hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Aug 4, 2020 14:07:30 GMT
What does it do that other apps cannot? Seems a bit pointless otherwise.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on May 22, 2020 9:52:51 GMT
I have had no issues there, and I am a driver on the Central Line. It could be people leaning on the doors causing the motors to drop out momentarily, or the motors just tripping out on overload. A quick press of a button will solve that problem. Taking in to account the recent drop in passenger numbers, I doubt it is my first suggestion.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on May 19, 2020 8:29:35 GMT
Did yesterdays ramping up of the service go as planned? I believe there where approx 30 drivers sent home for refusing to work on the grounds of safety.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on May 13, 2020 15:47:58 GMT
Social distancing - 00 gauge style! Surely the idea of removing seats is being taken a little too literally? It would be quite feasible to mark certain seats as out of use, although unless a robust way of doing it is found then they would probably just find themselves used again. We’ve already seen platform seating taken out of use with hazard tape, although this seems to be local initiative rather than laid-down policy. I hear on the grapevine (I’m still on leave) that it looks like there’s going to be an attempt to restore normal timetables from Monday, on some lines at least. It’s fair to say the general view in my neck of the woods is that there’s still nothing like the number of staff required to run the normal timetable without a very high number of cancellations. Unless it’s possible to do a *lot* of juggling between now and then, this will deliver a highly erratic service due to the numbers of trains going out of and in to service as a result of duties being uncovered. It’s rather sad to reflect that TfL doesn’t come out of all this with its head held high, it should have been quite possible to have implemented viable timetable notices by this point. The service has in reality only been kept going thanks to expertise from staff at the front line, the level of support from the back-of-house managerial functions has been literally zero. Going forward some serious questions need to be asked IMO. Its going to be very difficult to social distance in crew depots given the required number of un-furloughed train ops to run a normal service.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on May 12, 2020 23:04:09 GMT
Can it be done on S stock? I believe the answer is no. It’s certainly possible on 95 stock, although as you say it requires the train to be driven manually (which puts 95% of drivers off straight away!). It’s also a little frowned upon, whilst not officially forbidden it’s a bit of a grey area, and certainly having the door open can lead to dirty looks. I gather some lines have local agreements regarding having the instructor’s side door open, however not all lines do. Maybe its the Alzheimer's but I seem to recall we had all this a few years ago when a Central Line driver was photographed driving with the door open and the photo was sent to the Standard
Our Line Manager (now someone else's problem) told the Standard that it was against the rules and the driver would be disciplined...
...but when management were asked where it said in the Rulebooks we can't drive with the door open lo and behold they couldn't find anything Yes. I know the driver. All they could get him on was being in CM when he should have been in auto.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on May 11, 2020 10:25:31 GMT
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on May 11, 2020 9:57:02 GMT
I'm on leave at the moment. Was it busier during the morning peak and was social distancing observed? Apparently, the Jubilee Line platforms at Green Pk this AM were almost like a return to normal.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on May 6, 2020 20:28:02 GMT
Not a response to the previous two posts but just an anectodal observation from today's travels from me -- it does feel like the central line could do with more than 6tph at key times of the day, especially through the central section. I travelled from Oxford Circus to South Woodford at just after 1800 and social distancing was nigh on impossible, particularly from Holborn through to Leytonstone. The Bakerloo line by comparison (Padd to Oxford Circus) was empty! I wonder how many of them were key workers? I keep seeing groups of teenagers on bikes and kids on skateboards roaming the east end of the central.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 21, 2020 8:06:37 GMT
I wonder if District line instructor operators are still taking trainees in the cab with social distancing, with implications for commissioning of SMA3. Some refresher training is probably also outstanding. Whilst some relaxations may be made, social distancing will probably be one of the last. SMA3 was supposed to start trial running in early May 2020 last I heard. I believe that all in cab training across the combine is on hold at present.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 18, 2020 22:27:56 GMT
On the Central Line they have a lot of traveling on the cushions, Remote meal reliefs and finishing at remote depots instead of our own. On top of the shortage of drivers they want us to share staff taxis.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 18, 2020 20:49:31 GMT
I believe that it is illegal to take strike action during times of national crisis. LUL have the unions over a barrel.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 17, 2020 22:56:38 GMT
Social media has made everybody far more knowledgeable than the experts who've spent many years building their knowledge at educational estalishments, in laboratries, workplaces, studies of real life scenario's, etc, etc. Anyway, back to the railway... Apparently LU plans to bring in its temporary timetables created by sheduling services on 26th April (currently all lines are running a less formal made up emergency timetable). The official email I've seen setting this out states that all duties will be 7 hours 12 minutes in length. Not sure how this will actually work in practice as no two lines are the same - guess we'll find out when we see the actual duties.In the mean time, I was talking to a union rep at Upminster yesterday and they've already raised a number of issues such as the number of meal breaks scheduled at particular times & locations as well as live changeover's of driver's - both are highly likely to contravene social distancing guidelines. Glad I'm on annual leave whilst this rumbles on..... This will be interesting. The 4 min service through the pipe is a bit ambitious. Especially on the Central where there are a lot of drivers still off sick!
