F*cking nightmare of a bastard commute

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I know that spot - its right at the end of a fast straight and as the bus seems to have swerved across the road, it looks to me like the Audi was trying to get past the truck. The bus driver had no chance whatever they did. The Audi driver is apparently amongst the casualties too.

And due to the ongoing bypass work, a great deal more traffic than normal has been going down this road for months now to avoid the worst of the works.

They say that a death crash costs around £1m to clear up. If only they had your skills and looked at a picture on the bbc website, could get the whole job done with change from a tenner.

 

[pogofish]

Hopefully not, as the road markings indicate no over taking on his side.

That means very little round here TBH - and that stretch of road has a bad history for just that kind of accident .

 

[pogofish]

They say that a death crash costs around £1m to clear up. If only they had your skills and looked at a picture on the bbc website, could get the whole job done with change from a tenner.

We'll just have to wait and see - but I use that stretch pretty regularly so have some idea of the sort of driving to expect, esp in the morning.

 

[teuchter]

When I'm back home, north of scotland, the overtaking maneuvers I see terrify me. Close family member lost an unborn child a few years ago thanks to idiot in a fast car trying to overtake in the opposite direction. The sooner we have driverless cars only, the better.

 

[teuchter]

And I've had arguments on here with people who say that powerful cars are safer because it lets them complete overtaking moves more quickly. No, people apply the same level of risk taking, and when they screw up they screw up at a higher speed. And stuff like this happens. The schoolkids might not have lasting physical injuries but they'll have the memory of this and what they saw to live with.

 

[kabbes]

Broken rail at Waterloo. Everything delayed by 30 minutes at least and all trains to Dorking cancelled seemingly for the whole evening.

What a great infrastructure we have.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

and power failure at new malden (not sure if badger eating a junction box is involved)

blargh

 

[Maggot]

RTA in croydon. Took me an hour to get out of Croydon.

 

[davesgcr]

Broken rail at Waterloo. Everything delayed by 30 minutes at least and all trains to Dorking cancelled seemingly for the whole evening.

What a great infrastructure we have.

Been a few this week - not just in the South - bad one last night at City Thameslink. Obviously very cold overnight - not that it makes you feel better.....

 

[davesgcr]

Been a few this week - not just in the South - bad one last night at City Thameslink. Obviously very cold overnight - not that it makes you feel better.....

Basically - if it is clean break (not part of a set points , and not near a track weld) , you can pass over it at 5mph max , - ideally the track gangs will put a clamp on it , which gives you 20mph over it (with some poor soul watching every train) - then they will replace that rail section , probably overnight . As we know , Waterloo has just a few trains in and out...so the knock on is going to be a f==ing pain.

 

[teuchter]

This is the downside of continuous welded rail, right?

 

[davesgcr]

This is the downside of continuous welded rail, right?

No - breaks can happen on bullhead / short welded sections - as much as CWR , my engineering mates will have the precise detail - (trust me they really watch this stuff) - whereas most CWR is 113ib rail or above, most bullhead is less than this. Not just the condition of the rail and weather , but often the underlying state of the ballast formation. That is why careful analysis of the track bed is so important - when you get a degraded track bed with clay and slurry coming through , you get what is called a wet spot , so the track flexes under trains and there is more of a hammer blow , which if not resolved can break a rail. (what you do is dig the stuff out overnight preferably and put in a load of local fresh ballast and chippings) - even though I am retired , I called a few in last year , observed from passing trains. Dealt with pretty quickly to be fair to NR.

Next weeks - U75 course on railway operations , will concentrate on flagging trains through signals at red. Please read section J of the Rulebook in advance.

 

[Dogsauce]

The fucking roadworks on Marylebone Road. Although it’s probably incorrect to describe them as ‘works’ since apparently no work is taking place, just cones and barriers. Cunts.

After delaying my arrival home on Sunday night for approximately an hour queuing on the A40 I was too tired to return the car to it’s home in deepest SW London. Can drive it back early in the morning I think. They’ll have opened that lane up again for the Monday rush hour.

Almost 2hrs to take the car from Angel to Raynes Park. Left well before 7am thinking I’d miss some of the traffic, and of course I’d easily be back on the train in plenty of time to take the nipper to his swimming lesson at ten. Nope.

Still in a shitty mood about it nearly two days later.

 

[hash tag]

There are far too few public toilets around these days and the problem is getting worse. Many who use stations are fare paying customers. There are, I imagine, few who walk in off the street to use station loos and if so, so what. Not everyone who has the need has a radar key. Many public buildings have free loos, why not a station? The stations these days are full of concessions paying, I imagine huge amounts to Network Rail. Besides, Victoria coined in £1.4 last year through the loos alone! Thats just goes towards their upkeep - NOT.
keep em free!

