Transport in London is shit

Just used my debit card. Didn't have any difficulties apart from a moment's panic when I didn't think I had the strenght to pull the bike out with my pipecleaner arms.

sometimes need to have a couple of goes with the code

Yep, same here in fact.

214, Thanks for everything! Julie Newmar

http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/RoyalOysterCard415.jpg

good god tfl pull yourselves together, this is an embarrassment

RMT Tube drivers are planning to walk out every day from Monday May 16 to Friday May 20.

Oh man. It would be great if someone could explain if this is justified. I'm totally for worker's rights and stuff but this action seems pretty excessive.

work from home! yay!

RMT claims Lynch and Thomas were sacked because of their trade union activities, although this has been denied by Transport for London.

"It is absolute nonsense to suggest that these individuals were dismissed unfairly due to their union activities and it is disgraceful that the RMT leadership has chosen to ballot for strike action when both cases are still going through the employment tribunal process," said TfL

pretty much with tfl here.

So one guy got agro and another breached safety rules. I can't find any details on the seriousness of either case and both sides seem to be debating what exactly happened. RMT are saying their trade union involvement is there only 'crime'. It seems both cases are under review and might get overturned? Anyway, why not strike say RMT. Great.

idk, very recently a friend's dad in a different industry got pulled up for 'disciplinary' reasons and it became very apparent very quickly that this was actually about his trade union rep work, and was the first step in an attempt at constructive dismissal. companies do target people for their trade union involvement, often in pretty flagrant ways. so... i don't know.

Yeah, I can see that. I've worked places where I've been warned of 'troublemakers'. It would be good to know details of what they have been accused of.

the guy who "breached safety rules" has already won an interim order at employment tribunal, which means "the Employment Tribunal believes it is likely at your full hearing that your complaint will be successful" but it's always inspiring to see people side with bosses to avoid minor inconvenience.

the employment tribunal is the right place to sort this out, not the picket line.

if people are being victimised for their union activities, which tfl says is "absolute nonsense" but the tribunal has ruled is "likely" then yeah, it's a matter for industrial action.

idk, maybe wait until the tribunal has fully run its course? and then see what redress (if any) tfl are made to take? i really don't see what striking is meant to achieve, at this point.

well it's making us alert to this issue and we're talking about it.

if everything just "ran its course" no one would have any idea that TfL might be involved in these particular anti-union shenanigans, people wouldn't be reminding each other that anti-union shenanigans can get dressed up as disciplinary actions for other "offenses" etc

because tribunals can take months, during which time the union's activities are disrupted by taking their representatives out of circulation. at the end, tfl would probably just have to pay compensation, which it may consider money well spent to fuck over the RMT but i'm not particularly keen on it as a use of public money.

i keep reading this as "Transport in London is.... THE shit" and i keep being like yes, it is!

afaik industrial tribunals are basically for shit? You get to fight for months to get an amount of comp money that looks impressive, then vanishes after a few months, by which time you haven't found a new job because you've been successfully tarred as a "troublemaker". The chances of getting successfully reinstated after dismissal are pretty minute.

On the other hand this strike could personally inconvenience me so it's a fucking outrage

transport in london really is shit. first rush-hour commuting for 3 years today and...jesus what is WRONG with this thing? why can the tube never work properly? such a simple journey, on the way in i got within one stop in good time, and then i had to change line and somehow that last stop took me HALF AN HOUR thanks to a) one tube inexplicably not turning up b) another tube inexplicably resting at a platform for an aeon c) a third tube crawling at approximately 2mph for its entire journey.

on the way back, with the tube as sardine-like and overheating as you expect, we were held at hyde park corner for 20 minutes to "even out the service" or some bullshit.

i don't think this is really very acceptable!

itt personal hard luck stories masquerading as symptoms of massive system failure

what line was that? i get the central every day and i find it largely excellent. apart from werewolf-like transformation into a total bastard as soon as i set foot underground, which is the price we pay the tfl ferryman.

itt personal hard luck stories masquerading as symptoms of massive system failure

it's at least 75% of the time i ever try to travel outside of my postcode!

it was the piccadilly line. well the fuckery on the way back was, on the way in the fuckery was the circle line's fault.

i don't thin that image worked

like the tube!!

we were held at hyde park corner for 20 minutes to "even out the service" or some bullshit.

