Railways in General - ARGH also East London Line Extension

[Johnny]

Now I have never had a go at a London Underground or One GER (Formerly First GER) worker but I'm getting close to. It is always one excuse after the other

One Great Eastern

Fair enough if there is a "faulty train requiring mechanical assistance", "faulty signal" or "faulty points", these delays can't be helped especially if somebody jumps infront of a train. However the excuse "This train has been delayed due to a delay on the trains previous journey" is not acceptable. WHY was the journey delayed in the first f*cking place, was the driver watching the last moment of Neighbours???

Central Line

Ever since the Chancery Lane derailment there has been at least one delay a week. The most annoying thing happened on Friday is when there was a delay of trains at Leytonstone station, we sat just outside it for 5 minutes then when it started moving the driver announced "apologies ladies & gentlemen this train will now terminate at Leytonstone, please change for the train over the platform" Everybody on the train had the expression "oh for f*ck sake"

London Underground

Today 5 lines have engineering work all weekend

Bakerloo - Nothing North of Queens Park
Circle - COMPLETELY SUSPENDED
District - Nothing Between Whitechapel to Earl's Court
Jubilee - Nothing North of Neadsen
Metropolitan - No service between Aldgate & Harrow On The Hill

As well as that the Central (AGAIN!), Hammersmith & City and East London Lines were subject to delays - Very Poor Indeed out of 12 lines only 4 out of 12 were running properly

Does anyone else experience this problem in this country or abroad I mean it is 2004 after all, they much worse than what they were in 1904 - I wasn't alive then, I'm just guessing

[Big Brother]

Amazingly I'm going to have a small rant about the newly re-formed "(First)Scotrail.

Said First group have been the franchise holder for around 2-3 weeks now and in this time there has been more late, cancelled, faulty trains, track faults and signal failures in this time than the old "Scotrail" had in the last year.

Coincidence? For laughs I'm going to list some experiences.

Day 1 of the new Franchise - I don't commute on a Monday but there was some track and signal failures near Glasgow/Edinburgh.

Day 2 - Signal/Track Failure between Arbroath - Dundee. Usual Journey time with 1 stop in-between = 17mins. That day this journey time increased to 1hour+ of course there was a ripple effect with following trains with increased delays... luckily I caught an already late service from Arbroath. My original train took a whopping 1 hour and 30 minutes to travel not 20miles.

Day 3 - Unexplained latenesses on trains from Aberdeen.

Day 4 - (Thursday) - Train Fault or "Set fault" as we were told resulting in the busiest morning train being cancelled - which also resulted in 2 train loads of people having to board a single train - by the time this train reached Arbroath the original mob of passengers for the 8am train was waiting with the next set of passengers from the 8.15 train also waiting. The end result.... a train packed of people with no seat and no space to even twitch. Similarly the evening train (busiest) was also delayed due to some other fault with something...

This in a single week. I'll not continue about the rest but they were handing out free Coffee's Cake's and Tea.

[iSon]

Central Line

Ever since the Chancery Lane derailment there has been at least one delay a week. The most annoying thing happened on Friday is when there was a delay of trains at Leytonstone station, we sat just outside it for 5 minutes then when it started moving the driver announced "apologies ladies & gentlemen this train will now terminate at Leytonstone, please change for the train over the platform" Everybody on the train had the expression "oh for f*ck sake"

London Underground

Today 5 lines have engineering work all weekend

Bakerloo - Nothing North of Queens Park
Circle - COMPLETELY SUSPENDED
District - Nothing Between Whitechapel to Earl's Court
Jubilee - Nothing North of Neadsen
Metropolitan - No service between Aldgate & Harrow On The Hill

As well as that the Central (AGAIN!), Hammersmith & City and East London Lines were subject to delays - Very Poor Indeed out of 12 lines only 4 out of 12 were running properly

Does anyone else experience this problem in this country or abroad I mean it is 2004 after all, they much worse than what they were in 1904 - I wasn't alive then, I'm just guessing

Tell me about it. Although I'm more concerned about the Disctrict Line, in which it is impossible to completely a journey (no matter how short!) without an extended stop between stations.

I am glad that my "local" station is South Kensington, else I couldn't have tube it anywhere this weekend without having to get on the bus to get on the tube. Mandess.

Also, I was off to Uxbridge the other day, all well and good. I got on the (rather slow) Piccadilly line train which was going straight to Uxbridge. (I add the platform indicators weren't working, so you had to resort to the old fashioned looking at the front of the train to find out where you may end up!)

Anyway, I got on, and all was well and good I thought. Grabbed my book and prepared to sit on the train for around 45 minutes until I reached the end of the line. 30 minutes after departure, we had managed to go through only 3 stations. Why...well it seemed the signalling system was buggered and about 15 trains came at once and there was very long delays. Basically you'd get moving then it'd stop again due to a red signal.

Thankfully, the problems cleared after a few stations...but then we were informed that it would instead terminate at Ruislip and not Uxbridge as planned...the reason "Due to the late running of this train..." - Well that's a great excuse! Hey ho, just meant getting off at Rayners Lane and getting the equally unreliable and uncomfortable Metropolitan line.

But the Americans and Northerners still love the tube...think it's the best thing since sliced bread. But it gets a bit old when you use it every day and you regularly get delayed and someones sweaty armpit in your face if you dare to travel on it from the hours of 8am-7pm.

And the good news? There isn't any! It isn't going to get any better...


But the buses though...I can't praise them enough - they are fast, efficient and frequent which is a godsend in the tube bareft Battersea! Also, on the old routemasters..I've found the conductors very willing to join in some drunken singing and dancing when the mad people here (and I) decide to go on a jaunt to wherever the bus will take us!

