Engaging with our app, and becoming a reliable source for information to other users on your route, is exactly the kind of community spirit we want to encourage. Therefore if you post accurate and regular information about the status of your journey, and help contribute to the live stream of information available within Mynet Travel, we'll reward you. See Terms and Conditions below . . . . . and good luck!
The winner is the user who proves to be the most influential in the use of the Mynet Travel app.
Definition of 'Most Influential User':
This involves updating your journey status regularly and providing as much detail as possible in the 140 character limit. The detail can be either positive or negative, depending on the nature of your journey.
To ensure that we can track your entries, you will need to authorize the app with your existing twitter profile (this can be done in-app). If you don't already have a twitter account, you can set one up at www.twitter.com.
It is important you don't repeat your journey updates and use the app honestly. Creating multiple journey updates is a violation of these Terms and Conditions. It is also unacceptable to post from multiple accounts, and snyone found to be using multiple accounts to enter will be ineligible.
The competition will run on a 4 week cycle and the winner will be notified via twitter within a week of the end of the cycle.
The winning amount is £50. This will take the form of a cheque sent via the post. Winners can either DM their postal address via twitter or by email to competition@mytravelnetwork.net
The competition is only open to UK residents, in the event of a tie the money will be split between the winners. The decision of My Travel Network Ltd is final.
]]>Justin Cooke, CEO of Fortune Cookie, said, “Mobile usage will only continue to grow and the mobile NRE site will only continue to improve. Of course, we cannot guarantee that rail travellers won’t suffer delays and disruptions, but we can guarantee they’ll know instantly about anything that affects normal service.”
Not only do we already hold the NRE updates on our servers, but we also keep track of news updates from the rail operators and local news services to ensure we can break the latest travel news within our live stream. However, more importantly, we can also distribute the latest comments from our users. This is real information, in real time from real people on trains and platforms around the UK, updated to our servers every 5 seconds.
We also provide instant access to the information you need. Once a journey has been added to 'My Journeys', you are only one 'touch' away from accessing the latest news on delays, disruption and cancellations specific to that route.
Oh, and did we mention . . . . . . . it's free!
Source: Quarter of National Rail Enquiries queries come via mobile (http://www.nma.co.uk/news/quarter-of-national-rail-enquiries-queries-come-via-mobile/3033953.article) by Ronan Shields
]]>Regardless of how successful the app now becomes, for two commuters who started with very limited knowledge or experience in app development or information networks, it's been a journey of excitement, doubt and entrepidation. (usually all at the same time!) All of which becomes heightened given the personal investment, both time and financial, that has been poured into our project.
Endless 68hr weeks (we still have our 'real' jobs to deal with) and self funding design / development in the UK have proven to be a challenge that at times seemed all encompassing. Summing up the experience seems like an impossible task for now, especially as it feels like our journey is only really about to begin.
We'd like to thanks everyone who's offered support and encouragement to date, and hope you'll continue to follow the development of our ambitious plans to help everyone travelling by rail in the UK. If you haven't already, you can find links to download the app here.
]]>Commuters help subsidise Network Rail by £4 billion a year through taxes, along with everyone else who pays their taxes and may never even use a train. It's claimed (by a Network Rail spokesman) that the bonuses are a result of "delivering substantial savings to the taxpayer". Well I don't know about anyone else, but I have seen my taxes reduce as a result of substantial savings. If there have been substantial savings, then surely they won't need another £4 billion next year?
I would suggest that anyone who earns in excess of £500k a year, subsidised by the taxpayer, should be expected to deliver "substantial savings" as part of their basic job description, and not as part of a bonus scheme.
I would suggest that rather than award themselves £2.8 million over the next five years, they keep a hold of it. If they can afford a 500% bonus, then they can afford to have their subsidy slashed, and then we can all share in a little tax bonus.
]]>
As we lay fresh tracks into the world of crowd sourced information sharing, and hopefully begin to define a new form of information networking through community action, we need you to help us refine our service. Remember, Mynet is a 100% free app that requires active participation from its users to share service updates and status alerts within the ‘Live Information Feed.’
A full launch for iPhone and Android mobile devices is scheduled for Oct/Nov 2011, the iPhone beta release is available now for a limited period only to press and registered users for review and feedback. Click here between Sunday 18th - Saturday 24th Sept. to download from iTunes: Mynet Beta iPhone download
Follow this link to the ‘Feedback’ page within this website and let us know your thoughts: Feedback. You can also access this page directly from within Mynet.
If you have any specific queries or require assistance using Mynet, please email us direct at the following address: support@mytravelnetwork.net
Not yet registered? Click here to become a Mynet pioneer.
]]>
Tuesday, August the 16th, marked the day that the Government broke with tradition and announced a further rise in rail fares.
This turned out to be an average 8% rise for commuters. To break this down, during the Spending Review, the Government set the regulated fares increase by 3% plus inflation (based on the RPI) for 3 years from 2012. The subsequent announcement from the Office of National Statistics of 5 per cent RPI means regulated fares will increase by 8 per cent in January, making them 28 per cent higher by 2015.
