(D)

Rail passengers are being forced to pay thousands of pounds more in fares as a result of poor advice from the national telephone help line and individual stations, a consumer organization reveals today. Research by Which? found that in some cases passengers are being charged almost double the cheapest price because of errors made by staff.

Which? Asked 25 questions of both station staff and the National Rail Enquiries (NRES) helpline. Only half of the 50 questions were answered correctly. If customers had followed all the advice given, they would have been ￡1,263. 60 worse off.

Bad advice was given for the cheapest fare for a single journey between London and Grantham. For a ticket bought on the day of travel, both NRES and a King’s Cross station clerk quoted GNER’s ￡44. 50 fare, ignoring a Hull Trains service which leaves 10 minutes earlier and costs just ￡20.

Some of the most costly misinformation was given for journeys where season tickets should have been recommended. Passengers making a return journey between Swindon and Penzance twice in a week could buy a ticket from one company for ￡70 which would cover all the travel. But both NRES and station staff quoted ￡67 for each journey, making ￡134. However, the NRES website proved to be a much more reliable source of information.

Which? also checked “the earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket” claims by five companies and found this was not always the case. On some services, prices went up and down at random.

Ithiel Mogridge, 52, gave one example of poor advice: “Last Christmas I found my brother a ticket on the train line. Come to travel from Blackburn to Yate. While the direct route was ￡51, this one involved a change in Newport and cost just ￡21. I emailed the details to him and his partner. They went to Blackburn station, where the clerk insisted the fare was ￡51.”

Malcolm Coles, editor of which. co. uk, said: “Staff training needs to be improved. In the meantime, we’ve designed a checklist, available at which. co. uk / railadvice.” (from www.nmet168.com)

76. According to the passage “which?” is a ________.

A. national telephone helpline

B. department under the British Rail

C. consumer organization

D. website under the National Rail Enquiries

77. When the author said that customers “would have been ￡1,263. 60 worse off”, he was telling us that customers would have _________.

A. saved ￡1,263. 60 if they had followed the advice

B. spend ￡1,263. 60 more than the lowest price

C. used ￡1,263. 60 for the survey of 25 questions

D. been cheated of ￡1,263. 60 from the poor advice

78. The phrase at random in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to “_________”.

A. casually                 B. purposefully              C. exactly                 D. inevitably

79. The passage is mainly concerned with the phenomenon that __________.

A. train passengers get bad advice on fares

B. rail passengers are ill-treated by station staff

C. booking clerks and the telephone helpline offer reliable information

D. rail passengers can get cheaper tickets if they book earlier

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