Confessions of the Underground

[Halb]

C4, tonight, 10.

Will any of you use the Tube again?


Mind the gap...in the maintenance budget..

[Gun]

I've made sure there's nothing around me I can throw at the telly while watching this.

[Halb]

Well the staff are all upbeat.....
'Something will happen. There'll be a major accident.'

[Legacywr]

Expect one of the confessions to be "I get a grand a week just to sit here and look out of the windscreen! haha"

[Megaflow]

So, Good Service messages are a pile of, and are apparently based on average delay times.

I didn't even know the underground had a timetable, I have never seen one and wouldn't know where to find one!

I want a tube, I go to the appropriate station, usually within 5 minutes there is one there. That *is* a good service!

[smashing]

God they are all annoying!! I have only ever spoken to one station worker to hand in a mobile phone someone had dropped on the train...they were not interested as they were too busy having a chat with their colleagues!

[smashing]

Did the engineer just say " got to be careful as the current on the tracks is 600 volts"............ Surely that's voltage, not current.

[valiant1]

smashing said:

Did the engineer just say " got to be careful as the current on the tracks is 600 volts"............ Surely that's voltage, not current.

Yep that's voltage but the power supply to the rails is called 'traction current' so just gets shortened to 'current' or 'juice'.

Edited by valiant1 on Thursday 2nd February 22:30

[Megaflow]

Oh, that one's good. Why aren't they fixing these problems?

Because they are paying you militant moaning sods too much money and can't afford to!

[Otispunkmeyer]

Do they use actors to speak on the employees behalf? I read that's what they were doing. After all you wouldn't want to flag yourself up after all the hoo ha they've stirred up

[smashing]

Otispunkmeyer said:

Do they use actors to speak on the employees behalf? I read that's what they were doing. After all you wouldn't want to flag yourself up after all the hoo ha they've stirred up

Yep all actors! Oh dear he can't read his newspaper whilst driving the train, my heart bleeds!

[iphonedyou]

I think before the usual tube bashing crowd arrive, we'd all do well to remember that the employees are, vicariously, voicing safety issues here.

I can well imagine many of the points raised to be entirely valid. Now whether one wishes to blame the safety issues on budget cuts resultant wholly from overpaid drivers is something else entirely, of course. I'm sure somebody will.

ETA: smashing, above - that employee mentioned reading the paper purely in the context of difficulties in staying alert. As in, when train drivers have issues staying alert because of boredom, they can't simply read the paper to keep occupied. Which I can only imagine is a completely valid point.

Think the actors are fine. I can't really comment with any authority on how convincing they are without having seen the people whose part they're acting, of course.

Edited by iphonedyou on Thursday 2nd February 23:06

[Tallbut Buxomly]

It's a catch 22. I believe that most of what they are saying to be true.

I know this due to the environment I work in however as others have said the lower staffing is probably due to the high individual staff pay cost.

[munky]

Otispunkmeyer said:

Do they use actors to speak on the employees behalf? I read that's what they were doing. After all you wouldn't want to flag yourself up after all the hoo ha they've stirred up

Yes, they certainly seem like actors - and not very convincing ones.

[jason s4]

munky said:

Yes, they certainly seem like actors - and not very convincing ones.

Acting skills are not needed for a documentary.

All they are doing is getting the words across of the employees.

[Six Fiend]

jason s4 said:

munky said:

Yes, they certainly seem like actors - and not very convincing ones.

Acting skills are not needed for a documentary.

All they are doing is getting the words across of the employees.

Pete (grey hair, goatee) is Pete Lee Wilson who has been around for years, did Bloodrunners (biking video) which is cunningly left off his wiki page in favour of the loads of other stuff he's done:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0498523/

[anonymous-user]

"It's the blokes in their 30s, wearing a suit, usually white, been drinking......"
...post on PH a lot. ;-)

[munky]

jason s4 said:

munky said:

Yes, they certainly seem like actors - and not very convincing ones.

Acting skills are not needed for a documentary.

All they are doing is getting the words across of the employees.

Then why bother with the pretence, the footage of them in uniform wandering around a tube station etc. Why not have the real employees with pixelated faces or in the dark, like they used to on such programmes. The probable answer is that it's "docu-drama", a genre which IMO is very annoying.

[Halb]

Crossflow Kid said:

"It's the blokes in their 30s, wearing a suit, usually white, been drinking......"
...post on PH a lot. ;-)

[0a]

Is this going to be propaganda telling us how underfunded, underpaid and dangerous the whole thing is, and that Tory cuts are "too far and too fast" even though in this management isn't directly to do with them?