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On Sun, 13 Dec 2015 09:03:14 +0000, Martin Coffee
wrote:

On 12/12/15 23:17, Clive Page wrote:
On 12/12/2015 09:45, Roland Perry wrote:
A temporary shortage of drivers means Great Northern services will be
disrupted on Sunday 13 December.

There has been a "temporary" shortage of drivers on the Thameslink
services since they took over the franchise over a year ago. Recently
the number of cancellations due to "staff shortage" seems to have been
rising. A good many services are also cancelled with reasons like "a
train fault which has now been fixed" and "safety inspection" and
"congestion". A cynical person might think that these excuses had been
made up. It's interesting that the shortage has now spread to the Great
Northern routes - could it be that drivers are leaving at a faster rate
than they can be recruited?


If a ToC has a long term shortage of drivers and is training new ones it
could be construed that is playing them below the market rate. Whilst
BR did allow drivers to transfer between depots they were not allowed to
leave a depot short so this is yet another disadvantage of privatisation.

There are many issues with the current privatized system. It was ill
thought thru to begin with. But, compared with the grim years of the
nationalized railway, it is whole new wonderful world. We have clean
hygienic trains, welcoming, well-staffed stations, and for the most
part well focused customer service. The Southern, Thameslink, GN
conglomerate clearly is not off to a good start.

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In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Sun, 13 Dec 2015 14:24:31 +0000, e27002 aurora
wrote:

The Southern, Thameslink, GN
conglomerate clearly is not off to a good start.

Well that's an understatement if ever I read one. Govia breached
their franchise within months of taking over. Southern's inner
commuter services have been a disaster partly exacerbated by the
problems at London Bridge.

Thameslink still doesn't work reliably even with a reduced service
level to reflect the impact of project works. And now we have a
complete failure to plan for the new Great Northern timetable and a
disastrous Sunday service.

Goodness knows what's in stock tomorrow with the new timetable
structure on Southern, Gatwick Express and Thameslink. You can
guarantee the media will be watching what's going on.

The only reason why most of this is not being publicised is because
this is a management contract with the DfT having a much enhanced role
than is usual because they're taking the revenue risk. Govia have no
great reason to do very much because they don't have their hands on
the fares revenue. Clearly they don't want to go bankrupt off the
back of appalling contract performance *but* would DfT ever kick them
off the contract given how long it would take to find a replacement?
You have to ask who would be interested in taking on what looks like a
mini disaster zone with an awful lot more risk and difficulties to
come as new trains and new services have to be introduced.

DOR would need to operate on an unprecedented scale, certainly.

No wonder the DfT have apparently concluded that "some franchises are
too large" (source - Mike Brown of TfL speaking to the London
Assembly last week).

It doesn't look good for the Thameslink programme implementation does it?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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In message , at 21:43:48 on
Sun, 13 Dec 2015, Paul Corfield remarked:
Goodness knows what's in stock tomorrow with the new timetable
structure on Southern, Gatwick Express and Thameslink. You can
guarantee the media will be watching what's going on.

"A signalling problem at Norwood Junction is causing delays of up to 40
minutes between Norwood Junction and East Croydon / West Croydon. This
is expected to continue until 10:30."
--
Roland Perry

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On 14/12/2015 09:12, Roland Perry wrote:

"A signalling problem at Norwood Junction is causing delays of up to 40
minutes between Norwood Junction and East Croydon / West Croydon. This
is expected to continue until 10:30."

To do them justice - I don't think this is anything to do with the new
timetable is it? This or something very like it has been occurring
about 2 or 3 times a week for the last few months. Actually about the
most popular problem has been a bridge bash at Tulse Hill. I don't know
what bridge that is, but it must get bashed on a pretty regular basis.
I'm surprised it's still standing.


--
Clive Page

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On 2015\12\14 16:00, Clive Page wrote:
On 14/12/2015 09:12, Roland Perry wrote:

"A signalling problem at Norwood Junction is causing delays of up to 40
minutes between Norwood Junction and East Croydon / West Croydon. This
is expected to continue until 10:30."

To do them justice - I don't think this is anything to do with the new
timetable is it? This or something very like it has been occurring
about 2 or 3 times a week for the last few months. Actually about the
most popular problem has been a bridge bash at Tulse Hill. I don't know
what bridge that is, but it must get bashed on a pretty regular basis.
I'm surprised it's still standing.

