GNER

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 19:45:12 +0100 someone who may be Not Responding
<[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

Lots of changes at GNER, I see from their site when visiting in a failed
attempt to confirm the existance of alledged button.

BAD: Banning smoking.

They kept allowing smoking for far too long in my view. In
particular it was foolish for them to include half a coach with a
special area for these addicts in their refurbished trains and then
change policy most of the way through the refurbishment programme.

According to the figures in the press release the case is strong
http://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/PressCentre/PressReleases05/WE’RE+GIVING+UP+SMOKING+FROM+MONDAY.htm

"TRAIN operator GNER is reminding passengers that it is to withdraw
smoking provision on its trains from Monday, 29 August.

"The move is in direct response to passenger wishes, and follows
research which showed that more than 90 per cent of GNER passengers
do not smoke, and that most wanted smoking on trains to be
abolished.

"Customer complaints about smoking have also risen by 172 per cent
over the past two years, with many saying that smoking on trains
could act as a deterrent to travel."

I was more sympathetic to these addicts once, but a fair proportion
consistently failed to extinguish their drugs when passing through
clean areas. As a result my views hardened.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

Not Responding said:

Lots of changes at GNER, I see from their site when visiting in a failed
attempt to confirm the existance of alledged button.

BAD: Banning smoking.

I won't be crying about that. And since you won't be able to smoke in
confined public places up here in the civilised end of the country from
next March in any case I wonder if they'd have been able to allow it
north of the border in any case.

I'll respect people's right to smoke as long as they'll respect mine not
to passively do the same. There's a remarkable amount of overspill from
smoking carriages IME.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Not Responding said:

According to the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, GNER is adding bike
booking to their online forms.

Lots of changes at GNER, I see from their site when visiting in a failed
attempt to confirm the existance of alledged button.

BAD: Banning smoking.
BAD: Stopping Leisure First tickets
GOOD: Bike booking (if for real)
GOOD: Discounted single tickets.

FWIW SWMBO and I took our bikes from Stevenage to Newcastle (and back
from Edinburgh) recently, and GNER were excellent. I easily booked the
bikes over the phone, and the platform and train staff were all very
helpful.

Just thought I'd give them their dues.

As for the smoking, I'm a typical ex-smoker, although SWMBO still has
the odd Silk Cut (and runs marathons...!). I'd defend anyone's right to
smoke, as long as it doesn't inconvenience others. I think smoking on
trains /does/ inconvenience others, and think the ban is a good idea.

--
jc

Remove the -not from email

The form does indeed exist - see
http://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/YourJourney/cycles+on+gner.htm

Would be interested to hear from anyone who uses it how well it works.

My main beef with GNER is that the bike storage is at the first class
end. Not generally having the wherewithal to travel first, I have to
trudge through the train with my panniers, generally annoying myself
and all the porky businesspeople. The solution I propose is to give all
cyclists a first class upgrade :-)

Totally agree with everyone who disagreed with the trolly remark about
smoking.

Simon

Not Responding said:

According to the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, GNER is adding bike
booking to their online forms.

Lots of changes at GNER, I see from their site when visiting in a failed
attempt to confirm the existance of alledged button.

BAD: Banning smoking.

Yeah right. Even smokers hate smoking carriages and, given the choice,
only pop in occasionally for a [censored].

James

Peter Clinch said:

Not Responding said:

Lots of changes at GNER, I see from their site when visiting in a
failed attempt to confirm the existance of alledged button.

BAD: Banning smoking.

I'll respect people's right to smoke as long as they'll respect mine not
to passively do the same. There's a remarkable amount of overspill from
smoking carriages IME.

Not just overspill. On the standard HST trainset the smoking carriage
was B. Carriage A was non-smoking and was usually mostly unreserved and
so a suitable choice if you just turned up. However, to get to G for a
coffee one had to walk the length of B, not at all pleasant on a busy
service.

Colin

Colin Blackburn said:

Not just overspill. On the standard HST trainset the smoking carriage
was B. Carriage A was non-smoking and was usually mostly unreserved and
so a suitable choice if you just turned up. However, to get to G for a
coffee one had to walk the length of B, not at all pleasant on a busy
service.

