The Ticket Collector

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.

Rail Acident Branch releases Huntingdon Report

A while ago back in the days of wagn a member of the public got their coat caught in a door and the train went off with them still trapped in the door.

The RAIB (part of the Dft, aka The Government), has released its report into the acident and made some recommendations.

There are a lot of pretty pictures, some in depth diagrams with lots of whizzy arrows and measurements. There is some really poor CCTV as well.

http://www.raib.gov.uk/cms_resources/070430_R112007_Huntingdon.pdf

The recommendations from the RAIB are as follows:

Recommendations arising from causal and contributory factors

1. FCC should ensure that driver training is reviewed with a view to increasing the emphasis placed on, and understanding of, aligning the unit correctly with the optimum viewing position of the monitor bank. The training should also identify what actions the driver should take if a person is observed to be in close proximity to the side of the train when the driver is taking power (paragraphs 102 and 105).
2. Network Rail should ensure that the specification for replacement and new CCTV monitors require improved image contrast when viewed at an angle. The specified viewing angle should make a reasonable allowance for variation in a
   driver’s stopping performance (paragraph 108).
3. HSBC should review the design of the Class 365 Unit door seal and the door control mechanism so as to reduce the door closing forces, with a view to reducing, so far as is reasonably practicable, the forces required to extract trapped
   objects. This review should take into account existing standards (paragraph 104).
4. Network Rail should review the position of the cameras associated with the CCTV system for DOO at Huntingdon station with the objective of minimising the likelihood that a passenger standing in close proximity to the train will obstruct the driver’s view of passengers standing at other doors (paragraph 107).
5. Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) should review Railway Group Standard GM/RT2473 in terms of the correlation between the obstacle extraction test, seal design and the forces required to extract trapped objects or materials (paragraph 104).Recommendations arising from other safety issues
6. FCC should review and if necessary modify the signage and controls for emergency exits at doors on the Class 365 Unit in view of the passenger reaction in this accident so as to ensure ‘best’ passenger reaction in an emergency is achieved (paragraph 111). This review should be carried out in consultation with the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and with reference to the existing ATOC standard (Reference 13).

January 2007 - Fare Increases.

Its that time of the year again - the end of the year. Fare increases are coming. Good old ATOC keep using the same old excuse that the money is needed to pay for the renewal of the trains/track/etc blah blah.

No Christmas party at FCC

Apparently First dont do or fund the Christmas party, grr. I bet GNER have a Christmas party and they cant even afford it. WAGN used to have Christmas parties, mind you most people couldnt drink booze at them because they were working the next day.
So what are we getting? £25 of ‘Capital Incentive Vouchers” which apparently can be spent in up to 120 shops. ooooh wowie. £25 hmm I wonder what I can buy with that?

Then they say that we are not getting any Christmas Cards from First Group. Is this so that it does not offend the people that dont celebrate Christmas, or just because they want to divert the money elsewhere? I had a Christmas card last year from the Director of National Express Rail and from the Director of WAGN.

Strikes Off

Yeah its Late news I know but the poster tubes which were being delivered today by UPS at the Station are saying both the signallers strikes are being called off.

Damn I was so looking forward to a day off doing Customer Service.

Its Strike time again = Days Off!!!

Good old Bob Crow has decided to get all of his lovely signalers to go on strike over some pay talks which have broken down.

Well it seems its a threat again. But maybe this time it will go ahead and we can all get a day off.

Personally I dont want to work when Network Rails managers are working the signals *shudders*. I wonder could I refuse to work on Safety Grounds (i.e. that NR managers are only good behind desks earning stupid amounts of money and paying themselves even more stupid bonuses)? Interesting thought.

But here is the important information…..
Planned industrial action by some members of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union has been announced, commencing at 12 noon on Friday 21 July 2006 until 11.59am on Saturday 22 July 2006 and also between 12 noon on Thursday 27 July 2006 and 11.59am on Saturday 29 July 2006.

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