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tentish klown posted:Has there been a round of promotions or are you the only one? Just because a friend of mine who works for network rail also just got promoted ARE YOU HIM? Unlikely, it's a big company! Unless your mate is a signalling designer based in Reading...
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Mar 14, 2013 12:00
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Bozza posted:Speaking of electrification, the first headspans are up in Reading EMU depot and the cantilever/portal structures elsewhere are starting to appear locally. Great Western electrification starts here! Very exciting! Iohannes posted:What I don't understand is why so many Glasgow suburban commuter lines aren't electrified, but then I remembered: Tories. To be fair, like Woot says, Glasgow is super lucky when it comes to electrification thanks to being the beneficiaries of a few very forward-thinking planning decisions through the years.
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Mar 14, 2013 13:54
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-tN3XOQtV4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl4hdOYLf3c Seriously want to see more of these but everytime I've asked about them (I think I remember asking you Bozza?) I've been told they are most definitely not for public consumption. Which is a shame.
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Mar 14, 2013 14:45
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thehustler posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-tN3XOQtV4 Railway instructional videos are addictive in the most boring way possible. Here's a few people who post that sort of thing on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/dannyscroggins http://www.youtube.com/user/ACTractionLTD http://www.youtube.com/user/Panarail http://www.youtube.com/user/crompton33001 http://www.youtube.com/user/pclayto3 ...and I mustn't forget crapBRvideos. For some reason my favourite videos are SPAD ones, which you can usually just get with a few searches. After watching a few you will come to deeply love railway video celebrity Paul Tyreman. I once drunkenly tried to find his address so I could send him fan mail, unfortunately to no avail. Finally, if you find yourself really hooked, consider getting the British Transport Film Collection (expensive but usually on offer somewhere.) It's got railway films dating back right to the formation of BR, and even covers things like British Road Services, which was once the nationalised roadfreight equivalent to BR. They include films meant for the public and also instructional films for staff. If that's a bit pricey, here's a full list (which I've only just found) of them all if you want to search for them online. Hope this all helps. Jonnty fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Mar 14, 2013 |
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Mar 14, 2013 15:39
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Thanks, those are great. Best thing is the music on some of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhHj7C4l3mk Edit: Seriously though I just want more RED videos.
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Mar 14, 2013 15:45
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Jonnty posted:Finally, if you find yourself really hooked, consider getting the British Transport Film Collection BTF films like Snow and Rail have never ceased to confound me, and yet they're two of the most entertaining films of the lot to watch.
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Mar 14, 2013 16:30
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Ofaloaf posted:BTF films like Snow and Rail have never ceased to confound me, and yet they're two of the most entertaining films of the lot to watch. I absolutely love Snow. Never seen Rail though, will have to watch it, thanks! It's just such a gorgeous way to see the railways as they once were.
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Mar 14, 2013 21:30
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Just managed to see the first episode of The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track and holy poo poo that was depressing. Constrasted even to what was seen in last year's The Tube, the sheer corporateness was depressing as gently caress. The engineers came off as pricks and the "front-line" workers looked like they were abused by both the passengers and their bosses. The episode I saw focused on King's Cross- is that the worst of it, or is it lovely like what I saw everywhere? Wonder how that all contrasts to Amtrak out here...
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Mar 16, 2013 01:41
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Ofaloaf posted:Just managed to see the first episode of The Railway: Keeping Britain on Track and holy poo poo that was depressing. Constrasted even to what was seen in last year's The Tube, the sheer corporateness was depressing as gently caress. The engineers came off as pricks and the "front-line" workers looked like they were abused by both the passengers and their bosses. The episode I saw focused on King's Cross- is that the worst of it, or is it lovely like what I saw everywhere? By engineers do you mean drivers? Given that they're possibly some of the unionised workers most demonised by the press, I wouldn't say it's particularly surprising they're defensive.
