Making The Most of Conductor Sam

While Conductor Sam is still new, we are learning for ourselves how Sam responds when it's asked about rail travel.
Though having asked Sam more than a 1000 test questions, we have insights to share about making it easier to discover what you want to know.

Top Tips:

1. The more specific a question, the better Sam's answers should be.
2. If you want to know if a journey is possible / available / easy / tricky, ask for a summary.
3. Initially ask Sam about one thing and see if the suggested follow up questions will help with anything else you want to know.
4. Or ask about the same thing more than once, with a different wording in the question
5. Using Sam is genuinely made easier if you sign up, so that your all your Q and As can be stored for future use.

Using Sam to look up Journeys / Routes

Sam is more than a rail timetable tool, hence the deliberate lack of boxes to enter in times and dates.
If you want to know exactly when a train to x will leave from station y, the ticket agent and rail pass apps, which Sam will typically include within its answer, will give you that info.

Though how Sam searches for its answers about questions on rail journeys also have to be based around time, otherwise they would be too random for Sam to ever make a suggestion.
So we set the starting point at 'now', partially because many people do want to know how to take the next train to their destination.
For days into the future, Sam's default time is 9am.

Though you don't need to be travelling now, or at 9am on a future date, for Sam to tell you what you want to know about a journey.
Because how you ask Sam a question makes a difference to the answer you'll receive.
Sam can be more accurate if you use a couple of extra words to make a question more specific.

Need an overview of a route / journey?

There's more to planning a new journey than knowing if there's a train at 11:23 next Monday, so Sam's particularly useful at providing an overview of a route.
But it needs to be told that you want a summary, so try asking questions that include phrases similar to:

• How often do the trains go from A to B?
• How can I get a train from A to B?
• Is it an easy journey?
• How long does it take?
• Can I have a summary of the journey from A to B?

Want to leave now and take a journey?

If you're up against time, we've kept things short and sweet, so if you only ask the equivalent of  'From A to B by train', then Sam will use its default and assume you want to take the next available route.

But if the last train of the day that takes the easiest route has already left, Sam will strive to explain how someone leaving now, can reach a destination in the fastest possible time - no matter how complicated that journey will be.

Have a travel preference

It's a good idea to 'tell' Sam how you prefer to travel, otherwise its answer may not automatically include the specific aspects of a journey that matter most to you.
Hence the recommendation to include in your question, whether;

• you want to take direct trains,
• you can take an overnight train,
• whether there is a choice of day and night trains, etc.

Know When You Want to Travel

If you know the date on which you want to travel it's good to include it in the question, though Sam can be better at honing in on what you want to know, if you also include a time.
It hasn't got to be the exact time when you want to leave, as you may not know that yet, so what's recommended is trying things along these lines:

• Want to leave first thing = include 6am or 6:00 in your question.
• Want to leave after the morning rush at around 9am = no need to include a time as that's the default.
• Want to leave around noon = include 12pm or midday in your question.
• Want to leave after the evening rush = include 7pm or 19:00 in your question.
• Want to take a night train = specifically ask Sam if a night train is an option.
• Want to take last train of the day = specifically ask Sam when it will be leaving.

And yes, putting this time and date info into a question can be a tad awkward, so we're working on an idea to make it simpler.

Tips When Asking About Journeys and General Questions

1. Give it time When using Sam patience can be rewarded. Sam isn't a typical search engine, but it's saving you the time of using one. Ask Sam about a long and complicated journey and it will flag that it's checking through many sources of info - so give it a minute or two, or make a coffee or tea. Can seem slow, but it should be quicker than the time it will take anyone to find up to 12 sources and read through them.
2. Split your topics So ahem, this will seem a tad contradictory, we've suggested that Sam likes a detailed question, but if you ask it for more than one thing in a single question, it won't know which to answer first. Though the idea is that it will politely suggest how you can rephrase what you're asking.
3. Using the follow up questions If you do want to know more than one thing about the new journey(s) you will be taking, what's new is that Conductor Sam will suggest follow up questions. The idea is to save users the bother of having to enter a different question, so it can be a idea to look twice to see if Sam is guiding you towards what you most want to know.
4. Sam's suggestions Sam tends to use a summary as its initial answer, but Sam can include suggestions of what to ask, so that it can you received more detailed info

Asking Sam about rail tickets

The pricing of most tickets for long distance rail travel are dynamic, they are cheaper when they are first placed on sale, but then rise according to demand.
At the moment this can be tricky for Sam, because when it's asked about a ticket price in isolation, it won't know when you want to travel.
So if you don't include a date or time in your question, Sam's default is that you'll be leaving soon - when prices will be at their most expensive.

Hence it can be a good idea to ask Sam for:

• the cheapest possible price; though this will depend on what's available at the time of asking, or
• a range of prices, or
• the price on the date on which you will or may be travelling, or
• the price of a night train on your travel date, if you're considering it as an option.

Sam will also include an example price in many of its answers when asked about journeys and routes.

Asking Sam about using Eurail and Interrail

Sam was the idea of two people, one of us is a tech-guru, and one of us, er that would be me, is passionate about rail travel.
Hence six epic trips with an Interrail pass ticked off and another being planned.
So, front of mind has been making Sam useful to:

1. Those who are wondering whether Eurail / Interrail will be the way to go.
2. Those who have jumped in and have a pass, but now have a bunch of questions.

For that first group, Sam can help with questions around the journeys (see above) and the start of the planning process (see below)

For that second group Sam can help with multiple things that are good to know when using the passes.
So if you also include in the question where you want to go and from, you can try asking Sam about:

• the price of a reservation,
• whether reservations are mandatory / available / optional for rail pass users,
• how to book the reservations,
• routes which avoid having to make reservations,
• location suggestions for where you can travel on to,
• suggestions of where to go on a day trip with a pass.

Plus all the specifics about finding trains at stations, travelling to and from station, what you'll find on the train etc.
Sam can also suggest what you can do when you've reached your destination!

Asking Sam about planning a trip

'Trip planning' tools such as the Eurail and InterRail journey planning apps are great, if you're already clear about where you want to go from and to, on specific dates.
But you also need to keep going back to them to look up your next trips.

So we're tying to go the extra mile with Sam, with an idea you can include all of your wish-list locations in a single question.
Sam will then provide a form to be filled in, which can help it produce a summary of an itinerary - though as this is particularly tricky, please help us test it and give feedback.

Though what Sam should already be good at is guiding people towards their optimum route on a multi-location trip.
So before you're ready to dive into a journey app, you can use Sam to help you make the most of it, by first asking Sam questions, such as:

• Can I go from A to B by train?
• Are there any direct trains from A to B or do I have to change?
• Are there day and night trains on a route from A to B?
• Where can I go from X on journeys that are under 4 hours etc?
• Where can I travel on to from X?
• What is the name of the main station in X?

But if you're not one of life's planners and would prefer a ready-made itinerary, you can also ask Sam about rail holidays

Asking Sam about the route you want to take

When seeking info about a journey Conductor Sam will tell you about different aspects of taking a route depending on how the question is composed.

.For example, when asked, 'How to take a train from Oslo to Bergen?'

To answer this question Sam has focused on the 'How' and produced a depth of practical info, that's both in the answer and can be accessed by using the suggested follow up questions.

However, when the question is phrased differently to 'What's good to know about taking the train from Oslo to Bergen? Sam has taken a different approach.

This time Sam has given an overview including insights that aren't wholly practical, such as how scenic the journey is.
So Sam can also tell you about the journey experience, it's highlights to look out for, how to make the most of the views etc.

Stop searching and start traveling.
Get confident answers to all your rail journey questions.