On Jun 9, 4:39*pm, "Nick P"
wrote:
With all the talk and threats of a strike many more people (like myself) are
checking the TfL Journey Planner for alternative routes to get to work. It's
just taken 3 minutes to get an answer from the website and that was simply
to be asked which version of Chingford I wanted (out of 17).

Why didn't TfL predict this demand and host the planner on more servers this
week?
They must be aware that people want emergency travel info and that the site
crashed in June 2005 for the same reasons.


I'm sure capacity has been upped, but TfL are not Google. Masses of
people all trying to query their journey planner an hour before the
strike starts (at 7pm) is likely to lead to it all jamming up. Try
later on.

If you just want train times, then the National Rail website, or this
rather useful unofficial site that drags its data directly from the NR
journey planner database and cleanly presents it on basic web pages:
http://traintimes.org.uk/

Otherwise you could always try asking in the uk.transport.london
newsgroup.

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On Jun 9, 4:39 pm, "Nick P"
wrote:
With all the talk and threats of a strike many more people (like myself)
are
checking the TfL Journey Planner for alternative routes to get to work.
It's
just taken 3 minutes to get an answer from the website and that was simply
to be asked which version of Chingford I wanted (out of 17).

Why didn't TfL predict this demand and host the planner on more servers
this
week?
They must be aware that people want emergency travel info and that the
site
crashed in June 2005 for the same reasons.


I'm sure capacity has been upped, but TfL are not Google. Masses of
people all trying to query their journey planner an hour before the
strike starts (at 7pm) is likely to lead to it all jamming up. Try
later on.

If you just want train times, then the National Rail website, or this
rather useful unofficial site that drags its data directly from the NR
journey planner database and cleanly presents it on basic web pages:
http://traintimes.org.uk/

Otherwise you could always try asking in the uk.transport.london
newsgroup.

Have you tried calling them on 02072221234?

On Jun 9, 2:10*pm, wrote:
"Mizter T" wrote in message

...

On Jun 9, 4:39 pm, "Nick P"
wrote:

With all the talk and threats of a strike many more people (like myself)
are
checking the TfL Journey Planner for alternative routes to get to work.
It's
just taken 3 minutes to get an answer from the website and that was simply
to be asked which version of Chingford I wanted (out of 17).

Why didn't TfL predict this demand and host the planner on more servers
this
week?
They must be aware that people want emergency travel info and that the
site
crashed in June 2005 for the same reasons.

I'm sure capacity has been upped, but TfL are not Google. Masses of
people all trying to query their journey planner an hour before the
strike starts (at 7pm) is likely to lead to it all jamming up. Try
later on.

If you just want train times, then the National Rail website, or this
rather useful unofficial site that drags its data directly from the NR
journey planner database and cleanly presents it on basic web pages:
http://traintimes.org.uk/

Otherwise you could always try asking in the uk.transport.london
newsgroup.

Have you tried calling them on 02072221234?

From what I have seen the guys at TfL have done a fantastic job
updating all londoners with helpful travel information. You have to
remember that this is a site that everyone uses not only on strike
days but on a normal day too. I can guess that the web traffic spiked
to new levels durning the last few days, and I for one agree with the
post above that TfL are not Google however they do use technology that
spans across many many servers.

Any site would struggle when you have 10Million visitors to it on any
given day!

Well done TfL and a tut tut to those who this TfL have not done a
great job!

On Jun 12, 9:35*am, webtrendz
wrote:
From what I have seen the guys at TfL have done a fantastic job
updating all londoners with helpful travel information.

Is this the same TfL who told londonders that "all National Rail"
services would take Oyster PAYG, when people I know have had penalty
fares when they tried to do this for a fairly reasonable route?

--
Abi

On Jun 12, 10:14*am, Abigail Brady wrote:
On Jun 12, 9:35*am, webtrendz
wrote:

From what I have seen the guys at TfL have done a fantastic job
updating all londoners with helpful travel information.

Is this the same TfL who told londonders that "all National Rail"
services would take Oyster PAYG, when people I know have had penalty
fares when they tried to do this for a fairly reasonable route?


They actually got issued Penalty Fares, yes? If so I'm surprised - I
didn't think any TOC would have the brass balls to do that on the
strike days given the information that came from TfL (yes, yes - it
increasingly looks like it's TfL who had the brass balls to interpret
the agreement in such a broad manner - but from the passenger's POV
that's largely irrelevant).

I trust they'll contest them - I can't really see a *single* PF issued
by TOCs in London (for London journeys) on Wednesday or Thursday
standing up (at least not if the person had an Oyster card).

On Jun 12, 10:44*am, Mizter T wrote:
They actually got issued Penalty Fares, yes?

Yes. It is a bit shocking. I mean, saying "actually, this isn't
valid and TfL lied to you, but seeing as it would cause really
terrible PR, I'll let you off", that's one thing. Twenty quid fine,
that's another thing.

I trust they'll contest them - I can't really see a *single* PF issued
by TOCs in London (for London journeys) on Wednesday or Thursday
standing up (at least not if the person had an Oyster card).

I think this is being done.

--
Abi

On Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:13:38 -0700 (PDT), Abigail Brady
wrote:

On Jun 12, 10:44*am, Mizter T wrote:
They actually got issued Penalty Fares, yes?

Yes. It is a bit shocking. I mean, saying "actually, this isn't
valid and TfL lied to you, but seeing as it would cause really
terrible PR, I'll let you off", that's one thing. Twenty quid fine,
that's another thing.

It isn't a fine, it is a penalty fare; IANAL but TfL might have made
themselves liable to refund it to you themselves if they instructed
Oyster Card holders to use another organisation's service on which the
cards aren't actually valid. (see also "blood" and "stone")

I trust they'll contest them - I can't really see a *single* PF issued
by TOCs in London (for London journeys) on Wednesday or Thursday
standing up (at least not if the person had an Oyster card).

I think this is being done.

On Jun 13, 3:53 am, Charles Ellson wrote:
It isn't a fine, it is a penalty fare

I know there is a technical difference between statutory fines and
penalty fares, but that doesn't make a penalty fare not a fine in the
non-technical use of the world.

--
Abi

If you just want train times, then the National Rail website, or this
rather useful unofficial site that drags its data directly from the NR
journey planner database and cleanly presents it on basic web pages:
http://traintimes.org.uk/

I've found the best site for uk train times is German Railways!
http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

(It works for journeys all across Europe, as well as UK mainline
suburban and commuter services. Apparently it would take 67 hours and
3 minutes to travel from Moscow to Lisbon)


Peter

In message
, at
00:41:18 on Mon, 15 Jun 2009, peter remarked:
Apparently it would take 67 hours and 3 minutes to travel from Moscow
to Lisbon)

No wonder people take the plane!!

But joking apart, I did consider going to Lisbon by train, thinking it
wasn't that much further than the south of France, but it's almost 24hrs
from Paris, change Irun (where's that??)
--
Roland Perry