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Mar 16, 2013 09:39
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Jonnty posted:By engineers do you mean drivers? Given that they're possibly some of the unionised workers most demonised by the press, I wouldn't say it's particularly surprising they're defensive. They came off more as smug than defensive, really. One bit of the Railway episode focused on a series of delays at King's Cross, mentioned the drivers' union right to a 30 min. break between runs, explained that the delay seen on-camera was due to a lack of drivers for the trains at the station, followed around the station-master who was frantically trying to radio for any available driver please just get the trains moving, and then showed a driver finally swaggering into view and explaining he had been at the pub for his 30-minute break. Ofaloaf fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Mar 16, 2013 |
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Mar 16, 2013 17:55
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Ofaloaf posted:They came off more as smug than defensive, really. One bit of the Railway episode focused on a series of delays at King's Cross, mentioned the drivers' union right to a 30 min. break between runs, explained that the delay seen on-camera was due to a lack of drivers for the trains at the station, followed around the station-master who was frantically trying to radio for any available driver please just get the trains moving, and then showed a driver finally swaggering into view and explaining he had been at the pub for his 30-minute break. Why does severe disruption mean their breaks are any less necessary? In fact, surely everything getting hectic and increased journey times make it more necessary? And as soon as they start making concessions at time of disruption, it'll just open the door to a constant chipping away of rights. Management would start attempting to redefine "disruption" to mean everything from 5 minute delays to other drivers going off sick and soon pretty much every day would feature break-busting "disruption." It's not all sunshine and rainbows - despite all his kisses and "leg-ends" that manager will still try and dick over his employees when he can. Incidentally, I imagine you'll find that in a lot of these cases drivers will probably cut their break short if they feel sufficiently refreshed and it just so happens that driver made for the best documentary footage. Either way, I'd much rather my train was late than driven unsafely thanks to poo poo working practices.
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Mar 16, 2013 19:59
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Ofaloaf posted:They came off more as smug than defensive, really. One bit of the Railway episode focused on a series of delays at King's Cross, mentioned the drivers' union right to a 30 min. break between runs, explained that the delay seen on-camera was due to a lack of drivers for the trains at the station, followed around the station-master who was frantically trying to radio for any available driver please just get the trains moving, and then showed a driver finally swaggering into view and explaining he had been at the pub for his 30-minute break. breaks aren't for fun, they prevent horrible death.
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Mar 16, 2013 21:54
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I didn't like the manager in the King's Cross episode, I thought he came across as really fake. Otherwise everyone else seemed fine. I'd say that the episodes since that one have been much better though.
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Mar 16, 2013 23:49
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Jonnty posted:Why does severe disruption mean their breaks are any less necessary? In fact, surely everything getting hectic and increased journey times make it more necessary? Cerv posted:drivers can't rest, eat, piss, etc during their shift. if i recall correctly that train was about to embark on a several hour journey. Lady Gaza posted:I didn't like the manager in the King's Cross episode, I thought he came across as really fake. Otherwise everyone else seemed fine. I'd say that the episodes since that one have been much better though.
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Mar 17, 2013 00:43
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As you're all saying, the worst bit was the implication that it was the driver's fault for daring to take his 30 minute break. You just know that half of the country is watching it feeling irritated with the driver because he was the only one lacking any sort of urgency. In reality, the problem lies with the train company. Presumably, they must have costed out the penalties of potentially late trains versus permanently having a bank of drivers on standby for when such an occasion arises and decided that they'd rather have late trains and pay the fines - but of course, that's not mentioned.
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Mar 17, 2013 01:06
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Ofaloaf posted:I get that a break's healthy and downright necessary for proper saftety, but goddamn they just caught those drivers at the perfectly wrong moment. Rather than appearing pressed for time, the driver genuinely did seem to be swaggering to the station platform without a worry, while the guy at the platform was flipping his poo poo and the passengers seemed to be on the dge of rioting. I mean, that train ultimately ended up leaving an hour and ten minutes behind schedule because they couldn't find a driver. Was there absolutely no driver available sooner than that? Oh don't be naive, the whole reason the drivers were mucked up was because there was earlier disruption. Only a small part of that delay would have been driver-related, and like Testro said, the real problem is that the TOC doesn't have enough staff on spare. That part was selectively edited to make you hate drivers and it's depressing to watch you fall straight into the trap.
