[Travel] RMT v Shapps.

[GT49er]

What an odd comment.

So, do you really believe stations ARE all manned? Because I know for a fact many are not. Even the train announcements at many stations, when not automated, are made from a signal box ten miles away. Many larger stations are unmanned in the evenings.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Yet thousands of commuters are now working from home, maybe only travelling to work one or two days a week. Massive loss of income to the reail industry - the economics just don't work with empty or half empty trains. Just not sustainable - some services will inevitably have to be cut or reduced.
The Unions, quite reasonably from their members' point of view, want higher wages and no job cuts. It's a very difficult - probably impossible - job to square this circle.

Catch 22 in fact.

 

[Norman Potting]

What an odd comment.

.......but certainly correct for many smaller stations round here - one person on duty indertaking tasks from selling tickets to vomit clearing., early turn only Monday - Saturday if lucky.

 

[Stat Brother]

So the rail network grinds to a halt in the same week Grunt Shats picks on cyclists.

What an amazing coincidence.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

So, do you really believe stations ARE all manned? Because I know for a fact many are not. Even the train announcements at many stations, when not automated, are made from a signal box ten miles away. Many larger stations are unmanned in the evenings.

Every single station on my line is manned. 'Many' is a flexible concept.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

.......but certainly correct for many smaller stations round here - one person on duty indertaking tasks from selling tickets to vomit clearing., early turn only Monday - Saturday if lucky.

If the station is barely used, and is not a busy commuter station connected to London, Brighton, Manchester etc., then I'm sure it's barely manned.

At Faversham during the day we have two people in the ticket office, one person permanently on the ticket barrier, and at least three staff on the platforms. That's six people.

I accept that 'many' stations are unmanned at three in the morning.

I think that whoever suggested that the strike is unimportant because most stations are unmanned (the reason for this 'headcount') needs to give their own head a wobble.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Catch 22 in fact.

And deja vu all over again.

 

[GT49er]

Every single station on my line is manned. 'Many' is a flexible concept.

London and the south east is better provided with more trains than most of the rest of the UK. Hereabouts the stations are either completely unmanned, or manned only for a few hours per day.

 

[Bodian]

According to the Mail (if you can believe them), only 10% of stations are fully staffed, 45% staffed for part of the day, and 45% have no staff there at all. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7897339/Just-one-ten-train-stations-fully-staffed-half-no-workers-all.html

This has a knock-on effect for disabled users. One of the reasons train companies have been able to get away with driver-only trains is that they have said that the ramps for disabled passengers to get on and off the trains will be positioned by station staff. Now a different company within the system is considering removing even more station staff. So, there will be no-one to assist at a large number of stations

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Oh dear. Yesterday I thought that perhaps you were just a little bit uncertain over the use of the English language. Now I find that, alas, you are a twerp.

We live and learn.

Steady there, Harry, I know it’s not a particularly aggressive term but you know full well that you wouldn’t tolerate someone calling you names.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

London and the south east is better provided with more trains than most of the rest of the UK. Hereabouts the stations are either completely unmanned, or manned only for a few hours per day.

Of course stations will be unmanned if they cater only for one man and a dog. So what?

As I note above this is a cul-de-sac conversation in terms of the larger discussion about whether the union should trade a pay rise for compulsory redundancies.

As others have shown, passenger numbers have not plummeted, yet fares keep going up, so there is no justification for redundancies. And as others have also stated this is simply the nasty element of the Tories (Shapps being one) keeping the anti-union pot on the boil, and to hell with the passengers.

The Tories have had 12 years to sort out the trains, 'deal with' the unions, etc. This is their shit show, and yet they will just let it rumble on in the hope that Mrs Cutout will throw her Ovaltine at the television and jolly well vote Conservative (again).

That's what this is all about. Not: how many unmanned stations in Cumbria can you fit on the end of a pin among the dancing angels?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Steady there, Harry, I know it’s not a particularly aggressive term but you know full well that you wouldn’t tolerate someone calling you names.

I bailed the bloke out, despite admonition from a moderator, yesterday, and was then taken for a fool.

If someone called me a twerp I'd raise an eyebrow. On occasions they may have a point. On other occasions I wouldn't be bothered. Twerp? Come on!

I don't mind being called names at all, if they are correct. The most I might do if, they aren't is argue. And anger is fine. I get bollocked regularly. Mostly it is deserved. Well, that's what my missus tells me.

It would take a lot more for me to scream for a policeman. Trolling, for example. And threats. I have experienced both.

But thanks for your concern. You have been very kind in the past

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Schapps was interviewed by Charlie Stayt, showing he didn’t even know what a direct service was, or the difference from an express train. As dense as Nadine Dorries.

[tweet]1560523900374716422[/tweet]

 

[Thunder Bolt]

If anyone can sort the lazy strikers out Shapps can. He needs to get much tougher though. Still proud to have voted Conservative.

I found a great meme today. I may use it frequently.

 

[GT49er]

Of course stations will be unmanned if they cater only for one man and a dog. So what?

So what about unmanned stations that cater for 191,000 passengers, with or without dogs? Or as pointed out by another poster, 45% of stations are unmanned (obviously the stations on the Faversham line are among the 10% that are fully manned).
As stated before, regardless of politics, squaring the circle between the costs of running a railway (a lot) and the revenue available is a Herculean task. Beeching MkII anyone?*




*Bloody hope not!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

So what about unmanned stations that cater for 191,000 passengers, with or without dogs? Or as pointed out by another poster, 45% of stations are unmanned (obviously the stations on the Faversham line are among the 10% that are fully manned).
As stated before, regardless of politics, squaring the circle between the costs of running a railway (a lot) and the revenue available is a Herculean task. Beeching MkII anyone?*




*Bloody hope not!

Well, I did address all that in my reply (the bits you didn't keep, in your reply to it), so you are simply perpetuating the cul-de-sac side issue. None of this has any relevance to the strike, and to use it to inform a narrative about the costs of running a railway is misleading; I am beginning to suspect egregiously so

 

[GT49er]

Well, I did address all that in my reply (the bits you didn't keep, in your reply to it), so you are simply perpetuating the cul-de-sac side issue. None of this has any relevance to the strike, and to use it to inform a narrative about the costs of running a railway is misleading; I am beginning to suspect egregiously so

The only cul-de-sac is limiting this whole discussion to how wonderful things are on the Faversham line!

 

[jackalbion]

[tweet]1560523900374716422[/tweet]

This man is an embarrassment, he’s forced GTR to introduce a new Welwyn Garden City to Sevenoaks service (his constituency is WGC), while also telling them there isn’t enough money for a decent service on Coastway East and West where people can’t get on the trains in the morning because they are so full. The bloke is so violently corrupt it’s a joke.

 

[Deadly Danson]

[tweet]1560523900374716422[/tweet]

Thick as s***. I'm totally done with anyone who still supports in any way, shape or form this bunch of idiotic, lying tosspots. And if you still believe a single word any Tory says over the RMT then you are a moron.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Pah! I should have had the bloody place cut off from the National Grid and all the roads in and out dug up when I was working for the Electricity Board in Maidstone (although thinking about it it would have been better if I'd done that to Maidstone)!

I had the misfortune of being stranded in Luton earlier this week, thanks to a combination of my flight home from Belfast being diverted and the national rail strike.

All l will say is, be very grateful for where you live!