Online rail forum Omdömen 14

Tried to join this forum only to be denied stating ‘security issues’! What security issues there were, were never communicated. I was also questioned at length about why and how I signed up

Edit: apparently ‘all of my accounts have been banned’ even though I have only ever attempted to make a single account, very odd behaviour…

Every time I post in the Careers section that I was discriminated against by a certain company along with all the other minority employees who joined with me, my account gets deleted. It seems that the Moderators are extremely sensitive about the reputation of certain companies, almost as if they are members of the Management structure. This is for a company that has gone, consigned to history. Then they'll send you emails demanding to know who you are and why you're saying what you say.

They'll delete your posts if they're humorous, or deemed to be off topic, or don't conform to the approved narrative.

Seemingly run by control freaks, captured by Groupthink, and desperate to control the narrative.

Edit, for daring to criticise the Control Freaks running Railforums, they have demanded to know my name and telephone number, presumably they'd also like my address and inside leg measurement as well.

Will they be instigating legal action for daring to criticise them? Only time will tell

selectively enforce the rules on opinions they dont like claim certain terms are indistury jargon when they are not. want people to quote whole passages and not iust the relevent bits.
dont like people linking to external sources even when the site prevents direct copying

Edit: I have since be asked by railforums, through trust pilot for personal details such as phone number and email address to (paraphrase) make sure the review is genuine, and to address the problems highlighted in the review; given the threats given to other users ( see Michael tsangs review,) I feel this is an attempt to intimidate rather than address any concerns particularly as phone number is irrelevant to joining the forum.

I feel when I have raised cocnerns with the mods before they have deliberetely misrepresented what I have said. or have tried to take the concerns off topic or introduce irrelevant information

The forum and its members and moderators remind me of my experiences with the railway: the railway is always right. If you do not follow the rules you are dealt swift punishment. There's a myriad of non-obvious rules. The railway staff are often arrogant, argumentative and belligerent. It is no surprise it reminds me of the railway as many of the people on the forum happen to work on the railway.

The website sells tickets. The tickets can be used on the trains. That is good.

This is a very useful website for finding out about the railway there’s just one problem, the owner of the site.

Extremely touchy, the epitome of a power hungry moderator, Yorkie constantly moves topics to different, often little used parts of the forum, removes any criticism of the forum (and himself) and perhaps most worryingly issues incorrect fares advice, which is particularly concerning as he has partnered with a ticket selling website.

I am so concerned about this partnership with said website and his ‘advice’ I have been tempted to report this behaviour…

A wonderful resource of knowledge, full of experienced and enthusiastic individuals from all walks of life.
Regrettably utterly ruined by power mad moderation. Heaven help you if you write something humorous or that contains a comment that can be construed as even slightly off topic; you'll be cancelled forthwith.
There is a clique of long term members and moderators and if you're not in it you'll soon enough be either toast or ignored.
Use it as a read only forum if you must but don't dare to say anything.
Having no 'delete account' option is the final, annoying straw.
It is most unfortunate as I've been a long time member and reasonably prolific contributor financially through the forum's ticketing site; not any longer.

So I joined the forum in June 2017 when I was going on a train journey to Nottingham and made my first post about getting an InterCity 125 that had Paxman VP185 engines and asking when they ran from Leeds. My first post got 5 warnings. One was that there was enough information on the Intercity 125s which I could just research on the forum for old threads without the need of another and another warning was for using a similar username to another member that had just joined which I had no idea about. I then tried only commenting in threads and got another warning by the same admin for jokingly saying what if High Speed 2 extended into my town which he removed the post saying the forum was no place for fantasy posts. I eventually got an infraction and gave it a rest for about 6 months and then came back thinking everything had cooled down. In December 2017 was when I got put on moderation meaning that from there on my posts had to go through a moderation que. Even though I was on moderation throughout 2018 and 2019 where the lower rank moderators accepted my posts I must have received about a dozen infractions or warning points from posts I made and that mainly was for breaking the rule about external sauces which I could never understand about or get my head around. The admin clamed that there were people on the forum that were visually impaired that wouldn't be able to read my posts and to include a full link with a picture or something like that. Was very complicated to understand. I then made a very first review about the forum back in February 2020 on how unsatisfied I was with the administrators antics and thought at the time I was the only one been targeted until just recently where I've seen with many other reviews that I've not been alone with his behavior. None of my posts were then been accepted and this was after making that review and then in 2023 after getting yet another infraction about the external sauces rules I finally snapped and argued with the admin and was banned for life then.