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Mar 17, 2013 01:13
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The manager almost feels like he watched Office Space and then did a combo of Lumberg and The Bobs. I suppose David Brent would be the local equivalent. Foive star service and if you don't want to provide that level of service then we'll find a new hotel for you to work in! RANDOM EDIT: Googled David Brent and it looks like Gervais released a new David Brent video for Comic Relief. EDIT EDIT: Is it just a running joke that the train to Leeds is constantly being canceled? I think every other concourse shot you could hear the train to/from Leeds being canceled over the PA. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 17, 2013 01:38
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My local bus stop is one stop away from the terminus, so you can imagine how irritating it gets when I watch two or three buses heading towards the terminus without any sign of a bus coming in the opposite direction. It's irritating, but the drivers are entitled to a break between journeys. The solution to this problem is to leave my home a bit earlier.
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Mar 17, 2013 02:00
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Ofaloaf posted:I get that a break's healthy and downright necessary for proper saftety, but goddamn they just caught those drivers at the perfectly wrong moment. Rather than appearing pressed for time, the driver genuinely did seem to be swaggering to the station platform without a worry, while the guy at the platform was flipping his poo poo and the passengers seemed to be on the dge of rioting. I mean, that train ultimately ended up leaving an hour and ten minutes behind schedule because they couldn't find a driver. Was there absolutely no driver available sooner than that? I'm not sure why you're holding up a panicky man as an example of good practice in a crisis. Calmer heads leads to better resolutions. edit: This shows perfectly the major problem with the programme. It's all so very superficial it never gives enough of the background info about any aspect. There's no driver for the train - but it's never discussed if there's actually a shortage of drivers, if the management are really bad a rota-ing leaving no flex in the system, etc. Instead we get an excessive volume of soap opera style personal lives of the people who work there. Cerv fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Mar 17, 2013 |
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Mar 17, 2013 11:35
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Cerv posted:edit: This shows perfectly the major problem with the programme. It's all so very superficial it never gives enough of the background info about any aspect. There's no driver for the train - but it's never discussed if there's actually a shortage of drivers, if the management are really bad a rota-ing leaving no flex in the system, etc. It's the same with fares - so many of the problems are structural but all we get are the opinions of the staff (which are usually "I hate being forced to take £300 off someone for a journey of a few hundred miles.") I did enjoy the mischievous editing during the David Cameron bit where they explained that most fare rises are the government's fault and then cut to a picture of the seat next to him on the train: "FIRST CLASS."
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Mar 17, 2013 14:04
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I've tried to get drivers on spare to move units and they generally act as if it is the biggest inconvenience in the world. It's a pain in the arse and was consistently a problem for me, it wasn't just limited to one person. They're literally sitting around doing nothing and getting paid for it. Their whole purpose is being on standby in the event that a train needs to be moved or a driver needs replacing.
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Mar 19, 2013 23:11
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So youre saying all train drivers are bastards? In actual contribution, Ive just caught up watching the Railway. Its amazing (or not) how basically all the problems could be solved just by providing enough staff. The lack of drivers on standby and in episode 5 where a guy enters a tunnel at a station and results in delays across london at rush hour. If there had been a guard on at the station the whole thing could have been avoided. Also it becomes ever more abundant how Network Rail are basically responsible for any of the problems and associated fines which occur due to things which are largely out of anyones control; vandalism, trespass etc.
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Mar 20, 2013 00:08
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How does funding of network rail compare to that for the train companies?
