Robert Hampton

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4th September 2008

Pushing the Envelope
Posted by at 10.52pm | Trains | No responses

The question, “what do you buy the train geek who has everything?” finally has an answer. The railway powers-that-be have published Avantix Traveller, an instant lookup program which will display the fares between any two stations in Britain, including — crucially — the time restrictions for “Off Peak” tickets.

Screenshot of Avantix Traveller software showing time restrictions for a Liverpool-London OffPeak Return

Getting this info from online sources is somewhat hit-and-miss, so it’s nice to have a definitive statement. You shouldn’t really have to pay £10.59 to get this information, and there’s no reason why the online journey planner couldn’t tell it to you, but it still compares well to the hefty National Fares Manual which used to be the only source for the curious traveller.

However, the main purpose of this post is not to point out my sad obsession with all things railway (that’s just a delightful side effect) but to point out the heartening efficiency with which TSO Shop handled my order. In the picture below, compare the size of the CD-ROM with the size of the envelope it came in.

Envelope which arrived from TSO

A tree died to make that envelope!