Magazine article regarding SPADs

[notadriver]

This has appeared in a transport publication. Thoughts ?

 

[DarloRich]

errrrmmmmmmmm

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Obvious troll is obvious.

 

[Mojo]

Bizarre. I've never seen a train driver using a mobile device whilst operating the train, either on NR or LU metals.

 

[tsr]

Whilst I obviously strongly disapprove of drivers distracting themselves by using mobile phones whilst driving, you could not reasonably penalise drivers for carrying mobile phones on duty nowadays anyway. In times past they may have simply been a luxury, but today they can not only be used for business efficiency and continuity (for example, a driver could be on the phone to fleet control whilst examining a train fault in a position of safety), but also as a valuable last-resort means of contacting a signaller in an emergency.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I'd like to know who he is so sure the driver is using their phone. Surely from any distance something as simple as tapping your lap looks like it...

 

[Flamingo]

I don't know what the Editor was thinking of, posting such an obvious trolling letter.

(If it is the magazine I think it is, that just confirms my decision that buying it is throwing good money after bad.)

 

[leaffall]

That letter is so ridiculous that it almost seems like it was lifted from the parody letters page in "viz" magazine...

Nonsense of course, 20 occasions in 6 days? What absolute tripe. Letters like this of course require no proof or evidence to back them up.

Being caught using a mobile or any electronic device, barring very exceptional mitigating circumstances is pretty much a dismissal offence and rightly so, the notion that BTP should should storm cabs on a random basis to search for a phone is laughable, particularly as we are issued one as part of our drivers equipment

It's a an unnecessary slur on the professionalism of drivers and sounds very much like the politics of envy to me.

 

[Railsigns]

(If it is the magazine I think it is, that just confirms my decision that buying it is throwing good money after bad.)

Is that not the magazine title visible at the bottom of the excerpt?

 

[ChiefPlanner]

First thing checked usually is mobile phone use - insulting to professional drivers to say the least.

 

[455driver]

I havent started reading my copy yet and if that is posted in the mail section without some sort of rebuttal then it will be the last time I buy the magazine!

Anybody want 758 copies of rail enthusiast/rail, most in excellent condition and all in binders, would make useful addition to any bonfire!

The annoying thing is they are all boxed and moved so I could have saved myself about 10 boxes and a lot of effort! :roll:

 

[otomous]

Plenty of you have already pointed out the consequences of phone use for drivers and therefore its inherent improbability, so I won't pursue this line further. However I wonder if the writer of this letter has misunderstood what he claims to have seen. Drivers certainly use mobiles to report faults and get instructions to do fault finding and repairs. But this would be at a stand only. I tend to stand on the platform or on the other side of the cab as much as possible to emphasise the fact that I am not using a phone on the move in these circumstances. Even for the odd bad apple that might use a phone on the move, I don't really see how he could see this and be absolutely sure that he has seen it. At a distance opening a bar of chocolate or writing on a folded schedule could conceivably look like texting! And talking to the signaller and using the PA/cab to cab involves placing a handset to your mouth and ear...