Train companies have unbelieveably strict guidelines for frontline staff regarding passenger confrontations, they cover their backsides and then some.

This sutuation isn’t as uncommon as people think. The only reason it’s gone viral is that half of it’s been filmed and gone on th’internet, then the scrote (who was laughing about it online originally) has then squealed. The guard isn’t going to risk his job for an abusive faredodging scrote, the quickest way of resolving the situation (and therefore more attractive option for most passengers) is guard goes away and does a PA announcement along the lines of “we’re not moving until the abusive faredodger is removed by the police”, which some passengers with problem-solving skills see as an invitation to cut out the middleman (ie the copper who’s on his way from 30 miles away).

Everyone wins except the squealing scrote. Maybe if everyone paid the right fare then the ‘thieving train companies’ thread would be redundant.

goodman245 – Member
trainline in google

Not recommended, better off using one of the TOCs’ own (any TOC, doesn’t have to be the one you’re travelling with) booking systems, much simpler and easier to work out things like split ticketing and other bodges.

There is more than one union representing tube drivers.

Very rarely do I buy train tickets, but in less time than it took to type this post I found a ticket for KX-York, next Mon evening departing 19.18, a direct train taking less than two hours for £45 (single). Doesn’t need to be booked in advance, and you could even go first class for another £20.

If I can find that then surely others can?

Railcard is only good for off-peak travel.

Anytime day return is £3.70 per day, off peak £3.00, so railcard would save you £1. For a 26 3/4 mile round trip, quite hard to beat really.

Part of the disruption in these incidents is because trains and traincrew are out of position, there are residual delays and knock-on effects that sometimes can’t be sorted until the timetable is effectively rebooted (ie service starts again tomorrow). Looking at the live departure boards for Waterloo there is still stuff running round over an hour down.

Good for the prestige of the Europa League…

Pretty much uncharted MTB territory out there. Unbelieveably. Very strict access laws though.

Although (whisper it) it’s perfectly legal to ride on the pavement…

The first thing I remember thinking earlier this year when my head had cleared a bit later on in the evening, a few hours after seeing that poor guy’s last desperate moment hearing that noise and then going back to find only bits was ‘I feel very alive’.

Here’s a more relevant graph, ten year trespass and suicide per quarter, up to 2011 Q1, from the ORR.

Had one myself earlier this year, hence I take an interest in this sort of thing.

Edukator – there are ways to do it that minimise the trauma to others though. Thoughts to the driver (& guard if there is one), the others who have to attend the scene and those who must clean up.

Fatalities aren’t ‘up fourfold’ this year, they’re about the same as usual (about 200/year) so far. Unsurprisingly more common at this time of year.

Done, without hesitation.

Bought the OH a satnav earlier this year, apparently if used in the States you’ll be bombarded with adverts on it. Suitable legal warnings in the handbook etc so that’s ok…

Seen one of these (Ipad on dash, playing a film) in North Manchester recently, dumbfounded. (edit, dodgy predictive text!) Skoda Fabia by any chance?

Elfinsafety – Member
Tevez is doing the right thing by himself if you ask me. Like City actually give a stuff about any of their players anyway; they’re just a bunch of mercenaries to be bought and sold like cattle, and discarded when no longer useful. What they’ve done to players like SWP and several others is disgraceful. Buy them, then deny them the first team top-level footy they deserve according ot their abilities.

The same SWP who ditched City for Chelsea?

Isn’t a 6-1 away victory more comprehensive than 8-2 at home? Just a thought like. It’s a funny old season, underachievers and overachievers haven’t evened out yet.

To be fair, I could set my clocks by Parcel Force deliveries, to the credit of a delivery bloke who’s good. But my experience of sending stuff isn’t so rosy.

We had a next door neighbour we just called ‘numpty’ for a while, he was a strange fella for various reasons.

He might have had a worse name for me especially when I reversed my car into his new (to him) BMW Z3.

Old Labour was committed to nationalising industries. That would really not have fit well with the modern world we found ourselves in.

Not too well up on other industries, but British Rail has been mentioned in this thread. Nowadays we have a situation where other countries’ nationalised state railways run our privatised railway.

Rolling stock is leased, leasing companies (ROSCOs) have generally been owned by banks. The train operating companies (TOCs) service and maintain rolling stock, sometimes in association with the manufacturer (ie Siemens, Alstom) for newer trains. For even the most basic 2-carriage passenger train (lowliest on the network in 2011) leasing costs alone are about £200k pa. The cost of new passenger rolling stock usually works out about £1m per carriage.

The government (nationally and locally) decide service levels and allocation of rolling stock and let franchises based on historic, geographic and commercial boundaries. The TOCs (franchisees) gamble that they can turn a profit running the franchises within the specifications the govt prescribes.

