UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2015 08:10:06 +0100
e27002 aurora wrote:
I suspect that most jobs on the railway
(except perhaps tube station
ticket office staff)

Now we may observe an enormous public sector folly in real time. Only
a public body could be this stupid. Pity the poor tourist arriving in
London in need of guidance on using TfL services.

To be fair the blame can be squarely laid at the door of the blonde buffoon.
TfL simply have to do as their told. God help us if Boris ever becomes PM,
it'll be a ****ing disaster (and I speak as a Tory voter) not least because
the man is bone idle and is more interested in promoting himself than doing
what he's paid to do.

It's odd that you think Boris is both bone idle and inclined to manage TfL
in such a detailed way.

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

On Fri, 15 May 2015 15:48:26 +0100, e27002 aurora
wrote:

On Fri, 15 May 2015 14:30:36 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

On Fri, 15 May 2015 12:59:06 +0100
Mizter T wrote:
On 15/05/2015 09:42, d wrote:

On Fri, 15 May 2015 08:10:06 +0100
e27002 aurora wrote:
I suspect that most jobs on the railway
(except perhaps tube station
ticket office staff)

Now we may observe an enormous public sector folly in real time. Only
a public body could be this stupid. Pity the poor tourist arriving in
London in need of guidance on using TfL services.

To be fair the blame can be squarely laid at the door of the blonde buffoon.
TfL simply have to do as their told. God help us if Boris ever becomes PM,
it'll be a ****ing disaster (and I speak as a Tory voter) not least because
the man is bone idle and is more interested in promoting himself than doing
what he's paid to do.

The grant from central government to the GLA for transport has been
significantly cut back.

I don't see how moving staff out of ticket offices and investing in even
more expensive ticketing machines is going to reduce spending. Unless of
course the long term plan is to dispense with said staff in a few years
when they've been deemed to be "ineffective". Though hopefully whoever the
next mayor is can at least stop this in its tracks before too much damage
is done.


The stranger needs a counter, or a window, where he can ask for help
and be sold the correct ticked regardless of what denominations his
money is in, or what sort of credit card he has.

I have been in exactly this situation in San Francisco. The gates are
automated, tickets are sold by machines that, back then, only took the
correct coins. The one human being on duty told me to leave the
station and come back with right change.

SF Muni is fascinating system. But, I find it hard to consider myself
a fan.

BART is far from unique,

But I stopped using them out of disgust when I lived in Union City
(first stop out of Fremont, on the East Bay).

I had used the train to go to Bakersfield at the South end of the
Central Valley, several times.

The first BART train on Saturday from Fremont connected with the
Amtrak train at Richmond, for a pleasant and comfortable Amtrak ride
the rest of the way.

But one morning nobody bothered to open up the Union City station, so
the BART train came and went.

So I drove via I-580 and I-5. which was more tiring, less convenient
and less comfortable.

And I never used BART again when I lived there.

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

On 15/05/15 15:24, d wrote:
If they could get rid of the cranks, nutters and dead wood that would be
UKIP.

Taking the cranks, nutters and deadwood out of UKIP would be like taking
the water out of Loch Lomond.

Ian

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

In article , d
() wrote:

On Fri, 15 May 2015 12:59:06 +0100
Mizter T wrote:
On 15/05/2015 09:42, d wrote:

On Fri, 15 May 2015 08:10:06 +0100
e27002 aurora wrote:
I suspect that most jobs on the railway (except perhaps tube station
ticket office staff)

Now we may observe an enormous public sector folly in real time. Only
a public body could be this stupid. Pity the poor tourist arriving in
London in need of guidance on using TfL services.

To be fair the blame can be squarely laid at the door of the blonde
buffoon. TfL simply have to do as their told. God help us if Boris ever
becomes PM, it'll be a ****ing disaster (and I speak as a Tory voter)
not least because the man is bone idle and is more interested in
promoting himself than doing what he's paid to do.

The grant from central government to the GLA for transport has been
significantly cut back.

I don't see how moving staff out of ticket offices and investing in even
more expensive ticketing machines is going to reduce spending. Unless of
course the long term plan is to dispense with said staff in a few years
when they've been deemed to be "ineffective". Though hopefully whoever the
next mayor is can at least stop this in its tracks before too much damage
is done.

Sadly the truth is that even more expensive ticketing machines are cheaper
than the salaries and pensions of staff.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

On Fri, 15 May 2015 15:05:16 +0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On Fri, 15 May 2015 08:10:06 +0100
e27002 aurora wrote:
I suspect that most jobs on the railway
(except perhaps tube station
ticket office staff)

Now we may observe an enormous public sector folly in real time. Only
a public body could be this stupid. Pity the poor tourist arriving in
London in need of guidance on using TfL services.

