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Post by Alex on May 15, 2020 0:19:11 GMT
I must have been completely wrecked when I left the club, got on literally the first bus that turned up, and passed out before I knew where we were going. I would guess that at the end of his shift, the driver probably did little more than have a quick glance from the top of the stairs before signing off, leaving me to my slumber. Words cannot describe my total, utter confusion at waking up on a revolting, sticky floor, in a completely unfamiliar place, surrounded by many, many buses. I must admit I can relate to this (but haven't woken up on the floor) but trying to keep a respectable presence on the forum cannot confirm or deny whether I was ever so slightly under the influence at these times The worst thing is I wasn't in my late teens, some of these episodes happened in my thirties!
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Post by Alex on May 14, 2020 22:56:40 GMT
It's been tooted that the hopper fare might need to be abandoned, however nothing has been said to confirm this. Maybe the Oyster cap will change, they could always start charging kids 20p....... EDIT: Just spotted this is my 800th post I've been a member twelve years though, nothing like pushing the boat out......
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Post by Alex on May 14, 2020 22:43:00 GMT
Unfortunately my most memorable are for the wrong reasons.....
In around 2007 I was on a route 163 LDP in Wimbledon Chase on a Sunday evening (by the now gone Emma Hamilton pub) when a group of kids threw a fencepost through the window I was sat at. I saw them just in time and moved back, the window came into the bus and held together for a few seconds before falling apart. I actually had to tell the driver as he didn't realise it had happened.....
The way I was shouted and sworn at by a 330 driver on the May 2015 bank holiday because he tried to terminate the bus before the last stop at Canning Town with me still on it.
This one I can't describe fully - but it happened on the upper deck of a 93 bus in about 2009/2010, near the George Harvesters past Morden South station. It involves a group of girls, a mobile phone with a bloke on the other end on loudspeaker, then the bloke seeming very embarrassed when everyone else on the bus started shouting that they had heard what he had been up to.....
Kids in South Wimbledon regularly trying to stop the N155 away from bus stops by standing in the road in front of the bus.
The time in 2014 when I was on my way to meet my girlfriend - now wife and it took 1hr40mins to get from East Ham Fire Station to Manor Park Station on the 104 (if I knew the area then like I do now I would have walked).
The journey on a 196 in around 2015 where a 'gentleman' spent ages moving around sitting next to everyone on the top deck trying to sell them a CD he had.
The time in around 2015 on an (N)53 in Charlton where I had to wake someone up as it looked like they had fallen asleep and were choking on their own vomit (this is with everyone else on the top deck saying "that bloke doesn't look well" but nobody wanted to go near him).
I've also managed to wake up in Sutton Garage, Plumstead Garage and Romford Garage as well.....
All fun and games....
EDIT: Don't know why I didn't think of this: Going to a non-league football match early in 2016 (midweek evening game) I got the Northern line at Morden with the idea of going to London Bridge, Jubilee line and towards SE London. Sadly I fell asleep and woke up as the train was approaching High Barnet. There were no trains back. I got the N20 to Trafalgar Square and made a good connection with the 53. Sadly I woke up in darkness on the slip road near PD garage. Then fell asleep again and woke up on the Old Kent Road having gone BACK to Whitehall in the meantime. I got off the second time and got home at 05:35 (I remember the number as after that I adopted it as my bedroom bus - 13023).....
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Post by Alex on May 14, 2020 21:57:17 GMT
Seriously can't believe how the government can find money when it needs too. Years and years of under funding of services yet in the space of 8 weeks billions and billions have been found. Yes I know TfL needs it and we will be paying this in taxes for years! I just hope TfL learns from this and don't commit to fare freezes in the future or waste money on services like 15H. Hopefully we will see a better network in the future making better use of resources such as short workings, less buses in the evening where not needed etc. Also maybe cutting back on the staff earning over 100k a year and also hopefully fares will start being charged on buses again soon. Sorry I know this post might seem a bit critical. I don't think it's critical to say that, I reckon it's fair to say a lot of things will be looked at in the near future. Know what you mean about years of under funding but thinking of the country in general it's not a bad thing the money was there for a rainy day. Though another slant on it is this money is funds that TfL have missed out on for years anyway, doesn't seem generous looking at it like that.
