How to use Conductor Sam to look up a rail journey

If you use Conductor Sam to look up one of the 1000+ most popular journeys taken by leisure travellers in 16 European countries, it's likely that you'll find more than the answers to your question.
As per the examples shown below...

As can seen above, when asking a question about a popular journey on Sam, the answer will include an overview of the trip, with key items of info such as:

• the journey time,
• the major station calls,
• the core information about the ticketing.
  Though Sam will also include suggestions and additional info to help a traveller make the most of a trip.

To make it easier to actually take the trip, Sam will also include a link to a curated guide to the journey, which includes more detailed info such as:

• easy access to all that's good to know about the stations where the journey will commence and finish;
• insights into the experience of travelling on the type of train used on this route;
• links to multiple agents, to give travellers a choice of booking options;
• context to guide a traveller to the purchase of the optimum ticket;
• insights to making the most of the journey - with images and videos for scenic routes.

If more than one type of train are used on a route, or if more than one company provides different train services, the answer provided by Conductor Sam will include a summary of the different options

To make the taking of a a European rail journey as simple as possible - when asking Conductor Sam about a popular rail route the answer will typically include both a summary of how tickets can be used, plus links to the booking agents which sell the route.

There will also usually be a link to a curated guide to the journey, which includes more detailed, need to know, info info about

• the stations where the journey will commence and finish:
• the facilities on the train;
• additional context to assist with the purchase of the optimum ticket;
• insights to making the most of the journey - with images and videos for scenic routes.

When asking Conductor Sam about a route on which a journey requires the taking of more than one train, the answer will include a summary of the key info, that's worth knowing about each stage of the trip.

As can be seen the answer on Conductor Sam will include both a summary of the need to know information, and will give a broad insight as to what the journey entails.
The idea is that the overview can assist with making a decision regarding whether to go ahead and make the trip, but if you do then decide to take the journey, you will need more detailed information.
Which is why Sam will typically also include easy access to more detailed information such as:

• how to make the connections between trains
• how tickets can be booked
• links to the booking agents which sell the journey
• insights into each stage of the journey - what's on board the trains, any scenic highlights etc.

European rail journeys which require more than three connections between trains don't have curated 'how to guides' on ShowMeTheJourney - because the number of people who will want to take such long and complicated routes, doesn't justify the hours of effort that would be required.
So one of the reasons behind the creation of Conductor Sam was to provide insights into for taking these longer journeys.

The resort town of Sorrento is more then 2000 km from London and it's station isn't part of the Italian national rail network - it is at the end of a branch line of a local commuter rail system that serves the area around and to the south of Mt Vesuvius.
Though as be can seen, despite the distance and the multiple trains required to complete the wonderful journey, Conductor Sam is able to pull together the chain of required connections in order to create an answer.

Sam has provided an overview of the trip, which was correct at the time of the question being asked - it has suggested a route via the south of France, because of the temporary closure of the Lyon to Torino railway.

For more details of how to make such a multi-leg journey, additional information can often be obtained by following the links to the booking agents.
In addition to the ticket price(s) it will be possible to access journey details, such as the times between arrival and departure of each of the trains, in the end-to-end chain.
Or for additional insights on how to take the journey, bespoke advice can be requested from the Concierge service.

Well it would of course be wonderful if every lovely European town amidst a beautiful landscape had a railway station, but on some routes that once had trains, the 'replacement' bus services can still plug a gap - and therefore provide useful access by public transport.
You may have realized by now that ShowMeTheJourney is, for the moment, dedicated to rail travel - but what Conductor Sam helps achieve, is explaining journeys on which trains cover most, but not all of the distant travelled.

Though Conductor Sam has been able to put together this journey which involves 2 x trains + 1 x bus, partially because of a transport interchange along the route, which enables an easy train to bus transfer.
Also the bus route partially exists to enable an onward connection from a town with a station, to one without - what Sam can't typically do at the moment, is include local bus and tram city routes within an answer.

Many of Europe's most visited attractions don't have an adjacent rail stations, but if they can be reached on a combination of train + bus, that won't prevent Conductor Sam from explaining how to get there.
Because when asking a question you don't need to include a station, or the name of a town which you know has one .
Sam will:

• scan a map for a place,
• check if it is served by a regular bus service,
• work out if that bus service is connected to a train service.
  If it can tick off those criteria, Sam can usually provide an answer.
  But with thousands of tourist attractions scattered across Europe, we haven't been able to get close to comprehensively testing this - So if you're looking up how to get to a location, which you know can be accessed by train + bus, but Sam says 'Sorry', please use the Bad button to let us know.

As can be seen, in addition to summarizing the connections, Conductor Sam can also provide insights into how to book the tickets for the end-to-end journey.
Plus in this example the section of the route covered by the train has a curated 'how to guide', so Sam has included easy access to additional info, such as:

• the key things worth knowing about the stations where the train journey will commence and finish;
• insights into the experience of travelling on the type of train used on this route;
• insights to making the most of the journey - with images and videos for scenic routes.

Conductor Sam is targeted at mapping tech - So that it can typically answer questions about journeys to locations which aren't directly served by a railway, if there is a station which serves as the commonly used point of access to the area.

Conductor Sam can nearly always handle international routes which require a connection, so it has included the connection at Milano Centrale - which is typically required when taking a rail journey from Switzerland to more southerly locations in Italy

Picturesque Portofino has partially retained it's beauty because its peninsular location prevents it from being directly served by the Italian railway network.
Hence Sam is making it clear that a bus or taxi is required to complete the end-to-end journey.

Pre the existence of Conductor Sam, I confused myself about how to reach Amalfi, as it's located some distance from the nearest major rail station, which is in Salerno.
What I didn't realise is that there is a ferry network which serves the Amalfi Coast - though as can be seen, if I had been able to use Sam at the time, I would have been aware that concluding the end-to-end journey by ferry would have been an option.
Because Sam can typically pick up on well-used train + ferry connections.

If you ask Conductor Sam how to take a train to a tourist attraction, you don't need to know the name of the station which enables it to be accessed.
If the tourist attraction, or rail company's website, suggests that taking the train for the majority of a journey can be a way to go, Sam should pick up on this.
Though if the attraction isn't regularly served by public transport, Sam will say "Sorry..."

When it's an option, the website of the tourist attraction will typically tell you either, which rail services are available at the adjacent station, or how to travel on from the nearest station.
What Conductor Sam can do is go the the extra mile and explain how to make the end-to-end journey from a user's starting point.
Note that in the example, the user's journey was beginning at an Underground station in central London - because Sam can often put together an overview of the journey when a 'metro' station is a start or end point.

If you have tickets to sports, music or exhibition event, you can ask Conductor Sam if and how you can get to the venue by train - despite the fact that these large venues don't tend to be located in city centres.

The stadiums in a city are almost always too enormous to have a city centre location, but they typically have adjacent metro stations, to enable access by public transport access.
As can be seen Conductor Sam can usually pick up these metro stations. to produce an overview of a train journey from one stadium to another - no matter the distance.

When an event is consistently staged in the one location, you can ask Sam how to get to it by train.
As can be seen, in addition to the summary the answer can include

• an overview of the journey
• a summary of the ticketing + a link to one or more booking service
• easy access to more information about the event and venue.