History

• Live Departure Boards, December 2001
• Timetable inevitably followed soon after
• Over the years, their site has definitely improved, but mine still has some unique features, chief of which:

Bookmarkable URLs

traintimes.org.uk/oxford/birmingham

The very next trains from Oxford to Birmingham

traintimes.org.uk/oxford/london/first/tomorrow

Trains from Oxford to London first thing tomorrow

traintimes.org.uk/oxford/manchester/17:00/friday/18:00/sunday

Going to Manchester for the weekend; or every weekend

traintimes.org.uk/oxford/reading

Wouldn’t trust these results at the moment…

Live Trains Map

• Fetches data from National Rail’s Live Departure Boards
• The trains move in approximately real time
• http://www.traintimes.org.uk/map/

  

Hints and Tips

• Timetable algorithm quirky and beyond our understanding
• Advance tickets — 12 weeks
• megatrain.com for select routes
• Ticket splitting:
  • Vagaries of privatisation — Penzance – Birmingham
  • Peak/off-peak, worked example

Ticket Splitting – Journey

• Travelling from Oxford to Birmingham
• Tomorrow, for the day
• Arrive in New Street around 9am
• Leaving around 7pm, but want flexibility

Ticket Splitting – First Look

• traintimes.org.uk/oxford/birmingham/9:00a/thursday/19:00/thursday
• Oxford — Birmingham, 7:36–8:48, returning 19:03–20:14
• Open Return

£42

Ticket Splitting

• Oxford — Banbury, 7:36–7:52, returning 19:55–20:14, Standard Day Return
• Banbury — Birmingham, 7:53–8:48, returning 19:03–19:54, Standard Day Return
• The exact same trains…

Ticket Splitting – Exercise

• Travelling from London to Newcastle
• Tomorrow
• Arrive in Newcastle around 11am
• Leaving Newcastle around 7pm
• Open Return is £226, you can travel for around £130

The End

http://www.dracos.co.uk/wiki/ Trains/SplitTickets

http://traintimes.org.uk/

Matthew Somerville
matthew@dracos.co.uk