level crossings

[Mr Pig]

Uggghhh! :0( That's horrible.

You forget that firemen and policemen have to do that stuff :0( I don't know if I could do it. Knew a retired cop who said they used to laugh and joke about it, that was how they dealt with it.

 

[domd1979]

Watched "Bombay Railway" on BBC4 a little while back which was a fantastic series. One of the train drivers was being interviewed and was asked how many people he'd hit during his career - he said he'd lost count and that it was around 60 or 70. Asked what they do when a person is hit by the train, he said stop the train, driver and guard get out and move the body if necessary, guard hands a form in at the next station and then they carry on.... Judging by the number of people wondering along and over the tracks in India it perhaps isn't surprising the number that get hit, still not nice for the drivers though.

 

[Mr Pig]

Watched "Bombay Railway" a little while back which was a fantastic series.

Watched it too, it was great. It's amazing to see the way people in other countries have totally different standards to us. I also liked the pride the railway workers had in their jobs, seems sadly lacking in Britain today.

 

[hackbike 666]

Watched "Bombay Railway" on BBC4 a little while back which was a fantastic series. One of the train drivers was being interviewed and was asked how many people he'd hit during his career - he said he'd lost count and that it was around 60 or 70. Asked what they do when a person is hit by the train, he said stop the train, driver and guard get out and move the body if necessary, guard hands a form in at the next station and then they carry on.... Judging by the number of people wondering along and over the tracks in India it perhaps isn't surprising the number that get hit, still not nice for the drivers though.

I remember that classic and that's true.

Watched it too, it was great. It's amazing to see the way people in other countries have totally different standards to us. I also liked the pride the railway workers had in their jobs, seems sadly lacking in Britain today.

Thank's I appreciate that.I bet some of my work colleagues do as well.

Why should I be surprised at a comment like that though?

 

[stoatsngroats]

Why should I be surprised at a comment like that though?

How's this....

Passenger (customer) waiting at Clapham Junction.....to driver
"Why do train drivers always answer one question with another one...?"
Train driver (not me though!)
"What do you mean..?"

I appreciate you hb666.......

 

[hackbike 666]

How's this....

Passenger (customer) waiting at Clapham Junction.....to driver
"Why do train drivers always answer one question with another one...?"
Train driver (not me though!)
"What do you mean..?"

I appreciate you hb666.......

aww shucks.

27 years on the railway and im kind of proud and feel a bit lucky as although the job is nothing like it used to be like.Only worrying thing is under current conditions I could be out of a job next week and im not talking about redundency either.

Must admit it's been good going at the moment,not too much grief with the punters and even get some positive comments sometimes.Some passengers also talk to me like im a human being and not some scumbag who works on the railways who loves running trains late.


I just think sometimes all this negativity is driven by the press.

Also do you think British Rail was any good?

 

[Globalti]

BR was getting very good until the government decided to divvy it up amongst their pals.

 

[gavintc]

BR was getting very good until the government decided to divvy it up amongst their pals.

selective memory. BR were dreadful and deserved to be broken up. The system we have now is streets ahead of BR.

 

[purplepolly]

The system we have now is streets ahead of BR.

Yes, I particularly like the way in which our local franchise was awarded to company B a few years ago because company A had too many late trains. Company B then proceeds to cancel trains when they're going to start more than a few munites late because that looks better on the statistics. And much better for the passengers as well.

Ah yes, there's many a half hour spent waiting for the next train, happy in the knowledge that my train wasn't late and that the train I would eventually catch would have to take double the number of commuters.

 

[stoatsngroats]

Also do you think British Rail was any good?

I started in 1982, and 'Network Southeast' was still a pipedream, and the Gatwick Express was not invented..!

During the Conservative 'Government years' the whole shift away from rail began, Thatcher only agreed to the Channel Tunnel being rail because the french would've pulled the finance/support on it.

So BR was in a no win situation - signal boxes began to have money spent refurbishing them, only for that refurb to be included in a financial reason for it to be identified as an adiitional reason for closure. Therefore, resignalling investment began, making a small 'heyday' for BR to spend, only for this to be used again as a reason to look for additional ways to ditch the railway somehow.

Hence, Network Southeast, and the reoccurence of Regional railways, and the advent of private funding....do you remember, there was talk of Companies 'sponsoring' stations.....? (It's true - this was in the offing!)

But complete 'franchise' was the Tory preferred option, the ONLY problem was, infrastructure would never be included in a franchise.....

In my opioion, it DID bring investment in rolling stock, and some station improvements, these would have happened under BR, but over a MUCH longer time period.
And saftey/accidents, and their RESULTING ACCOUNTABILITY bore much of the reason for improvements......in BR days there often seemed NO-ONE was to blame, it was seen as part of the system.

So, BR days were good in the '80s, there was even a major growth in passenger numbers during this time!

But investmentbegan at a more serious rate, during the carving-up into regional franchises.....

Today I can't afford to use the trains.......

What are your thoughts...?

 

[gavintc]

The trains are clean, run on time and are efficient. If you do not need to travel at peak times, book early, the prices are reasonable. Personally, I have no complaint about the new train operating companies - far, far better than BR.

 

[hackbike 666]

[thread hijack]Well it's true isn't it that BR were starved of money,it costing much more now and the ticket prices aren't that good at a guess.I don't tend to travel by rail except when commuting.So it's a lot of what S+G said.Perhaps I just liked BR because it was an easier life.[/thread hijack]

 

[domd1979]

No it isn't. The railway now costs the taxpayer over 5 times as much as BR did. The structure imposed on the railway is defective, because some clown thought electricity privatisation was a good model to follow. Railways need to be vertically integrated. Sadly we only have that on the Isle of Wight. Oh, and the DfT are generally making a balls up of their continued micro management of TOCs and won't admit they haven't got a clue.

Yep, its streets ahead.

Read a couple of Christian Wolmar's books on rail privatisation and then tell us whether you think its all wonderful.....

The system we have now is streets ahead of BR.

 

[gavintc]

I am a user of the rail service. It works.

BR did not - late trains, surly staff, old stock.

 

[domd1979]

Working so well, some of the franchises aren't far off financial melt down...

A few things off the top of my head:

Walk on train fares are getting absurd - going up above inflation year on year.

Overcrowding at peak times on many routes. Failure to have any spare stock available (...cos its sitting around in storage).

Trains being cancelled because drivers aren't volunteering to work Sundays and the TOC hasn't employed enough to begin with.... London Midland being a prime example.

Costs of doing any infrastructure work are insane.

Shorter term franchises = short termism.

Would Hatfield have happened under BR?

You need to look beneath the surface before deciding if it really works.

I am a user of the rail service. It works.

BR did not - late trains, surly staff, old stock.