Carriage A is still often good to aim for: it can have ample spare
seating when the middle of the train is overcrowded and has people
standing and perched on suitcases. I tend to head for it if there's
any question of space being short. That configuration was such an
improvement on the earlier half-of-each-carriage-a-smoker I felt
quite happy with it. A technique that worked well for getting
through the smoking carriage was: wait 'til the aisle is clear,
take a deep breath, close the eyes, and walk fast.

Now the big nuisance is bloody personal stereos. Why can't we have
carriages free of them? I'd happily take the prat on the phone, the
screaming kids, the barking dogs, the beery yoofs, as a small price
to pay for freedom from that infernal noise!

--
Not me guv

Not Responding said:

According to the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, GNER is adding bike
booking to their online forms.

Lots of changes at GNER, I see from their site when visiting in a failed
attempt to confirm the existance of alledged button.

BAD: Banning smoking.

"Smokers are jokers !" - Todd Flanders.

Nick Kew <[email hidden]>typed

Pssshhh... dudud dud dah-dah-dah, Pssshhh... dudud dud dah-dah-dah,
Pssshhh... dudud dud dah-dah-dah, Pssshhh... dudud dud dah-dah-dah,
Pssshhh... dudud dud dah-dah-dah...

Quoted message said:

Now the big nuisance is bloody personal stereos. Why can't we have
carriages free of them? I'd happily take the prat on the phone, the
screaming kids, the barking dogs, the beery yoofs, as a small price
to pay for freedom from that infernal noise!

Ummm... Isn't Coach D designated a 'quiet coach' on GNER? Supposedly
nothing that makes a noise; supposedly...

It might not be Coach D, but I'm sure one of the coaches is so
designated. I'm not convinced it *is* actually quiet though.

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

James Annan said:

Not Responding said:

According to the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, GNER is adding bike
booking to their online forms.

Lots of changes at GNER, I see from their site when visiting in a failed
attempt to confirm the existance of alledged button.

BAD: Banning smoking.

Yeah right. Even smokers hate smoking carriages and, given the choice,
only pop in occasionally for a [censored].

I used to do gricer railtours a lot. Because most gricers didn't smoke
or at least sit in a smoking coach the whole train was non smoking
except one coach. It was /really/ bad in there.

Quoted message said:

The form does indeed exist - see
http://www.gner.co.uk/GNER/YourJourney/cycles+on+gner.htm

Would be interested to hear from anyone who uses it how well it works.

I'll be interested too. It looks like a form in which you send a
request to them and they get back to you 'within 24h'.

It's still far inferior to live online booking of bike places which
seems to have been unavailable since 'The Trainline' got rid of that
option.

Having said that, I too have had generally good experiences taking
bikes on GNER and I assume this is an attempt to makes things a bit
easier for cyclists (perhaps in defiance of whoever they contract to do
their online live ticketing).

...Echo the points about the smoking ban...at last!......

Paul

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 17:39:54 +0100 someone who may be Helen Deborah
Vecht <[email hidden]> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

Ummm... Isn't Coach D designated a 'quiet coach' on GNER? Supposedly
nothing that makes a noise; supposedly...

Except for the increasingly long announcements.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.

David Hansen said:

Except for the increasingly long announcements.

And the prats who can neither read, nor understand the long
announcements which quite clearly say "DO NOT USE NOISY EQUIPMENT IN
THIS CARRIAGE"!

I have been known to listen to music in carriage D, but always at a
volume low enough to not spill. And I have once asked someone to tell me
if they can hear my music. It takes so little effort to not [censored] people
off that I find it hard to understand why so many are incapable.

Jon

Quoted message said:

Having said that, I too have had generally good experiences taking
bikes on GNER and I assume this is an attempt to makes things a bit
easier for cyclists (perhaps in defiance of whoever they contract to do
their online live ticketing).

If you don't mind the grief of having to speak to someone (Not as
convenient I know) I recently discovered that GNER can book bikes over
the phone, at any point prior to departure (AFAICT). This saved me no
end of grief on a recent journey.

Jon

Jon Senior said:

It takes so little effort to not [censored]
people off that I find it hard to understand why so many are
incapable.

I admit I once turned my iPod up loud enough to be heard on a journey to
Cardiff (for an Audax, to keep it on topic). But only to cover the noise of
the person next to me crunching packet after packet of crisps!

