The Ticket Collector

It goes from one extreme to the other….

Today did start off good, well, with exception to the Overhead Power Supply problems at Luton.

The day was sunny and not to hot, with a nice breeze. The trains were at a good tempture, however I would say on the slightly hot side.

Then it happened, the heavens decided to open and it poured and poured. So much in fact Brockley Tunnel was flooded and this caused a lot of problems and delays to peoples journeys, no compensation Im afraid as it was an “act of god”.

You know its summer when….

• The Rails start bending and buckeling,
• Theres “Severe Delays” on most if not all of the London Underground Lines,
• You get a bottle of water on your way out of the London Underground,
• You see “Emergency engineering works” everywhere,
• Theres a Go-Slow on the Tube,
• The signals catch fire due to overheating.

So yep its that time of the year again when we see all of the above happening and lots of sweating people crammed into railway carriages and tempers running high.

Just remember to bring a bottle of water whenever your traveling on FCC and any other services.

New Fares start today.

Again its that time of year when the railway companies put the fares up (after all you need to pay for my wages!) or issue new restrictions or even both.

You can buy the Fares “bible” directly from HMSO. All ticket inspectors use exactly the same bible to work out fares (it maybe on a PDA/Ticket Machine but the information is the same). There are 7 fares manuals. (NFM as they call them) and they are around 1000 A4 double sided pages big. Oh and boy are they heavy if you have to lug them around everyday.

The good thing about the fares manuals is its sometimes easier to work out cheaper routes (i.e. by buying a ticket to a station in the middle of your route and then another one to your original destination) using the book then online. The only catch is that each of these cost £15

Also there is a rail links manual, AKA plusbus which costs £8. Did you know that for a little extra (normally around £2) that you can add a bus ticket to your railway ticket and its unlimited travel? Doing it this way is normally a lot cheaper then the equivalent ‘day ticket’ on the bus. However please ask for plusbus at a booking office as ticket collectors on the train tend not to be able to issue plusbus tickets.

http://www.tsoshop.co.uk/bookstore.asp?FO=1159997&DI=570628

New Timetable tomorrow

Yep it’s that time of the year when your local Train Company slightly alters the timetable so you miss your train by a couple of minutes. Don’t take it out on the staff, remember these new timetables have been out for a while now!

Here is a link to the current timetables and the ones which start tomorrow, make sure you read them beacuse there are a few small changes to some services.
http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/pages/timetables/print-download/default.aspx

Barbie Train

This is the new livery of First Capital Connect. I wouldnt like to have a hangover and then see this Barbie pink train first thing in the morning!

Still its nice to see a clean train.