Added: 02/21/2006 |
UK Railway PeculiaritiesCompared to road travel, railways remain relatively safe. Annual death rates on roads are over 40,000 in the United States and about 3000 in Britain, compared with a thousand passenger fatalities on railways in the United States and under 20 in Britain.
European trains, including German Rail, are among the best in the world. Europe's fastest trains, the French TGV and Germany's ICE (InterCity Express), are technologically ahead of anything running on U.S. rails. The train service in the UK is not as efficient as in some countries, so be prepared for some delays.
The most extensive UK railway network is in the south-east of England, in the area around London. But using UK railway network is a convenient way to travel, as to see the country by bus will last twice longer (a 2 hour coach journey usually lasts only 1 hour by train). Naturally, train tickets are more expensive than coach tickets, but you can greatly reduce the cost if you take advantage of railcards and available discounts.
Having UK railway trip there can be a lot more pleasant if you know a few tricks of the trade. Unfortunately , the UK railway condition especially is far from excellent condition, besides, UK railway has a very sophisticatedly branched structure. So the first thing you are to go to the ticket office at your nearest station and ask if they have any free maps of the UK railway system in your region as it will be the best measure to safe you from any trouble. Many of these offices may also have free timetables, and application forms for railcards.
At major UK railway stations, there is always a large board showing train departures or arrivals, please check each item on this board connecting your departure and platform. Sometimes there is a platform alteration, which means that you may have to move onto a different train. Its better to ask somebody if you are not quite sure about announcement. It can say that your destination is served by the "front four coaches", then get on one of the carriages at the front of the train (if you are at a train terminus, these will be the four coaches furthest from the ticket gate). Be aware of the fact to come to the platform a bit beforehand as the entrance gate to the platform is sometimes closed a minute or two before the train is due to leave, to allow the train to leave on time. So don`t postpone everything to last minute. UK railway trains sometimes are divided
into two parts at some point during the journey, so be careful to on the correct part of the train.
When there are planned engineering works on sections of the track (often at weekends or on public holidays), a replacement bus service is usually made available, but journey times can be much longer and delays are frequent.
The British railways are now owned by private companies, and the number of UK railway companies is big, but the main are c2c, Chiltern Railways, Eurostar, Gatwick Express, Heathrow Express, WAGN and others. But still people often call the train service by the old name British Rail (or BR). State UK railway service is also called National railway and provides a lot of useful information. Rail maps (for example, for the main stations in the UK, and for the South East England region) , ticket details(for example, cheap day returns, savers, super savers, Apex tickets), railcards information (for example, these may give discounts to students or young people) and everything that is connected with each of the UK Railway companies you can apply to the site or to the national UK railway office.
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