Friday 22 January 2010

No smoke without Ire

Good to see that the railway is showing its traditional contempt for the passenger.

First ATOC threw smokers off platforms for no good reason now Network Rail at Waterloo has gone one better - corraling them like cattle.



Presumably this at least prepares them for the journey home with South West Trains.

For Pity's sake can the railway not do better than this for its customers?

What price a canopy and some ash trays?

Smokers may now be social pariahs but they still pay real money.

UPDATE: This from Health and Efficiency...

Smoking is an absolutely disgust...
(Owing to shortage of space Eye reserves the right to shorten or edit comments in the interests of clarity.)

UPDATE: This from Ian Rodd (RN) Retd...

The 'new' arrangements for smokers at Waterloo are in fact a long standing (sic) feature, by which NR has tolerated illegal acts on the premises, much in the same way that some cities manage prostitution by having areas where it is tolerated so that the management of the fall-out - in this case 'butts' - is focussed on a single area.

It is a great coincidence that when the ban took effect cycle theft from the adjacent overfilled racks dropped dramatically - so the addicts provide enhanced security on the cheap.

Also the cumbersome structures placed in the roadway to deter terrorist attacks have been removed and there are suggestions that the new security measure is to block the access with concentrated crowd of addicts (or out bacca's) high on nicotine and therefore practically immune to any incoming threat.

People of Essex - No New Trains

Telegrammed by the Archer
What a difference a word makes:

From DfT’s press release on the new Greater Anglia franchise ‘all new rolling stock on the franchise to have CCTV coverage providing more security for passengers’.

(Readers will be aware that Bombardier are due to deliver new trains to both the existing NX franchise and the new franchise, which will be interesting for all concerned)

But on close inspection the corresponding note in the Essex Thameside franchise press release states ‘any new trains on the franchise to have CCTV, providing more security for passengers

That’s one bidding strategy confirmed then.

NedRail to become Albino

Telegrammed by the Raver
This from NedRail...

NedRailways today announced the launch of its new name, Abellio.

In the annals of meaningless names - Diageo, Accenture, Aviva, Consignia - this surely goes straight to number one.

Apparently Abellio was a Celtic god.

Not unlike this one, which carries a broken wheel and a mighty chopper...


...but that's the Dutch for you.

It's the sort of thing Desmond Morris wrote books about.

UPDATE: This from The Archer, no doubt after a good lunch...

The choice of new name and logo is almost genius, with a double L to signify the rails (or road for the buses) which get you from A to b.


Of course, fellatio has the same double L and is somewhat easier on the tongue.

UPDATE: This from an Anonymous Dutch reader...

Might I suggest ClogTrans?