Presumably this one. 13'9" clearance on the South Circular Road.
You'd have to wonder how blind someone would have to be to hit that.

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In message , at 16:00:33 on Mon, 14
Dec 2015, Clive Page remarked:
"A signalling problem at Norwood Junction is causing delays of up to 40
minutes between Norwood Junction and East Croydon / West Croydon. This
is expected to continue until 10:30."

To do them justice - I don't think this is anything to do with the new
timetable is it?

The point is that hignorant journos might blame the new timetable
anyway.
--
Roland Perry

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Am 14.12.2015 um 17:06 schrieb Basil Jet:

Presumably this one. 13'9" clearance on the South Circular Road.
You'd have to wonder how blind someone would have to be to hit that.



Oops... https://goo.gl/maps/AE7Z3fJAGoH2

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On 2015\12\14 19:38, Redoute wrote:
Am 14.12.2015 um 17:06 schrieb Basil Jet:

Presumably this one. 13'9" clearance on the South Circular Road.
You'd have to wonder how blind someone would have to be to hit that.



Oops... https://goo.gl/maps/AE7Z3fJAGoH2


Holy crap, I couldn't work out what that was at first but what looks
like a tarpaulin hanging on the side is actually bulging steel from the
container which is caved in at the front. Great company name too...
"Logistic Planning Services". I don't think they planned this!

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On 14/12/2015 20:08, Basil Jet wrote:

On 2015\12\14 19:38, Redoute wrote:
Am 14.12.2015 um 17:06 schrieb Basil Jet:

Presumably this one. 13'9" clearance on the South Circular Road.
You'd have to wonder how blind someone would have to be to hit that.

/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sBwp5vFSgRP41eEqPrAWAsw!2e0?for ce=lite

Oops... https://goo.gl/maps/AE7Z3fJAGoH2


Holy crap, I couldn't work out what that was at first but what looks
like a tarpaulin hanging on the side is actually bulging steel from the
container which is caved in at the front. Great company name too...
"Logistic Planning Services". I don't think they planned this!

Indeed, it's a shipping container that's taken a hefty whack! The whole
side wall of the container appears to be at a slight angle too.

Coming from that direction, the lorry will have passed a height
activated warning sign too. I think there's a fair amount of advance
signage about this bridge too. I suppose the issue is that it is the
grandly named South Circular Road, and so perhaps lulls drivers
(particularly those familiar with the North Circular) into a false sense
of security, though it's not the only low bridge on the route.

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In article , (Basil Jet)
wrote:

On 2015\12\14 16:00, Clive Page wrote:
On 14/12/2015 09:12, Roland Perry wrote:

"A signalling problem at Norwood Junction is causing delays of up to 40
minutes between Norwood Junction and East Croydon / West Croydon. This
is expected to continue until 10:30."

To do them justice - I don't think this is anything to do with the new
timetable is it? This or something very like it has been occurring
about 2 or 3 times a week for the last few months. Actually about the
most popular problem has been a bridge bash at Tulse Hill. I don't know
what bridge that is, but it must get bashed on a pretty regular basis.
I'm surprised it's still standing.

Presumably this one. 13'9" clearance on the South Circular Road.
You'd have to wonder how blind someone would have to be to hit that.



ta=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sBwp5vFSgRP41eEqPrAWAsw!2e0?force =lite

Some drivers are remarkably unaware of the size of their vehicle, judging by
the bashes that keep happening. Eventually the worst example bridges get
sacrificial beams so the idiots damage their vehicles and not the railway.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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In article , (Mizter T) wrote:

On 14/12/2015 20:08, Basil Jet wrote:

On 2015\12\14 19:38, Redoute wrote:
Am 14.12.2015 um 17:06 schrieb Basil Jet:

Presumably this one. 13'9" clearance on the South Circular Road.
You'd have to wonder how blind someone would have to be to hit that.

Oops... https://goo.gl/maps/AE7Z3fJAGoH2

Holy crap, I couldn't work out what that was at first but what looks
like a tarpaulin hanging on the side is actually bulging steel from the
container which is caved in at the front. Great company name too...
"Logistic Planning Services". I don't think they planned this!

Indeed, it's a shipping container that's taken a hefty whack! The
whole side wall of the container appears to be at a slight angle too.