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 17, 2020 9:19:00 GMT
Interesting that the mayor, Sadiq Khan, is calling for the wearing of masks on public transport by passengers. This goes against the current national guidance. Some train operators and bus drivers having been doing this for a while now. I suppose it helps to give the impression that these guys are putting themselves at risk to keep the services running. I just found out that as from Mon 20th all buses will be entry/exit via middle doors only.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 10, 2020 22:28:02 GMT
It seems that station staff maybe temporarily reducing their hours due to the crisis. Train Ops will still work normally. T/Op's aren't exactly working normally. On our line at Cockfosters, we are just doing one trip to Heathrow and back. I'm booking on at 21:40 tomorrow for a 22:15 pickup. Apologies, I was referring to full time T/ops rather than night tubers.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 10, 2020 10:58:54 GMT
That was train 105 - 05.35. I suppose it depends on what mood the signaller is in. With the current ad hoc Covid 19 emergency sevice it probably wont run any way
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 10, 2020 9:44:52 GMT
It seems that station staff maybe temporarily reducing their hours due to the crisis. Train Ops will still work normally.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 8, 2020 9:59:16 GMT
I noticed yesterday afternoon that some people are venturing out again. All I have picked up recently are teenagers in hoodies on bikes ( Who are now taking the opportunity to cover their faces in masks like everyone else) Builders and decorators in paint splattered trackies and general folk going happily about their business. One bloke had a go at me at Hainault because he had to wait 20 mins for a westbound train. I asked him if he was a key worker and if not, he should be at home. He told me to ****off!
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 2, 2020 11:41:44 GMT
The Central line seems to have disintegrated with a part suspension caused by a trespasser. When I checked, there were no westbound trains anywhere on the line from Hainault / Epping all the way to Marble Arch. I guess an emergency timetable is very hard to maintain when there is an additional disruption. Still nothing west of WHC 2 hours later. This is an unusual delay for trespassers.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 1, 2020 20:22:07 GMT
ASLEF are pushing for this to be implemented asap. But how? The Ad Hoc service currently running on the central has allegedly been open to abuse by some depots where drivers are barely seeing a train and others are working like horses to run the main core. The 7 hour 12 system will ensure everybody gets a fair crack.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Apr 1, 2020 11:39:19 GMT
Very good! Considering 7 stations remain closed (8 yesterday), 61 trains cancelled (yesterday AM) and average 40.7% of service provided! UPDATE 12.00 now back to “special service” Northern Line; however Circle Line now “good service” although no actual service operating! Yet they hope to be able to run a 4 minute end=to-end service? Like that's every going to happen! ASLEF are pushing for this to be implemented asap.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Mar 29, 2020 19:25:04 GMT
We have 32 drivers absent at White City I found out today, either self isolating or other things. The main Central Line service at present, is ran by Hainault and White City drivers doing a 15 min Ealing - Hainault shuttle. If the attendance drops any lower, I doubt if there will be any service at all.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Mar 24, 2020 9:18:49 GMT
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Mar 19, 2020 11:24:11 GMT
This morning I heard on the radio news that 40 Underground stations have closed & services reduced Altho' not travelling at the moment I was still curious to know more - so I went to the TfL website tfl.gov.ukWaste of time - no info about closed stations and all lines were showing 'a good service' except Circle and Hamm & City, these show a 15 minute frequency. btw, re: the comment about closed stations all having lifts, Redbridge does not have lifts - nor for that matter does it have escalators. Its so shallow that it only has steps. Also, a comment on the Ian Visits page suggests that local people are peeved that Blackhorse Road is closed - as its an important Goblin / Victoria line interchange station. I wonder if the stations chosen to close are partly because of local staffing issues? I am surprised to see that the Hainault - Woodford shuttle stations are still open - especially Roding Valley! I do hope that all these stations reopen again afterwards. edit to add: it looks like that both I and aslefshrugged were typing our messages at the same time... but aslefshrugged finished his message before I finished mine! As someone else mentioned Blackhorse Road is on a "twinned" "Area" with Walthamstow Central but its also part of a "Cover Group" that covers the six stations down to Highbury & Islington, all six stations are Section 12s and all are interchanges. Out of those six Blackhorse Road has the least number of passengers six and when there was an overtime ban a few years ago it was always the station that management chose to close first. As for the other stations you'd have to check which "Areas" and "Cover Groups" they are in and I can't be bothered running through them all. Another factor is how close they are to another station e.g. Charing Cross is closed but Embankment is a short walk down Villiers Street, ditto Chancery Lane/Holborn and Redbridge/Snaresbrook Roding Valley, Chigwell and Grange Hill are not "Section 12s" and can be left open without any staff.There is absolutely no reason why the stations will not reopen once there are enough staff. Just hope there is no emergency where the driver needs assistance then.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Mar 19, 2020 11:15:38 GMT
Interesting to see the closure of Queensway and Bayswater. The stations are only a short walk from each other and would be a great help to leave one of them open. Actually Queensway is still open at present.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Mar 18, 2020 10:32:28 GMT
Is that one that is both analog and digital? I wore one for a while, until each display showed a different time and I couldn't re-synchronise them! Yes thats the one. I think it may be broken. Oh well.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Mar 16, 2020 17:48:59 GMT
I have just found this at the bottom of my wardrobe. It has long ceased to work. I have replaced the battery but cannot remember how to set it. I believe it sets automatically but it does not. Any one remember how to set them??
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Dec 29, 2019 11:00:03 GMT
Nice clean 62 stock.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Nov 30, 2019 16:31:10 GMT
On the Central Line meal reliefs can be taken at the following locations: West Ruislip White City Leytonstone Hainault Loughton
Only White City and Leytonstone have a staff canteen. Its not that cheap and the food is poor. If they cant deep fry it or microwave it, you cant have it.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Nov 14, 2019 10:40:54 GMT
Its now a car park.
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hobbayne
RIP John Lennon and George Harrison
Posts: 516
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Post by hobbayne on Nov 12, 2019 9:20:22 GMT
We had about a quarter of Hainault retire recently, and West Ruislip are also struggling. White City are not too bad, having a few long term sick back to work and a few night tubers promoted. However WHC spares are being farmed out to other depots to run for them. Also, It is not really a temporary shortage when it takes 3 to 4 months to train a driver up.
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