Transport in London is shit

wait is that Dr Ruth behind him?

I think the fact that the tube strike will cause disruption in London has been fairly widely acknowledged. It is the central theme of every article I have seen concerning it. The main one on the Guardian this morning did not even think to report why workers were going on strike, although it did find space to mention the minister for transport's views about it.

What are the shades you mention? that people are inconvenienced by strikes? yes, I think it is understood that this is a necessary part of strikes. it is the weight they carry, the leverage held by the worker. this is all fairly basic stuff. that other people are worse off? yes many people are very badly off in this country. public services have been under a sustained attack for decades and the budget announced yesterday is a reminder of the continual decline of the welfare state. I also work in the public sector and work very hard for little pay but I would prefer to stand in solidarity with other workers for better treatment and a fairer share of the extraordinary wealth of this city than to be governed by the politics of envy and resentment that defines mainstream public discourse concerning labour relations here.

Take a moment to imagine what this kind of thing does to a hospital - where most of the employees are making a lot less money for a lot more work, which I know is a touchy thing to bring up, because obviously we shouldn't be talking about dragging one group down rather than raising both up - and then read a quote about a driver complaining she can't get on Tinder underground.

Ribs, the strike is not actually about not being able to access Tinder underground.

yes, press coverage of this event has been simplistic, divisive, and superficial. which is pretty par for the course really. its worth having a think about how your response is being shaped by this.

I don't think the article even quotes this woman mentioning tinder. The way it's phrased implies to me that she pointed out that her already unsociable working hours were about to get much worse and then by way of explanation the article adds that tinder is unavailable on the tube. I mean potentially this strike is about access to dating apps, who am I to say.

MORE MISERY FOR COMMUTERS AS UNIONS 'SWIPE LEFT' OVER TINDER BAN

i would fully support a strike in favour of tinder access. but the wider point there, that working underground, especially as a driver, is intense, isolated, and lonely in a way that little other work is, and so deserves the adequate respect in every sense, is a good one too

Take a moment to imagine what this kind of thing does to a hospital - where most of the employees are making a lot less money for a lot more work

and they'd be doing even more work for even less money if not for successful strike actions in the past, and would probably be providing a worse service as a result. i have sympathy for the difficulties the strike has caused you, but even from yr hyperindividualistic standpoint we all ultimately benefit from public service workers getting a fair deal of things

As a cyclist, lot of amateur cyclists out there today. A lot of amateur pedestrians too, no visible evidence that they've ever operated a physical body near roads.

― Andrew Farrell, Thursday, July 9, 2015 11:55 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

didn't have too much of this - tho there were a lot more cyclists than usual, which created its own problems. a few drivers on a very short fuse. i gestured at one passing me very close to give me more space and he bawled at me 'do you want the whole road? not as if i touched you!' Wasn't time to say i tended to define 'touched' as 'hit' when it comes to cars.

more generally, arguments against the tube strike seem entirely mendacious. there was no consultation on the night working - a substantial change to t&cs - and the pay offer was pathetic. this is a unanimous walkout by skilled and professional staff who keep an astonishingly complicated transport network running remarkably efficiently for the most part (and are almost universally helpful and professional ime). people who complain about the effect of a strike, either general or examples specific referring to the immobile and the unwell, are only showing the value of that service and the people who provide it. In a meaningfully democratic society that's a value that's represented in money, specifically wages, and contractual terms. You want them to work nights to provide an extra service to the London public - what's it worth to you? The idea that vital public servants should suck up extra work without recourse to action only services an ideology that is determined to remove public services from the wider public. What NV said - if you don't support the strikes, you're a Tory. A few people use the 'ill person reliant on public transport' argument, and as already said, this only shows the worth of the people providing public transport. But there's a wider point, which is the defence of public services in a political environment which is ideologically determined to dismantle them. If you're ill you rely on the public services - a strike, though undoubtedly extremely unwelcome, is designed to help vulnerable people like that. A successful, fully implemented tube strike shows what can be achieved by hospital staff, general transport staff, the less well payed, but still very important, levels of the civil service. There has to be a recourse against a government determined to favour those with money and capital, and any fight against that is one that is designed to help the general public, the 90% if you like, regardless of whether that's acknowledged by the entirety of that public or not.

I know nearly everyone here knows this, but it sort of builds up inside you during the day, and you have to express it somewhere. The news, as plax said, has generally made no effort to explain the terms of the dispute, and is only interested in spurious 'why can't i get home' vox pop argument.

*theatrically barges out of thread*

u r rite

upvote

fizzles otm

and it's true for all cities/public institutions

You regard other bus users as 'cunts' through righteous indignation, you theatrically barge past people physically taking out your own frustrations on them and you create a confrontational drama....I really hope I don't get on a bus with you

I, on the other hand, would welcome Tom's presence

nauseating to think that tom d is out there diminishing the thoughtful kindness and politeness i've come to expect from london commuters

I'm touched that Tom was doing it for my benefit:

...deserved to have these facts pointed out to them so that maybe next time, maybe when you get on a bus to go to your work to pay your bills etc etc, he might act less like a cunt.

