I had to go to Oxford, and since I have a lot of work to do at the moment, I took the train (nearly sixty quid return). So, I went to the train times web site and searched for a train journey that would get me in to Oxford around 8.30am. Computer says yes: there's a train from Woking that wil get me to Guildford for the 7.04 to Reading. That gets in to reading around 7.50, then there's an 8.10 to Oxford. I decided to drive to Guildford and get the train from there, since there's wouldn't be much traffic. I got there early in fact, to discover that there was a 6.51 fast service direct to Oxford (only stop: Reading). The (Virgin) train was on time, half-empty and therefore comfortable and convenient and I got plenty of work done. Why can't the train time system have a modicum of artificial intelligence: it must know that direct, fast services are infinitely preferable to slow, indirect services, so even if you are going to get in a few minutes early, you'd rather the former.
In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]
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