The Ticket Collector

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.

Silverlink - three days of strike action. SUSPENDED

A new deal has been offered and we are awaiting confirmation of the suspension.
Guards, Retail and Revenue staff have voted seven to one to take action against Silverlink and parent company National Express after an insulting pay increase of 3.6 percent was offered.

Strike dates are currently set as July 30th, August 13 and 27th. August 27th is also the second day of the Notting Hill Carnival.

MORE THAN 350 members of Britain’s biggest rail union at Silverlink are to take three days of strike action in a dispute over the company’s below-inflation pay offer.
Guards and retail and revenue staff voted by more than seven to one to take action after the company tabled a 3.6 per cent pay offer - way below the industry norm and considerably less than offers made to other grades at the company.
Three separate 24-hour strikes have been set for shifts that commence between 00:01 and 23:59 on July 30 and August 13 and 27.
“Our members have made it clear to Silverlink with a massive vote for strike action that they are not prepared to accept what amounts to a pay cut,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.
“This isn’t just the worst pay offer in the industry this year, it is also way below the offers they have made to other members of their own workforce.
“If Silverlink’s parent, National Express, can afford to pay out £50 million in dividends to its shareholders on the back of £104 million in profits, they can afford to offer their workforce a reasonable pay deal.
“If Silverlink want to avoid strike action they should acknowledge our members’ anger, get real and sit down with us to negotiate a sensible pay deal,” Bob Crow said.

Accredited Bidders for GNER. Leaked?

Ok right first off theticketcollector.co.uk will not release where the following information came from, will not release any names (we dont know anyway), and will not release anything which could comprise our source. The following information could change at any time as is NOT officially released.

ACCREDITED BIDDERS for EAST COAST FRANCHISE

The information goes on and on about start dates and stuff but the nitty gritty is as follows:
First Group PLC
Virgin Trains/Stagecoach Group
Arriva Trains
National Express Group
Serco/NedRailways

Basicly its the main players plus a few smaller ones, I have noticed that GNER are not an accredited bidder maybe cos the DfT told them not to bid.

Vote for me in the Bloggies! Please!!

Thanks to a reminder from another blogger who is listed on my blogroll I have been reminded of the fact, the 7th Annual Bloggies are open for nominations.
(http://2007.bloggies.com/)
This will be the first time and first year that I have asked for all of you readers to nominate this blog.

Please could you nominate this blog TheTicketCollector in the following categories:
Best British and Irish Blog
Best Topical Blog
Best Newcomer

I would be very gratefull if you would nominate this blog. Of course you have to feel that this blog warrants it!! But im sure it does, complete with the mix of inside information and a slight hint of humor. You must nominate at least two other blogs as well, so that makes a total of three, this would be a great way to say nominate your own blog or even a mates blog at the same time!!!

To nominate please go to http://2007.bloggies.com/.

The Nominations Close on Wednesday 10th January 2007

No Central Trains Services over Christmas Period

Senior Conductors for Central Trains belonging to the RMT union have announced industrial action for Christmas Eve Sunday 24 December, New Years Eve Sunday 31 December and New Years Day Monday 01 January 2007.

Central Trains have announced that the strikes will go ahead, and no Central Trains services will operate on Christmas Eve, New Years Eve or New Years day. Customers should make alternative arrangements for travel. At the moment no alternative travel has been arranged.

Class of guards… How to spot the difference

What is it about Guards, Train Managers, Conductors, Senior Conductors, Service Delivery Assistant, Customer Service Manager, Customer Service Host, RPI, RCO, Ticket Collector. (or whatever the latest name for them is this week).

Some days you have a really really nice and pleasant one that goes beyond the call of of his job and makes sure everyone has a pleasant journey.

Then you get the really evil nazi’s such as Lisa on GNER who are hellbent on making your journey the worst its ever been deliberately. They go and decide your ticket which youve already paid for isnt vaild on this service/expired 2 seconds ago/not validated/wrong time/wrong restriction/wrong time of year/moon not shining/etc and try and charge you upwards of 100quid. Then then when you question them about their jobs they accuse you of verbal abuse. We all know that there is only a few revenue people on GNER who are nazis but they sure as hell make up for it.
GNER needs to sack these nazi’s and not just pretend that they are doing somthing about it and send fobb off letters to any complainants.

Ways to spot the Nazis:
They have to be asked to give you assistance onto the Train.
You get told standard is down there beacuse they assume your a Standard Class passenger.
They charge their own Grandmother £200 because they got on the wrong train with the wrong ticket.
They accuse you of abusing staff when you ask questions which they dont want to answer.
They repeat the Ticket Restrictions every 5 seconds and after every single sodding station.
They check your ticket individally every time they come past, then they make some comment.
Will take your passes, railcards, tickets off you and lie and sate you abused them.
Just Lie generally to get themselves out of a hole.
Continually say “its Head Office orders mate”, as if you belive that bullsh*t.
always have an attitude problem.
Ways to spot the Pleasant Guards:
The way they dress, they look proud to be working on the railway, proud to work for their company.
Will offer assistance on the train without having to be asked.
They also tend to look in their late 30’s and upwards. Prehaps this is somthing to do with them having worked previously for British Railway?
Will say “thats okay” when you offer to show your ticket to them for the second time.
Will not charge you £200 for having the wrong ticket, but will charge you for the cheapest ticket, or give you a warning for the first time.
Will try and answer any questions you have, or find out the answer.
Will work out a timetable plan if your train is late.
Look and act happy.
Think ive only got a few years left for my pension.

If you have any more ways please use the comments system to add them.

GNER services and staff today.

This is an email which was sent to us today, and we (site staff) thought it was worthwhile publishing.
Ok so what Moron was doing the trolley service in standard class today on the 1S05 Kings Cross to Glasgow. Oh wait I know already who the abnoxious tosser was, someone called joe. (I asked at Glasgow how the train could be identified by customer services and they gave me a Train ID)
He is probably one of them agency workers who gets paid just above minimum wage and I would be surprised if he actually has a work visa.

While traveling today, I noticed that ‘joe’ decided to get the Train Manager down by making a feeble cry for help over the tannoy because someone was asking him a question about why the train had been sitting there for over 45mins.
As per normal for GNER the Train Manager ignored what the customer was saying and assumed that ‘joe’ was telling the truth and regually told the customer to “shut up” and on one occasion even threatened to “physically kick them off the train”.

Now I find this downright unacceptable and Im a normal member of the public, im not even rail staff. Could a member of rail staff tell me if this is normal railway pratice? Threaten, Extort, Verbally Assult customers and then threaten physical violence?

GNER - Greedy Naziem Extortion Railway.

Now Back to your ‘regular’ service - Editor