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Mar 20, 2013 01:57
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If I'm reading this right: http://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/displayreport/report/html/8752da4c-fe20-4c1c-8a3d-5afd402f3f1d then train operators are currently paying in more money to the government than they receive, if you exclude PTEs. If you do include them, then rail companies received £81 million in 2011-12, while Network rail got £3.7 billion.
nozz fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Mar 20, 2013 |
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Mar 20, 2013 03:50
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Hezzy posted:I've tried to get drivers on spare to move units and they generally act as if it is the biggest inconvenience in the world. It's a pain in the arse and was consistently a problem for me, it wasn't just limited to one person. They're literally sitting around doing nothing and getting paid for it. Their whole purpose is being on standby in the event that a train needs to be moved or a driver needs replacing. Well it is. What sort of trains were you trying to get moved? Where from and to where? Was it diagramed? Who had you authorised this with (control/signallers)? To quote Sean Bean in a fantasy film: one does not simply move a train.
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Mar 20, 2013 16:12
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I've noticed a trend with off-peak trains on my local line leaving my station early. We're only talking 2-3 minutes, but given that it's a suburban line and people who use it often might know exactly how long it takes to walk there from their home, it's a bit irritating when I have to sprint to catch a train I should have been a minute or so early for. (Also, there's only one train every 30 minutes, so missing one because it was early makes the wait particularly grating.)
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Mar 20, 2013 23:22
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kingturnip posted:I've noticed a trend with off-peak trains on my local line leaving my station early. That's a bit weird - it sounds like a silly question but are you sure your clock's right? Also, some stations have a rule where trains can shut anywhere between 30 seconds - 2 minutes before departure to allow them to close the doors etc. It's a bit silly, but is yours one of these?
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Mar 20, 2013 23:50
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I had a first on Monday. Missed the train, not because I was late but because it was full. I'm not talking a bit crowded, I'm talking Tokyo subway in rush hour full: so full the guard had to stop people trying to board it. Luckily I wasn't in a hurry and the buses accept train tickets, but I've never seen that before. I think the previous 4 carriage train was cancelled so this 2 carriage one was not going to be sufficient, but it's clearly not as simple as just running a bigger train what with all the logistics.
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Mar 21, 2013 01:12
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Iohannes posted:I had a first on Monday. Missed the train, not because I was late but because it was full. I'm not talking a bit crowded, I'm talking Tokyo subway in rush hour full: so full the guard had to stop people trying to board it. Luckily I wasn't in a hurry and the buses accept train tickets, but I've never seen that before. I think the previous 4 carriage train was cancelled so this 2 carriage one was not going to be sufficient, but it's clearly not as simple as just running a bigger train what with all the logistics. Where were you? I think there were signalling problems on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow route which might have messed things up.
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Mar 21, 2013 01:15
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Jonnty posted:Where were you? I think there were signalling problems on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow route which might have messed things up. I only caught the end of announcement and I had earphones in so I didn't hear the cause. If that was the cause that's some backlog since I'm on a commuter line that terminates in East Kilbride and comes into Central (I'm assuming that the main Glasgow-Edinburgh line you're referring to is the one out of Queen St rather than Central)
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Mar 21, 2013 02:40
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Iohannes posted:I had a first on Monday. Missed the train, not because I was late but because it was full. I'm not talking a bit crowded, I'm talking Tokyo subway in rush hour full: so full the guard had to stop people trying to board it. Luckily I wasn't in a hurry and the buses accept train tickets, but I've never seen that before. I think the previous 4 carriage train was cancelled so this 2 carriage one was not going to be sufficient, but it's clearly not as simple as just running a bigger train what with all the logistics. This used to happen in the AM peaks on the Inner South London Line too but doesn't any more, Southern Railway solved the problem by withdrawing the service entirely 
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Mar 21, 2013 02:46
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:This used to happen in the AM peaks on the Inner South London Line too but doesn't any more, Southern Railway solved the problem by withdrawing the service entirely That's a bit disingenuous - the line was absorbed into the orbital part of the London Overground network. No idea how that's affected service but if you can still use it I'd probably rather be on an LO train than an SR one.
