Transport in London is shit

Victoria line running quite smoothly on its northern section both yesterday and today, BB, if that's any help.

^^ bollocks was it unless by "northern section" you meant "everything but the northern section"

Or unless "running quite smoothly" meant "closed"

Really? Had no trouble getting from Seven Sisters-Euston and back yesterday and this morning.

You'd have had a spot of bother getting from Seven Sisters to Walthamstow Central

Technically, I need the other end of the Victoria to be running Euston to Brixton, so I can get a seat on a 59 from the BM to Streatham Hill. It usually empties out at Waterloo but I can't stand that far right now. :(

Seeing the transport woes my friends in Cornwall/Devon are going through (floods on the Tamar! England cut off!) it feels a bit churlish complaining about standing for 20 minutes on a bus. I have only twice fallen foul on that route and should know better than to complain.

ah, apologies CP - fell into that typical "my bit's okay so it must all be okay" trap

Oh no worries.

I was on my way back from Kent last night that's why I knew. I actually had an OK journey because I knew the Victoria line wasn't running all the way so I got a bus to Liverpool St and got the train, and it was late enough that the commuting rush hour was over.

Luckily (?) I'm signed off work this week so I've avoided the strike so far, but I'm going back in next week so I'll get the next one. Doctor wanted to give me longer off tbh but not sure I can do that in good conscience.

oxford st to homerton - 55/38 all the way or somehow get to highbury/islington for the overground?

Wow. Ok I got into town but I've never been on an afternoon 59 so busy. I'm usually the only person on the top deck. Trying not to panic abot getting home; if the busses are bad I'll go sit somewhere for 2 hours & get the train from St Pancras. I can do this!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1546337_10151975184708940_1204043768_n.jpg

right wing memes.jpg

I was hoping it was true tbh

There are a bunch of those floating around, all made with a handwriting-style font and all written in fluent Thatcherbaby.

i have a seat on the 55. boarded at oxford st.

back of the net much??

I am about to brave the buses in the Oxford St area (Marble Arch to be precise) - FACommute?

First though imma stand by the hot food racks in Sainsbury's a while longer trying to make it seem like I want their chicken wraps and not their thermal currents

Got a seat, back top of a 436. Gonna follow right thru to Lewisham. I have my headphones and a drink, and shall presently abstract myself into a bliss of temporal remove...

I support the cause but sure as hell don't support the method, although I haven't felt like I can say that out loud to people I work with or whatever. In several of the big American cities I have lived in and others (NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc.) transport strikes are illegal, with one big reason being there's a feeling that these services need to protect the safety and livelihood of vulnerable citizens.

And after spending the day yesterday in a hospital for an emergency visit (that cost me nearly £75 to get to in car park traffic - I'm fortunate that I could pay that), and then hearing a bunch of ultra-depressing stories about cancer-patient carers unable to get to their charges, and patient-carrying ambulances being stuck in midday gridlock - fuck the TfL strikers. There's got to be a better way to go about this.

It's a funny thing with a strike like this - ideally the thing would be designed to kind of engender support for the beat-down drivers going up against the establishment, but it doesn't feel like that. They're already not a group people feel warm towards, and now they're fucking up a lot for people who really, really count on them.

What do you suggest they do then?

Strike line by line until their demands are met, starting with the Bakerloo and getting progressively more extreme

In several of the big American cities I have lived in and others (NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc.) transport strikes are illegal, with one big reason being there's a feeling that these services need to protect the safety and livelihood of vulnerable citizens.

... which is why they need to protect these services, hence the strike

Start deliberately crashing trains

Sing incessantly through the train intercom

Still about halfway down Park Lane btw :D

Stop each train with the rear carriage entirely outside the station, later up this to rear two carriages

Open the doors on the wrong side

Slam on emergency breaks at high speed to get some mean wheelskid, y'know, proper sparks bro

Start referring to brakes as 'breaks'

Open driver's window and high-five commuters at exceptionally low speeds along entire length of incoming platform

Fully support all strikes everywhere without question imo.

Stop the train, walk back along entire train with clipboard asking commuters to fill in a customer survey, walk back, move train 100 yards on, go back and collect surveys

They're already not a group people feel warm towards

speak for yourself; the staff at Seven Sisters tube often have to deal with shitty commuters and have always done so, as far as I've witnessed, with patience and aplomb, and I don't think they deserve to lose their jobs. And I'm sympathetic to the blow-back from the strikes, but these people are striking not just to save their jobs, but to maintain the safety of the service they provide. They are being massively fucked over. It shouldn't be allowed. And you're right, it's likely that people are going to place their own inconvenience as being more important than the right and wrong in this case, but I don't really see what else they can do.

They could just stand aside and let Boris et al run rampant, see how that works out for London's vulnerable citizens

Open the doors on the wrong side
― imago, Thursday, 6 February 2014 17:46 (7 minutes ago) Permalink

ironically this has once led to a strike

They're already not a group people feel warm towards

... now if this had been referring to bus drivers I don't think there would be too many quibbles

yeah the tube provides an incredible service, wtf

'national' rail otoh

bus drivers actually had a difficult job though, unlike, a tube driver (aside from obviously having to take time to open the door on the correct side)

#blameboris all the way. Everyone should support ticket offices remaining open, there's no way their closure can be justified for so many reasons.

tell you what's not needed tho, bus drivers doing their "this bus terminates here" nonsense even more than usual

is it the driver who determines 'this bus terminates here'?

Bus drivers could simplify the difficult aspects of their jobs by not being combative and rude to passengers.

I cannot imagine Holborn station without a working ticket office. It would be chaos, with extra added gormless tourists.

I don't beef with bus drivers yeah coz it's pretty astoundingly difficult. The manoeuvres the 380 drivers must perform on the narrow backstreets of Charlton, especially if two meet each other in opposite directions, often have me in awe

i don't see why whoever decides about early terminations can't make an educated guess based on traffic and err on the side of caution when stating the destination in the first place. it's the surprise factor that's most rage-inducing

It's enraging to get on a bus using the last £1.50 on one's Oyster, only to have it terminate two miles before the indicator initially said it would.

> is it the driver who determines 'this bus terminates here'?

i think it's a shift thing, when they reach the end of their hours they can't carry passengers (but can drive back to the depot in the bus). i once had one driver who terminated the bus ONE STOP after i got on. why didn't he say anything?

Got to Vauxhall btw. Really shd have just gotten the train from CHX, this was a nice idea but slower than walking pace. If it was summer I would have walked home tbf

If buses terminate early u can request a transferable ticket, u do realise this right

Also that shift thing is str8 ludicrous. Finish the route you're on and request overtime pay, a child of 6 could work that out

If buses terminate early u can request a transferable ticket, u do realise this right

this works really well when you have a packed bus asking one driver for transferable tickets, everyone is in a rush and the next bus is packed as well

Bus drivers could simplify the difficult aspects of their jobs by not being combative and rude to passengers.
― baked beings on toast (suzy), Thursday, 6 February 2014 18:15 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

does the rude driver come first or the cunty passengers or both. most drivers whom i encounter are okay.