G'day

Re vagaries of European rail booking system: My wife and I have 1st 
class sleepers booked on Train #1 Oslo-Malmo. We are both designated as 
Male and the numbers are not consecutive (13+15). Can someone explain this?

Ray
Sydney, Oz

[X-Posted to misc.transport.rail.europe as it's more on-topic there than
in uk.railway]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:21:28 +1000, Ray McDermott 
wrote:


>G'day
>
>Re vagaries of European rail booking system: My wife and I have 1st 
>class sleepers booked on Train #1 Oslo-Malmo. We are both designated as 
>Male and the numbers are not consecutive (13+15). Can someone explain this?


Not being an expert in the ways of NSB's booking system, I couldn't say.
I'd expect, however, that the configuration is similar to that for the
UK sleepers, namely that First Class compartments only have one bunk,
whereas those in Second Class have two, so you've got two adjacent
compartments.

As for the Gender confusion, that's probably caused by them doing both
reservations together. In the UK system, you'd either do them
separately, or specify a type of "T" (for Together).

HTH,

Barry

-- 
Barry Salter, barry at southie dot me dot uk
Read uk.* newsgroups? Read uk.net.news.announce!

Barry Salter wrote:


> [X-Posted to misc.transport.rail.europe as it's more on-topic there than
> in uk.railway]
> 
> On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:21:28 +1000, Ray McDermott 
> wrote:
> 
> 
>>G'day
>>
>>Re vagaries of European rail booking system: My wife and I have 1st 
>>class sleepers booked on Train #1 Oslo-Malmo. We are both designated as 
>>Male and the numbers are not consecutive (13+15). Can someone explain this?
> 
> 
> Not being an expert in the ways of NSB's booking system, I couldn't say.
> I'd expect, however, that the configuration is similar to that for the
> UK sleepers, namely that First Class compartments only have one bunk,
> whereas those in Second Class have two, so you've got two adjacent
> compartments.
> 
> As for the Gender confusion, that's probably caused by them doing both
> reservations together. In the UK system, you'd either do them
> separately, or specify a type of "T" (for Together).
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Barry
> 

Thanks Barry. I just heard that the Oslo-Malmo sleepers are under threat 
so who knows what equipment we will end up with.

Ray

In news:42e6d385$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au,
Ray McDermott  typed:


> Re vagaries of European rail booking system: My wife and I have 1st
> class sleepers booked on Train #1 Oslo-Malmo. We are both designated
> as Male and the numbers are not consecutive (13+15). Can someone
> explain this?


I recently travelled as part of a small party on the Trondheim to Bod  and 
Trondheim to Oslo sleepers, albeit in three-berth compartments.  There were 
36 berths in the car with numbers from 11 to 125  -  no even numbers!!  The 
last digit indicates the berth in the compartment; 1 is bottom, 3 is middle, 
5 is top.  The other digits indicate the number of the compartment  -  so 11 
is the bottom berth in the first comparrment, whilst 125 is the top in the 
twelfth comparment  -  63 would be the middle berth in the sixth 
compartment.

We were similarly confused when we were allocated #31, #33, #35, #61, #63, 
#65  -  none of them consecutively numbered but all within just two 
compartments.  I am sure that you similarly have no reason to be concerned.

To put your mind at rest and to check re both of you being male [!!], you 
might want to ring the SJ travel centre on +46 771 757575.  I am sure that 
you will find somebody there who speaks English.   (This service is run by 
the Swedish railway company, not that of Norway.)


Bob





-- 
Bob

In news:exGFe.10141$bT4.9172@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net,
Bob Wood  typed:


> To put your mind at rest and to check re both of you being male [!!],
> you might want to ring the SJ travel centre on +46 771 757575.  I am
> sure that you will find somebody there who speaks English.   (This
> service is run by the Swedish railway company, not that of Norway.)



Further to my previous reply, you might also like to subscribe to
misc.transport.rail.europe and ask your question there.  You will find that 
the particpants there are more expert on travel on the European mainland.


-- 
Bob

Bob Wood wrote:


> Further to my previous reply, you might also like to subscribe to
> misc.transport.rail.europe and ask your question there.  You will find that 
> the particpants there are more expert on travel on the European mainland.
> 


Bob

You have answered the question very well.

I had posted similar message on MTRE.