The RPI The Retail Prices Index is based on a "shopping basket" of goods and services which people typically buy. The list includes basics such as food, electricity bills, clothing and petrol, as well as luxury and leisure goods such as electronic equipment, cinema tickets and restaurant meals.
Each month price collectors (staff working for the Office of National Statistics) obtain about 120,000 prices for 600 specified goods and services. They go to a wide variety of shops in 146 areas of the country. Prices of some items, such as utility bills, newspapers, council tax and rail fares are collected centrally. Because people spend more on some things than others, the index is weighted to ensure that it reflects the importance of various items in the shopping basket.
It looks like your shopping basket is going to become very expensive. It could mean some commuters’ season tickets will pass £5000, enough to buy a small car, or equal to 20% of the average UK salary. Commuters in the South East could see a rise of nearly 13%.
The bite, of course, is that the public perception of the rail network is that no real improvement has happened in the last 20 years and that people are fed up of paying above the odds for a slow, dirty and unreliable service with little increase in quality or standards. Commuters at Tuesday morning’s ‘Fair Fares Now’ protest, were calling for a reinstatement of a pre-privatised British Rail. Whether or not this is a good idea, and opinion is divided, something needs to be done to address the bad press the Rail Network has.
Couple this with the environmental implications of people taking to the roads, and driving business away from the capital we have a serious problem that won’t support austerity.
This is where My Travel Network can make a difference. In partnership with independent watchdogs and the community of commuters we are able to share opinion instantly and feed back to the operators, bringing them to account. You, the Mynet App, and this website will collate the stories of woe and success and gather an accurate national consensus. Regular updates on the worst case travel scenarios and the highest rated stations will paint a picture of the National Rail Network and let our voices be heard. Without a single clipboard.
Sources: Campaign for better Transport, Unison, BBC News, Twitter, Flickr
More from this months issue of Global Affairs magazine Monocle as correspondent Liv Lewitschnik provides a write up on the MTR in Hong Kong, [copy below] and more at www.monocle.com
The Idea
Mass Transit Railway [MTR] has taken its hugely successful metro train system and started to export around the world. MTR operates the Stockholm metro and has a 60 per cent stake in Melbourne’s, as well as running a railway in Beijing and five overground lines in London. The only thing stopping it becoming a soft power success story is it’s lack of publicity.
Who has copied it?
So far it’s tended to be countries, not cities, that have taken their transport expertise abroad. Deutsche Bahn and the Dutch railway operator, NS, both run services in the UK.
]]>
This months issue of Global Affairs magazine Monocle contains an article on some of the best ideas our busiest cities have in dealing with our modern lifestyles.
Monocle correspondent Ivan Carvalho provided a write up on the MiniMetro of Perugia, [copy below] with further insights from Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bogota. See more at www.monocle.com
The Idea
Officials in the hilltop capital of Umbria hired ski-lift manufacturer Leitner to find an environmentally friendly way to get people up to its historic centre. Leitner engineers came up with MiniMetro, a light railway powered by an electric motor that pulls passenger cabins attached to a steel rope along a track at speeds of up to 30 km/h, at one-minute intervals. Perugia hired Jean Nouvel to design the stations and the innovative transport solution is estimated to have slashed three million car trips annually.
Who has copied it?
Frankfurt airport will unveil its line at the end of 2011 while Cairo airport and the Italian cities of Bolzano and Pisa have expressed an interest.
]]>
We’ve been wanting to write something about the McNulty Report “Realising the Potential of GB Rail” since it was published last week, but it’s been interesting to sit back and see how the media and public have responded to the initial recommendations.
The report [download here] contains recommendations that could form the biggest change in public transport for generations. Much of this missed of course in the tabloid press, more concerned with dramatising the impact that the changes ‘may’ have on fares. That’s not to say I’m not interested in what the changes will mean to the weight of my wallet. As a long term commuter I live in fear of the annual fare increase that makes absolutely no difference to the quality of my travel experience.
My concerns with the recommendations revolve around the language used, and the general interpretation of the term ‘efficiencies’. This automatically seems, to most, to be code for cuts, savings and reduction in quantity and quality of service. I imagine even for the majority of Operators there will be a concern over how to meet the efficiency levels being quoted without making cuts. However, the word efficiency shouldn’t be read as restrictive and short term, but progressive and long term.
The brief should be expanded to take into account all aspects of rail travel infrastructure. The architecture of our stations and travel hubs could be more efficient in their use and accommodation. The model of the modern airport acting as a leisure and retail experience that fully serves it’s users should be adapted by the rail sector. The public travelling by air would not accept the quality of environment and service currently presented to thousands of rail passengers everyday, and only substantial investment will make the difference and drive the efficiencies that this report demands.
There will be no quick fix and it will not be an easy journey. For passengers in particular we can only hope an Operator will emerge with not only the vision and ambition for change but the resource and appetite for a long term project and the desire to make a real difference.
]]>