[DAS]

But the buses though...I can't praise them enough - they are fast, efficient and frequent which is a godsend in the tube bareft Battersea! Also, on the old routemasters..I've found the conductors very willing to join in some drunken singing and dancing when the mad people here (and I) decide to go on a jaunt to wherever the bus will take us!

That's all well and good, but I find they are far too hot.

[Sput]

That's all well and good, but I find they are far too hot.

An interesting point. After last year's bus heat enthusiasm I tabulated the temperatures recorded on all the buses I used over the now-dead Summer with my Alldritt 2100 thermomaster. I found that on average they are 2.45 degrees cooler than the year before. What do other Alldritt 2100 users find?

[iSon]

When I carried out a spot test, I found the heat of the bus was dependant on many factors. Simply they are:

Average speed of the bus (v)
Distance bus has travelled (d)
Number of people on board (n)
Grade of how stressed you are (c)
Number of mentals on board (M)
Number of people paying for fares with £1 coins (m)
Amounts of windows open on the bus (w)
Perspiration quotient (p)
Time of day (T)

Thus, the heat (h) can be worked as follows...

h = [[(d/M)+(vm)]*(cp-nw)]-T

It's very simple really.


I shall post my finding so far for heat on other forms of transport if you are interested.

[Sput]

I'd be happier if someone could post a diagram to better explain, but here's the graph I got when I plotted your function.


simple really

[DAS]

How come nobody's been able to explain why the potential buggery quotient is abnormally high near Chiswick High Road?

[Gavin Scott]

How come nobody's been able to explain why the potential buggery quotient is abnormally high near Chiswick High Road?

That's covered by the Anderson mass constant.

He hangs round shop doorways eating Toffos 'til unsuspecting pedestrians wander by.

Toffos he found on the pavement.

[Johnny]

Central Line

Ever since the Chancery Lane derailment there has been at least one delay a week. The most annoying thing happened on Friday is when there was a delay of trains at Leytonstone station, we sat just outside it for 5 minutes then when it started moving the driver announced "apologies ladies & gentlemen this train will now terminate at Leytonstone, please change for the train over the platform" Everybody on the train had the expression "oh for f*ck sake"

London Underground

Today 5 lines have engineering work all weekend

Bakerloo - Nothing North of Queens Park
Circle - COMPLETELY SUSPENDED
District - Nothing Between Whitechapel to Earl's Court
Jubilee - Nothing North of Neadsen
Metropolitan - No service between Aldgate & Harrow On The Hill

As well as that the Central (AGAIN!), Hammersmith & City and East London Lines were subject to delays - Very Poor Indeed out of 12 lines only 4 out of 12 were running properly

Does anyone else experience this problem in this country or abroad I mean it is 2004 after all, they much worse than what they were in 1904 - I wasn't alive then, I'm just guessing

Tell me about it. Although I'm more concerned about the Disctrict Line, in which it is impossible to completely a journey (no matter how short!) without an extended stop between stations.

I am glad that my "local" station is South Kensington, else I couldn't have tube it anywhere this weekend without having to get on the bus to get on the tube. Mandess.

Also, I was off to Uxbridge the other day, all well and good. I got on the (rather slow) Piccadilly line train which was going straight to Uxbridge. (I add the platform indicators weren't working, so you had to resort to the old fashioned looking at the front of the train to find out where you may end up!)

Anyway, I got on, and all was well and good I thought. Grabbed my book and prepared to sit on the train for around 45 minutes until I reached the end of the line. 30 minutes after departure, we had managed to go through only 3 stations. Why...well it seemed the signalling system was buggered and about 15 trains came at once and there was very long delays. Basically you'd get moving then it'd stop again due to a red signal.

Thankfully, the problems cleared after a few stations...but then we were informed that it would instead terminate at Ruislip and not Uxbridge as planned...the reason "Due to the late running of this train..." - Well that's a great excuse! Hey ho, just meant getting off at Rayners Lane and getting the equally unreliable and uncomfortable Metropolitan line.

But the Americans and Northerners still love the tube...think it's the best thing since sliced bread. But it gets a bit old when you use it every day and you regularly get delayed and someones sweaty armpit in your face if you dare to travel on it from the hours of 8am-7pm.

And the good news? There isn't any! It isn't going to get any better...


But the buses though...I can't praise them enough - they are fast, efficient and frequent which is a godsend in the tube bareft Battersea! Also, on the old routemasters..I've found the conductors very willing to join in some drunken singing and dancing when the mad people here (and I) decide to go on a jaunt to wherever the bus will take us!

Battersea/Chelsea is a f*cking nightmare to travel through for non car drivers. There are no stations near the Thames at all unlike Tower Hill - Westminister where there are plenty of stations.

On the point of First Group, When they ran Great Eastern Railways they did a good job, very rarely that late & any delays were cleared up within an hour, One Group (national express) are terrible even though most staff are First GER. One new problem with One Group is that they also own C2C, which has an interchange with GER in Bow (London E2/3) this interchange was never used befor ebut now national express own both One GER & C2C the points keep getting stuck

Buses however are good in London even if the new ones are uncomfortable to site on (especially for fat bastards like myself )

[Big Brother]

National Express had the last Scotrail franchise and really didn't do a bad job. However First have picked up on something quite big which has improved dramatically lately. Cleanliness.

Trains & Stations along the route are massivly cleaner than they were with the National Express.

Just today actually I spotted something interesting. Before National Expresses Scotrail franchise ended it installed CCTV, Information systems etc on various stations - also improving parking and disabled access.... now amazingly the new FirstScotrail leaflet details that THEY are spending all this money on improving these things even though Scotrail already did it within the last 3 months of it's franchise.

They really should just get more trains firing down the line.