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Reg reader offered £999,998 train ticket from Cambridge to Horley

More like National Fail amirite?

On the heels of an IT error leading to Great Western Rail advertising a first-class journey from Taunton to Trowbridge for £10,000 comes an exponentially more expensive offer from National Rail.

Our thanks to Reg reader Andrew for sending this screenshot in, dug up from his personal chuckle archives, advertising the "cheapest" fare for a journey from Cambridge to Horley back on the 15 January 2011 at the tidy price of £999,998.

Train journeys to Horley from Cambridge typically take two hours, leaving Andrew spending £8,333.33 per minute, or £138.88 per second. To put this in context, the thirteen year Apollo programme to land on the moon was reported to Congress as costing $25.4bn in 1973, costing $3,717 per minute, or $61 per second.

We can't be bothered adjusting for inflation, currency fluctuations and whatever other processes might be necessary to cobble this numerical comparison into something remotely resembling anything other than a back-of-a-beermat chuckle, but we're pretty sure that, had Andrew purchased the ticket, he would in some way or another be the equal of Armstrong and Aldrin.

The Register has asked National Rail what it advises customers to do when they encounter prices which are more ridiculous than normal, but we haven't received a response yet. We'll update this article when we do.

As Andrew said, "The more I work in technology, the less I trust it!" ®

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