Re: OT: Health & Safety looney (again)

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:46:15 +0100, "Hog" <hogSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Champ wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:41:51 +0100, "Hog" <hogSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

They should let me run the fucking railways

Well, I'm sure the trains would run on time.

A fucking one eyed mong could do a better job than the current morass of
different companies/roles/responsibilities. It really is pathetic.

Every morning the 0830ish train for Leeds arrives at York. It always has
3 carriages. There are always FOUR carriages worth of people waiting.
All the platforms are big enough for 4.

Sweller tells us about the lack of capacity North/South for freight and
passengers. Is there the slightest hint of doubling the rail capacity
appropriately? none. Has any administration the guts to put through
the minimum price compulsory purchase legislation to make it happen? no.

And as I assume you are possibly talking about a Transpennine Express
service you may like to know that First TPE put a proposal to the DfT
many months ago to order extra carriages for their fleet (of Siemens
trains) to provide more capacity. The engines used in the train are no
longer manufactured and there are just enough engines in stock to equip
the 40 odd new carriages and provide a spares holding. If someone else
orders some of those engines the whole scheme falls to bits as a new
design of engine would not fit the existing design of train thus
triggering a re-engineering process. In addition there comes a point in
the next couple of years where the existing trains need a particular
type of "exam" which would allow the units to be split and have the new
carriages inserted for minimal cost. The more DfT delays the more remote
this possibility becomes and thus any eventual insertion of the
carriages would be more expensive and would bugger component wear and
maintenance on the trains thus increasing the risk of unreliability
which the train company will want financial compensation for.

DfT have sat on the proposal for months and months seemingly completely
unable to make up their minds to do something that would be beneficial
and which is not hugely expensive.

The DfT did the same with extra carriages for the West Coast main line
because they couldn't reach an agreement with Virgin. Now we have the
farce of the carriages being ordered but not enough to extend all the
trains, the new carriages won't arrive until after the current franchise
is retendered and because the DfT didn't want Virgin to be responsible
for inserting the new carriages have called tenders for a "shadow
operator" to manage the integration of the new carriages. There were
only two bidders - one of which is a spin off from Virgin Trains. All
this waste just because they fear they might be ripped off by Virgin
Trains. I guess I'm just reinforcing your view but please blame the
DfT who deny they manage the allocation of carriages to the train
companies but in reality they do precisely that.

--
Paul C - "the big camp ***" (tm d.a.r.s.y)
VFR800 | ZX6R | R1150GS
BOD#5, two#4, BOTAFOT#23, BOTAFOF#4, URMSBC#09, COFF#09
Admits to working for London Underground!
.

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