Coming from that direction, the lorry will have passed a height
activated warning sign too. I think there's a fair amount of advance
signage about this bridge too. I suppose the issue is that it is the
grandly named South Circular Road, and so perhaps lulls drivers
(particularly those familiar with the North Circular) into a false
sense of security, though it's not the only low bridge on the route.

Looking at Google Street View I can't see signs of height activated warning
signs further along the road and in the other direction the sign is far too
far past the detectors. Even the diversion signs are only temporary! Bizarre.

There are other low bridges on the South Circular, at East Putney station
for example. That also has advance height activated warning signs in one
direction, the approach from the west, but it is well ahead of the bridges.
https://goo.gl/maps/6E92R3W8DdQ2 shows the detector posts with the sign just
visible in the distance and the bridge some way beyond it, with left and
right turns available to avoid the bridge. And it's 15" too. Putting the
sign right by the bridge, far too late to turn, is taking the ****.

And why do the ****wits at Google fuzz out the height restriction signs in
some views?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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In message , at 01:40:50
on Tue, 15 Dec 2015, remarked:

And why do the ****wits at Google fuzz out the height restriction signs in
some views?

It's done automatically. The computer probably thinks they are car
number plates or something. I've seen car hubcaps fuzzed out because the
system thought they were faces. Gives you a lot of confidence in the
software of the autonomous cars being able to identify obstacles,
doesn't it?
--
Roland Perry

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In message , at 18:30:42
on Mon, 14 Dec 2015, remarked:

Some drivers are remarkably unaware of the size of their vehicle, judging by
the bashes that keep happening. Eventually the worst example bridges get
sacrificial beams so the idiots damage their vehicles and not the railway.

Not all of them. The Ely underpass is one of the most bashed bridges in
the country, but doesn't have any sacrificial beams, or even any dangly
things, which are used at some locations. You couldn't really put more
signage before or on it either: https://goo.gl/maps/YNrHVRr2ufA2
--
Roland Perry

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In article ,
() wrote:

And it's 15" too.

Oops! No it isn't. It's 15'.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
01:40:50 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015, remarked:

And why do the ****wits at Google fuzz out the height restriction signs
in some views?

It's done automatically. The computer probably thinks they are car
number plates or something. I've seen car hubcaps fuzzed out because
the system thought they were faces. Gives you a lot of confidence in
the software of the autonomous cars being able to identify obstacles,
doesn't it?

chuckle

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
18:30:42 on Mon, 14 Dec 2015, remarked:

Some drivers are remarkably unaware of the size of their vehicle, judging
by the bashes that keep happening. Eventually the worst example bridges
get sacrificial beams so the idiots damage their vehicles and not the
railway.

Not all of them. The Ely underpass is one of the most bashed bridges
in the country, but doesn't have any sacrificial beams, or even any
dangly things, which are used at some locations. You couldn't really
put more signage before or on it either:
https://goo.gl/maps/YNrHVRr2ufA2

Indeed. Why, I wonder?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

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In message , at 08:00:39
on Tue, 15 Dec 2015, remarked:

The Ely underpass is one of the most bashed bridges in the country,
but doesn't have any sacrificial beams, or even any dangly things,
which are used at some locations. You couldn't really put more
signage before or on it either: https://goo.gl/maps/YNrHVRr2ufA2

Indeed. Why, I wonder?

Undoubtedly because people don't understand what they are driving. One
of the first bridge bashes after I moved to Ely was a brand new "White
van" belonging to a very local tradesman, whose only excuse was "the
last white van I had fitted underneath".

Same with double-decker buses having the top sliced off elsewhere quite
regularly - the only possible excuse is that the driver had a blank and
thought he was driving a single decker.
--
Roland Perry

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In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at
08:00:39 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015, remarked:

The Ely underpass is one of the most bashed bridges in the country,
but doesn't have any sacrificial beams, or even any dangly things,
which are used at some locations. You couldn't really put more
signage before or on it either: https://goo.gl/maps/YNrHVRr2ufA2

Indeed. Why, I wonder?

Undoubtedly because people don't understand what they are driving.
One of the first bridge bashes after I moved to Ely was a brand new
"White van" belonging to a very local tradesman, whose only excuse
was "the last white van I had fitted underneath".

Same with double-decker buses having the top sliced off elsewhere
quite regularly - the only possible excuse is that the driver had a
blank and thought he was driving a single decker.

No, no, no! By "why" I meant "why haven't NR or the County Council installed
any protection devices".

--
Colin Rosenstiel