The Ticket Collector

Guards on East Midland Trains to strike.

Guards part of the RMT union on East Midlands Trains (Previously Midland Mainline) are to go on strike on the first 3 Saturdays in May.

After voting for both strike action and action short of strike, the senior conductors, will not book on for shifts that commence between a minute after midnight and 23:59 on May 3, 10 and 17.

The dispute centres on East Midlands Trains plan to use managers and other grades to guard trains on Sundays and to impose a new grade of senior conductor with inferior conditions, outside existing negotiated structures.

“What started as a simple and easily resolved dispute about Sunday working has been escalated by the company into a total breakdown in industrial relations,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“Using managers and other grades to cover guards’ work amounts to an attack on their safety-critical role, and attempting to impose new conditions without negotiation has escalated matters and undermined our agreed negotiating machinery.

“Not only has the company slapped a ban on RMT reps doing normal union duties, but we now understand that it is planning to ship in managers from other companies to cover guards’ turns, and that also has serious safety implications and can only escalate matters even further.

“The only people competent to operate a safe service on Sundays or any other day of the week are the professional, trained conductors who do it day in, day out.

“The solution to this dispute remains simple, but it involves the company stepping back from the brink and engaging in talks about Sunday running rather than trying to impose,” Bob Crow said.

Strike update: Midland Mainline 1st November

Midland Mainline are still proceeding with the strike this Thursday. This meens that services again will be severly reduced and some stations will not recive any MML services.

The following trains are scheduled to be the only services to run.

Southbound

• 06:34 Derby to London St. Pancras, due 08:36
• 07:34 Derby to London St. Pancras, due 09:36
• 13:34 Derby to London St. Pancras, due 15:36
• 14:34 Derby to London St. Pancras, due 16:36
• 15:34 Derby to London St. Pancras, due 17:36

These services will call at Long Eaton, Loughborough, Leicester, Market Harborough, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford, Luton Airport Parkway and London St. Pancras.

Northbound

• 09:00 London St. Pancras to Derby, due 11:03
• 10:00 London St. Pancras to Derby, due 12:03
• 16:00 London St. Pancras to Derby, due 18:09
• 17:00 London St. Pancras to Derby, due 19:04
• 18:00 London St. Pancras to Derby, due 20:09

These services will call at Luton Airport Parkway, Bedford, Wellingborough, Kettering, Market Harborough, Leicester, Loughborough, Long Eaton and Derby.

No Midland Mainline services will be running to / from Leeds, Wakefield Westgate, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Nottingham, Beeston and Luton on Thursday 1^st November.Further industrial action is planned for 8 November. Details of the service disruption will be issued when available.

Midland Mainline to Strike on Thursday 25 Oct 2007

Due to Midland Mainline train drivers taking industrial action on Thursday 25 October 2007 there will be a very limited train service running on Thursday 25 October.

The following trains are scheduled to be the only services to run.

• 06.34 Derby to London St. Pancras
• 07.34 Derby to London St. Pancras
• 13.34 Derby to London St. Pancras
• 14.34 Derby to London St. Pancras
• 15.34 Derby to London St. Pancras

These services will call at Long Eaton, Loughborough, Leicester, Market Harborough, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford, Luton Airport Parkway and London St. Pancras.

Northbound

• 09.00 London St. Pancras to Derby
• 10.00 London St. Pancras to Derby
• 16.00 London St. Pancras to Derby
• 17.00 London St. Pancras to Derby
• 18.00 London St. Pancras to Derby

These services will call at Luton Airport Parkway, Bedford, Wellingborough, Kettering, Market Harborough, Leicester, Loughborough, Long Eaton and Derby.

No Midland Mainline services will be running to / from Leeds, Wakefield Westgate, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Nottingham, Beeston and Luton on Thursday 25 October.

Further industrial action is planned for 1 November and 8 November. Details of the service disruption will be issued when available.

No Smoking on ANY UK station.

Smoking Ban finally arrives.

So its finally arrived, the national smoking ban. All of the railway companies have decided to make all of their premises and property completely smoke free areas.

If you are caught lighting up in a enclosed public area or on a railway station you will face a fine of £50. Railway stations are covered by existing bye-laws and belive it or not were smoke free before the new national smoking ban even came into force.

Also dont drop your fag ends on the floor as this will result in a fine of £80. There are lots of Enforcement officers just waiting around the corner to fine you.

Flooding in the Midlands

Ok so I come back off holiday in a warm sunny place (wish I could go back), and I come back to see everywhere flooded. Most of GNER lines have been affected and services still cannot stop at Wakefield due to the line still being under water.

The photo on the left is the Marshgate Bridge on the main East Coast Mainline near Doncaster. Services were suspended due to the water being over the safe height.

The second photo on the left is of adwick, on the main Leeds to Doncaster line. This is why services still cannot use this line to go via Wakefield.

GNER is on an emergency timetable until Tuesday, and possibly further into the week. Central Trains are not running between Mansfield and Worksop.

Before traveling it is advised to check the NationalRail website and the Train Company’s website.

FCC is the worst Operator - National Passenger Survey

The National Passenger Survey was released yesterday and it comes up with some bad reading for many of the Train Companies mentioned.

The latest survey compared the passengers satisfaction levels for individual train operating companies with the survey carried out in Spring 2006. Since 2006 four Train Companies satisfaction levels have declined significantly (First Great Western, First ScotRail, First Capital Connect and Northern Rail), and three have significantly improved (Midland Mainline, Arriva Trains Wales and Heathrow Express). Fourteen have had no statistically significant changes in their overall satisfaction results compared with Spring 2006.

• The lowest ratings for overall satisfaction were given to First Capital Connect [First Group] (71%), First Great Western [First Group] (72%), One [National Express Group] (72%), Southeastern (74%), and Silverlink [National Express Group](76%).

• The highest ratings for overall satisfaction were achieved by Heathrow Express (94%), Gatwick Express [National Express Group] (92%), Chiltern Railways (90%), Midland Mainline [National Express Group] (90%), c2c [National Express Group] (89%), and TransPennine Express [First Group] (89%).

Should I keep this blog running?

I know this blog is popular what with all the visits from various people and employees of big major companies visiting on their company internets.

But the thing that is starting to nark me off, is the fact that I am not getting any reconigtion for doing this blog. I know big major newspaper companies do visit this site, more then likley to see what the latest thing thats been leaked is. But since The Times decided to steal the content of this site I have not listed anything which was not in the Public Domain. I have plenty of juicy documents sent to me from my contact in the DfT about the new railway franchises. Did you know for example that theyve already decided on the final 2 for the ECML?

Now I have not had any awards, have not had any big newspapers mention this site in their papers even though they obviously visit for the leaked documents. I spend a lot of time on this blog and am thinking why do I bother. Feel free to comment.

On another note well done to Disgruntled Commuter who has been shortlisted in the Metro blog awards.