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Post by Alex on May 14, 2020 21:46:15 GMT
As the investigation is ongoing, please do not speculate or make comments that could put this process in jeopardy. Actually doing or saying nothing could be the best way to get justice for Belly Mujinga and her family trying to create a media frenzy regarding her being vulnerable will cause hasty bad decisions I'll make this as fast as I can as I've been away from the forum for most of today and I reckon this part of the thread had reached a conclusion - however - as touched on, this subject is emotive. My post and others mentioning duty of care are in the same vein and undoubtedly there will be repercussions, however that goes. The vulnerable issue is one that has been widely discussed for weeks and weeks now so any mention of that would get extra attention. On a different note I'm glad the investigation is gathering some evidence and making this known.
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Post by Alex on May 13, 2020 23:12:31 GMT
Just seen this from earlier today
The first thing I thought of when I saw this was while saying the people had no care for their own health and safety, he's on the bus himself! Then looking at where the tape is, could this be the driver? The photo has led to at least three people touching their faces which they say is a no-no at the minute
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Post by Alex on May 13, 2020 23:05:55 GMT
Had to share this video of 17843, the driver seems to have been enjoying himself As did I with the earphones on loud - thanks for that
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Post by Alex on May 13, 2020 23:01:52 GMT
This was ridiculous and some serious questions has to be answered at even why ticket people were even needed at the gate then, when many of the staff that week were being pulled away from front line duties. Shows no duty of care whatsoever towards staff. Agree - someone at GTR is going to get into big trouble over this. I don't think it's unrealistic for them to be prosecuted for not protecting a vulnerable member of staff as well as being sued by the family.
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Post by Alex on May 11, 2020 22:52:26 GMT
I think I've got it now... Stay alert. If not staying home. Stay home if not being alert. Go to work. If not working at home. Work from home if possible. If not working from home don't use public transport to get to work. Even though public transport is available. At work do work. Safely. In a socially distanced manner. Where possible. If not possible do some other thing. Don't work at work if work is closed which lots of work is because work isn't reopening if work is one of the places of work we were told to close. After work play sport and sunbathe but only with people you live with not people you work with. Unless you live with someone you work with. Or work with someone you live with. Stay alert for the alert system which will wave about madly on a dial between green and red where red means everyone is dead. If you are sufficiently alert you might be allowed to be less alert after the 1st of June. But likely everyone will go mad on Wednesday and the needle will lurch to orange so being alert will revert to stay home and it's back to March 23rd. So, stay home. No, hang on, stay alert. Not home. But you should stay home. Unless you're at work. This is what I posted yesterday this was only put up as a tongue in cheek response to give a few people some light relief but it seems that some forum members have jumped in without realising it was an attempt at humour Paul you said that yesterday ! We know it was an observation on how badly communicated the Sunday briefing was - I didn't get to see it, I was out on the road at the time, the first I saw was a transcript which I had to read three times before I was happy with it. Goodness knows how it would have come across while watching live. Basically I saw it as the first people going back to work, a best case timeframe to when other bits can happen but these best cases are only when the government are happy with conditions - meaning we have to play the game in the meantime I've only picked up on this Paul because I've gone through five pages of posts on the subject and none of the posts dig at yours (actually you got a load of 'likes' so can't be bad), it's about the general confusion out there (which everyone thinks) but we're probably a bit luckier here as we're having a chat and trying to break it down. Loads of people in the lockdown haven't got anyone to converse with so it's a big issue how people will interpret things In fact your post is representative of how many millions of people (touched on above) would have seen the briefing yesterday (yes I have a wry and obtuse sense of humour and know what angle you meant ).....I hope it's not a starting pistol for people to mess up the hard work and sacrifice of the last seven weeks but who can blame them with such bad comms.....