A few ‘open access’ operators (Hull Trains, Grand Central, Wrexham & Shropshire) – basically people wanting to run trains outside the franchise system – have cropped up since privatisation. Generally these companies tend to lose money hand over fist, and all the above have either gone bust or been bought out by their (franchised) competitors if they turn a profit or prove a threat to business.

The standards, safety cases, regulations and general cans of worms involved in running train services, even for established franchised operators, keeps armies of lawyers and consultants in business. That’s one reason why the railway today sucks up more subsidy than ever when nationalised under British Rail (which even managed to run its own extensive R&D departments and make everything itself including its own steel).

The tories privatised BR in the 90s, the mess we have now is directly the result of that.

Oh and one reason the bike spaces are at the ends of newer trains such as Pendolinos etc is because construction standards dictated that passengers couldn’t travel in that portion of the front vehicle in case of collision. Effectively, the crumple zone.

Engineering?

Official average 35hr / week over strict 4 day week. The odd voluntary Sunday too in addition as overtime.

He’s a gonk. And increasingly so these days.

Used ODI Yeti Speed Grips (the ones that say ‘YETIYETI’ across them) mostly since mid/late ’90s, did try the standard ‘Yeti’ grips once during that time, wasn’t impressed.

Final salary pension.

Also, a polite word with the guard (‘train manager’ on Virgin et al) -before you try to board- won’t do any harm if you haven’t booked your bike on and you’re resigned to having to snaffle your bike on ghetto style. If you ask and they say no they’d only have thrown you off at the first stop anyway if you didn’t bother asking.

+1. Need to sort out low-speed rail first, unfortunately high-speed rail is seen as an easy way to free up capacity on the network that’s been lost over the last 30+ years by short-sighted approach to minimizing maintenance requirements.

London-Manchester now takes 2 hours, how much faster do you want? Ever diminishing returns and all that.

If you’re ever unlucky enough to have this happen to you, this is how you’d want it to pan out. Hope OP is ok.

Deep fried Mars bar please.

Correct.

More relevant to this post, ticketing was far simpler up til about 1998 (couple of years after privatisation). Tickets for bikes at that time were unheard of – reservations had to be made on certain routes/operators but were generally free. And there was a lot more space for bikes on VWC / XC services before Branson’s plastic trains started running (yes I know XC isn’t Virgin these days).

Yes.

Several problems here. Ticketing regs are beyond ridiculous, everyone acknowledges this except ATOC and the Train Operating Companies. The whole lot needs a shake up. Why is this the case? Because there are dozens of private companies running services, and the way the TOC franchise system works means their goal isn’t to provide service to the passenger but to operate the franchise within defined parameters at the lowest cost possible while maximizing subsidy and revenue, and therefore profit for shareholders.

Bikes on trains are seen privately by the TOCs as an inconvenience – they’re required to carry bikes within limits and often otherwise at the guard’s discretion but bikes take up space that fare-paying people could use instead, hence the hoops to jump through with the long-distance/That London operators. Space is at a premium because 1) TOCs run bare-bones fleets so save fuel/energy costs, 2) there’s a national shortage of rolling stock anyway due to mass withdrawals to meet new regs ten years ago and the government’s continued dalliance with biting the bullet and ordering new rolling stock, and 3) passenger numbers are through the roof.

It needs a wholesale shake up of the industry before things will improve, it’s just not going to happen while you’ve got private companies running TOCs.

Local operators are usually a lot more flexible, ie just turn up and chuck your bike on. Don’t expect miracles at rush hour, and remember also that split ticketing can be massively cheaper (ie try booking London-X & X-Y tickets).

The unwilling, led by the unknowing, attempting to do the impossible for the ungrateful.

Aka passenger train driver.

Govts could solve these crises tomorrow, problem [for them] is getting re-elected after doing so. The troughs have been made too irresistible.

+1 for Lambics.

+1 BMW & Audi. Also anything French.

Can’t believe someone said they’d buy an Audi but that ‘only a fool’ would buy a VW due to ‘premium branding’…

Up about 9-10am, bed about 2 sometimes 3am usually when working (permanent late shifts). If I did my early-late proper shifts then I have to be up about 90 mins before starting work, early start times have ranged over the years from 1.10am (up before midnight) to about 7.30am. Permanent jetlag, hence the permanent lates now.

Reykjavik flea market. Get your Hakarl there, a couple of stalls there do little tiny pots for Kr150. That’s all you’ll need of it. Then drink yourself silly around Laugavegur.

The Blue Lagoon Clinic hotel comes recommended, has a private lagoon away from the masses (but no lagoon bar, unlike the public lagoon which sells licorice ice lollies and champagne FTW). You do get free entry etc to the public lagoon if you stay at the clinic though. The food at the Lava restaurant there is surprisingly exquisite, proper fine dining.