Rail strikes

[Lat-Literal]

Over-paid and work-shy. Give the public the service they pay for, need and deserve!

It was the one privatisation I didn't disagree with - and the current action won't deliver more votes for a reversal. Rail, actually, is a policy nightmare. Always has been. That is why I steered clear of it in my work other than in my long spell in the multi-modal transport of dangerous goods. I am not saying that it is especially wonderful that the current regime is so dominated by other states. Very much with Macmillan on that point. But let's be clear on the facts. Eight one day strikes until and including September on South West. More extended strikes likely to follow. That is outrageous given it mucks up the tourist industry here and many folks' holidays. In terms of passenger safety, I would like extra money to be put into free buses that transport vulnerable passengers to railway stations at the end of lines where they can take their time getting on and off with no adverse impact on the overall timetable.

As for Eurotunnel, my mate Bernie the Bolt, champion hod carrier in 1976, ensured that it could happen and that it was safe in the long term. Even now at the age of 88 he regularly gets the national rail out of problems with his engineering expertise and freelance ability to be called in on the quiet. He's hardly got a tooth in his head and conversation with him is nigh on impossible but he will drive two hundred miles through snow while 31 year olds are whimpering and can work every function on an I-phone. The man deserves a medal but won't get one. Probably because he can look like a vagrant and never got married at a time when everyone did. Who knows? The British establishment doesn't do logic. Just power.

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/britains-top-hod-carrier-bernie-gill-carrying-forty-bricks-news-photo/3395565

Not the most dismal way of getting in the Guinness Book of Records at the age of 46

Incidentally, 1976. The weather parallels are obvious. The very underrated but flawed heterosexual equivalent to Maupin is "Spring Street Summer" by Christopher Hudson which has always left a lasting impression in the memory. Naked people, free love and copious drugs in a Californian Garden of Eden as an Englishman leaves his middle class background for allusions to Adam and Eve and Paradise Lost and the strains of "If You Leave Me Now". Later, he returns to find what happened to those people and they are lost or so damned ordinary. Absolute classic in my humble opinion. I always recommend it. A letter to the idealism of youth and a case of what could have been just as roofs can and do arise above Ladybower:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review-paradise-recycled-in-the-sun-spring-street-summer-christopher-hudson-viking-1699-1556559.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ctzDAREDI

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/picture/2013/aug/28/drought-1976-photography

[Dave2002]

Actually the loss would have been less if you hadn't gone, as the tickets were a sunk cost (ie already incurred) and the additional car parking charges were incremental and therefore would have been avoided!

That assumes that we attached no value to actually attending the concert. Since we had already bought the tickets that assumption would seem unreasonable. You could apply your (false) argument to buying a new car, and then refusing to pay a £150 delivery charge.

[Sir Velo]

That assumes that we attached no value to actually attending the concert. Since we had already bought the tickets that assumption would seem unreasonable. You could apply your (false) argument to buying a new car, and then refusing to pay a £150 delivery charge.

I don't follow your reasoning. Your later example would appear to be contractual, ( although if not you would be perfectly entitled to refuse to pay) and hence unavoidable, whereas your additional car parking costs were discretionary and therefore avoidable. I was passing no judgement on your decision merely pointing out that your costs were increased rather than reduced by your later course of action!

[oddoneout]

That is outrageous given it mucks up the tourist industry here and many folks' holidays.

I think one could add 'even more', since any current strike activity comes on top of the continuing fall-out from the botched timetable changes.

[Dave2002]

Explodes .... !!!!

Just discovered that SWT are half way through a three day strike. We have three tickets for Proms tomorrow - one for Mahler 3, and two for the evening concert. This is going to make travel to and from the Proms very difficult. Unfortunately with the late evening start an alternative route via Victoria will be very difficult, and we could miss the last train.

Thank you UK infrastructure.....

One option might be to sell the evening tickets - though I'm reluctant to do that. Would anyone be interested?
I'm trying to figure out a way of making it all work which won't end up with one or both of us stranded either during the day or in the late evening.

I'm working overtime with the rail and other schedules trying to figure this out.