Grumble Thread

[Pulcinella]

Since I don't expect to travel on any of these lines and I'm not paying part of the 6 million pounds it could be said that it's none of my business. But my opinion, or reaction, is that it's a waste of money. I agree with the voice on the video who suggested it's 'a short-term attempt at populism'. None of the groups from whom the names originate had anything specific to do with railways. I think its just another assertion of political-correctness, like filling adverts with afro-caribbean people as a pretence that 'we care about BLM'. It would have been better simply to number the lines. There's never been felt a need to name , say ,the Crewe to Manchester line.

But maybe if the lines HAD been given names, this 'silly girl' wouldn't have ended up in Crewe.

Oh! Mr Porter, what shall I do?
I want to go to Birmingham
And they're taking me on to Crewe,
Take me back to London, as quickly as you can,
Oh! Mr Porter, what a silly girl I am.

[smittims]

How lovely; thanks for reminding me of that. I suspect it dates form 1846, the opening of the Trent Valley Line, when , for the first time , you could accidentally get a train that took you onto the 'wrong' line'.

Sadly, the song will probably be banned now for being 'misogynist' , as it suggests that only 'Womenangirls' , as they are called on Radio4 , get on the wrong train.

[french frank]

The counterpart to Oh, Mr Porter being:

Oh, Dr Beeching! what have you done?
There once were lots of trains to catch,
But soon there will be none,
I'll have to buy a bike, 'cos I can't afford a car,
Oh, Dr. Beeching! what a naughty man you are!

But Oh, Mr Porter was originally sung by Marie Lloyd who clearly knew her place. I don't know that it's "misogynist", but having been written in 1892 it's now very dated. Attitudes and sensitivities do change. Unsurprisingly.

[LHC]

Since I don't expect to travel on any of these lines and I'm not paying part of the 6 million pounds it could be said that it's none of my business. But my opinion, or reaction, is that it's a waste of money. I agree with the voice on the video who suggested it's 'a short-term attempt at populism'. None of the groups from whom the names originate had anything specific to do with railways. I think its just another assertion of political-correctness, like filling adverts with afro-caribbean people as a pretence that 'we care about BLM'. It would have been better simply to number the lines. There's never been felt a need to name , say ,the Crewe to Manchester line.

I doubt that the choice of names (or indeed numbers) would have any impact on the overall cost, as most of this will be the cost of producing new signage and maps for the trains and stations, so you need to divorce any antipathy you may have to the particular choice of names in this instance and the cost of making these lines more distinguishable.

As the presenter of the video said, one reason for doing this is to enable the provision of better information about delays etc, which at the moment are only reported for the London Overground overall, rather than the individual lines.

As the rest of the Underground uses names rather than numbers, it probably makes sense to stick with names for the Overground as well

It strikes me that this £6m is a much better use of money to provide something useful for the millions of users of the London Transport network than say, spending £300m on an illegal plan to send Asylum seekers to Rwanda which is unlikely ever to be implemented.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Isn't the real "reason" so as to squeeze more trashy stations delivering "content" in lowish quality sound into the broadcast space, and to provide more opportunities for advertising products and services you maybe don't really need - so not actually radio sales - but other products?

In my view, the manufacturers were at fault for continuing to sell DAB only radios when DAB+ was already fully developed and was used in many other countries. The fact that broadcasters have been slow to make the change hasn’t helped, though it’s a pity there wasn’t a period of overlap (by Global) to ease the transition.

[LMcD]

Since I don't expect to travel on any of these lines and I'm not paying part of the 6 million pounds it could be said that it's none of my business. But my opinion, or reaction, is that it's a waste of money. I agree with the voice on the video who suggested it's 'a short-term attempt at populism'. None of the groups from whom the names originate had anything specific to do with railways. I think its just another assertion of political-correctness, like filling adverts with afro-caribbean people as a pretence that 'we care about BLM'. It would have been better simply to number the lines. There's never been felt a need to name , say ,the Crewe to Manchester line.

How about 'The Not-High-Speed-After-All Line'?

[Serial_Apologist]

How about 'The Not-High-Speed-After-All Line'?

No, that would have to be the Hate S2 Line.

[Dave2002]

Revisiting an old grumble - 2nd factor authentication - and "smartphones". Now trying to order some downloads, and the store is maybe sending me a code to my mobile phone. This has worked with the same firm several times in the past - but today it doesn't. The phone is not picking up any signal that I can discern. Grrr!

Retreating back into my cave to put on some more animal skins!

PS: Forcing the phone off, then restarting, then waiting for an unexpected update to come, then going on to the shop web site - then fixing the changes to the shopping card which had crept in with this, finally gave a result. Simples! Yuk!

