Nick's Ramblings

I e-mailed East Midlands Trains last week to find out what they were planning with regard to our local train services. Here is the e-mail I sent –

Dear Sir,
I would be interested to hear what your company is proposing to do to improve the Crewe to Derby service and the stations along this line.
As the majority of this service is in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire area, I am somewhat surprised that it is being run by a company whose main area of focus is the East Midlands. In the past, Central Trains and to a degree Regional Railways treated this service and its stations as an inconvenience and little or no investment has been made in the route. A lot of people in the North Staffordshire area aren't even aware that there are open stations at Longport or Longton!
In fact, one of the stations, Etruria, was closed two years ago. It is also noticable that the majority of stations currently operated by Central Trains (the exception being Kidsgrove) are unstaffed. Most of the stations are in a poor state of repair, although some new shelter facilities have been installed at Longport, but this was not financed by Central Trains! The stations do not provide a welcome to the travelling public – your potential customers!
 
Can you reassure me that the level of service you will provide, the state of the stations, the staffing of the stations and the publicity of the route will be improved when you take over the service?
 
Yours faithfully

And this is the reply –

The level of service will be broadly similar to that operating today, but from December 2008 there will be some changes to train times in conjunction with major timetable changes across the country. We have been told exactly when our trains can operate throughout the day by Network Rail.

East Midlands Trains (EMT) intends to deliver improved ambiance at all stations by investing in deep cleaning, painting, improved CCTV Help Points and signage.  The CCTV and Help Points will be connected to a new Information and Security Centre collocated with the new integrated control at Derby.  We will link stations progressively over the next few years and this will enable passengers to speak directly to an information controller to obtain accurate and up to date information.

 Further enhancements may be possible if local stakeholders are able to provide additional funding and a number of local authorities have already stated that they wish to join with EMT to improve stations.  

 We will also be installing over 70 ticket vending machines across our network.  Staffing levels will remain as now but our management arrangements will be developed to ensure that stations are kept clean and provide a welcoming environment for passengers.

Regards

Hmm, can't say I'm too reassured to be honest. I've got a copy of the new proposed 2008 timetable 😉 so I'd better take a closer look to see what's planned!

I notice there is a lot in the news at the moment about superbugs in hospitals. This is quite a simple and easy problem to solve – clean the hospitals properly!

It seems the hospital trusts and their chief execs seem oblivious to this concept. As long as they can cut costs left right and centre and keep their huge salaries and benefit packages then it's 'I'm aright Jack'. But the best bit is that the high ups seem to make an utter pigs ear in one area, then move on to another and do the same. What are they and the people who employ them thinking?????

The Communication Workers Union have called strikes, which means that, in all probability, we won't get any post now for a week!

They're closing Post Offices, stopped the majority of mail going by train (despite the increase in road congestion , pollution etc), closed their own dedicated underground railway in London, stopped second deliveries and started to deliver mail later and later in the day.

The union seems to be just as bloody minded and awkward. This is the union that goes on strike for having its members suspended. Now, if the rules are followed and fair hearing occur, that is fair enough, so why a strike?

Admittedly, the Government haven't helped by moving services out of the Post Offices, but it does seem that there is some massively bad management going on and some very rigid uncompromising staff within the business.
Will the Post Office survive? Who knows, but I bet my Great Great Grandfather, William Wood who was a postman, is spinning away merrily!

Today I’ve been to the Churnet Valley Railway’s scenic railcar weekend and rode up and down on a class 104 DMU and a Derby Lightweight single car DMU (Iris). It’s quite interesting to actually be able to see out of the front!

It was also nice to travel on older trains which sounded ‘proper’ and had a bit of character.

I always find it interesting when on a preserved railway, how quiet the carriages generally are (DMUs and hordes of screaming kids excepted). The thing is there is no air conditioning or engines under the floor. At least with a first generation DMU the engines chug along and rattle a bit!

But best of all, I got to finally drive a locomotive!! The owner of 37075 was letting people drive up and down the station yard at Cheddleton. Apparently, I was quite good at it!

Must get myself on a full driving day sometime!

That'll teach me! After writing about not using the internet yesterday, I came into work today to find there was no net! Seems that County had a major problem with its proxy servers.

I've read this article by a BBC reporter about not using the internet for 3 days. Really makes you think how much we rely on it these days.

I must admit I can go without. In fact I did while we were away on holiday, except for a couple of days when I used my mobile phone to connect my lappy to the internet – for which Orange charged me an arm and a leg!

But, at home we do tend to rely on it. We check how much is in the bank, do the shopping etc. etc. It's amazing how far things have come in a relatively short space of time. In fact I only bought my first PC in 1999!

Well we thought that TalkTalk would be good to go to for our phone and broadband. After all the bad press they've had since they launched their broadband service, we thought everything would have calmed down and things would go easily.
Wrong!!!
After placing the order with them on 31/08/07, we were told we'd go live on 25/09/07 (today), and we'd get the welcome pack and broadband stuff soon. So I was a bit concerned when we'd not heard a peep from them by yesterday.
So I rang them up. After being on hold for yonks (thank goodness for SayNoTo0870.com), I got through only to be told that the switch hadn't happened as there was an error. That was helpful I thought! I asked what was happening now and the buck was passed to another department! After waiting on hold again for 10 minutes I put the phone down as I wanted my tea!
So I've cancelled our order.
It says a lot when a company can't send out a welcome pack, broadband info or even tell you that there is a problem with your order! Can't trust TalkTalk to sit on the lavatory the right way round!

The moral is – TalkTalk NO!!!!!

Nice to see that the Prime Minister thinks that it is right and proper to award public sector workers an annual pay rise that is less than inflation.
That means, in effect, that I will be getting a pay cut!
You can be sure that when it comes to MP’s pay rises that they will be above inflation and they will get a huge amount of extras. Mr. Brown, I’m sure, will be pleased to accept his pay package.

The other thing about working for the County is that pay scales and details of pay rises are not exactly well publicised. When I worked for Asda, although the pay was poor and rises were poor, at least you knew what you were getting and when. There was no doubt about what and when you were getting.
I think the Council could learn a thing or two!

Oh well, after a lovely fortnight off, it’s back to work. A teacher did come up to me yesterday and ask if I’d had a good holiday and then say that is ‘goes so quickly doesn’t it?’. Poor love, only 6 weeks off!

Our hols in Devon were great, even the day it rained so much that everywhere flooded. Funny thing was, the weather was glorious after that!