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 19:45:12 +0100,

Not Responding said:

According to the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, GNER is adding bike
booking to their online forms.

Lots of changes at GNER, I see from their site when visiting in a failed
attempt to confirm the existance of alledged button.

I've just booked a ticket through their new website. Either I got
unlucky or the final "buy ticket" button doesn't work in konqueror (just
pops up a couple of blank windows)

Tried to ring GNER (at this point I'm not sure whether my ticket has
been booked or not) but they shut at 8pm. So ring mastercard - no sign
of the 59GBP.

So I try again in firefox this time. Go through selecting the tickets
and then discover I now have two tickets in my basket.

Delete one, pay for journey.

And I'm a very happy bunny because there actually are some tickets
cheaper than 88GBP when I return on a Sunday. 88GBP for a packed train
which (often for me[1]) has "failed ticket printer in Edinburgh" so no
seat reservations so no seat doesn't make me happy. 59GBP for first
class (hopefully) will avoid that. (And a brompton might fold up small
but it's still necessary to find somewhere to put it down amongst all
the suitcases littering the aisles)

Tim.

[1] I hope I've been unlucky but this has happened on two out of three
of my most recent journeys on a Sunday[2]. I've been taking Mondays off
as holiday to avoid this but with only 15 days I've pretty much run out
now. (I wouldn't have travelled if I'd had to buy the 88GBP ticket)

[2] To be fair to GNER, on the most recent one the guard didn't charge
me the 15GBP weekend first upgrade so I did get a seat at no extra cost
but on the other one I wasn't allowed to upgrade to weekend first
(apparently no more seats)

--
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = - @B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t,"
and there was light.

http://tjw.hn.org/ http://www.locofungus.btinternet.co.uk/

Just had this in email from GNER; it's from them so I take no
responsibility...

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Attachment 1: ,text/html
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London to Pride & Prejudice Country from £19 return
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Exclusive Competition

Win a two-night break to Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and the Peak
District with GNER (via Grantham and Newark stations) to celebrate
the film adaptation of Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightly.

Click here for full details>>
http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.C.H.LQSpyf

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Fare Choice
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From September 25, we're simplifying our fares to offer you better
value, more choice and greater flexibility. Single leg fares will
replace advance return tickets, enabling you to mix and match
outward and return journeys to fit in with your travel plans.

Click here for full details>>
http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.D.H.L3Xc5l

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More value fares now available
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London to York from £19

Edinburgh to Newcastle from £18.50

Leeds to London from £19

Newcastle to York from £18.50

Click here for full details>>
http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.F.H.LVYQf4

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Livewire competition
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In this issue's Livewire magazine, win an overnight stay at the
luxurious Hotel du Vin Harrogate.

Click here for full details>>
http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.G.H.LYRKQ1

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Cooking up a feast
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Celebrity TV chef, Paul Rankin, will judge the GNER Chef of the Year
competition, on September 20.

Click here for full details>>
http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.H.H.LFnjWK

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Chip and PIN is coming
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We're rolling out Chip and PIN technology to our Fastticket machines.

Click here for full details>>
http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.J.H.LBZPXR

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***On your bike
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***We have launched a dedicated cycle information page on our website.
***Read about our cycle policy and use our online cycle reservation
***form, to save time and hassle at the station.

Click here for full details>>
http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.K.H.Kydz3D

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Have a Hilton break from £119
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Enjoy two nights' bed and breakfast for two people plus dinner on
your first night, complimentary bottle of wine and free access to
the health club - all from just £119!

Click here for full details>>
http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.L.H.KrZPgP

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Visit http://announcements.uk.com/Key=3085.CGZr.M.H.KmXT5m
----------------------------------------------------------------------

You are receiving this e-newsletter from GNER because you've
subscribed to our e-newsletter service on our website, or have
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You will always have the opportunity to unsubscribe from this service
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Please note, while we will endeavour to read all emails that we
receive in reply to this email address, we are unable to respond
to each one individually. If you have a specific query that needs
addressing, please contact Customer Relations directly at
[email hidden]. Thank you.

Message-Id: <[email hidden]>

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Their dedicated cycle page sounds promising but I've not yet used it.

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.