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Mar 21, 2013 02:51
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Apparently that service was actually removed because the Thameslink upgrade works will mean that there will be no room into London Bridge in the future. This did coincide with the Overground extension, so from a passenger perspective the change is that from several stations there is now no direct way to get to central London. The frequency and capacity has increased but journey times suffer since you have to change somewhere. Unfortunately the London Bridge to Victoria service was really annoying to actually operate - it took up valuable platform space at two very busy terminals (especially since these would be 2 coach trains). Additionally this sort of thing wouldn't have been Southern's decision, a TOC can't just decide to stop a service. This particular change was scheduled to occur before Southern even won their current franchise.
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Mar 21, 2013 03:22
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Jonnty posted:That's a bit weird - it sounds like a silly question but are you sure your clock's right? Also, some stations have a rule where trains can shut anywhere between 30 seconds - 2 minutes before departure to allow them to close the doors etc. It's a bit silly, but is yours one of these? I tend to set my clock by the time on the station departure board, to try to avoid this sort of situation. I made a point yesterday of looking at the departure board as I got on the train and it was very clearly two and a half minutes before scheduled departure time. The doors closed about 30 seconds later and the train left immediately.
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Mar 21, 2013 07:27
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Bozza posted:Well it is. What sort of trains were you trying to get moved? Where from and to where? Was it diagramed? Who had you authorised this with (control/signallers)? 156 / 153 units usually. From the platform down to the sidings (with very low traffic). Wasn't diagrammed, but was requested by their TOC's control and OK'd with signaller. Their control did this a lot, usually to refuel, rewater or take a unit out of service because it was broken. Not sure why they couldn't contact their drivers directly but they always used to contact us and let us sort it out. kingturnip posted:I tend to set my clock by the time on the station departure board, to try to avoid this sort of situation. Remember that it is a "departure time". The train can be pulling out of the station at the specified time.
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Mar 21, 2013 08:26
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Iohannes posted:I only caught the end of announcement and I had earphones in so I didn't hear the cause. If that was the cause that's some backlog since I'm on a commuter line that terminates in East Kilbride and comes into Central (I'm assuming that the main Glasgow-Edinburgh line you're referring to is the one out of Queen St rather than Central)
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Mar 21, 2013 09:25
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kingturnip posted:I tend to set my clock by the time on the station departure board, to try to avoid this sort of situation. Sounds like it's a "doors close 2 minutes before departure time" station where the train routinely gets the road slightly before it's due to leave and so, if the guard has finished closing the doors, can just leave immediately. It's a bit silly - I used to think 30s in Scotland was a bit much - but there should be signs around the stations telling you. Just mentally subtract 2 minutes from your departure time and you ought to be fine.
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Mar 21, 2013 12:10
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Hezzy posted:156 / 153 units usually. From the platform down to the sidings (with very low traffic). Wasn't diagrammed, but was requested by their TOC's control and OK'd with signaller. Their control did this a lot, usually to refuel, rewater or take a unit out of service because it was broken. Not sure why they couldn't contact their drivers directly but they always used to contact us and let us sort it out. I'm not entirely sure about the full role of spare drivers but if the TOC is routinely using spare drivers when there's no disruption and nobody off sick or whatever then it probably means they're employing too few drivers and the spare has every right to be annoyed.
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Mar 21, 2013 12:13
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You've not properly experienced sardine trains until you've tried Berthnal Green westbound during the morning peak. It's gotten to the point where commuters go 1 stop east to Stratford to get on a westbound there and travel straight through Bethnal Green again.
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Mar 21, 2013 13:15
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sweek0 posted:You've not properly experienced sardine trains until you've tried Berthnal Green westbound during the morning peak. I've seen people doing this on the Northern Line, going as far south as Tooting from Clapham just to get on, let alone a seat.
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