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Post by Alex on May 11, 2020 22:35:59 GMT
I haven't heard what he's said today but surely it goes without saying that somebody should speak to their employer before returning to work rather than just turn up there and find the place locked? Definitely, thought that yesterday, common sense would say it's a case of "don't call us, we'll call you"......
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Post by Alex on May 11, 2020 21:44:29 GMT
As a couple of examples, the 363 is wholly in Labour seats. I reckon most of the routes in east and south-east London will be in Labour seats. Looking at Newham alone (I know the constituencies don't match up with borough boundaries) the 104, 241, 262, 330 and 473 leap out at me straight away. I think it would be interesting to see the usage data and see where the highest passenger numbers in density correlate to with the constituencies. I looked a few years ago and one of the top five busiest in London (for passengers per km) was the 330.
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Post by Alex on May 11, 2020 21:14:43 GMT
Wish I had never created this thread now. Don't feel bad - a thread on this subject was inevitable and any of us could have created it - in fact there's some interesting points of view on here and updates on the situation which might otherwise have escaped some people. Normal service resumes on the Tube from next Monday, wonder how long it will be before the union strike? The union position is quite the opposite of having a strike - there's loads of people working hard at work and in their own time to get full timetables starting next week - to get a whole timetable and duties, and altering them to take account of social distancing in relief locations, no travelling within duties and staggered start times by Sunday is a big task! Normally the scheduling department would deal with this alone but due to the nature of the current situation safety reps are organising things locally as part of a bigger picture (the bigger picture involving feeding reports and suggested work plans to schedules, line management etc). Everyone accepts that with work arrangements becoming less restricted there needs to be a decent level of service. Classic McCarthyism. (Cue frenzied googling and resorting to wikipedia.) Not sure if that's intended directly within the posts but there's a great many people on here that wouldn't need Google or Wikipedia, we have many members in higher education and a great many who have seen the world (or at least been around the block a few times)! In my case I read a bit a while ago to do with blacklisting (starting with the suicide of a famous actor who had his career finished) which led me to the above....
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Post by Alex on May 10, 2020 15:13:17 GMT
more of a "Stay Safe" rather than "Stay Home" apparently. For those who haven't seen it (you're right SK) the new one which will be unveiled in a little while is ' Stay Alert - Protect The NHS - Save Lives'. EDIT: 'Stay Alert - Control The Virus - Save Lives', just come up on the tv again
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Post by Alex on May 9, 2020 16:32:00 GMT
Over the past few days Alex and I have collaborated to create a full set of schedules for this route, as a nod to our old friend Mr Snoggle. Using Alex's timings, I put together the duties and rosters and was very interesting to do as with such a small route, it was very difficult to get the averages right. The averages are very low unfortunately but to remove 1 duty from the MF schedule would add an extra 1.10 TOD to the average so was an impossible situation. All Time and Duty Schedules have been combined into the pdf below, as well as a duty roster (calculating the route would need 15 drivers to operate). This was a brilliant way of alleviating boredom and I hope some members may be interested to see the results! Yes - I am incredibly grateful for you taking the time to do all of this and presenting (and organising) the time schedule and duties (including roster) in this way - which mirrors the real thing. If anyone is interested in how rotas look, what a time schedule and what a duty schedule is, these documents provide an excellent example and hopefully will answer some questions! Being a made up route it’s a good use of an example to show people what’s what!
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Post by Alex on May 9, 2020 1:06:29 GMT
Just while we're chatting about fastest routes between two major places, when I lived in SE London, from Woolwich to Lewisham my understanding (fastest to slowest) was this:
54, 122, 178, 180/380 was about the same.
Probably the same now but seeing what people think (yes I know I could look at a set of timetables but we're chatting!)
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