The thing is I don't disagree with a lot of what is said on here, I'm merely pointing out some other obvious truths about self service and cashless, one that was alien to me, but I was more or less told you got to get on with it (words to that affect) - I'm sure some people on here have even mocked me for complaining about the cashless society.
the ****ers at my local station nearly always forgot to come and get me off the train like they were supposed to but the final straw was to get back do a high speed wheelie out of a carriage only to find they had ****ed off home and when no staff are there they turn off the power to the lift Had to do 2 flights of stairs , one of which is open to the elements on my backside dragging my chair with me and surprisingly that was the last time i took a train.
I've never ever used a car parking app, I haven't even got one on my phone, so do I adapt or do I get mocked for not adapting - these situations apply to a vast array of things now, that are in my eyes a disadvantage to the older generation, yet as soon as the railways are mentioned, everyone suddenly cares - I wouldn't even know if I can use cash on a bus these days, and would the driver be happy to give me change of a twenty. How long a piece of string is this debate.
Don't deny that at all - been a long time since I voluntarily went into a 'Spoons on a point of principle, but went into one in Leeds in early September before seeing a Brian Cox show* as I literally couldn't get into anywhere else, and 'Spoons is now practically organised so that you use the app to get booze and food rather than queueing for 45 minutes to pay with your card anyway. Tbf, most chains are following suit, even my local country pub that is part of a hotel chain. I raised station staff for a technical point though - if you don't have despatch staff on the platform, the driver has to do everything themselves to ensure the doors are clear and nobody is running along the platform when the train starts. It's called vigilance - you get it wrong and somebody ends up under your train and you can literally end up in jail, as a negligent conductor did some years back after an incident at James St station. This can only be done with specially adapted trains and platforms when there are no platform staff - and as said, it would take years if not decades to upgrade the services and stations in the North East alone. And I haven't even touched upon disabled travel without train and platform staff and archaically designed stations yet. All these things will be addressed with progress though, and all the union is asking is that there should not be compulsory redundancies during the long time it's going to take. *Superb, and with the bonus of the amazing Alice Roberts turning up unadvertised.
I don't disagee with you, they are valid points. But now you are touching on the sensible stuff that I'm more than happy to concede to and yes it's a problem. It's like asking a wheelchair user to go down a new nicely laid cobble street that was some bright arses idea, it's not thought through. However, I will say along with a lot of people, I've never found station staff the most helpful, so there is a bit of bad image that goes with them - not @Archers Road though, he's always promised to punch my ticket nicely for me.
Yes, I heard a horrific story from Dame Tammy Grey Thompson in Middlesbrough on TPE some years back when she got taken to the depot and left there. I think the conductor was rightly suspended for that for not disposing the train properly. Point is, she made a great fuss (rightly) to draw attention to the perils of disabled travel - she vehemently supports the need for staff on trains and platforms though.
They show the CCTV of that incident at the staff Christmas party every year. Cracking flying dismount btw
So do I. But we have a network designed by the Victorians, not Elon Musk. The future will come - I started work at a small outstation called Hough green, in the absolute middle of nowhere. There was a clerk (me), 3 x leading railmen, a platelayer gang of 12 trackworkers, and even a 'Lamp man' whose job it was to go out each day and top up all the signals on the line with parafin. The last time I popped in there 30 years ago there is now just one A supervisor who does everything from selling tickets to painting the lines on the platform. Not even sure they have him now. Point is that railways have adapted to mechanisation and modernisation, but always on a basis of voluntary severance and retraining. But I will say this - The last time my disabled, 73-year-old sister came to visit me we planned her journey from Liverpool to York knowing there were staff from platform to platform. An incredible amount of non-commuter traffic is like this that of disabled and 'vulnerable' passengers, and thus the promotion of leisure cards such as your Senior Citizen card, Disabled railcars and even family railcards. It's often asked, "Would you get on a pilotless, automated plane?". Most people of our generation would say no, but I expect my daughter's children will find it commonplace in 50 years' time. A better question is "Would you get on a plane with no staff at all on it, nor airport staff at either end, even if everything was fully automated for the able-bodied, tech-savvy passenger? That's the real question. It will happen, but perhaps not too quickly, too soon.
Think I've just got to the stage of thinking it's not my world anymore, I don't like a lot of what I see, not just from a work environment point of view but more of what I see as further steps towards a totalitarian state - I was reading only this morning via rag about the zoning they want to bring in Canterbury City Centre, which appears very similar to the idea that they want to put in place in Oxford, where your car is prevented from crossing the City, baring in mind the former council was responsible for removing park and ride schemes. Covid and Cimate change are being used as tools against the general public to create behaviour changes, and I don't particularly like the way they are going about it, it's all getting a bit too big brother for me.
Semi automatic, say no more, eyes from MI5 are watching and I'm expecting some German police to coming storming through the door at any minute now.
not any more but yep used to be favourite party trick was getting ****faced and ending up screwing it up and ending up on the floor
the tunnels under Brum New Street were pretty impressive though not as impressive as the size of the rats down there though going all the way to London locked in the luggage "cage" was ****ing tiresome .
Just seen your avi ... ... just be careful ... you could end up on Master Chef stuffed with tamarind infused quinoa, served on a bed of hasselback sweet potatoes and drizzled in a wild sloe berry froth ... just saying
I'm proper pissed off about it. Give up smoking, cut down on booze, give up food, fooksake! I got a large box of Jaffa Cakes in the fridge (yes, in the fridge), they are only going one place, in my belly!
So Rishi reckons it's his "duty to take action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British public" by being tough with nurses and ambulance workers who are striking. Meanwhile under this government the other 355 days when the nurses and ambulance workers are working, we have ppl dying waiting 8 hours for an ambulance. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-ne...n=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target This isn't the exception btw, it's common place everywhere. I think it's this sort of bare-faced mendacity from the government which boils my piss the most. It just confirms in my mind how the lives of average folk is meaningless to them other than to use when they feel like it to serve their political ideology or to try and swing public opinion. The fact that ppl are dying almost daily bcos of the lack of medical staff and resources in the ambulance service and in hospitals, and that the NHS is on its knees, has happened under this government's watch, but Rishi will "protect us" by picking a fight with the workers. I can't wait for these ****s to be kicked out of power.
