Northern Rail - Strike action

[East Level 2]

Oyster Cards can be used on busses, tube, main line rail (within certain areas) and possibly DLR.
I think Manchester wanted a similar system but there was a problem involving the percentage wanted by Metrolink. The tram doesn't have station barriers so there would still be a lot of fair dodging.
One other point about the Oyster system, and I'm not sure if this also applies to Tokyo, is that you can use any contactless credit card if there is no credit on your oyster. If you register the credit card you can track your journeys as easily as you can with an Oyster, but even journeys on an unregistered card can be tracked, it's just a bit more hassle.
Mine has only been used for away games in the Smoke when parking near the ground is too much of a ball ache. - Palace, Wham etc.

 

[BimboBob]

Oyster Cards can be used on busses, tube, main line rail (within certain areas) and possibly DLR.
I think Manchester wanted a similar system but there was a problem involving the percentage wanted by Metrolink. The tram doesn't have station barriers so there would still be a lot of fair dodging.
One other point about the Oyster system, and I'm not sure if this also applies to Tokyo, is that you can use any contactless credit card if there is no credit on your oyster. If you register the credit card you can track your journeys as easily as you can with an Oyster, but even journeys on an unregistered card can be tracked, it's just a bit more hassle.
Mine has only been used for away games in the Smoke when parking near the ground is too much of a ball ache. - Palace, Wham etc.

You can use anything that's contactless. Your bank card for instance. Just hold near the machine and go. Far easier than queuing for a ticket.

 

[Ancient Citizen]

I already have one of those. It would be my second choice though. Piece of fucking piss.

I have a mate who drives for Arriva, he is old school British Rail, joined in 1969, and is still driving
a year after his 65th birthday. It was only around 5 years ago he learned to drive a car, and as you say, he says
driving a train is indeed a piece of piss, great money, and as long as he passes the yearly medical, he's going
to carry on for a while yet.
I don't know the pros and cons of conductor duties, or guards etc; maybe they have a point, I'm on hols atm
but I'll ask him when I get back.

 

[Baker Boy]

50k + a year to sit at the front of a train pressing a few buttons. Hold on, you want me to do the doors as well?

A fucking doddle.

You're either on a wind up or you're just completely ignorant, I'm a train driver and believe you me it's not a doddle at all, I wish it was. If it was do you not think the salary would be far less?

 

[denislawsbackheel]

You can use anything that's contactless. Your bank card for instance. Just hold near the machine and go. Far easier than queuing for a ticket.

And a paper ticket is twice the price of going contactless/Oyster.
£4.80 per journey as opposed to £2.40.

 

[mat]

You're either on a wind up or you're just completely ignorant, I'm a train driver and believe you me it's not a doddle at all, I wish it was. If it was do you not think the salary would be far less?

I suppose we get used to this generalisation of what us traincrew allegedly do. Does my swede in.

 

[asgoodasitgets]

I discovered another nifty little trick by Northern the other day. I'm not a huge train user, only at the weekends when I can get in to town and to the game fairly easily. Beats the tram all ends up, but anyway, I digress.
The good lady uses the train all the time , always cracking on about the state of them, two carriages at rush hour, four carriages later on when everyone has got to work. So the other morning, I was checking the live trains app as she was getting ready for work. Left Lime St a few minutes late, getting later at each subsequent stop up to Warrington where it was cancelled. We looked for the next one, no great shakes, it's only 30 minutes after when hey presto, the previous train pops up at Oxford Rd ON TIME! Aparrently it's cheaper to compensate passengers for missed journeys, taxis, free train travel etc. than not to meet their targets for punctuality.
So all the passengers on the platform watching a half empty train whizz by to hit its target know that they are being shoehorned onto the next one where they'll be packed in like sardines.Then the guard realises he can't hand tickets out, there will be a huge queue just to get out of Oxford Rd or Deansgate and people will become even later.
Now, you can see why most common folk have little sympathy for the strikers.

 

[BimboBob]

You're either on a wind up or you're just completely ignorant, I'm a train driver and believe you me it's not a doddle at all, I wish it was. If it was do you not think the salary would be far less?

The salary is so high, plus all the perks and benefits don't forget, because of historical union action and not because of how hard the job is. Holding passengers to ransom, like the tube drivers during the Olympics, seems to be the going rate these days for you lot. The general public is wise to your "We do it because we have your safety in mind" bollocks these days. You had it cushy, it's still cushy and you want to preserve the cushiness. End of.

I know of no other job, apart from a train guard maybe, where they have such an overinflated opinion of themselves. You sit in a seat looking out of a window whilst pressing a few buttons. Most of it is done by computers these days anyway.

Now, if you were a proper driver, like in the days of steam, then we would all support you. Hard bloody work. Sitting on your fat arses moaning? Piece of fucking piss.

 

[hilts]

The salary is so high, plus all the perks and benefits don't forget, because of historical union action and not because of how hard the job is. Holding passengers to ransom, like the tube drivers during the Olympics, seems to be the going rate these days for you lot. The general public is wise to your "We do it because we have your safety in mind" bollocks these days. You had it cushy, it's still cushy and you want to preserve the cushiness. End of.

I know of no other job, apart from a train guard maybe, where they have such an overinflated opinion of themselves. You sit in a seat looking out of a window whilst pressing a few buttons. Most of it is done by computers these days anyway.

Now, if you were a proper driver, like in the days of steam, then we would all support you. Hard bloody work. Sitting on your fat arses moaning? Piece of fucking piss.

Don't be having a go at guards imagine being a hotel doorman but instead of pulling a handle you have to press a button. Plus hotels don't move. They don't go on training courses for fun.

 

[FantasyIreland]

I discovered another nifty little trick by Northern the other day. I'm not a huge train user, only at the weekends when I can get in to town and to the game fairly easily. Beats the tram all ends up, but anyway, I digress.
The good lady uses the train all the time , always cracking on about the state of them, two carriages at rush hour, four carriages later on when everyone has got to work. So the other morning, I was checking the live trains app as she was getting ready for work. Left Lime St a few minutes late, getting later at each subsequent stop up to Warrington where it was cancelled. We looked for the next one, no great shakes, it's only 30 minutes after when hey presto, the previous train pops up at Oxford Rd ON TIME! Aparrently it's cheaper to compensate passengers for missed journeys, taxis, free train travel etc. than not to meet their targets for punctuality.
So all the passengers on the platform watching a half empty train whizz by to hit its target know that they are being shoehorned onto the next one where they'll be packed in like sardines.Then the guard realises he can't hand tickets out, there will be a huge queue just to get out of Oxford Rd or Deansgate and people will become even later.
Now, you can see why most common folk have little sympathy for the strikers.

The strike is about safety critical duties of a second member of train crew and the responsibility for the welfare of passengers that accompanies such.For the benefit of anyone that uses the railway,it should be fully supported,as the govt obviously couldnt give a shit,being only interested in profit.