That is the only way to avoid the "waiting for 30 minutes and then three turning up at once" problem. Annoying for those on the actual train, but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. And it probably wasn't for 20 minutes.

so much piccadilly line fuckery today

in the 10 tube journeys i took last week, when i was commuting, precisely THREE went smoothly. and one of those was because i left the office at 9pm. otherwise, delays and stoppages and random terminations and evacuations = par for the fucking course, not me being "unlucky" at all. don't want to hear a word in this piece of shit service's defence, it's useless and inadequate.

Last week the Victoria line was a total nightmare. I think I was on similar stats to you - Monday and Tuesday there were signal failures AND passenger alarms on every journey.

This week has been alright so far dammit now I've jinxed tomorrow.

Got the Victoria line down to Kings Cross last night heading for a pub on Pentonville Road - got on the last carriage perfectly lined up with the exit for Pentonville Rd, but when I got up there I found they'd closed the exit 20 minutes before. I then had to go on an odyssey to get out - a seemingly never-ending underground walk eventually surfacing somewhere between Kings Cross and St Pancras, then mysteriously weaving through various platforms, finally to the concourse and then to the street and back to the outside of my initial exit more than ten minutes later.

Haha yes I know that well. Pentonville Rd exit shuts at 8pm - the solution is to walk all the way down the Victoria line platform to where the Euston Road exit is - of course they don't tell you that on the signs.

BUS TRACKER! it seems on the face of it to work. I've been waiting for this for so long.

http://m.countdown.tfl.gov.uk/

:O

This is the best thing that's ever happened

It won't give me any information on the 48 route for some reason. And it seems to struggle a bit when you're searching for a stop by name and there are multiple stops with that name. Or maybe it's me that struggles. But yes! Makes sliced bread look shit.

Just used this on my way back from the vet! 212 in 2 mins it said, which was close enough. This is great, although yeah it only seems to be for certain routes at the moment.

Pushchair tracker needed for the 29 route too

Anyone sampled the delights of the non-bendy 73 route today?

It goes on Roman roads only?

That's the 8 iirc.

Anyone sampled the delights of the non-bendy 73 route today?

One crossed my path at Newington Green yesterday while I was riding the 141. I note the route has been shortened and the northern terminus is now Stoke Newington.

The big one, for me, will be the 29. I think that is due for conversion in November.

Following my Kings X exits hell (see post two weeks ago) can Colonel Poo or anyone else advise me: if I head south to Kings Cross on the Victoria line and want to exit so that I can walk down Grays Inn Road, what's the best way to go once I get off the train?

that's always seemed fairly easy to me - can't remember directions from platform, but make as if you're heading to the circle line platform, and then go out of that exit - go under the subway when you're out of the gates

Yeah, as lex said. Head towards the front of the train (going southbound), go up to the main ticket office, then go through the underpass before you get to the Circle&c platforms. I think that's quicker than leaving through the main station and having to cross Euston Road. Or weekdays before 8pm you can just go up the Pentonville Rd exit and walk around the Scala onto Grays Inn

Thanks.

Also:Bus tracker is amazing. Very quick and easy to navigate on an un-smartphone too.

http://vimeo.com/28341276

the new non-bendy 73s all seem to be hybrids - it freaks me out when the engine cuts out at every stop. i'm usually late and i need the psychological crutch of perceived forward motion that a ticking-over engine provides.

Yes - when the engine cuts at a stop I always assume either (a) we'll be stopped for ages because a passenger has incurred the wrath of the driver, or (b) we'll be stopped for ages due to driver changeover.