Was it just coincidence?

Or did it go dead quiet in here while "I'm a Celebrity.." was on?

ITWSBT.
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(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^'

 

Salad Dodger wrote

I've been watching "making of do they know it is Christmas."

 

9 till 10:30.

Agent's showing 46 new messages in that time, but it *seemed* quieter.
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_/_____\_ GLXR1500SEVRRSP/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
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(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^'

 

I've been at work. Viewing crappy in cab DOO monitors. Deep Joy.

 

They're part of a night trial of a new method of working driver only
operated trains; body side mounted cameras with monitors in the cab
displaying the doors so the driver can see when it's safe to shut them.

Required because the new stock doesn't have a suitable side window so the
existing platform based equipment can't be seen. Genius.

We say [brief version]: "They're shit and done on the cheap" the
Operations Director that was with me said [brief version]: "They're not
/that/ shit and certainly not cheap". The driver working the train
asked what was wrong with having a Guard.

Quite.

 

Yes that and the whole question of revenue protection. The *vast*
majority of problems come from ticketless passengers. Keep them off the
trains and stations and the whole environment changes for the better.

The punters like a guard and the season ticket holders will moan like
buggery if their tickets aren't checked regularly (not unreasonably).

Add that to the recent Cullen report [1] which insisted all onboard
traincrew (inc. buffet car attendants) must be trained in emergency
evacuation and protection the desire to remove on board traincrew is
particularly loathsome.

Economically no; politically yes.

We get relatively few incidents but when we do they're invariably serious
and tend to be related to the actions of the passenger.


[1] Cullen: QC who investigated the Ladbrooke Grove crash and
incorporated the Uff report (Southall) into his recommendations.

The Cullen Report itself [~3Mb]
http://www.pixunlimited.co.uk/pdf/news/transport/ladbrokegrove.pdf

 

Starting with the premise no Guard = no train.

Guards now can have an impact upon the performance of the service; say if
he is held up coming into work or gets out of synch following problems
with the service ("Waiting a member of traincrew who has been delayed on
an inbound service").

These problems and sickness, leave and the like can be covered by an
increase in spare capacity. That is having members of crew (and
replacement stock as necessary) basically sitting around waiting to
"scramble" and seamlessly drop in when things go askew.

Unfortunately this costs money and was one of the first things cut back
following the break up of BR.

Which is why when it goes wrong (suicide; points failure; whatever) now
it takes so much much longer to get back to normal.

The political reason is the classic deskilling one. At the moment Guards
are required to be able to attain certain standards relating to the
operation of the train they are not readily replaced (takes about 6
months dole -> useful). Making it difficult to deskill the job and drive
down wage costs.

Organised skilled labour is expensive for an employer.

The DLR is relatively low speed over dedicated, monitored, secure track.
It wouldn't be immediately possible or satisfactory on high density, high
speed or remote rural areas. Certainly not without, as you say,
*massive* investment.

There has been some automation arising from the modernisation plan of the
60s/70s but really only in the freight sector (merry-go-rounds, hump
yards and the like - all agreed and actively encouraged by the staff).

Again this required investment and a Governmental desire to grow the rail
freight business - which explains why it wasn't as widespread as it
should have been.

Cullen promised to be the biggest shake up of rail operations and
internal accountability in the modern history of Britain's railways.

Unfortunately much has yet to be implemented and a lot of managers have
(deliberately or otherwise) missed the fucking point.

Moving from a no-blame culture to a "I'm not to blame" one instead. The
result? The shit no longer goes up the tree....

 

Well, there's certainly a couple of messages from me in that period.

 

Indeed - one of my brothers worked for the people who were contracted
to do the control systems on DLR and he did quite a bit of the software
for it.. and the amount of control circuitry was immense (I seem to
remember a figure of 10 times as much as the normal control and
signalling circuits). Even the failsafes have failsafes which have
failsafes.

And I also seem to remember that the systems were getting to the limit
of their scaleability with the DLR - they could make it bigger but not
by much. Obviously technology has improved since the late 80's (they
compiled their code on a 4-user unix box that took a day to compile all
their code! - my current PDA is faster and has more memory) but even so
to convert nationwide and interlocking systems over to automatic
control would be a) immensely expensive b) technically difficult and c)
take an inordinate amount of time - especially when you look at other
large-scale public IT projects. And the potential to bring everything
to a standstill if something goes wrong is scary..

...but drizzles down onto everyone below instead?

Phil

 

If your definition of "drizzle" is "conscious and unremitting downpour"
then yes it drizzles down.

 

Oh well we're in for a shock on the Northern and Jubilee Lines then!
Yes the same technology as DLR is being implemented on these LU lines.

 

I don't have any telly ATM. Haven't had any since August.

 

So how long is the delay to northern line services due to dodgy radios (now
in it's second day) likely to go on?

Or is this phase 1 testing of the new system you mention? ;-)

 

We don't know - a lot of people are working very long hours to get it
fixed but it is possible it may take a few more days. We have been
issued with an edict to get our staff out into the cabs to accompany
drivers on their shifts so that the double manning does not have to be
done by other drivers. This should allow more trains to run.

Err no it isn't. God help us if it was.

 

On the course I've just been on they used the term "thought shower" as
"brain storm" is apparantly offensive to epileptics.

That lasted for all of two minutes after I questioned how appropriate
the SPICC analysis method was.

 

That thought was golden...

 

I wonder if there were an epileptics at the Darkness concert last
night. If there were, then the lighting probably killed them.

 

Tell 'em I said "bollocks!", would ya?

Heh!
--

Cheers!
Fr Jack
96 Tiger.
FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM

 

I refrained from any "ee, business" jokes.