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Absolutely gutted. One of the nicest guys at the depot - he was looking forward to retirement. He's going to be missed.

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/members-updates/strike-action-suspended-offer61219/?preview=true

The RMT hasn't paid me a penny for any of the 3 strike days I've taken part in, I've paid for it by working extra rest days... I've seen the text of the deal that has been negotiated with WMT, it'll be a no from me. It's also a no from everyone else I've spoken to. Not sure what our crack...

They probably do. But until they collect the keys I don't think they have any say in LMs training regime.

Crewe guards haven't been trained on Envoy yet. Some guards at other depots are stubbornly hanging on to Avantix. We've been told Avantix will be gone by December 3rd - we'll see.

It's 4 mins Longbridge to Barnt Green. I'd suggest at least another 3 or 4 to Bromsgrove. I'll reserve judgement on the speed uphill, can't see 323s doing it in much of a hurry!

In which case there is still not going to be enough capacity on the cross city. The hinted 'metro style' seats should help us squeeze more people on per set though at least. The good news is our passengers are getting used to standing. I'm sure they'll be looking forward to standing in shiny new...

Someone quoted 22 for a full service, although that includes 1 for the Intl shuttle, and however many are on Walsall-Wolves. I'm pretty sure 350s won't be able to work Chase line without SDO or platform lengthening. Bloxwich is definitely too short for a 4 car 350. Landywood probably is too...

I think anyone who works on or travels this line would agree that all peak services need to be 6 car now. In 2-3 years that's going to be even more apparent. Plus don't forget with electrification works those extra 10 sets are going to be spread pretty thin. Personally I'd love it if we got to...

I was trained to keep my head inside the train at all times. And as someone else pointed out, we routinely dispatch from elsewhere in the train already, where there are no droplights fitted.

Haha "strategy"! You think there's a plan? Lol

But do we? I'm assuming the 36 suburban sets will be taking over at least some services on BHM-Rugeley after electrification. Also the Cross City extension to Bromsgrove will swallow up so of the extra capacity I would think.

Also what's this crap about cab droplights? When I started as a conductor we were explicitly told not to have our heads out of open windows. Personally I never leave a platform facing window open - getting spat at once was enough thanks.

I think they're making a mistake ordering 3 car suburban EMUs. 3 cars is woefully inadequate during times of peak demand, and I'd be surprised if they run everything as a 6 car like they need to be. And we've got another 3 years or so of probable growth before we even see these new trains...

Hehe this will go down well: http://www.westmidlandsrail.com/about-us/west-midlands-franchise/ Sad to see the end of LM and Govia - better the devil you know...

A couple of years ago there were agency staff working at New Street station in the run up to Christmas, mostly for crowd control. Several times conductors and drivers were denied entry to the platform as the temp said it was too crowded. Sadly never happened to me!

I once saw the Tory MP for Lichfield, Michael Fabricant (probably spelt that wrong - I'm sure there's a 'u' in there) on the London platform at Lichfield Trent Valley. I wouldn't recognise most so-called celebrities to be honest. Don't care who they are as long as they either have a ticket or...

Three weeks in and I've gotten faster with the new machines. Even excesses are quicker although it's still frustrating when you need to do two at once. Hopefully it'll be solved with a software update at some point. I won't hold my breath - updates probably need to be paid for so if LM can avoid...

Yep, get that 'check restrictions' prompt frequently. Annoying as, when the new system was first touted at my depot as being the new thing, one of the things they seemed proud of was the ability to enter your trains headcode and only be offered tickets valid on that service. That seems to have...

Do any Envoy/WLMTS users know if it's possible to excess multiple tickets in one go? Earlier I had to do an over distance excess for a pair of tickets issued with a Two Together Railcard - the only way I could figure it out was to do one, put it in the basket, then do the other, then issue...