To be fair the blame can be squarely laid at the door of the blonde buffoon.
TfL simply have to do as their told. God help us if Boris ever becomes PM,
it'll be a ****ing disaster (and I speak as a Tory voter) not least because
the man is bone idle and is more interested in promoting himself than doing
what he's paid to do.

It's odd that you think Boris is both bone idle and inclined to manage TfL
in such a detailed way.

It doesn't take much effort to come up with stupid ideas and then tell
someone else to implement them.

--
Spud

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

On Fri, 15 May 2015 18:47:50 +0100
The Real Doctor wrote:
On 15/05/15 15:24, d wrote:
If they could get rid of the cranks, nutters and dead wood that would be
UKIP.

Taking the cranks, nutters and deadwood out of UKIP would be like taking
the water out of Loch Lomond.

There are some good well meaning people in the party who have genuine concerns
about control by Brussels. But unfortunately they're outnumbered by the idiots
and you can see what happens when idiots get voted into power - towit the
SNP. A dead cat would have got in up there if it was wearing an SNP rosette
and plenty did.

--
Spud

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

On 15/05/15 20:13, d wrote:
There are some good well meaning people in the party who have genuine concerns
about control by Brussels.

Yeah, right, and the Socialist Workers' Party is full of people with a
genuine concern for the poor.

But unfortunately they're outnumbered by the idiots
and you can see what happens when idiots get voted into power - towit the
SNP.

The SNP were almost voted into power in 2007 and formed a minority
government. That was sufficiently popular that they were properly voted
into power as a majority government in 2011. That was sufficiently
popular that they were voted in to represent Scotland in 56 out of 59
Scottish constituencies this month. It's therefore a little hard to see
what disasters you think happened.

Mind you, it's always amusing to here UKIP supporters such as yourself
use precisely opposing arguments to explain why (a) Scotland MUST stay
in the UK and (b) why the UK MUST leave Europe. It sounds like a pretty
good example of cognitive dissonance which is easily resolved by
recognizing that UKIP are a bunch of loony little Englanders who loathe
all foreigners and classify Scots as foreign.

Ian

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

On 15/05/15 20:06, d wrote:
It doesn't take much effort to come up with stupid ideas and then tell
someone else to implement them.

As Mr Farage so ably demonstrates.

Ian

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

On 15/05/2015 17:21, Christopher A. Lee wrote:

On Fri, 15 May 2015 15:48:26 +0100, e27002 aurora
wrote:
[...]
SF Muni is fascinating system. But, I find it hard to consider myself
a fan.

BART is far from unique,

But I stopped using them out of disgust when I lived in Union City
(first stop out of Fremont, on the East Bay).

I had used the train to go to Bakersfield at the South end of the
Central Valley, several times.

The first BART train on Saturday from Fremont connected with the
Amtrak train at Richmond, for a pleasant and comfortable Amtrak ride
the rest of the way.

But one morning nobody bothered to open up the Union City station, so
the BART train came and went.

So I drove via I-580 and I-5. which was more tiring, less convenient
and less comfortable.

And I never used BART again when I lived there.

Seems a bit petulant.

UK faces first major train strike in 20 years
 

On Fri, 15 May 2015 23:03:41 +0100, Mizter T
wrote:


On 15/05/2015 17:21, Christopher A. Lee wrote:

On Fri, 15 May 2015 15:48:26 +0100, e27002 aurora
wrote:
[...]
SF Muni is fascinating system. But, I find it hard to consider myself
a fan.

BART is far from unique,

But I stopped using them out of disgust when I lived in Union City
(first stop out of Fremont, on the East Bay).

I had used the train to go to Bakersfield at the South end of the
Central Valley, several times.

The first BART train on Saturday from Fremont connected with the
Amtrak train at Richmond, for a pleasant and comfortable Amtrak ride
the rest of the way.

But one morning nobody bothered to open up the Union City station, so
the BART train came and went.

So I drove via I-580 and I-5. which was more tiring, less convenient
and less comfortable.

And I never used BART again when I lived there.

Seems a bit petulant.

Indeed, but it can be very annoying to be severely inconvenienced by a
public body that is supposed to be at one's service.

In 1975 my spouse was eight months pregnant with our first child. In
those days we lived in Hammersmith and attended Church in Roehampton.
The bus service was hourly.

As we were walking to the bus stop on our return journey our bus, an
RM, passed us. I ran and had caught it. But, the conductress would
not wait for my spouse to struggle the last 30 feet. Suddenly I saw
London Transport in a new light. That bitch will never know how much
good will she cost her employer that day.

Worth noting that Bart and Muni are not the same thing. Bart is a
multi-county heavy rail mass transit system that covers a large part
of the San Francisco bay area.

Muni is a light rail system that operates within the County of San
Francisco only.


--