[Pulcinella]

Just applied for a GHIC (though the idea of it being global is completely risible: another Boris boast) but there seemed no easy way just to upgrade from an existing EHIC.
I gave name, address, date of birth, national insurance number, as requested, submitted the request, and back came the rather alarming message that they could not find evidence of my right to apply, so I then had to upload some documentation (passport and two utility bills; there were several other options). I'm now waiting to see if I fit the criteria. I certainly hope I do, but I have increasing distrust of computer systems holding correct personal information.

New card just arrived.
Still no idea why my original application needed additional information to confirm my entitlement.
I can't be bothered trying to 'win' £50 by taking part in the survey, as I'd place money on not being able to criticise the system for not recognising my entitlement in the first place!

[Dave2002]

New card just arrived.
Still no idea why my original application needed additional information to confirm my entitlement.
I can't be bothered trying to 'win' £50 by taking part in the survey, as I'd place money on not being able to criticise the system for not recognising my entitlement in the first place!

Ah - so you too are suspicious of surveys which don't actually offer you a free form entry to put in the real issues you have. Most of those are Sir Humphrey surveys - you fill in the "obvious" answers, then they say "thank you for filling it in" without giving you a chance to say what actually was wrong - and then later "you" appear as one of 95% customer 5 star (or 10/10) satisfaction.

Re being asked to upload documents, were you give a secure way to do that? I generally refuse to upload anything - particularly in a collection - if it's only via email. Sometimes I send printed copies by registered post to the registered office address - but then later one will get a comment - "you didn't supply the documentation" - because organisations aren't bothered and don't track and match email with post delivered documents.

On one occasion, in a phone call, I was told "nobody else has a problem .." [now where have we heard that recently] - followed by "and have you ever had an issue". At that point I shut the inquisitor up by mentioning that I'd had over £3000 taken out of my bank - making my bank card inoperative on two separate occasions - which apparently the bank checked on and decided that "it's the Russians again", and then reset my accounts.

[Pulcinella]

Ah - so you too are suspicious of surveys which don't actually offer you a free form entry to put in the real issues you have. Most of those are Sir Humphrey surveys - you fill in the "obvious" answers, then they say "thank you for filling it in" without giving you a chance to say what actually was wrong - and then later "you" appear as one of 95% customer 5 star (or 10/10) satisfaction.

Re being asked to upload documents, were you give a secure way to do that? I generally refuse to upload anything - particularly in a collection - if it's only via email. Sometimes I send printed copies by registered post to the registered office address - but then later one will get a comment - "you didn't supply the documentation" - because organisations aren't bothered and don't track and match email with post delivered documents.

On one occasion, in a phone call, I was told "nobody else has a problem .." [now where have we heard that recently] - followed by "and have you ever had an issue". At that point I shut the inquisitor up by mentioning that I'd had over £3000 taken out of my bank - making my bank card inoperative on two separate occasions - which apparently the bank checked on and decided that "it's the Russians again", and then reset my accounts.

Yes to the secure upload option; photos taken via their site on my iPad and then uploaded once I'd ticked enough boxes saying what I'd provided (council tax statement and utility bill, so not really that personal/private, just proof of living at the address I had given). All done with an application number too.

[smittims]

Scottish power did a survey, 'tell us why you don't want a smart meter'. None of the few bland suggested reasons expressed my somewhat stronger views on the subject, so I had to leave it unanswered.

[Dave2002]

Over the last few years I have grown more and more dissatisfied with “modern living” - mobile phones, emphasis on streaming, passwords etc. Plus adverts - and to counter them ad-blockers, so now they’re are wars between web sites [youtube etc] and ad blockers - so now the ad blockers are charging. Anything to extract more money.

Mobile devices often fail if actually used in mobile mode - passwords don’t get recognised if one goes to different parts of the world or even the same country, so live events one has wanted to participate in don’t work.

However today I finally discovered that I have a whole bunch of decent music stored in a library on my iPad - and in reasonably decent sound. That will make a long bus journey more palatable, even if trying to get things played in the right order [Apple Music] will be a challenge. That will hopefully put me in a much better frame of mind.

The set of Mozart Piano Concertos player by Carmen Piazzini is really enjoyable, even if shuffled amongst other works.

[eighthobstruction]

...enjoy what ever you are doing Dave....and the folk about you....

This week I went to a city for first time in a while....for many reasons i felt oppressed by dirt, litter....discarded elec scooters....the whole place looking like an industrial estate....traffic....HOM's....delivero scooters....i will not even try to describe the general look of the people....I am lucky lucky lucky....

[smittims]

Dave, I agree wholeheartedly. I think technology has gone too far too quickly and the cracks are showing. We need to take a step back for a while and re-think a lot of things . I've gone back to playing gramophone records and using a manual coffee-grinder, so Im doing my bit!