Network Rail to end toilet charges in 2019

Whoopie doo; they are going to scrap the toilet charges. in 2019! really. There could well be many changes in policy by then.
Why can't they just through the barriers open now?

 

[magneze]

Network Rail to end toilet charges in 2019

Whoopie doo; they are going to scrap the toilet charges. in 2019! really. There could well be many changes in policy by then.
Why can't they just through the barriers open now?

It'll take that long to get Immodium into all the station food

 

[kabbes]

Broken rail at Waterloo. Everything delayed by 30 minutes at least and all trains to Dorking cancelled seemingly for the whole evening.

What a great infrastructure we have.

I got my delay repay for my 2 hour cancellation. £4.34 on the cost of a £30 ticket. You figure that out because I can’t.

 

[kabbes]

My new sport is using the to-be-fair quite straightforward SouthWestern Delay Repay website to actually claim for the journeys that get delayed rather than just stew on it. I do this on my journey itself sometimes, which makes me feel 2% better about the delay. I’ve claimed for four journeys in the last few weeks.

ETA: just updated to six.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I got my delay repay for my 2 hour cancellation. £4.34 on the cost of a £30 ticket. You figure that out because I can’t.

I thought you got the full ticket price back for a delay like that, unless you've got a season ticket in which case you get bugger all.

 

[kabbes]

I thought you got the full ticket price back for a delay like that, unless you've got a season ticket in which case you get bugger all.

Yeah, it's a season ticket. But the journey is still a £30 journey, so how can I only get £4.34? It makes no sense.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Yeah, it's a season ticket. But the journey is still a £30 journey, so how can I only get £4.34? It makes no sense.

It's the rip-off formula they use so they can pay bugger all.

 

[kabbes]

It's the rip-off formula they use so they can pay bugger all.

It's a rip-off formula that apparently means that even if every train for a month is cancelled, I still don't get the value of my season ticket back.

My season ticket costs £340 per month. £4.34 per journey implies I do 78 journeys a month. That's more than two a day, every day of the month. (And, in fact, since the month in question only had 28 days, it's closer to three journeys a day!)

 

[teuchter]

It's a rip-off formula that apparently means that even if every train for a month is cancelled, I still don't get the value of my season ticket back.

My season ticket costs £340 per month. £4.34 per journey implies I do 78 journeys a month. That's more than two a day, every day of the month. (And, in fact, since the month in question only had 28 days, it's closer to three journeys a day!)

According to their passengers' charter if you were more than an hour late then it should be 100% of your "journey value". Your "journey value" should be 1/40 x 340 = £8.50 so that's what you should get.

That assumes 20 return journeys per month which seems reasonable.

 

[kabbes]

So basically, they've fucked me? Or, more simply, they've decided that my delay was 30-59 minutes rather than >60 minutes based on some spurious perfect alternative that I couldn't have known about whilst I was sitting uninformed on a station platform.

 

[teuchter]

Dunno. I'd go back and question it, if it were a larger amount.

Not true that there are "bugger all" refunds for season ticket holders though, so farmerbarleymow can update this information in his files.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Dunno. I'd go back and question it, if it were a larger amount.

Not true that there are "bugger all" refunds for season ticket holders though, so farmerbarleymow can update this information in his files.

Four quid is effectively bugger all - in comparison to amount of time trapped on a stationary train.

And another thing *soapbox mode* I've noticed is if a train is running late the driver goes faster to ensure the train arrives 29 or 59 minutes late, obviously a deliberate ploy to reduce claims. The bastards.

 

[kabbes]

They should be forced to pay me at my hourly rate for wasting my time.

 

[teuchter]

I think people should be compensated at an hourly rate derived from their value to society, which will be determined by their fellow passengers during a debate/fight held in the period of time during which the train is overdue.

 

[kabbes]

I think people should be compensated at an hourly rate derived from their value to society, which will be determined by their fellow passengers during a debate/fight held in the period of time during which the train is overdue.

A strange game. The only way to win is not to play.

 

[teuchter]

A strange game. The only way to win is not to play.

Just like urban75.

 

[porp]

Network Rail to end toilet charges in 2019

Whoopie doo; they are going to scrap the toilet charges. in 2019! really. There could well be many changes in policy by then.
Why can't they just through the barriers open now?

And so another innocent bit of pleasure ends for this skinflint. That is, get the 30p ready and then watch for the turnstile that is registering 10p sometimes 20p credit. Then swoop for a cut price wee. See also: the accompanying child 2-for-1 wee.