TFL Tube Strikes

[essayer]

Terrible commute this morning, I was 2 mins late

[croyde]

Thought the strikes would die along with their Union Leader

[ascayman]

croyde said:

Thought the strikes would die along with their Union Leader

Nope, they are all trying to prove they are bigger and badder than dead bob.

[Podie]

ascayman said:

croyde said:

Thought the strikes would die along with their Union Leader

Nope, they are all trying to prove they are bigger and badder than dead bob.

Opinion in the rail industry is that Bob was one of the more pragmatic types... which is scary.

[fido]

Empty overground train, Jubilee Line to London Bridge, walk to the City.

[Digga]

Podie said:

ascayman said:

croyde said:

Thought the strikes would die along with their Union Leader

Nope, they are all trying to prove they are bigger and badder than dead bob.

Opinion in the rail industry is that Bob was one of the more pragmatic types... which is scary.

I have to say, based on some of the (un)economic opinions and ideas you hear from Labour - the party that would let Ed Balls control the purse strings - let alone their grunting mass of blind-faith followers, I am not surprised by that.

[Podie]

Grill Market cafe in Holborn...

[loafer123]

Had a meeting in Knightsbridge.

Central line was a strike express and didn't stop at most stations to Marble Arch, followed by a leisurly walk through Hyde Park.

Very civilised.

[MentalSarcasm]

Last week I had to get from Richmond to Kew Gardens, but couldn't swipe my Oyster at Richmond as the power had gone out so all the barrier and ticket machines were off.

Got to Kew Gardens and then had to explain the situation to the staff member three times (because she clearly didn't believe me) as I didn't want to swipe in at Kew and get charged £6 for the privelege of poor electricity supply at Richmond. Eventually she decided to take my Oyster card off me and personally escort me to the ticket office to get the appropriate amount taken off my card.

If the ticket machines are closed in the future, does that mean that in the same circumstances they would have to let me through and so I'd get a free journey? Or would they make me pay the £6 and tell me to "reclaim it" via some rubbish online form?

[SeeFive]

If my hatred of unions (specifically public transport unions) could get any worse, it just did.

I have a meeting in Paddington at 1 tomorrow which is the third stage of a job application - sort of "meet the team", two formal meetings/presentations with C levels and a bunch of demos from them - all of which which does not have an end time. I have just heard that the CEO of another company wants to meet me at 6:30 on the other side of London to discuss a role with his company.

Given that I have no finish time for the first set of meetings, and will probably exit in rush hour, I cannot guarantee to be on time, which shows no respect for a CEO who has stopped off in London on his way back to California specifically to meet me!

I just hope there will be some taxis at Paddington station. bd unions, give them all P45s and I will volunteer to take them to their subsequent interviews for jobs at Maccy D's - and not bother to turn up to give them some idea how it feels.

[anonymous-user]

It's been discussed before and watching TV last night it seems Docklands light railway are on driverless trains,

It's the future ?http://www.theguardian.com/uk/davehillblog/2012/feb/29/boris-johnson-driverless-underground-trains

HMRC, Dept 4 Employment, DVSA are all binning staff off as people do more stuff themselves, Nowt to stop trains being the same, technology is quickly getting there.

[Murph7355]

MentalSarcasm said:

Last week I had to get from Richmond to Kew Gardens, but couldn't swipe my Oyster at Richmond as the power had gone out so all the barrier and ticket machines were off.

Got to Kew Gardens and then had to explain the situation to the staff member three times (because she clearly didn't believe me) as I didn't want to swipe in at Kew and get charged £6 for the privelege of poor electricity supply at Richmond. Eventually she decided to take my Oyster card off me and personally escort me to the ticket office to get the appropriate amount taken off my card.

If the ticket machines are closed in the future, does that mean that in the same circumstances they would have to let me through and so I'd get a free journey? Or would they make me pay the £6 and tell me to "reclaim it" via some rubbish online form?

Shanks' pony...especially where you live

(Love Richmond/Kew. If you do the journey around lunch time, pop into Maki for a bite to eat too).

[Chlamydia]

I didn't even attempt to go into work at Canary Wharf today so I worked from home. The DLR was running as normal, if very packed, but I need to take the Central Line to get to Stratford, my local stations were closed and the furthest I would have got if I'd managed to get on a train was Leytonstone anyway. After the nightmare bus journey I attempted during the last strike I thought home working was a much better option

[ExV8]

SeeFive said:

If my hatred of unions (specifically public transport unions) could get any worse, it just did.

