The worst ICWC scare story EVER - Official

This from the RMT, in scraping the barrel mode... 

RAIL UNION RMT warned today that the continuing franchise chaos on the West Coast main line could force the Government to run trains over the busy Christmas and New Year period blown over in grey primer with no livery as they continue to drag their heels over the renationalisation of the service under East Coast operator, Directly Operated Railways

Forgive me if I don't get excited. 

UPDATE: This from a Mr Tony Miles... 
 
Indeed - scraping the barrel - because obviously state owned East Coast repainted all their trains the day they took over from NXEC, didn't they? Well actually no they didn't as some are still in GNER livery…

Franchise handover rules just require the departing operator to remove their logos from trains.

Remember how long it took Arriva CrossCountry to remove the Virgin colours from the Voyagers when they took over?

Perhaps Bob should have gone to Specsavers?

UPDATE: This from Shades of SNG...

As somebody once nearly said, clothing engines in plain grey would be
like letting them run around with their whites un-washed.

Might I suggest the addition of some discreet steel bands to steel grey
as the new DOR livery, in conjunction with a suitably tapered front end.

Well it worked for me.

Crow Bar Bob on AV - That's the way to do it

Exciting news from Crow Bar Bob!

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said

“With forecasters today showing that half a million more jobs are on the block, and yet more evidence that families will be up to a thousand pounds a year worse off under the ConDems, it is no surprise that Cameron and Clegg want to distract attention with their pathetic AV Punch and Judy show."

But what's this?

Apparently Consistency Crow can't walk past a Punch and Judy show without wanting to join in!

Crocodile Crow continues...

“RMT, which supports proper proportional representation rather than this shoddy Clegg-inspired stitch up, is calling for a no vote in Thursday’s referendum and as far as we are concerned... (cont' p94)".

Just fancy that!

WSMRballs - RMT

And this codswallop from Crow Bar Bob...

"This is a bitter blow to the UK rail industry and it is a scandal that a giant company like Deutsche Bahn can play fast and loose with our rail services in this way and then and cut run when they decide the profit margins aren't fat enough for their liking.

"The UK Government should now step in and nationalise the route to protect both the jobs and the popular Wrexham & Shropshire services and there should be a full inquiry into how this operation, set up with Welsh government and taxpayer support, has been ground into the dust by Deutsche Bahn. Public ownership would protect that public investment rather than allowing the private rail asset strippers to walk away from the wreckage."

Where to begin?

Knee-jerk Bob appears to confuse a thumping loss with a “fat profit margins”.

If the service was as “popular” as Bob believes then it wouldn’t be closing.

As for "nationalising" the route - Hellooooo. Earth to Bob. Come in Bob.

Do any of RMT's members actually believe any of this guff that is being spouted in their name?

Fares Fair supporters part of the problem

So. The Campaign for Better Transport's 'Fares Fair' campaigners have been busy in Brighton today.


What jolly japes!

Over at the Fares Fair website is a statement of what the campaign hopes to achieve:

Fair Fares Now is calling for:

• Affordable prices, including peak times and turn-up-and-go tickets
• Reliable services that aren’t overcrowded
• Straightforward tickets that make train travel simple

Fair enough.

So who has Stephen Joseph and co managed to sign up as supporters of this exciting new campaign?

Why it's the usual rent a crowd of Rail Future, Friends of the Earth, Sustrans (sic), Transport for All, the TUC and the RMT.

Could this be the same RMT that managed to secure an inflation busting 5.2% pay increase for its SWT members in October and which has just rejected the same pay offer for its Network Rail members?

It surely is!

That's the way to drive down rail fares !

UPDATE:This from The Velopodist...

I'm not quite sure who the masked person picking the pocket in your picture from Brighton station is meant to be.

But it looks a little as if he's a stockbroker or other wealthy person from the south-east picking the pocket of an ordinary taxpayer.

Which, appropriately, is precisely the situation that will obtain as long as 50 per cent of the cost of every rail journey comes from public subsidy, rather than passengers paying for their own trips.

But maybe that wasn't the message Stephen Joseph and friends wanted to convey.

UPDATE: This from Bob (no not that one)...

I take exception with your point that the RMT secured a 5.2% increase for us in SWT at the end of last year, this pay increase was agreed 2 years ago as part of a 2 year deal with the second payment being 1%+RPI or 1.5% whichever was the greatest.

Unluckily for SWT the RPI in August was 4.2% but it could easily have gone the other way.