On a more positive note as some people have said this really could be a good forum as throughout the 6 years I was a member there before getting permanently banned for that I did strike up several good and very interesting conversations with members that were very knowledgeable on there. It's very sad that 1 administrator has to go and ruin all this.

This certainly has the potential be a good forum.

However, the moderation is very heavy handed.
Don't dare consider taking a thread even remotely off topic. Ensure arcane rules about quoting, linking to external sources and including pictures are followed to the letter or be prepared to be put on the naughty step - this is something one moderator in particular enjoys.

The site also has an affiliation to a rail ticketing site which whilst saving you money then adds a compulsory 10% levy on tickets sold. Not only is this unnecessary as identical tickets can (and should) be bought from other sites with no booking fee/levy, any advice offered by moderators should not be treated as impartial.

Whilst the site is heavily used, it is heavily used by a growing number of experts who like to assert their dominance and this can make newcomers and infrequent posters feel very intimidated and out of place.

The moderators have a tough job with thousands of posts per day, but they and one in particular (who's screen name is that of a chocolate bar) need to lean some general politeness and manners, they also need to set out (and ideally simply their rules), posters are regularly told that they are in breach of rule #46 for example, despite there being no numbered list of rules and many seem to be made up very ad hoc.

Overhaul, if you're part of the the owner's (Chocolate bar man) clique, you'll get on fine, if you're not you're in for a rough ride. Oh, and don't dare disagree with him on fares, transport policy, politics, covid restrictions or anything else!

An update: Similar to one of the other reviews here, the forum team had suggested legal action as a result of this review. The level of suppression and silencing is unprecedented in any of the hundreds of forums I have used in my life.

I created an account as soon as I moved to the UK 4 years ago, and within a few months of time I received warning and my account placed under moderation not long after I posted a thread asking how the Oyster caps worked, where all my touches were presented on the thread, because the moderators thought that I was trying to mislead them by omitting my actual route used, which isn't relevant in the Oyster area (unless there is an intermediate touch required). Most of the hostility came from a moderator named "yorkie", who claims to be a fare expert but frequently gives out advice in contrary to how ticket retailers are required to sell tickets, including giving advice that Thameslink only tickets are valid on other GTR brands (the legality of which is still being determined in a class action lawsuit). He also runs fares workshops but hostile to anyone who wants to post loopholes to benefit the travelling public like me.

As I gained knowledge working with rail data, I started explaining how ticket retailers worked, by quoting the appropriate paragraphs from the specification required for ticket retailing accreditation, supported by loophole fares which can actually be bought by various ticket retailers. I discussed the following methods which can be used to find loopholes, than received bans / warnings on them. For example, loopholes can happen with a walk at the end of the ticketed journey, where the moderator blatantly told on the forum that a ticketed journey shouldn't end with a walk (such as a ticket ending at St Albans City with a walk from St Albans Abbey at the end), refused to explain the authority of this statement lacking evidence, while evidence could be produced for the contrary (NRE and Thameslink website sold the fare). Other loopholes include calculation of the shortest route for group stations, or validating zonal fares, where the human-facing documents are silent. I tried to explain how the shortest route worked in relation to group stations using the technical specification for retailer accreditation, with an example of circumnavigating the Overground to from the South West to Fenchurch Street. This is not intended to be valid but can be sold by a ticket retailer once the desired route is entered, so it is contractually valid. Similarly for the zonal location rule where I used an example of Reading - Redhill - London Zones 1-6 as the loophole. When I tried to post it, it got moderated and I received a PM saying that my actions were irresponsible, when I just wanted to try to teach the public how to find valid loophole fares.