Turns out he was the Mother Theresa, after all - not me.

Mother Theresa is a name synonymous with villainy.

Tom D is a name synonymous with villainy. The Fantômas of the shadowy demi-monde of Shit Commuter.

http://www.toscanaviva.com/Lucca/mostra%20Fantomas.jpg

Tom D. yesterday.

Pursuing the noble villainous art of metaphorical cuffing around the ears cos cunts gotta be told for their own and everyone else's good mansplaining since 2002, I'll wager.

Why 2002?

not sure if I should be surprised you're using 'mansplaining' in its new, exciting, completely redundant context

as opposed to the old exciting completely redundant etc

something about 'derailing' here maybe

heh

Apologies - there's something about Transport in London which makes me IA and unreasonable. I'm taking myself off here for a bit.

Not at all, I'm the unreasonable one here, remember?

FYI I'm pretty sure that if Tom's bus dude were able to get the Tube yesterday he'd have been one of those fuckers who gets on a half-empty carriage and immediately stands right in front of the door.

These people are the worst fucking human beings in the world and I wish them nothing but unpleasantness.

Bet they also get to the top/bottom of an escalator, step off then DON'T FUCKING GO ANYWHERE.

Victoria line suspended between Walthamstow Central and Seven Sisters for 3 weeks, so the Overground is of course very crowded. So what do TFL do? Cancel trains on Tuesday and Wednesday, and this morning while it wasn't cancelled the train turned up with 4 carriages instead of 8 so I couldn't get on it anyway.

Can we get Abellio Greater Anglia back please?

I haven't travelled on it since the switchover but I keep reading about 8-car trains cut to 4 cars (due to train 'faults'). This seems to be happening every day and to quite a large proportion of the trains. I also keep reading about signal problems at Liverpool Street. Not sure what's going on exactly.

Yeah it has been... interesting this week. I've taken to getting a bus down to Leyton tube station early doors, which is the Central line and therefore awful but at least guarantees getting me in on time.

i get the district line from stepney green to westminster every day. best commute i've ever had apart from having to walk through the lake of souls on the westminster side.

The District Line is normally a shuffling beast of a transport option, you're the only person I know of who seems happy using it.

nah it really isn't anymore, or maybe it's the section i use. i expected it to be like this, the constant stopping and fucking up, but it's either improved or it functions on the fairly short stretch between stepney and westminster.

i've been getting it about a year and i'd say i could count massive stoppages on one hand. had my worst ever stoppage on the central line a few months back, about 15 minutes in the dark outside liverpool st, claustrophobia was mounting by the time we got moving.

Admittedly I don't commute on it, so I'm never in a hurry, but I always enjoy travelling on the District line. You get to see things out of the window (even, here and there, in central London). I prefer the rolling stock, as well -- more spacious.

the Circle and Metropolitan lines are also good in those respects.

it's a lot quieter and less aggro than the central line, which was my usual. i almost always get a seat on the way in and out. the design of the carriages that have two seats facing each other is total bullshit though, i shun them. the new trains are quite nice but feel busier.

district line's below ground in central london except briefly at whitechapel though not much to see but cables and building works but it's fine really it's the hammersmith & city that never seems to turn up when I need it and the circle can be a bit of a nightmare at times

yeah no good experiences on those. a short journey on the circle can go very wrong indeed.

problem with the Circle is that trains seem to be every 10mins or so, and then can be subject to all sorts of seemingly arbitrary signalling problems. It's great when it works properly though.

Not complaining as such, but the train in to Liverpool the other day from Stamford Hill just stopped before the platform but inside a tunnel, total dark for five minutes (slowly growing lighter as more people turned their phones on).

Bah, Liverpool Street there.

District has mostly been fine -- used to go a bit slowly in some sections. Can be v frustrating at w/ends.

What's the worst Tube line for summer heat? IME, the Central takes some beating. Oxford Circ to Bethnal Green last week around 7pm (when it was only 20C outside or so) was brutal.

the central is like the worst line in every respect apart from speed and frequency. most of the terrible things about the tube and people's rage etc is all confined to the central line in my experience.

tho isn't the victoria line really hot? i feel like i've noted that but i don't get it often enough to know.

the design of the carriages that have two seats facing each other is total bullshit though

The two seats facing each other is traditional and there used to be seats like that on the trains used on all the other lines. But I agree, if you don't have the seat to yourself it can feel awkward (assume that's what you meant). Maybe it depends on the amount of space between the seats. I remember feeling tense when forced to sit in those seats on the bendy buses. But on the Barking to Gospel Oak line I don't have a problem with it.

xp

I don't find the Victoria line that hot (and as various rants on British summer threads prove am particularly bad at dealing with heat), the Central line is clearly the worst but I also find the Northern line pretty bad.

it just feels like not enough room for knees etc - tho i've had 7 years of mostly central line, standing or in the usual lines of seats, i don't feel weird about facing the person, more just that there's not enough room.

xpost

isn't the victoria line really hot?

I remember it being incredibly hot 10-15 years ago. It's not as bad now. May be something to do with the newer trains.