Cab Rides

i keep it to myself usually, didnt say what line or what driver i take it boses look around here? i just start chattin to drivers and the starter sig clears and he say he bored coome in and talk lol

Basically what James has said.

No train Operator on LUL is likely to risk their job to satisfy the curiosity of an enthusiast. What you are basically asking is "are any drivers willing to risk their £38,000 a year job?".


Sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's the climate of safety under which LUL operates. You also have to consider the possibility of one unders (and the effect that could have on an unauthorised person in the cab), distracting a driver with upwards of 1,000 passengers on board, the potential for you to cause a SPAD whilst distracting the driver, etc...

EDIT: based on the last couple of posts which went up while I was typing; if a driver offers you a ride that's their business - but asking here won't get you very far!

Do LUL senior management read this forum - yes, they most certainly do

I am afraid to say that when I was 18 I had a big mouth at work, not knowing that some things should remain confidential and also not being aware about office politics. My job was terminated. A few years later, when I was involved with the Underground as an enthusiast, authorm then irrgular magazine editor, I became aware that our monthly magazine was being read at the highest echelons. It was uggested that they turned to it for information. In recent years it has been made clear that those now incumbent take an active interest in transport forums involving London. Postings on one forum led to it being suspended, resusciated, suspended, etc. and then closed down. I go along with Phil here, and with utmost respect it would not take too much research to whittle down to a likely candidate that has just admitted rule breaches in public.

So far as I can see anyone caught in a cab without authority may well lay themselves open to prosecution. Let alone the field day that the local press would have.

On reflection, I suddenly realised what nuclear fallout might occur if the press, and I confess I am a journalist and accredited to the Press Association, found out that unqualified people were driving trains. Yet I can laugh because back in the Seventies in Chiswick Works Open Days you could drive a Routemaster around a circuit in the Works, and sit in the back on a high speed run over the skid pan, and even children could drive! No, there were no problems, it was supervised by an instructor who knew what he was doing, and it was off public roads. Regrettably times have changed.

I think there's a clear difference between an I/Op having a trainee with him who will have had at least the basic safety, rules and signalling instruction (not to mention having likely previously worked for LUL) and having a curious kid off the street driving. And it's really not worth losing a job over!

Yes, Gappe, I totally agree and I hope you didn't think I meant anything else in terms of an I/O and his job: my point was that in terms of passenger comfort a (keen) youngster might well treat the train and its contents more sympathetically than a hesitant trainee. And the hypothetical I/O who knew his stuff would make sure the safety aspect was fully covered at all times. In DMU cabs we have the legendary 'red handle' on the second man's side, but I'm sure there is equal safety in the modern LU stocks so an instructor can intervene instantaneously if required. What I think I am trying to say is that YES, it IS against the rules TOTALLY. But it is not necessarily less safe.

Aye, if you do get a refusal, theres no use getting het up about it either... as one or two people have found out, after asking me...

I apologise for going off topic slightly but what about a passenger trying to stay on the train (not in the cab) to try and ride the Kennington loop? I am aware of people on another forum who have claimed to have been able to stay on.

If (years ago) a sleeping passenger was allowed to travel on a train that went into Northfields depot, then it must be possible to avoid detection? I have been round only once on the Northern Line 1959 Stock tour.

To be frank, on reviewing all the evidence, I really cannot see why any person up front would allow an unauthorised person to be in the cab. It sounds like an instant dismissal job to me. There would surely be too much to lose.

By the way, can the t/op insist on seeing authority for an official who wants to ride up front, e.g., or for someone who claims that they need to for say track inspection purposes? Hi-vis jackets or no, there must be some proof of bona fides surely?

Yep, very true. I have myself been on a couple of Kennington trains that have not been de-trained, or been waved of by a SA for that matter, although I did not stay on as the thought of being stuck round it quite frankly worries me!

Yes.

I once asked the Upminster Train Operations Manager for ID because I didn't recognise him.

He's my boss, but I rarely see him from one month to the next, mainly due to me always doing graveyard turns.

I can't believe that any enthusiast would have the cheek to ask some random driver for a cab ride

Very much agree. I'm even more astonished that some actually go looking for them!

Saying that, one person, who used to lurk on these forums, but shall remain nameless, constantly asks one of my mates for one. Of course my mate says no as his job is not worth the risk, but how he has the bloody cheek to keep asking in the first place is beyond me.

I asked the Line General Manager. He told me who he was by name .. which meant nothing to me ! Within a few stops I'd forgotten who he was and asked him again