Phil
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Post by Phil on Feb 29, 2012 19:33:07 GMT
but it'll be difficult from Paris ;D Why? We've had members attend from the USA before, and almost one from Australia ;D .
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Feb 27, 2012 22:51:45 GMT
Those two undercover ticket inspectors aren't so undercover now are they? true, but 1. They are all so non-descript you'd have trouble remembering their faces and 2. How many regular fare-dodgers are the same sort of people that would sit down in front of BBC2 on a Monday night? Especially as they are the folk that hate LU so much they refuse to pay for it!!
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Feb 27, 2012 22:46:08 GMT
And another forum member plays a starring role .
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Feb 23, 2012 13:05:25 GMT
Admins - please move (or even delete!) if you think appropriate: Personally, as a non-LU admin I'm quite happy for it to stay as it is, where it is. But if Colin (as LU) feels we're 'on the verge' here, we'll have a little admin talk and decide.............
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Phil
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Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Feb 21, 2012 7:32:27 GMT
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Feb 21, 2012 7:21:55 GMT
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Feb 20, 2012 22:55:03 GMT
Episode 1. Fair, honest and unbiased? Too simplistic for the specialist? OK for the general viewer?
Personally I thought it a reasonable start to the series. Put the staff in a good light. What do others think?
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Phil
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Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Feb 20, 2012 11:16:43 GMT
Warning - long post!I recently came across this series of books www.securitynovels.co.uk/based around the London transport system, particularly the tube network. They are great fun, lots of action keep the attention, yet not so gripping you miss your stop! In other words ideal for light reading on a commute or for those odd 15min turnrounds or mealbreaks when you want just a bit to do coz all is running smoothly. They are based in the current times (2001 on) and the "security services" of the series title are apparently the author's replacement for the ordinary police force - good idea since they get up to things the real force could never do - like silencing uncontrollable burglar alarms by putting a bullet through them! Unfortunately (inevitably?) the first book (they are NOT novels in any way) is a bit plodding as the characters are introduced. However the plot is fun and not TOO far-fetched, and the baddies are really bad; those who like a bit of 'conspiracy theory' as to who really runs the country will not be disappointed. The rest of the series follows on, improving all the time, and the lead characters develop nicely. Different nasties each time (except when they escape and come back.....), some quite clever twists and overall good fun if you like light reading which is not too taxing. Downsides? The author (currently a guard on the Southern) is almost obsessive about details of LU matters, train types, door noises, station layouts etc., and yet getting the odd one totally wrong, and in one book two groups of security officers go chasing a baddie from opposite ends of the westbound Picc, one from Knightsbridge the other from Glos Rd and meet in the middle in the dark tunnel - - not noticing the huge bright area which is South Ken station!!!!!! He also obsesses about hard-soled shoes, dropping biscuit crumbs down uniforms (really!) and driving habits on the roads, repeating various background bits so many times you wish he'd shut up! But perhaps these are meant to be the 'funny bits' and I've missed the point...... There are seventeen books in the series so far and my comments are based on the first eight. They can be downloaded free from the above site ( www.securitynovels.co.uk/) and read on an ebook reader on your smartphone/communicator/tablet etc. If you want a reader (most are free to install and use) ask me for suggestions, and the books come as .pdf format (not good on a phone) or as .txt which is a bit basic and crude. Most reader devices have settled on .epub format which is good all round, and I am converting the downloads to .epub for my own use as I need them. If any member is sufficiently interested to want the .epub versions, send me a PM and I'll send the book(s) to your forum email address. Free of course! Summary - if you like light reading and LU matters, give this series a try: it's a whole load of fun! Relax and enjoy.
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Phil
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RIP 23-Oct-2018
Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Feb 15, 2012 8:55:29 GMT
Are we not in danger of getting overcomplicated here? Taking something which is for sale without paying for it is theft. HOWEVER you cannot be charged with stealing something which you already own.......... So in the above cases if you have bought one copy, you've paid the royalties etc., and own personal rights to use that track. Which means that if you can't (are blocked from) transfer it to your music player then acquiring a copy elsewhere is entirely within your rights. But the law, especially when the Americans tinker with it , gets ridiculously complicated and nobody knows where they stand......
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Jan 28, 2012 12:40:41 GMT
I was also wondering the history of the unusual patterns, One very likely reason (please confirm tubeprune/reganorak/a.n.other) is that directly outside TG stn was Chiswick Works - not only a huge employer in itself but also the training base for all bus conductors/drivers from all over the system - in other words a very "LT" station. Hence when I went conductor training (start 0630) my Picc train from Oakwood conveniently stopped at TG, avoiding me having to change. With Chiswick Works long closed the original reason for the Picc stoppers has vanished in the mists of time, but as Colin says, keeps a good service pattern in the tails of the service.
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Phil
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Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Jan 26, 2012 22:54:52 GMT
Given the extensive misrepresentation (i.e. lying) that the Evening Standard put out yesterday evening regarding driver pay, I'm surprised that LU haven't been inundated with either job applications or mob-handed rioters. No point - they still have hundreds (maybe even thousands) of externals who applied, passed all the tests and were then told LU weren't recruiting, but, if they restarted, those would be first in the queue.......TfL human resources at its continuing best .
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Phil
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RIP 23-Oct-2018
Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Jan 8, 2012 9:53:32 GMT
Don't forget that with Oyster you at least have an option. If you logon/register your account online you can then access every transaction from your PC, and that includes every journey, every credit/debit and anything else you need to know. So you can find out if you were charged within 24hours of the event/non-event without having to phone the bank .
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Phil
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Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Dec 31, 2011 12:22:15 GMT
Well said Metcontrol. This has already happened with regard to Sundays. Oh so true! With so many years' statistics to call on, it now seems certain that regular Sunday opening didn't profit any of the big stores or chains. Any (marginal) increase in sales over a whole week was more than offset by the cost of employing staff for the extra day - a 14% increase in staff costs when you think about it...... But we are where we are, and unless ALL the major chains UNANIMOUSLY agreed to stay closed again on Sundays it just won't happen. And I suspect it is this (no going backwards) that is keeping the unions honest (to their members ) regarding working over the Christmas break.
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 29, 2011 12:37:54 GMT
Hmmm......... Stock wont ever "work straight out of the box" as you put it. There will be plenty of smallish faults that need to be ironed out. Considering bombardier are mostly agency staff, it's not fantastic news. It is good but if they could sort out their manufacturing problems then maybe they would be up there with Siemens. Spoken like a true engineer! Argue both sides of the argument in the interests of fairness. It's just a shame that most (granted not all....) of the S stock problems are due to manufacturing issues not technical ones .
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Phil
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Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Dec 29, 2011 12:17:27 GMT
To a Moderator, I think that the posts of this discussion should be moved to a thread in a more general area. ADMIN: your point is noted and the thread has been being watched. But in this case (unlike many others) the discussion never really got totally away from the original topic. Yes there were minor digressions but if we excised the whole of the 'public holiday' section of the thread we'd make a nonsense of the rest of it. And if it did get moved it wouldn't go to a general area since the peak/non-peak problem cropped up fair-and-square on the Met.
DD forum members are VERY good at thread drift and although you are right in principle this one (IOHO) never went far enough to get out the scissors . Close call either way .
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Phil
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Posts: 9,473
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Post by Phil on Dec 28, 2011 18:45:55 GMT
However, stating they are running a Saturday timetable actually conveys more useful customer information than just saying its a reduced service. One for the lawyers (and bengley) here. If the advert was for a Saturday timetable, then no peak vs off-peak, times or fares etc.etc.,(just a weekday with less trains) , but if the advert was for a Saturday SERVICE it includes all the restrictions and benefits of a Saturday service and peak fares cannot be charged (legally). At least, that's the legal position down here - a Saturday SERVICE is being run all week and all terms and conditions are those for a Saturday including no peak fares, and Senior Citizens cards all day. Depending on the EXACT wording of the advert bengley may well have a claim for a refund of the excess fare charged.
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 28, 2011 12:36:13 GMT
Talking of S stock, I hope Bombardier make a better job of getting the new stock to work 'straight out of the box' than they have (so far....) with the S stock. It really is the 'last-chance-saloon' for them now. best news of all is that it forces Bob Crowe to say something positive for once .
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 27, 2011 9:19:39 GMT
On Christmas Day, ..... I went out for a nice ride on my bike... and even then I noticed convenience stores open and people milling about. Two things - first, people milling about. Good on them (if they're moving not idling). With our old famliy Christmases by far the best thing to do after an overlong oversize meal was to get out into the fresh air and go for a walk. Beat playing charades any day! Second, convenience stores. Great. Totally illustrates what was said upthread - those of other faiths surely have no desire or need to 'celebrate' Christmas - it's a normal day - so what more normal thing than to open your store you've worked so hard to get the cash to buy it for?
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 25, 2011 23:03:42 GMT
And I see that at least one of the major chains is starting their Boxing Day sale at 0600!!!
Just to whose advantage is that??
It's all down to business, and always has been even in the 'good old days'. I remember taking a woman from a village to the town hospital one Sunday afternoon in the late 70s, just one week before the Sunday service was withdrawn. She was the only passenger (normally that bus ran empty for the whole journey every Sunday).
She was complaining bitterly about the Sunday services going so I asked her how often she used it - - the answer was "this is the first time in 5 years, but they should still keep running it just in case".
Yes, I do feel sorry for the hospital workers and the non-car-owners who want to visit relatives on Christmas day; but any subsidised service is done so with OUR money, so from aspect are we really that altruistic?? Discuss!!
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 25, 2011 7:42:23 GMT
Errm, when they came back to the Bakerloo they just put the old blinds back; they were in a financial crisis? 1959 stock on the Bakerloo/Jubilee in 1983? I doubt it. Is there photographic evidence of that? (easy version to not cause unnecessary headaches; any pictures?) ADMIN: you have been warned about your 'I know better than you' attitude and refusing to accept or believe anything you haven't seen for yourself: what makes it worse here is that you are contradicting some who have not only worked for LU for years, but have actually driven the trains themselves. The members are getting fed up with you and you have ignored the last written warning you were given. You are now one small step away from the inevitable, so WATCH IT.
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 24, 2011 23:37:43 GMT
Back on topic, Dot matrix are useful in the sticks where one bus may swap between several depots; our bus DMIs have at least 400 destinations programmed in (by route of course!!) and if there is a special event, a few buses can easily have the program modded. You'd be surprised at what some jokers have left on one or two of our buses.......
But I agree that blinds are FAR easier to read than DMIs at any distance - but as for upper v lower case the jury's out. If the l/c was the same size as the upper they'd be much easier to pick out, but as R/T says above, they reduce the font so the leading capitals are the same as they were with all u/c, so the overall effect is rather small - - - which was another excuse reason for doing away with 'via' points on the buses!!!
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 24, 2011 23:29:27 GMT
How many stations are there with J, P, Q or Y in the name? That's your Christmas Quiz Chris!!! Let us know by the new year. All you need is a map
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 20, 2011 23:10:00 GMT
The best railway one I saw was the Rail (mag) reporting, and showing photos of, locomotives with no numbers but just barcodes (remember this was a time long before code readers on mobiles etc.). Well written, very convincing ("Automatic registering of locos/trains as they progress round the land, especially freights") and so close to a bean-counter's idea of saving money that it could just - just - have been genuine.
You can imagine the furore in letters by the platform-enders in the next issue; and some of them complained even harder when they WERE told they'd been had. A dedicated p-ender is very serious and very hard to please........
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 18, 2011 10:24:34 GMT
Is their no way just to implement the old timetable rather than this fail of the new one instead? And just use that till the next change? That's what everyone said at the start of the 'new circle' last year, and just look now at how satisfied (almost) everyone is at the changes, now it's all settled in............
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 12, 2011 22:44:54 GMT
But Last Torturing Travel and Last Awful Western also happen to be one of the bad TOC's, incidentally. ADMIN: since you do not live in this country you have no idea how, on a day-to-day basis these two franchises perform. As it happens, most of those who TRAVEL on FGW (as opposed to those who just make up their own minds without any facts) know that in the last couple of years they have become one of the best performers in most aspects (but let down in one or two points). I see bonzeonion has posted the same thing while I'm actually typing.
Chris........ you have been warned several times about meaningless, ill-informed and facetious posts and seem determined to ignore all advice. If you continue to do so the forum staff will be forced to take action. Please take this as a warning and modify your posting accordingly. Thank you.
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 12, 2011 22:31:59 GMT
We have actually had both on the forum before, but it doesn't do any harm to repeat once in a while .
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Dec 1, 2011 8:08:37 GMT
That link in the other thread takes you to this site: www.dragondark.co.uk/osi/osi.pdfIt still works BUT - 1. it's not official and 2. it's over a year old. Only an LU employee could tell us if there have been any changes.
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Phil
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RIP 23-Oct-2018
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Post by Phil on Nov 29, 2011 15:23:40 GMT
The worrying part is that such obviously flawed setups exist. As usual, you've put my long post into a tiny nutshell Twas the point I was trying to make - passenger wasn't drunk or out of her mind, just a tad careless. Shouldn't have been possible.....
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Nov 29, 2011 11:25:14 GMT
Another case of a passenger wilfully disregarding own safety! You jest (I hope.......)!!! Haven't you ever suddenly realized you were at your stop just as the doors started closing? Almost all humans have at some stage. And with a guard or a station SA, that just would not have happened. Anyway, you hard-hearted maintenance man, - read this bit: "Around 17 seconds after the train had arrived in the platform the driver pressed the ‘doors close’ button in the driving cab."Not 17 secs after doors open, mind you. Even if alert, if you've got several bags and aren't quick (elderly??) that ain't an awful lot of time.... unless you're already leaning on the doors willing them to open!In my view in this case the passenger was totally blameless; however if the doors had been open for 30secs or more I would have taken a totally opposite view.......
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Phil
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Post by Phil on Nov 29, 2011 8:51:43 GMT
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