Recent content by NewcastleBrown

I think there will always be a need to brand trains roughly according to their routes to help passengers find their way - for example identifying a Thameslink service from a Southern service has value (and that's before you get to intercity vs local)

I'm interested in whether they will remember to turn off those naggy AI vision screens moaning at you for taking large luggage on the escalators during the work (which I guess will magically become safe to do for three months before becoming unsafe again)

It does seem odd to go to the trouble of doing this and then only setting it at £10. If you were persistently fare dodging before, I suspect the maths still works out at only £10 a time when you are caught

But is an off peak fare a discounted fare? It is surely the full undiscounted fare that to a station directly served by the train that you are on if you are travelling at an off-peak time

The fuel duty escalator being suspended has cost north of £100bn while the policy has been in place, so it's peanuts compared to that

What I don't quite get is why the mileage limit for the old trains is so 'hard' a barrier - it's not like a magic switch is flipped at that point, and you would imagine with potentially an enhanced inspection routine and a greater tolerance for failures you could keep them running for a bit longer

I think this is probably the most important part of the discussion - in the last census there were only 25k people for whom sign language is their main language, so the chance of these people walking through any given station on a day is probably quite low. This is probably quite poor value for...

The interesting thing about the rise in all these notices over the previous few years is that by official statistics violent crime has fairly consistently decreased since the mid-90s (based on the ONS Crime Survey, which is seen as the most reliable method), which would imply that any internal...

I do hope that if they have to take apart the escalators anyway that they can try and fix the persistent problems they have been having over recent months at the same time

I presume with just one exit open they don't feel they can deal with the morning peak? Bit easier to deal with in the evening as you can just crowd control at the door.

Can we? It doesn't seem disrespectful to me that people who are carrying out their jobs contact other people who are carrying out their jobs

TfL would be entitled to not pay for their labour for the day if it was in breach of contract (partial performance is no performance is the general rule) - but obviously if they did that the drivers would walk out completely, so that is the balancing act for them

There may also be market realties at play, where if it is harder to retain the CSA staff (with jobs being more interchangeable with other customer service for example) that TfL feels they need to focus more of their pay budget at that grade for retention/attraction purposes

I think fundamentally in London there are so many tube stations where you have to use the escalators with your luggage that people are just conditioned to do it that way and aren't ever going to seek out a lift

If they are exercising an existing option on the 345s, surely the price will already be specified in the contract? You might be able to negotiate it down with brinksmanship, but would it not provide the maximum ceiling?