Train Geeks

Ali

<p>You can be charged  with "abstracting electricity’ if your  not careful</p><p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/13/man-arrested-charging-iphone-london-overground-train">http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/13/man-arrested-charging-iphone-london-overground-train</a></p><p>People who used to diddle payphone calls used to be charged with stealing electricity !</p><p> </p><p> </p>

Sutent

On govia trains the sign tells you to plug in your laptop or mobile phone plug

miss annie

If you're paying for a ticket on their train you are more than paying for the electricity you use. Their plugs have been installed knowing people will use them and tested accordingly. It's different in a private building like a shop.

kreuzkav

I agree with Miss Annie, it's rude to unplug devices belonging to a shop to charge your phone.  Trains have them for a purpose, and it's not just for cleaners to plug in the hoover.  Otherwise there wouldn't be plugs every other seat.  <div><br></div><div>When I worked in a cafe when I returned to education in the early 2000s, it was acceptable to certain extent but the people plugging in their laptops stayed by themselves for two hours over a cafe.  They had no shame.  They were often demanding for water.  Real users in my book.</div><div><br></div><div>Warning to people like that.  Cafe and bar workers notice and ridicule you as cheapscates behind your back.  If you don't mind that keep being rude and taking up four seats for two hours and demanding of low paid workers.  Don't be surprised if urine is mixed in the tap water.  I never did that though.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

miss annie

People taking up a whole table meant for four for hours with their laptop, papers etc. and just ordering a couple of coffees are the bugbear of every cafe owner. Front Room suffers from this.

Sutent

There are loads of tables in front room. Would you ban it Annie?

krappyrubsnif

Simple solution: disable the wifi and tape over the plug sockets. But I'm not advocating this. I'm just off to a cafe with my laptop. Of course they cold offer free coffee and rent the tables by the hour.

miss annie

No @Sutent, but if I had a cafe there would be no wifi. I am lofi. I find that walking into a cafe with loads of people working on laptops completely spoils theatmosphere, I like a cafe full of people chattering not full of people staringly silently into screens.<div><br></div><div>In New York bookshops and other shops have started to fit phone jamming devices to stop people yabbering into their phones inside. Sales have gone up in shops that do it. </div>

krappyrubsnif

<blockquote style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: italic;">In New York bookshops and other shops have started to fit phone jamming devices to stop people yabbering into their phones inside.</span></blockquote><blockquote style="font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: italic;"><br></span></blockquote><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I wish I could have one of those fitted in my house, that would mean I could get a lot more work done at home instead of having to go out to a wifi-networked cafe with my noise-reducing headphones on to concentrate on what I'm doing.</span></span>

Ali

<p>I didn't realise you can use oyster now to gatwick airport</p><p> </p><p>Do you know how the  Oyster Card is charged as there  are often  quite cheap tickets to Gatwick on Southern.</p><p> </p><p>It seems to me you could pay £12.00  or  £19.90   for trains that run 8 minutes later than the first one. So how do you know you have got the cheapest fare without visiting the machine.  You also have to be careful with the ticket machines at Gatwick as they tend to present the more expensive fares first. ! </p>

Sutent

So we have intolerance of silent people staring into laptop screens and intolerance of talking people in cafes (hence noise reducing headphones). Not sure what the answer would be..<div><br></div><div><br></div>

krappyrubsnif

No, the noise reducing headphones are *selective*. They go on when I really don't need the blarney from someone with verbal diarrhoea who insists on talking to me when I'm trying to work. Much less rude than saying 'piss off I'm busy', I find. Also useful for crying babies. If I'm in the mood to chat, off they come. I never actually listen to anything on them.

checkski

I'm going to repeat myself, not for the first time - it's what old gentleman do, so please be patient with me. Miss Annie is right, on this occasion!  The main function in a cafe should be chattering! To a real person, or people. No screens - AND NO BLOODY MUSIC! Anyone prepared to start one? With nice coffee, ça va sans dire. And armchairs - for the socialists.. (Brace yourself, Checkski; nobody will agree with you. Except Miss A, of course. We always agree. Sometimes).

