F*cking nightmare of a bastard commute
- Thread starter Onket
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Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Get more work done, whereas after a 90 minutes slog into town I crash at my desk at 9, I can see the kids, walk the dog and still be at my desk my 0830, at the end of the day instead of leaving the office at 6, another 90 minute slog home (if SWT don't fuck shit up, see next post) and arriving home to 20 emails, I can mooch down to see the kids, mooch back up and answer those mails as they come in and be all done by 7, which is still at least 30 minutes before I'd have got home anyway and all work is done.
Yeah, it can get lonely. Definitely helps if you're a misanthrope.
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Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
SWT's email today:
Following a significant failure of the National Grid power supply to our signalling centre in Basingstoke yesterday, a large amount of signalling equipment became damaged and we were unable to run trains on some of key routes between Farnborough, Basingstoke, and the West and South West of England.
The damage to the equipment was extensive, and engineers have worked through the night to rectify the problems and bring the equipment back into working order.
The majority of signalling equipment was brought back into use at around 0600 this morning.
Services between London Waterloo, Bournemouth and Weymouth will remain significantly disrupted for some time.
We are not able to run trains between Bournemouth and Weymouth at this time, and our engineers are still working on a estimate for the repairs to these systems.
A number of buses are in place and running between Weymouth and Poole, however, these are not running to a timetable at this time. You may face a significant wait for replacement transport to arrive. We are attempting to source more buses, and will work to arrange a timetabled service so that you are able to plan your journey more effectively.
Services between London Waterloo, Salisbury and Exeter St Davids are now able to run normally, but will remain heavily disrupted. Delays of up to 40 minutes and short-notice alterations will be likely whilst we try and get the service back to normal.
As soon as more information is available, it will be provided, so please check back here regularly.
In order to help you complete your journey, we have arranged for you to be able to use your tickets on the following routes:
London Underground - services between London Waterloo and London Paddington
Great Western Railway - services on routes between London Paddington and Exeter, Bath, Bristol and Westbury.
We are very sorry for the disruption to your journey yesterday, and the continued disruption to your journey today.
Thank you,
South West Trains
Have a colleague who travels from Christchurch to Waterloo, poor cow.
Following a significant failure of the National Grid power supply to our signalling centre in Basingstoke yesterday, a large amount of signalling equipment became damaged and we were unable to run trains on some of key routes between Farnborough, Basingstoke, and the West and South West of England.
The damage to the equipment was extensive, and engineers have worked through the night to rectify the problems and bring the equipment back into working order.
The majority of signalling equipment was brought back into use at around 0600 this morning.
Services between London Waterloo, Bournemouth and Weymouth will remain significantly disrupted for some time.
We are not able to run trains between Bournemouth and Weymouth at this time, and our engineers are still working on a estimate for the repairs to these systems.
A number of buses are in place and running between Weymouth and Poole, however, these are not running to a timetable at this time. You may face a significant wait for replacement transport to arrive. We are attempting to source more buses, and will work to arrange a timetabled service so that you are able to plan your journey more effectively.
Services between London Waterloo, Salisbury and Exeter St Davids are now able to run normally, but will remain heavily disrupted. Delays of up to 40 minutes and short-notice alterations will be likely whilst we try and get the service back to normal.
As soon as more information is available, it will be provided, so please check back here regularly.
In order to help you complete your journey, we have arranged for you to be able to use your tickets on the following routes:
London Underground - services between London Waterloo and London Paddington
Great Western Railway - services on routes between London Paddington and Exeter, Bath, Bristol and Westbury.
We are very sorry for the disruption to your journey yesterday, and the continued disruption to your journey today.
Thank you,
South West Trains
Have a colleague who travels from Christchurch to Waterloo, poor cow.
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In the end, the kabbess went part time (then started a part time degree actually at a university, not distance learning), whilst I started working a day a week from home, partly to keep her company. Five days a week just talking to yourself is too much year after year. At first it's great, then it's funny to laugh about it, then it's not so funny to laugh about it.
Not that I wouldn't work five days a week from home if I had the chance!
Not that I wouldn't work five days a week from home if I had the chance!
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
The loneliness is a problem for many people. How things are working out though, living in city centres is too expensive, (not that you would want to anyway, me neither), so more and more people commuting greater and greater distances. Yet more work than ever can be done remotely via a reliable internet connection, so less need to schlep in to a city centre. Perhaps an answer would be to have business hubs where you rented a desk in a place local to your house in an office that had business services and other humans doing similar..? (without it being like the wanky Old St Start-up type places)
I agree with you, of course. It's stupid that hundreds of thousands of us spend 1-2 hours each way pissing about on shitty trains every day. Totally unnecessary.
Human wants clash with human needs though, I suspect, when it comes to a solution. We WANT to bum around at home in our pyjamas and not spend any money on renting desk space. We also WANT to not have to deal with the hoi polloi, sharing our environments with strangers. The fact that we might NEED some social interaction only bites us on the bum a few years down the line.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Which is what dogs are for
I have Frau Bahn and the kids floating around the place, for your good kabbess I imagine she's on her own from like 7 in the morning until 7 in the evening when you're in town, that would get lonely even with dog.
Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes.Which is what dogs are for
I have Frau Bahn and the kids floating around the place, for your good kabbess I imagine she's on her own from like 7 in the morning until 7 in the evening when you're in town, that would get lonely even with dog.
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
I occasionally get the Piccadily line in, but it is right fucked at the moment as they haven't got enough trains or something - luckily have plenty of alternative routes.
I can work from home one day a week but I prefer coming into the office - a 30 minute commute means it is (usually) fairly easy to get in.
I can work from home one day a week but I prefer coming into the office - a 30 minute commute means it is (usually) fairly easy to get in.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
and, more important, to get out
Maggot
The Cake of Liberty
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
I like it when they keep it on the board and it just drives past and leaves you waiting for the next train. No announcement, nothing, just a neatly ordered timetable.
hash tag
Books, not bombs
To ease your blues, I see toilet charges have been "stopped" at both Victoria and Charing Cross. Not sure if this is temporary or permanent mind. They should never have charged in the first place, bloody privatisation.
Not sure about Charing X, but the is a free loo in Wetherspoons at Victoria amongst other places.
Charing Cross and Victoria stations end toilet charges - BBC News
Not sure about Charing X, but the is a free loo in Wetherspoons at Victoria amongst other places.
Charing Cross and Victoria stations end toilet charges - BBC News
What's it got to do with "privatisation" when both stations are owned and managed by Network Rail......?
hash tag
Books, not bombs
When all under one roof, travellers were paying for a "service", which, maybe incorrectly I saw including station facilities. Since they were broken up it all came down to Network rail looking after their own needs and profits and it didn't matter that most of the people using the loo's had paid to use the train service. I also feel, again incorrectly, that these days Netork Rail see themselves more responsible to train operators than to passengers.
Errr....Network Rail isn't a profit making operation. And you realise that it costs money to maintain a public toilet, right? And I'm not even sure there wasn't a charge under BR.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Free at Waterloo East, 30p at Waterloo. Gouging for fucks.
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
A temporary change apparently - there was an article in the local rag here moaning about why there are still charges in Manchester stations.
Why do we still have to pay for using Piccadilly station toilets?
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Pay per Pee can fuck right off.
I can understand the logic, because public bogs are frankly nasty but even when paid for they remain gopping
I just use McDonald's or whatever
I can understand the logic, because public bogs are frankly nasty but even when paid for they remain gopping
I just use McDonald's or whatever
Waterloo is a lot busier station than Waterloo East, and at WE the toilets are behind the ticket barriers, and at Waterloo they aren't. And I'm not sure how wanting to recoup the money spent on maintaining and cleaning makes them "gouging fucks"?
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
No, its the duty to provide basic public services free of charge. We all need to go for a piss when out and about, and toilet provision is just part of their overheads that they should absorb.
Err....no it's not.
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
Why isn't it? Toilets are a fundamental need for all of us. The costs of running them will obviously be paid for through other means, so for stations it is fares, rents levied on shops at the station, etc. It is just common decency to provide these basic services free.
I'm not sure why it is a "duty" for a property owner to provide free toilet facilities for anyone who walks in off the street? Most other businesses won't do that.
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
*sigh*
Why isn't it a duty for an industry that receives huge amounts of public subsidy to provide free toilet facilities at the train stations? By your logic train operating companies should charge passengers for using the toilets on their trains - it isn't their duty to provide them free after all.
There is a principle of basic civic decency that means some things have to be provided to enable a decent and hygenic environment for everyone. I'd much rather pay by other means for toilets free at the point of use, if that meant that someone with a kid with a dodgy stomach could nip straight in to the loo, rather than the kid shit itself while the parent fumbles for change to get through the barriers (also, people with medical conditions needing more frequent toilet trips).
I know you won't agree because you have a very weird attitude to anything to do with trains and the surrounding infrastructure and can't accept you are ever wrong, but whatever...
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That's not my logic at all. If you're on a train then you are a paying customer. Joe Bloggs who walks into a station off the street isn't, necessarily, a paying customer. Just like someone who walks into a restaurant or pub without actually buying anything isn't a paying customer. I'd like to see you demanding to use the toilet at any of those establishments making out that it was some sort of "right" and see how far you get.
And all the money NR has gets invested back into the railway. NR who are heavily in debt btw.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
it's not fair on people who are desperate to use a toilet to have to scramble around for change. I often need to use the loo after a long coach journey.
Many people have medical conditions which make it necessary for frequent loo visits and it's not fair to charge them every time. Costs of running these loos should be absorbed by the already exorbitant tickets prices.
Many people have medical conditions which make it necessary for frequent loo visits and it's not fair to charge them every time. Costs of running these loos should be absorbed by the already exorbitant tickets prices.
farmerbarleymow
I'm Petee's spirit animal
We are talking about a part of the infrastructure of the country - not some random shop (although plenty do let people use their toilets, such as department stores). What happens when someone needs the toilet on their journey, only to find the toilets on the train are broken - a very regular occurence. Should they be allowed to use the station toilets free of charge? Or should they receive a refund on their ticket?
The fact is that as some stations do not charge for toilets, it shows that they don't really need to - it is just a steady trickle of useful revenue for them. Everyone pays for the upkeep of the transport network through taxation, and it isn't relevant how much debt Network Rail may have - the costs of toilet provision must be vanishingly small in context of the overall running costs of the railway.
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