Southeastern train disruption (franchise to be taken over by Govt p191)

soapy_jones said:

I feel for you all. Did it for 27 years and before the CL Militant Tendency start blatting on about "nationalisation", it was shit then as well, although the slam door trains added an extra hint of danger!

I wish we had slam doors now. I could throw the useless guard out at full speed. Or use it to slam on the heads of some of the cretinous people I have the displeasure of travelling with.

LargeAddick said:

When you think back though those slam doors were bloody dangerous. Also, those single carriages with about eight people on each side facing each other. And half of them smoking. We may not think so sometimes but a lot of things have changed for the better.

Still a bunch of wankers though.

Can't believe now that they had those sex pest carriages. Imagine being stuck in one of them with a button due to congestion

I got a Southeastern train to Victoria last Friday, early evening, without incident. We had to get to Balham so we were going to use the underground then the missus pipes up that there's a Southern train leaving from platform 10 (right around the dark side) in 2-minutes that stops at Balham and would save changing/faffing on the underground so we let it round the corner, squeeze ourself onto an already bursting carriage and then wait, and then wait some more. After 3 or 4 minutes that felt like an eternity in someone's armpit the driver pipes up "I'll keep this brief because I have to but I've already informed the platform staff but a previous passenger on this train has been smoking some illicit substances right behind my door and I can smell it in my cabin and I'm not prepared to drive the train in that state so there will be a delay to this service"

man_at_milletts said:

LargeAddick said:

When you think back though those slam doors were bloody dangerous. Also, those single carriages with about eight people on each side facing each other. And half of them smoking. We may not think so sometimes but a lot of things have changed for the better.

Still a bunch of wankers though.

And sometimes there were people standing too! God forbid anyone who asked for the window to be lowered.

(Do not clean soot off the window) Remember that?

Counted 22 in one of those single compartments once.

Still at least the managers pay and the train leasing companies profit weren’t the priority in those days!

What a complete shit show this morning. Left the house at 7:50 and got to work at 9:45. Should take me an hour door to door.

Signal failure, two broken down trains, congestion and shortage of drivers.

Cunts.

Lee to London Bridge should take 15 minutes. It's taken 51.

This is a fucking joke

MrLargo said:

It's my birthday today. Decided to celebrate in style by staying at home and not going near any trains.

Just looked up the disruption. It's a joke, every day there's an issue. Their timetable is the most meaningless document ever-produced. I cannot believe that this is allowed to happen in a supposedly developed country.

happy birthday @MrLargo

Blackheath to Cannon Street in 1988/89, always got a seat in the rear carriage with the smokers, sometimes one of those sex pest specials. If it was really busy, standing in the guard's van, which nobody seemed worried about.

MrLargo said:

It's my birthday today. Decided to celebrate in style by staying at home and not going near any trains.

Just looked up the disruption. It's a joke, every day there's an issue. Their timetable is the most meaningless document ever-produced. I cannot believe that this is allowed to happen in a supposedly developed country.

Happy Birthday Mr L, have a good one.

Macronate said:

Was also common to find a grot mag under the seats in one of those carriages.

Much happier times.

Used to really enjoy cleaning those coaches out each evening....yuck

There was the famous (true) story of the headless body in one of those single "doggy kennel" compartments, in the early 80's
A chap gets on the train, and during the journey decided to look out of the window. He stayed there, looking out until the train arrived. He was looking out the opposite side to the platforms, so no one was concerned.
When the train arrived in London, the station staff were walking along, closing open doors etc and saw him still standing there. They called him, but he didn't respond, so went into the coach and shook him, at which point his headless body fell back into the coach. Needless to say, the poor old platform man was rather shaken up. They did find his head, I believe it was a considerable way back, somewhere around the dartford area.

cafckev said:

Macronate said:

Was also common to find a grot mag under the seats in one of those carriages.

Much happier times.

Used to really enjoy cleaning those coaches out each evening....yuck

There was the famous (true) story of the headless body in one of those single "doggy kennel" compartments, in the early 80's
A chap gets on the train, and during the journey decided to look out of the window. He stayed there, looking out until the train arrived. He was looking out the opposite side to the platforms, so no one was concerned.
When the train arrived in London, the station staff were walking along, closing open doors etc and saw him still standing there. They called him, but he didn't respond, so went into the coach and shook him, at which point his headless body fell back into the coach. Needless to say, the poor old platform man was rather shaken up. They did find his head, I believe it was a considerable way back, somewhere around the dartford area.

Imagine if MrLargo was commuting in the 80's. Closing the line to look for a missing head would not have been on his list of acceptable reasons to cancel or delay trains.