Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 February 9

= February 9 =

trains
what website was it to buy train tickets in the UK, I know there is one, but I can't remember what it is called. I thought it was the national rail enquireys site, but apparently that only shows the times and prices. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 01:22, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * , for one. There are others. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:24, 9 February 2012 (UTC)

Beware these sites, you can sometime get a better deal from the train line direct by telephone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.211.142.228 (talk) 07:01, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I presume you mean, telephone the train operating company direct. The Trainline is the site Tagishsimon pointed at, and I can recommend it. --TammyMoet (talk) 10:03, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I do not recommend it; it adds a booking fee on to all train fares. Any train operating company website will sell you train tickets with no booking fee, and if you look at one of the operators which covers your journey, they may have some special web-only offers. Warofdreams talk 10:58, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It adds a booking fee of £1 per transaction (you can buy many tickets in one go, and pay only once). Going via specific operators is fine, but it can mean many different transactions for long journeys and/or restrictive tickets. - Jarry1250 [Deliberation needed] 12:30, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Plus the fact that you'd have to know which train operators did which routes - you'd even have to know who they are, and if you are not in the UK (or unfamiliar with the UK train system in such details), you wouldn't have a clue where to look. --TammyMoet (talk) 12:37, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Oh, National Rail Enquiries will tell you the operator for your chosen services. But I agree it's a hassle, and that's why TheTrainline sells so many tickets every year (many of them to me). - Jarry1250 [Deliberation needed] 12:42, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Any train operator will sell tickets for any journey. The only reason to find one which covers your journey is to check for any special offers; if that's too much effort, just pick any one (such as East Coast, recommended by someone below).  There's no advantage to paying the booking fee and using TheTrainline.  It seems to me that they sell so many tickets principally because they advertise heavily, and lots of people don't realise that they can get the same service with no booking fee elsewhere. Warofdreams talk 13:14, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/ don't charge any booking fees and you can book tickets to and from anywhere. Much better than thetrainline.com SmartSE (talk) 12:47, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Do they do integrated tube tickets? (Also, the £1 you gain from no-booking fee gets charged back to you if you choose to have the tickets posted to you rather than printing them yourself.) - Jarry1250 [Deliberation needed] 13:17, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * According to our thetrainline.com article, "it provides the website services for 14 of the 18 UK train operating companies operating under their own brands". I've certainly heard before that several of the TOCs' websites offer an identical service to thetrainline, without a booking fee. 130.88.73.65 (talk) 13:20, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Yep it does - you can get a tickets to/from any zone 1/2 station for only a tiny bit extra than going to a main terminus. SmartSE (talk) 12:10, 10 February 2012 (UTC)


 * http://nationalrail.co.uk has a train search engine that will divert you to the appropriate train company when the time comes to buy a ticket (if you have javascript and possibly cookies enabled you will not have to reenter your journey). It does not charge booking fees (unlike thetrainline).  IMO the best train times website in the uk is http://traintimes.org.uk/, infinitely less painful to use than the operator sites, the trainline and nationalrail, but you can't buy tickets there.  Tinfoilcat (talk)  —Preceding undated comment added 17:25, 9 February 2012 (UTC).

Where are payments for blood & plasma donation the highest?
I hope to move from the US soon as it is going to pot, but no matter where I am, I'd still like to donate blood and plasma. Having been in Germany in toddlerhood from 1987-1990, there's no donating until a reliable screening test method for vCJD is developed. However, this restriction is, AFAIK, US-specific.

What nations would not have said restrictions (that still have English as a majority language), and how much would I be paid per donation? --129.130.102.230 (talk) 21:07, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * In the Netherlands you don't get paid at all for donating blood/plasma/platelets. Jarkeld (talk) 21:12, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Nor in UK. Itsmejudith (talk) 21:29, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Nor in Finland. Actually, I find your interest in how much you'll get paid for donating blood as a primary interest in earning money, which can be dangerous both for you and the possible recipients of your donated blood, not to mention unethical. It's called "donating blood" instead of "selling blood" for a reason. J I P  &#124; Talk 21:46, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * You get 20 Euros for your "time" spent donating plasma in Austria. I guess you didn't learn any German since you were a toddler when living in Germany, but I don't think the language would be that much of a problem. 109.97.136.39 (talk) 22:13, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Here in the U.S., plasma donors get paid a minimum of $20 for each donation, and up to $60 if they are regular donors. Plasma donors producing Anti-D get paid up to $100 each, but you need to be of a negative blood type for that. Generally, you can only donate twice a week.--WaltCip (talk) 22:24, 9 February 2012 (UTC)
 * See also Blood donation. If any of this can be sourced, it could be added there. BrainyBabe (talk) 02:34, 10 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Don't come to Australia. You won't get paid, and we don't want any more greedy bastards here anyway. HiLo48 (talk) 06:54, 10 February 2012 (UTC)


 * more money for different blood types? I'm AB-, can I export my blood to america for a nice profit? 79.66.96.108 (talk) 10:53, 10 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I would imagine the majority of paid blood donations come from people who are desparate, rather than greedy, HiLo 48. --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]  10:31, 11 February 2012 (UTC)


 * That's at least partly true, and leads to sad stories of "donors" presenting themselves at multiple clinics in order to be paid for their body fluids far more often than is good for their health. I don't like much at all about the idea of being paid what is still strangely called a donation. HiLo48 (talk) 20:31, 11 February 2012 (UTC)