whitequark changed the topic of #keepasschi to: channel moved to #ChiPass
<ellyq>
certified British experience
<lunemercove>
heard a lot about British rail from funny podcasters, but not this specific angle before
<whitequark>
the first train i needed to take, there were 2 trains on adjacent platforms going on the same route at the same time (they weren
<whitequark>
't supposed to be at the same time but one service got delayed like 40 minutes)
<whitequark>
i picked the wrong one and had to buy a new ticket because it was run by a different train operating company than what my ticket (open return with 3 forward legs) stated
<sam_>
real british experience
<sam_>
and welcome!
<whitequark>
the second leg was cancelled in a way where the third leg was basically unachievable
<whitequark>
and also in a manner where two of the timetables i was using did not agree on whether the train is cancelled or not
<ellyq>
when I lived in UK and had to take Northern from Sheffield to Leeds, train attendants crammed us like sardines because previous train that was supposed to come broke down
<whitequark>
apparently this happens because there are two sources of truth for "where is the fucking train and is it fucking coming" and one of them (the less accurate one) carries a licensing requirement that if your website shows the data from this source at all, it must be the only source used
<whitequark>
ellyq: yes this happens basically every time i go anywhere
<whitequark>
anyway i ended up digging through realtimetrains' timetable (the only timetable that shows headcodes for trains! you know, an identifier, for a specific service, that isn't incorporating an arrival time that is basically guaranteed to be inaccurate because the train probably got delayed)
<whitequark>
until i found a train that replaces the two legs i was supposed to use. the ticketing system is apparently built to handle this even if you buy an advance ticket for a specific service. because they break down so often.
<whitequark>
the journey back was two legs and the second one got delayed like 40 minutes. on top of needing 30 minutes for a very popular layover
<whitequark>
you might also enjoy learning that train headcodes do not uniquely identify a specific train
<ellyq>
wat
<whitequark>
they don't show citizens headcodes (because this is considered "too confusing", an utterly delirious assertion; an average british traingoer has a basketball-sized cerebellum already from having to work around daily train breakdowns without being late all the time), and they especially don't show citizens the actually-unique primary key for trains or services
<whitequark>
imagine if you were trying to get from city A to city B using enterprise ERP software built in late 1990s. this is how it feels to use this system regularly
<whitequark>
it has brought me to tears too many times to count
<whitequark>
one time i was accompanying a friend to the airport and a train took off the platform and then stopped like 15 meters in because the signaling equipment broke down. and then we all sat there for something like 2 hours straight
<whitequark>
longer than the total duration of the journey