Many thanks for your clarification.

Regards

Ray

"Ray McDermott"  wrote in message 
news:42e70e33$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...

> Barry Salter wrote:
>
>> [X-Posted to misc.transport.rail.europe as it's more on-topic there than
>> in uk.railway]
>>
>> On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:21:28 +1000, Ray McDermott 
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>G'day
>>>
>>>Re vagaries of European rail booking system: My wife and I have 1st class 
>>>sleepers booked on Train #1 Oslo-Malmo. We are both designated as Male 
>>>and the numbers are not consecutive (13+15). Can someone explain this?
>>
>>
>> Not being an expert in the ways of NSB's booking system, I couldn't say.
>> I'd expect, however, that the configuration is similar to that for the
>> UK sleepers, namely that First Class compartments only have one bunk,
>> whereas those in Second Class have two, so you've got two adjacent
>> compartments.
>>
>> As for the Gender confusion, that's probably caused by them doing both
>> reservations together. In the UK system, you'd either do them
>> separately, or specify a type of "T" (for Together).
>>
>> HTH,
>>
>> Barry
>>
> Thanks Barry. I just heard that the Oslo-Malmo sleepers are under threat 
> so who knows what equipment we will end up with.


They were brought back this summer as an experiement.  Initially
they loaded poorly (probably because they wated until the last
minute to actually confirm they were running.  The summer
timetable runs until August 14th so they will definately run until
then.

They are in the winter timetable until the end of the year,
presumably to see how well they do before deciding on the
future.  This seems to me to be a silly date to stop, I would
have thought that the Jan-May period was likely to load better
than Oct-Dec, but we will see what happens.

tim

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 07:16:26 GMT, "Bob Wood" 
wrote:


>I recently travelled as part of a small party on the Trondheim to Bod  and 
>Trondheim to Oslo sleepers, albeit in three-berth compartments.  


It is, IMX, common for numbers to be missed out in seating coaches on
the Continent, so I wouldn't be surprised if all night coaches were
numbered assuming 6 to a compartment or similar.

In seating terms, I believe it is set up to make consecutive numbers
opposite each other in facing arrangements, and to assume 5 seats
across, with numbers missing accordingly.  This makes a complete mess
of things with airline seating (I've swapped seats with someone who
was reserved two seats in separate airline rows as a result of this).

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

tim (moved to sweden) wrote:

> "Ray McDermott"  wrote in message 
> news:42e70e33$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
> 
>>Barry Salter wrote:
>>
>>
>>>[X-Posted to misc.transport.rail.europe as it's more on-topic there than
>>>in uk.railway]
>>>
>>>On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:21:28 +1000, Ray McDermott 
>>>wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>G'day
>>>>
>>>>Re vagaries of European rail booking system: My wife and I have 1st class 
>>>>sleepers booked on Train #1 Oslo-Malmo. We are both designated as Male 
>>>>and the numbers are not consecutive (13+15). Can someone explain this?
>>>
>>>
>>>Not being an expert in the ways of NSB's booking system, I couldn't say.
>>>I'd expect, however, that the configuration is similar to that for the
>>>UK sleepers, namely that First Class compartments only have one bunk,
>>>whereas those in Second Class have two, so you've got two adjacent
>>>compartments.
>>>
>>>As for the Gender confusion, that's probably caused by them doing both
>>>reservations together. In the UK system, you'd either do them
>>>separately, or specify a type of "T" (for Together).
>>>
>>>HTH,
>>>
>>>Barry
>>>
>>
>>Thanks Barry. I just heard that the Oslo-Malmo sleepers are under threat 
>>so who knows what equipment we will end up with.
> 
> 
> They were brought back this summer as an experiement.  Initially
> they loaded poorly (probably because they wated until the last
> minute to actually confirm they were running.  The summer
> timetable runs until August 14th so they will definately run until
> then.
> 
> They are in the winter timetable until the end of the year,
> presumably to see how well they do before deciding on the
> future.  This seems to me to be a silly date to stop, I would
> have thought that the Jan-May period was likely to load better
> than Oct-Dec, but we will see what happens.
> 
> tim


G'day Tim

We have a booked sleepers (via an agent) Oslo-Malmo 9 Sep 05; we hope it 
does not cease running on 14 Aug!

Ray, Sydney Oz