I have a meeting in Paddington at 1 tomorrow which is the third stage of a job application - sort of "meet the team", two formal meetings/presentations with C levels and a bunch of demos from them - all of which which does not have an end time. I have just heard that the CEO of another company wants to meet me at 6:30 on the other side of London to discuss a role with his company.

Given that I have no finish time for the first set of meetings, and will probably exit in rush hour, I cannot guarantee to be on time, which shows no respect for a CEO who has stopped off in London on his way back to California specifically to meet me!

I just hope there will be some taxis at Paddington station. bd unions, give them all P45s and I will volunteer to take them to their subsequent interviews for jobs at Maccy D's - and not bother to turn up to give them some idea how it feels.

Paddington seems to be closed for the Underground had to go to Warwick Avenue and walk back. Probably bakerloo and jubilee to get East and DLR although I got to Canary wharf station 2 minutes before 4 where they decided to shut it due to 'congestion'.

Best of luck for tomorrow.

[Diderot]

Just a little under 2 hours to get from Hampstead to Chichester this evening leaving at 7.00 ish . Nothing on the A406 and the A3 was empty. Was expecting it to be chaos.

[kev1974]

MentalSarcasm said:

Last week I had to get from Richmond to Kew Gardens, but couldn't swipe my Oyster at Richmond as the power had gone out so all the barrier and ticket machines were off.

Got to Kew Gardens and then had to explain the situation to the staff member three times (because she clearly didn't believe me) as I didn't want to swipe in at Kew and get charged £6 for the privelege of poor electricity supply at Richmond. Eventually she decided to take my Oyster card off me and personally escort me to the ticket office to get the appropriate amount taken off my card.

If the ticket machines are closed in the future, does that mean that in the same circumstances they would have to let me through and so I'd get a free journey? Or would they make me pay the £6 and tell me to "reclaim it" via some rubbish online form?

Not sure why you didn't just swipe out and just phone up later if you did get the £6 fare. In this case I suspect they will have a record that the barriers were off at Richmond so not put up any argument. They are really accommodating these days and seem to err on the customers' side so long as they can see you're not claiming this and that fancy tale every other week. In fact if you forget to tap in/out and the other end of that journey is clearly from your records a regular start/end point for you it resolves automatically (or you click a button in the online oyster management thing to confirm the journey) ... don't even have to call up and argue - I read somewhere that they allow you that grace a couple of times a quarter or so. PAYG oyster isn't run by ogres any more, they're practical and do allow for genuine mistakes on both theirs and customer sides.

[silverthorn2151]

Chlamydia said:

I didn't even attempt to go into work at Canary Wharf today so I worked from home. The DLR was running as normal, if very packed, but I need to take the Central Line to get to Stratford, my local stations were closed and the furthest I would have got if I'd managed to get on a train was Leytonstone anyway. After the nightmare bus journey I attempted during the last strike I thought home working was a much better option

Makes a change. everyone else who usually uses the Central Line comes over to us at Chingford for the Liverpool St service. Busier than one of those trains you see in India!

[Slaav]

SeeFive said:

If my hatred of unions (specifically public transport unions) could get any worse, it just did.

I have a meeting in Paddington at 1 tomorrow which is the third stage of a job application - sort of "meet the team", two formal meetings/presentations with C levels and a bunch of demos from them - all of which which does not have an end time. I have just heard that the CEO of another company wants to meet me at 6:30 on the other side of London to discuss a role with his company.

Given that I have no finish time for the first set of meetings, and will probably exit in rush hour, I cannot guarantee to be on time, which shows no respect for a CEO who has stopped off in London on his way back to California specifically to meet me!

I just hope there will be some taxis at Paddington station. bd unions, give them all P45s and I will volunteer to take them to their subsequent interviews for jobs at Maccy D's - and not bother to turn up to give them some idea how it feels.

We live right beside Warwick Avenue station which is mentioned below and CArlton Cars are our local cab firm (used them to pick me up from Aresenal on Monday night ) and they simply accomodated me and told me where they were parked and I walked to them - a breeze.

Good clean modern cars generally and very reliable. They would happily pick you up from PAddington and drop you over in the City. And usually much cheaper than a black cab. If you are goign for it - book them early on strike days obviously

As cab firms go, a pretty good outfit!

And good luck today.

(0207 266 0011)

[Podie]

Mrs Podie is in the smoke, and just sent me this...



Nice to see it on the road, even if the reason it's there is crap.

[DS3R]

Twitter feeds for all lines are pretty good and accurate from what this morning has shown, no idea if there is more open today than yesterday but certainly more convenient for me! Don't think the poster above with the job interview will have much of a prob getting across town, there are probably enough lines running.