There was then a ballot as to whether we should take a reduction in hours instead of the full amount, but this was rejected, (we still work 42 hours in the guard grade) as most of us had already realised that the cost of living was going to be dearer, and with the rise in prices, transport (yes some of us have to pay to get to work), and VAT (and don't get me started on that subject - some shops have increased prices by 20% instead of 2.5%), we have been proved right.

And finally NO I am not an activist just a normal elderly person trying to manage for his last year of working in the railway industry.

Mediaballs - Taking the pi$$ but not on Southern

Much nonsense being spoken by the Chatterati about the absence of loos on trains due to operate between Portsmouth and Brighton.

This tosh from the BBC...

Southern Railway to axe toilets from new train fleet

A train company has been branded a "disgrace" by union chiefs after it emerged some of its new fleet will have no toilets on board.

Southern Railway opted to forgo the facilities on its latest trains running on the Portsmouth to Brighton service.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' union (RMT) said on a journey of that length it was "unacceptable".

Where to begin?

First, despite over excited twitterings to the contrary, Southern are not withdrawing loos from all its trains.

Secondly, the 'new trains' that will serve the Portsmouth - Brighton route are no such thing. They are Class 313s which are over thirty years old. They never had loos and never will.

Operating trains without loos on a journey of over an hour is also not new - there appear to be little objections to passengers travelling from Waterloo to Weybridge via Hounslow on Class 455s.

And lets not even start talking about South Eastern's 'metro' (Class 376) fleet.

Or for that matter LUL sub-surface and tube stock where end to end journeys on many lines can comfortably exceed an hour.

The reasons that passengers on these routes tend not to complain about the lack of on-board facilities is that their journeys are generally short.

Perhaps surprisingly Bob Crow claimed that the 'new' trains risked turning carriages into "stinking cattle trucks" creating appalling conditions for passengers and staff.

With Voyagers and Pendolini in mind one would have thought that not installing modern toilet units would actually prevent the usual stink to be found in vestibule areas, unless of course the flexible spaces replacing the loos really are very flexible indeed?

Eye wonders whether all this RMT special pleading points to a pre-Christmas pub crawl between Brighton and Portsmouth? You have been warned.

UPDATE: This from the Old Member...

The Fact Compiler might wish to consult with Annie Mole on the corrosion issue which LUL used to discreetly refer to as the 'J door problem' whereby the J Door - providing access from the main saloon into the driver's cab, suffered severe electrolytic corrosion along the bottom edge due to the dampness experienced inside the driving compartment. This was especially a problem on 1938 stock where there were often intermediate cabs in the train formation.

This problem may well have occurred to a lesser degree on the old Blue Trains (now due a golden jubilee celebration - introduced 1960). I have heard of backpackers in desperation having come in from a ferry at Gourock or Wemyss Bay using the gangway connection between carriages with doors closed and guarded to form an improvised 'stall'.

Perhaps this information may lead to Southern removing the inter-carriage doors , as a measure to prevent corrosion.

UPDATE: This from Captain James Bigglesworth...

Vickers Viscounts ran into corrosion problems around the tail spar.

This was due to people with poor aim causing critical levels of corrosive liquid to build up in this vital area. The toilets were at the rear of the cabin.

Far better to relieve oneself into an old beer bottle and lob it out of the window when over the Hun lines.

UPDATE: This from Tony Miles...

One fleet of trains currently being overhauled is requiring extensive work to the drivers' cab doors - with the lower part of the inside having to be replaced because of... damage by urine.

Strangely these trains are fitted with toilets for the passengers but clearly the drivers and or conductors (many of which must be RMT members) have been unable to control themselves regardless of the facilities fitted to the trainsets.

Mr Crow may like to put his own house in order before going public with his error-strewn rants.

UPDATE: This from Aslef, penned in Keith Norman's name...

Southern has decided to remove toilets from its new fleet running along the hour-and-a-half Portsmouth to Brighton line

No they haven't!

There were no toilets to remove and its not a new fleet.

Come on Keith, get a grip!

RMT has cake and eats it

This diatribe from the RMT...

RMT today repeated its pledge to fight the tube and TfL cuts, including the threat to jobs following the final collapse of the PPP shambles with the buying out of the Tube Lines contract

Not a word of praise, of course, for Boris hammering the final nail into the coffin of the despised Public Private Partnership

Nor indeed of criticism for the doomed scheme's architect...

One Gordon Brown, currently holed up under squatter's rights in 10 Downing Street.