Arkady

Back to trains.<div><br></div><div>TfL and the DfT just announced that all inner suburban train services will be devolved to TfL. assuming there is no contract extension, that means that the Kings Cross/Moorgate stopping trains that pass through Finsbury Park, Harringay, Hornsey et al should be run by TfL by 2021. By which point they will have the shiny new trains, too.</div>

Sutent

Great news. Now hopefully we can re nationalise the rest of the railway now

fabruce

Amazing news. Can't wait to see all these changes implemented in the next few years.<div><br></div><div>There is so much going on with Crossrail and the new Thameslink. Exciting!</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

Sutent

Did anyone know that C2C were using the Goblin line as a diversion from Barking to terminate trains at Liverpool Street due to engineering works on the Fenchurch Street line. Part of the Goblin line is already electrified can you imagine the possibilities when all the line is electrified. Hopefully the goblin can run all the way from Southend to Richmond and maybe Liverpool Street. It is so exciting!

mattrobinson

I really hope so too. I think there would need to be some platform work at Gospel Oak to allow running through to Richmond/Clapham Junction, and can't tell whether this is part of the electrification work, but it would be great. 

poxy

Search for the Goblin "Ghost Train"!<div><br></div><div>Through-running is already possible.  There's one train each weekday morning goes all the way from Barking to Willesden.  It goes through Crouch Hill at 8:24am.  That's if it doesn't get cancelled to regulate the service, which it does at least once a week. </div>

mattrobinson

This is quite an detailed article about all the future possibilities on the GOBLIN line<div>http://anonw.com/tag/gospel-oak-to-barking-line/<br></div><div><br></div>;

Sutent

Thank you Mattrobinson for the link. Thats very interesting especially as they have to lower the tracks to electrify under the Crouch Hill bridge

Sutent

<span style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;">I stole this post from another forum. This is taken from London Suburban Railways. This is a protest letter 3 months after the Finsbury Park Alexander Palace line close. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15.84px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204);">T</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.2px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15.84px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">he reasoning in this is typical of the deluded. Passenger usage had slumped time & again from 1878-1954 & closure for a variety of reasons. One of these was that from the 1920's onwards, the entire route from Alexandra Palace to Finsbury Park was paralleled by trams, which ran at the rate of around 15 an hour.</span><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.84px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.84px;">http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h318/theblackferret/ALLYPALLY_zpsoqjewv9t.jpg </span><br></span></div>;

Sutent

Just saw the new thames link train which will go through finsbury park parked outside there bridges. So beautiful. Can't wait to ride it

Arkady

We should see them heading up past us to the Horsey Depot in the next few months. They ran two of them linked together through At Pancras the other day, it was amazing.

Sutent

I learnt something new today. Sealed tins of paint are not allowed on tfl busses

miss annie

<p>I take big  tins of paint on the bus from Leyland in Shaftesbury Avenue to Piccadilly at least once a week! No driver has ever mentioned it.</p>

Arkady

The W5 driver asked me to hide a can of paint the other day before he would let me get on.

markpack

Arriva Buses allow tins of paint: <a href="https://help.arrivabus.co.uk/faqs/using_bus/liquid">https://help.arrivabus.co.uk/faqs/using_bus/liquid</a>; <br><br> Although there are some quite baffling stories about people not being allowed to bring paint on a bus: <br><br> "Breda Fox, 76, was not allowed on the bus because the driver was scared that the new sealed tub of paint might come open and spill on the floor or other passengers. Baffled Breda was left upset and embarrassed by the driver's actions but waited ten minutes for the next bus to come along and concealed the two-and-a-half litre tub of emulsion in a plastic bag and got on without any problems." [<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-517181/Great-grandmother-thrown-bus-carrying-tin-paint.html">Source</a>] <br><br> "Jessica Birks, 20, said the driver of the bus would not let her travel on the number 51 service in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, because he said there was a risk the paint she had bought could leak from the sealed tins... Stagecoach, who run the service, have apologised to Ms Birks and said they had spoken to the driver." [<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/10320525/Stagecoach-bus-company-apologises-after-pregnant-woman-carrying-tins-of-paint-ordered-off-bus.html">Source</a>]

miss annie

<p>Blimey! No one has ever mentioned it to me. If it's a sealed tin how would it leak? </p><p>I'd be much more bothered about people eating and then dropping their chicken bones and food wrappers everywhere.</p>

Sutent

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 10px; line-height: normal;">The Public Service Vehicle Regulations allow drivers to refuse passage to anyone carrying articles which might be a safety hazard or could damage the vehicle or other passengers' property. So Annie by carrying sealed  paint on a bus you are potentially a hazard and danger to others. </span></font><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br><br></span><br></div>