Outside of fares, a lot of posts were warned as off-topic, including citing how other items are paid with cheque when discussing paying cheques on the railways, how expensive are cars when discussing expensive rail fares making people drive, or the worst, saying that Tory prevented train companies making deals in a post about ASLEF striking around Tory conference dates. A post which described my delay (avoidable from the operational point of view) due to signallers' decision to route an early train into a platform out of the timetabled order was removed as meaningless as well.

The final blow came around the end of 2024. Firstly, I was banned from a small number of railway discussion categories, then reinstiated afterwards. Then I received a message saying that my large number of posts were overwhelming the moderation team, so I was revoked access to about half of the forum. Since them I only occasionally posted on the remaining parts when I could provide expertise on the explanations from my work in rail data.

I posted a review on Sitejabber in December 2024. I received a PM from yorkie asking me to remove the review, then threatened to ban me after I disregarded the message, saying that I am making "false claims". Therefore I am writing more reviews to warn potential users not to trust this forum, as anything which isn't in line with the moderators' view in regard of ticketing rules will be removed, and those who want to challenge them will be silenced as well.

For posting a review I was told I would face legal action, so that tells you all you need to know. This only shows how utterly insane the moderation is on this website and anyone that stands up against it gets threatened. Truly pathetic.

I can only echo other posts I've seen here.

The moderators are on a power trip and they have clearly decided they get their kicks out of abusing people online. They told me to report my post which I did and then they gave me points and a ban for asking why. They told me I was abusive for simply asking questions. Then they called me an idiot.

The entire forum needs ripping up or a new one taking its place. It's not fit for purpose.

Avoid!

It's a good site until you need to deal with the moderating team especially the main one. Very unnecessary rules that aren't visible anywhere for you to double check if you forget and these aren't very friendly if you type quickly leading to mistypes and if you aren't great at putting your feelings into words 24/7. The site felt incredibly cliquey and some people could get away with being rude but if you challenged the moderators you would be banned instantly. My own ban came from defending my own autism and how that affects me when it comes to putting my own thoughts and feelings into words just to make moderators aware of people on the spectrum having to be considered. Make of that what you will. The site could genuinely be excellent with a different team of moderators and fewer extremely unnecessary rules.

I would not recommend this forum at all. The forum moderator will make up rules as they go along and issue bans if they don't like your opinions or thoughts, even if they are with in the rules.

I received a ban from the forum when I hadn't even posted anything that day and every time I did post, I was given "guidance" constantly in private messages from a creepy moderator called "Yorkie" who would invent rules that weren't there because they didn't like my opinion. It's a trainspotting forum, not an army camp.

The use of metaphors is not allowed. The use of paragraphs is not allowed. All sentences must be in individual lines. You will be hounded by moderators everytime you post, even if what you post fits in with the so-called "rules".

Certain members are allowed to take threads ridiculously off topic and attack other members opinions, this goes un-challenged. But when you respond to questions from these bullies, you will be harassed by the moderators for answering their questions.

It's a very slow moving forum that only allows certain opinions. Free speech is not allowed. I wouldn't buy any tickets from this website either. Buy from nationalrail.co.uk or directly from the train operators, where you will receive un-biased support.

In my experience, this forum is dominated by extreme rail enthusiasts and industry insiders who are fiercely protective of the railway, often to the point of disregarding fairness or common sense. Whether you’re questioning a penalty fare or highlighting poor treatment by staff, you’re unlikely to receive impartial advice here. Instead, most responses reflect a strong bias in favour of the rail companies, even in situations where the railway appears clearly at fault.

What’s especially concerning is the forum’s attitude towards posters who challenge this bias. There is a repeated pattern of users attempting to dig into people’s identities, especially when their views don’t align with the dominant pro-rail stance. This behaviour is not only tolerated but, in some cases, appears to be actively supported by moderators, who have themselves participated in identifying posters rather than discouraging the practice.

For anyone genuinely seeking fair, balanced guidance on disputes with the rail industry, I would recommend looking elsewhere. The culture of this forum is not geared towards helping passengers, but towards protecting the reputation of the railway and those associated with it. This is often at the expense of open, respectful discussion.