(unimportant) General News

[Gus Mears]

To an extent, yes. the 20-30% deficit compared to other counties I mentioned (If I recall correctly) is directly to do with driver staff i.e a French conductor will get paid 20-30% less for an equivalent job once wacky bonuses etc. are accounted for. That, combined with their/ successive government's dismal infrastructure spending records does mount up, so while this won't solve railways, it's a more immediate remedy than investing heavily in the line because that would take heavy borrowing/time they don't necessarily have. 

 

Butch: They aren't getting rid of conductors yet (they promised to maintain conductor levels) for what it's worth, but yeah, I think in five years that's where it will go. I would imagine that no-conductor services would only run between stations with barriers. For instance, Great Western (the shithouses I deal with daily) are going to make the Paddington-Cardiff electric service non-conductor because Cardiff-Reading-Swindon-Bath-Bristol-Cardiff are all full of barriers. 

[PowerButchi]

Ah fair enough then. Arriva Trains Wales is light on barriers you see.

[PunkStep]

The number of strikes they have is insane. I remember when folk were moaning about Bob Crowe's union going on strike a couple of times a year, but this has been constant all year round. I don't use the service but quite a few at work do and they've ended up working from home for a sizeable portion of the year.

[Gus Mears]

Ah fair enough then. Arriva Trains Wales is light on barriers you see.

 

 

Yeah, same here on some of the rinky-dink routes around me. Avoncliff has a population of about 200 people so spending the earth on massive barriers would be a complete waste of time. I guess for those spending £200+ on a London Paddington return (thank Christ work pays in advance when I go up once a week or I'd be living in a bin) it makes sense. Train jumping ain't what it used to be. 

[Chest Rockwell]

When I was commuting into London I did start sitting in first class every day once I realised they didn't have the staff to check anymore.

[Mr.E]

Travelling by train has changed a whole lot, and in some places not for the better.

 

In my experience, up until a few years ago, I was able to hop on a train and buy a ticket (for example if I was running late). On one particular occasion, me and the Mrs were running late to a train to Chester (a place that's had barriers for a long time) so said "we'll grab a ticket on the train". Nobody came to inspect tickets, so we had to buy on on the station.

 

We then got pulled out of the ticket queue by some spanner in a hi vis jacket, who them tried to fine us for doging fares. Fast-forward several months, and us two appealing we received two letters. one to my wife saying "OK, just don't do it again" and me saying "you've been fined for dodging fares". I appealed a further two times (pointing out that of the two people in this situation, one of us was let off for the exact same thing) they eventually dropped it. I was just super pissed off that this sort of stuff, whilst intended to catch people out for proper fair dodging, is being wasted on somebody like me who actively wants to pay for my travel but didn't have an opportunity (No conductor on the train) other than to miss my train/wait for another hour or so.