JCC Support the London tube strike

Yes, I know.

 

Iello, we didn't almost become one, we universally rejected it.

Plus, top left of your flag is rubbish. Top left of ours is divine.

Harps, the famous Sydney suburb of Bondi is full of proud, loyal Englishmen who hate living in the UK. Ever been in London in summer? Awful place to be.

 

I hear it's pretty miserable in winter, as well.

 

Yes but in winter, they have insulation and heating.

In summer, they have no air conditioning. I remember going into the Lacoste store on Regent St one day in late July and it was hotter inside than out in the street.

So they can cope with winter; they can't cope with summer.

Yet they all come here, move to Bondi, accumulate skin cancer and say "oooh, I've got a bit of colour!"

 

Ah, yes. Yes of course. Chaps weren't keen on tea. Bally waste if you ask me.

Explains why the buggers still sound like we did under George III



I have a love-hate relationship with London. Ender's quite right that the place is a sticky affair when we have a hot summer. A nation of engineers with the inventions of the locomotive steam engine and the jet engine under our belt, yet we somehow can't manage a bit of air con on the tube. Maybe it's a health and safety thing... Siberian tigers put off by the heat or some such.

 

Or air conditioning attracts them, which explains why you don't have any in stores either.

I was luckily travelling during largely off peak times (plus London was largely empty of sensible workers at this point, who had jetted off to the south of France, Spain, or Australia to complain to people there about the weather back 'ome. Meant I could get near a window and get a slight hint of breeze between stops and garbled announcements.

 

even if London does struggle to cope in summer, you still enjoy it because a) it's relatively fleeting and b) there's still daylight at, like, 10pm. which makes after work drinks rather enjoyable. Australia's summer is horrific because there's no mercy, there isn't really a proper winter so you don't appreciate it, plus dusk is pretty much the same all year round, give or take. this all coming from a Queensland perspective, mind.

 

Long summer evenings here are awesome, I'll grant you that.

My biggest bugbear with London is the cost of housing. Even a tube driver would struggle to buy more than a rabbit hutch here.

 

I support the tubers!!!!

 

Tubers are awesome

 

I support them even more now.

 

Communists, the whole lot of you.

 

That map is wrong. Embankment is also on the Bakerloo line.

And this strike had better not ruin my trip to London tomorrow. I have 14 tube trips planned over the weekend.

 

Halibut, the strike ends this evening so you should be fine.

There are some service disruptions due to engineering work over the weekend but nothing major:

Jubilee line
On Sunday, there is no service between Waterloo and Finchley Road until 11:00 while we carry out essential Jubilee line tunnelling work.

Metropolitan line
Trains will not run between Harrow‑on‑the‑Hill and Uxbridge while we replace track at Ruislip.

Northern line
There is no service between Kennington and Morden while we test new signalling.

Piccadilly line
Trains will not run between South Harrow and Uxbridge while we replace track at Ruislip.

London Overground
On Sunday, there is no service between the following stations to allow for Network Rail track improvement work:

• Richmond and Camden Road via West Hampstead
• Shepherd’s Bush and Willesden Junction
• Surrey Quays and Clapham Junction

 

Wait...

The tube drivers get paid more than I do because they might have someone jump in front of the train, where as a part of my job is to remove people from a ventilator, sometimes with the intent to let them die, (True Fact: there really is no plug pulling involved... at least until I've already done it and I'm taking the machine out of the room.) AND they get a big button?! Why don't I have a big button?

 

Nah, that shouldn't affect me, cheers

 

In NYC we still have some booths that are staffed part-time (I think there may even be a couple at major junction points that are staffed 24x7) but they are few and far between at this point. But as the move was made to MetroCards from tokens and more technologically advanced trains, staffing was reduced. I don't recall strikes (only over wages and budget) but we also have citizen action groups here as well as the unions. They are also introducing trains that, one day, will be completely automated without conductors (and the AirTrain monorail -- MONORAIL! MONORAIL! MONORAIL! -- is already as such).

We also have a cockamamie system of governing our transit, given that ALBANY controls the budget for the MTA rather than NYC.

Even with all of this, our subway runs 24x7x365 which no other subway system in the world does, I believe. Not even the vaunted Tube (though I understand they're trying to have some lines now operate all the time?).

mavjade is right though. Sometimes wage requests are insane. Similar to the "fast food workers walkout" this past summer where they were asking for FIFTEEN DOLLARS A MONTH as wage earning for a job with literally zero barrier to entry... or, to put it another way, 75% of many jobs where you need professional accreditation and a minimum of two-year degrees or courses.

 

yeah, from 2015, certain lines will run 24 hours over the weekend. not all week, but it's the weekend that most people care about. long overdue!

 

It's BECAUSE they have a big button. Great paychecks come with great responsibility.

Let's cheer things up with the news that they will be earning a basic wage of over £52,000 ($85,000 US) next year thanks to a pay deal. This was achieved after they last held London to ransom to fight for triple pay on Boxing day. They get enhanced rates if they choose to work overtime and they get hugely generous paid holiday entitlement. Station staff get 52 days a year - well over double the statutory entitlement. Tube drivers get a little less than that - the 9 'rest days' were for station staff only.

Halibut, you're welcome. Probably just as well that your travel plans don't include Uxbridge or Morden. The former is like that freaks of Walmart website come to life and Morden is an absolute dump (although there is an excellent, family-owned Italian cafe there... god only knows why).

dp4m, "engineering work" takes place on our lines overnight. Despite this, one of the two contractors is 7 years behind schedule. Given the amount of money that has been spent on that contract, I can only assume this is because they're using tools made of 24ct gold and keep needing to bend them back into shape. Either that or they spend most of their time shoo'ing the tigers away.

 

I wish I had a big button at my job instead of annoying and lobotomized customers who want to know where all the Duck Dynasty memorabilia ended up.

 

Queensland doesn't really have a winter. Sydney and Melbourne do.

Plus it was substantially hotter each day in Brisbane than Sydney.

Queensland is really ghastly, so mustn't use that for comparison.

halibut - it's an official map too!

 

And having just arrived in London, that map is actually correct. The Bakerloo part of Embankment station is currently closed for escalator replacements. My bad!

 

Dear Mr _unhinged,
I am writing to let you know that following constructive talks, the Tube strike action by the RMT and TSSA unions, which had been planned for this week has now been suspended.

Our services will therefore operate as normal.
Yours sincerely,

Mike Brown
Managing Director
London Underground

 

Apology accepted, Captain Needa.

Good work, Mr Unhinged sir! Wocky and Guy will be disappointed but they can always listen to the Bolshy songs on the Les Mes soundtrack to cheer themselves up.