket is a lot easier than than crunching
through every intermediate option vis B, C, D etc.

Why
should only those good at gaming the system benefit?

So we get some benefit from our anorakdom?

It's overcharging by
stealth which shouldn't be allowed.

I think people should be very careful what they wish for - eg would we
happy to lose "any reasonable" route in its fossilised "any permitted"
form in favour of tightly nailed-downing routings, which might be likely
to follow any crackdown on the ability to save by splitting tickets?
Would we want the industry to lose the ability to fiddle around with
fares to try to grow specific markets?


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On 26/04/2014 18:47, d wrote:
On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:33:21 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
It is not widely known that, while the rest of the Civil Service is
headed by people from many universities, the Treasury is almost wholly
Oxbridge.

Doesn't surprise me. Most of the chinless wonders seem to float to the top.
I wonder if any of them actually have economics or maths degrees or its
just a swathe of useless liberal arts degrees.

--
Spud

Hey! My degree was in European Studies, then again it was from UEA.
Unsurprisingly, my destiny was the blackboard jungle.

--
Myth, after all, is what we believe naturally. History is what we must
painfully learn and struggle to remember. -Albert Goldman

In message , at
21:18:38 on Sat, 26 Apr 2014, Arthur Figgis
remarked:
Surely it's time that train operators were required to offer passengers the
cheapest fares, allowing for options like this and have done with it?

Because only tight-fisted anoraks would do (say) Cambridge - London via
Ipswich, splitting tickets at every halt, arriving a fortnight on
Tuesday but saving 5p on the direct train which is just about to
depart. But somebody somewhere would no doubt complain if the ticket
clerk didn't do the calculations at 7.30am on a Monday.

Selling the cheapest A-Z ticket is a lot easier than than crunching
through every intermediate option vis B, C, D etc.

But the splits are often "obvious". If the passenger is getting a train
on a 1tph route, and has asked to leave at (say) 8.30am [they are likely
to have been asked this already] then splitting the tickets peak/offpeak
at a station a little over half an hour away is pretty straightforward.

I think people should be very careful what they wish for - eg would we
happy to lose "any reasonable" route in its fossilised "any permitted"
form in favour of tightly nailed-downing routings, which might be
likely to follow any crackdown on the ability to save by splitting
tickets?

While splitting tickets does nail down one of the points en-route, it
doesn't always introduce a routing inflexibility. From Great Anglia
territory, for example, all "not London" route to the Midlands and
beyond go via Peterborough. So splitting tickets there is not going to
be a problem.

Would we want the industry to lose the ability to fiddle around with
fares to try to grow specific markets?

That's a more significant issue, although sometimes these "specific
markets" don't seem to make a lot so sense. For example from Cambridge
to Birmingham by XC there's often a draught of AP tickets, but splitting
them at Peterborough then releases a pair of tickets on the self same
train, Cambridge to Peterborough, then Peterborough-Birmingham.
--
Roland Perry

On Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:25:37 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
On 26/04/2014 18:47, d wrote:
On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:33:21 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
It is not widely known that, while the rest of the Civil Service is
headed by people from many universities, the Treasury is almost wholly
Oxbridge.

Doesn't surprise me. Most of the chinless wonders seem to float to the top.
I wonder if any of them actually have economics or maths degrees or its
just a swathe of useless liberal arts degrees.

--
Spud

Hey! My degree was in European Studies, then again it was from UEA.

I visited UEA once. Actually seemed like a nice place to me, don't know why
people slag it off. European studies? Oh well, someone has to I suppose.

--
Spud

wrote in message
news
On Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:25:37 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
On 26/04/2014 18:47, d wrote:
On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:33:21 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
It is not widely known that, while the rest of the Civil Service is
headed by people from many universities, the Treasury is almost wholly
Oxbridge.

Doesn't surprise me. Most of the chinless wonders seem to float to the
top.
I wonder if any of them actually have economics or maths degrees or its
just a swathe of useless liberal arts degrees.

--
Spud

Hey! My degree was in European Studies, then again it was from UEA.

I visited UEA once. Actually seemed like a nice place to me, don't know
why
people slag it off. European studies? Oh well, someone has to I suppose.

Wasn't it one of those places that got a bad rep for attracting "radicals"

tim

On 27/04/2014 10:39, d wrote:
On Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:25:37 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
On 26/04/2014 18:47, d wrote:
On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:33:21 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
It is not widely known that, while the rest of the Civil Service is
headed by people from many universities, the Treasury is almost wholly
Oxbridge.

Doesn't surprise me. Most of the chinless wonders seem to float to the top.
I wonder if any of them actually have economics or maths degrees or its
just a swathe of useless liberal arts degrees.

--
Spud

Hey! My degree was in European Studies, then again it was from UEA.

I visited UEA once. Actually seemed like a nice place to me, don't know why
people slag it off. European studies? Oh well, someone has to I suppose.

--
Spud


They've changed the system now. It has faculties, not schools of studies.

--
Myth, after all, is what we believe naturally. History is what we must
painfully learn and struggle to remember. -Albert Goldman

On 27/04/2014 14:34, tim..... wrote:


wrote in message
news
On Sun, 27 Apr 2014 07:25:37 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
On 26/04/2014 18:47, d wrote:
On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:33:21 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
It is not widely known that, while the rest of the Civil Service is
headed by people from many universities, the Treasury is almost wholly
Oxbridge.

Doesn't surprise me. Most of the chinless wonders seem to float to
the top.
I wonder if any of them actually have economics or maths degrees or its
just a swathe of useless liberal arts degrees.

--
Spud

Hey! My degree was in European Studies, then again it was from UEA.

I visited UEA once. Actually seemed like a nice place to me, don't
know why
people slag it off. European studies? Oh well, someone has to I suppose.

Wasn't it one of those places that got a bad rep for attracting "radicals"

tim


A bit, but Essex was the main one. Socially it was dominated by alumni
of the minor public schools.

--
Myth, after all, is what we believe naturally. History is what we must
painfully learn and struggle to remember. -Albert Goldman

On 2014-04-26 18:47, d wrote:
On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:33:21 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
It is not widely known that, while the rest of the Civil Service is
headed by people from many universities, the Treasury is almost wholly
Oxbridge.

Doesn't surprise me. Most of the chinless wonders seem to float to the top.

Patronage and nepotism.

I wonder if any of them actually have economics or maths degrees or its
just a swathe of useless liberal arts degrees.

It doesn't much matter, it's only a jobclub for the aristocracy's
surplus offspring. (See also banks, BBC.)

All of the recent studies summarised in these links are also relevant to
the UK despite their apparent US slant:

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10181.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...american-dream

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...concludes.html

On 28/04/2014 07:41, Hils wrote:
On 2014-04-26 18:47, d wrote:
On Sat, 26 Apr 2014 07:33:21 +0100
Martin Edwards wrote:
It is not widely known that, while the rest of the Civil Service is
headed by people from many universities, the Treasury is almost wholly
Oxbridge.

Doesn't surprise me. Most of the chinless wonders seem to float to the top.

Patronage and nepotism.

I wonder if any of them actually have economics or maths degrees or its
just a swathe of useless liberal arts degrees.

It doesn't much matter, it's only a jobclub for the aristocracy's
surplus offspring. (See also banks, BBC.)


What's it like living in 1910?


--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail