The Weather

If trains were left in ATO mode, there'd be s serious risk of all, if not most, trains being affected with traction motor issues, wheel flats. Because ATO uses the trains traction/braking to its max, thus straight to full power departing, full brake halfway into the station, you can see what would happen if there were slippery rails; brakes would come on, Wheel Slide Protection would release them, ATO would put them back on.... result = chaos.

Some bloke outside Canary Wharf yesterday was puffing away on a ciggie, moaning that England is rubbish at handling a few inches of snow. He claimed other countries manage.

YES!!! thats because those countries he was thinking about probably have snow 80% of the year, every year!

To be honest when they started up in work Ive just told them how deep the snow is above the tracks or the issues we started having around 10pm on sunday and they shut up and realise what happened wasn't a 'normal' event but something serious and they are lucky they have a service.

And that's half the battle - how many of the failures that have occurred across all lines over the last few days have actually been related to the weather?

Certainly the East Putney failure mentioned elsewhere wasn't - it lasted 2 days but was actually a fault in a 400 metre cable. We've also had failures at Fulham Broadway - that was down to a track fuse.

There have been weather related failures - my wrong direction move back to Stepney Green was the result of frozen points at Whitechapel - and stalled trains at Barking & Plaistow bays were the result of uncleared snow.

Trouble is, the perception of everyone with an opinion is that we've had snow, therefore all the failures must be because of the said snow.

Bit like the last strike us LU operational staff had - pity no one bothered to get their facts right as it was actually a Metronet strike

Still, I suppose that is the price of having a brand such as LU's....

I can imagine we may see the engineering work postponed, but the area of suspension retained because it's too late to change drivers' duties (service-wise, all pain, no gain). I believe West Ham are at home to Man U on Saturday so it will be interesting to see how the H&C copes on its own as they're few and far between at the best of times!

I took a photo of Bromley By Bow covered in snow with the De-Icing board showing D OFF. I can't get it on my laptop because the bluetooth reciever is nackered.

This thread seems the appropriate place to ask - where there special fares in operation last Tuesday because of the weather?

Looking at my Oyster PAYG statement I seem to have only been charged for one tube journey. I made about two more after that though, as well as two bus journeys from home to and from the tube station. Not sure whether to complain about being overcharged or keep quiet for getting a bargain!

My PAYG statement often seems to be missing journeys but seem to end up with the right balance... It's actually quite annoying as sometimes I need to use that information to claim travel.

Its pretty much irrelevant whether he was over or undercharged, simply that it appears LU have failed to service him correctly 3 times.

The customer has no input into how the system behaves, its LU which is responsible for making sure the system calculates correct fares and applies the correct charges.

If it fails to charge - well then thats tough - the system should be more reliable. If it overcharges then the customer should be refunded - no matter what other history there is.

If a shopkeeper accidentally puts a tin of beans in my bag without charging me one week does that mean when he overcharges me the next week I should let him away with it?

No. Its just means hes a terrible shopkeeper. In this case it seems LU is the terrible shopkeeper.

Surely half baked beans ;D ;D ;D

If you get home and find you've been undercharged, the reasonable thing to do is to go back to the shopkeeper and say "Hey pal, you didn't charge me for the beans".

Perhaps he's impressed by your honesty, and lets you keep the beans. Perhaps he is impressed and charges you the 50p.

The difference is, it's not easy to go to the shopkeeper (LU) and say "hey, you didn't charge me for this journey". If you say that to a member of staff, they will likely pull the "nothing-to-do-with-me-ring-the-Oyster-helpdesk".

I also imagine that LU aren't likely to be put into fiscal difficulties over a small amount, which John's Newsagents might. Plus considering the number of times which I (for one) have been overcharged - OK you get it back, but you have to ring the useless helpdesk as nobody at the ticket office will have anything to do with you, go through a general faff etc. So you don't get the money back for a few weeks.

Although - legally - I do believe that one side of a contract can't benefit from the genuine mistake of another.
So if our shopkeeper gives me £4 too much change (as has happened before) and I walk away, I have committed some offence. If I say "you've given me too much change" and give it back, I'm fine. I'm not sure about what happens if I say "you've given me too much change" and the shopkeeper is adamant that he hasn't.

I would like to make it clear that at no point was I aware of TfL giving me any beans, either literal or metaphorical. Had this knowingly occurred then naturally I would have marched up to the ticket window and requested some toast to accompany them.

But as no one seems to know anything about special fares applying I take it I was just very lucky. Yay me.

As the conditions of carriage only required me to have a valid ticket or Oyster card. And as the gates opened without question when I exited stations so the great Oyster computer in the sky must also have agreed that my Oyster Card was correctly validated when I entered the system. So surely then I have fulfilled my legal obligations.

I wouldn't let too many people know about this; have they got a waiting room big enough? ;D