One other question:
I appreciate this should be the least of our worries but will the new stock on the ELL be air-conditioned? One of the things I like about the Class 377 Electrostars are the fact that they are cool in the summer...
Not right up there as a list of priorites but if we are to stand on the 'tube' it may as well be in some comfort?
From Admin's link to this story (below) it looked like the new stock might be air-con'd...
http://sydenham.org.uk/news_railway_09_09.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_377
Cuts to Southern trains
The station is deserted when I return at 20:02 which is certainly not the last train.nasaroc wrote:
1. Transport for London (TfL) are already running the stations between East Croydon and London Bridge. This means that all local stations, including Sydenham, are now staffed throughout the day “from first to last train” meaning a far safer and more secure environment for passengers.
Are they? Recently I have been catching the 0601 from Sydenham in a Croydon direction. Sydenham station staff get off the 0558 departure for London Bridge, which I believe is the 2nd train in the morning that heads that way....
Something else that I find quite strange is that the oyster barriers are closed in the rush hours but left wide open during off-peak times, do people not skip the fare in off-peak times???
Willy wrote: Something else that I find quite strange is that the oyster barriers are closed in the rush hours but left wide open during off-peak times, do people not skip the fare in off-peak times???
I still get wound up by those barriers.... I've nearly missed a train while I wait for the guard to fumble about to find a key on his ring, stick it in the barrier and open it up for me. The more the barriers are left open the better.
It's not the barriers it's the attitide of the person operating them. For some unknown reason sometimes my ticket won't work...even though it's valid.
The shortish wide male who often mans the wide-barrier has a stinking attitiude. "MOVE BACK" he barks even though I clearly have to get close to the barrier to show him the blasted ticket! Many times I have told him to watch his attitude...much teeth-sucking and insults (I assume) in a foreign tongue seem to ensue from him.
I filled out the NPSsurvey the other week but unfortunately there was no provision for mentioning this person. It seems as if he thinks he is employed to chat to his mate on the other side of the barrier or that likely lad who works in the shop...
Shame as Moses was brilliant (if a tad slow) and the Irish lady is really excellent. This one needs sacking though.
The shortish wide male who often mans the wide-barrier has a stinking attitiude. "MOVE BACK" he barks even though I clearly have to get close to the barrier to show him the blasted ticket! Many times I have told him to watch his attitude...much teeth-sucking and insults (I assume) in a foreign tongue seem to ensue from him.
I filled out the NPSsurvey the other week but unfortunately there was no provision for mentioning this person. It seems as if he thinks he is employed to chat to his mate on the other side of the barrier or that likely lad who works in the shop...
Shame as Moses was brilliant (if a tad slow) and the Irish lady is really excellent. This one needs sacking though.
No I don't I'm afraid...
I have realised I haven't seen him for quite a while but I haven't had much need to buy a ticket as I have my season ticket. Is it something that can be discussed openely?
I liked Moses, you could get a good bit of banter with him but he did take a while over things...very thorough you could say. I hope I am not going to be proven a bad judge of character.
I have realised I haven't seen him for quite a while but I haven't had much need to buy a ticket as I have my season ticket. Is it something that can be discussed openely?
I liked Moses, you could get a good bit of banter with him but he did take a while over things...very thorough you could say. I hope I am not going to be proven a bad judge of character.
Did he come down from the mountaintop with the Ten Commandments demanding that God be sacked for delaying his passage through the pearly gates because of a problem with his ticket?
When Oystercards arrive in six weeks time, almost all of the problems associated with ticket purchase, awkward staff on gates, ticket machines not working, gates not opening etc etc will largely be a thing of the past.
Roll on that day! Let those who want to continue with cardboard tickets do so. They can't disappear soon enough for me.
When Oystercards arrive in six weeks time, almost all of the problems associated with ticket purchase, awkward staff on gates, ticket machines not working, gates not opening etc etc will largely be a thing of the past.
Roll on that day! Let those who want to continue with cardboard tickets do so. They can't disappear soon enough for me.
Yes it can be discussed openly as it has been dealt with by the courts:Ulysses wrote: Is it something that can be discussed openely?
I liked Moses, you could get a good bit of banter with him but he did take a while over things...very thorough you could say. I hope I am not going to be proven a bad judge of character.
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/45452 ... e_robbery/
Dont know if that makes you a bad judge of character
when oyster is introduced I'll still have to get them to open the gate for me... The barriers will still be an inadequatw bottleneck.nasaroc wrote:Did he come down from the mountaintop with the Ten Commandments demanding that God be sacked for delaying his passage through the pearly gates because of a problem with his ticket?
When Oystercards arrive in six weeks time, almost all of the problems associated with ticket purchase, awkward staff on gates, ticket machines not working, gates not opening etc etc will largely be a thing of the past.
Roll on that day! Let those who want to continue with cardboard tickets do so. They can't disappear soon enough for me.
My ticket doesn't open the gates as they're not programmed to accept my ticket despite it being valid on the right trains - i got the victoria -lon bridge season.bensonby wrote:
when oyster is introduced I'll still have to get them to open the gate for me... The barriers will still be an inadequatw bottleneck.
Most of the gate staff know me now so let me through but there's one chap who thinks my ticket isn't valid every time... He makes me put it into the gate even though I know it wont work and it holds up the people behind me. It's a shame that the gate staff aren't better trained though I guess that would cost money and would require foresight.. but why bother when you can employ people on short term contracts and pay minimum wage
Regarding the evening platform overcrowding -I seriously think it's only a matter of time before someone gets knocked onto the track or something worse..
I agree bobmcbob. The barriers are currently a dangerous bottleneck. Things might speed up a little when more people migrate from annual paper Season Tickets to an annual Oyster + Gold Card but there's still inadequate provision.
I did wonder if they should be looking into another 2 barriers. So you have the 3 straight ahead and one on each side. During busy periods they can give 3 or 4 barriers over to where the pressure is being brought to bear...
Or is that just crazy thinking!?
It seems as if lots of people from Upper Sydenham are still getting off on platform 2 and heading out via the ticket office when they should really be crossing the footbridge and heading out through Peak Hill Gardens...which makes things even worse.
Of course we cannot force them but if they're too lazy to cross over the bridge then we see the results (in their weight if nothing else).
I did wonder if they should be looking into another 2 barriers. So you have the 3 straight ahead and one on each side. During busy periods they can give 3 or 4 barriers over to where the pressure is being brought to bear...
Or is that just crazy thinking!?
It seems as if lots of people from Upper Sydenham are still getting off on platform 2 and heading out via the ticket office when they should really be crossing the footbridge and heading out through Peak Hill Gardens...which makes things even worse.
Of course we cannot force them but if they're too lazy to cross over the bridge then we see the results (in their weight if nothing else).
Apart from the problem that the gates are slow and unreliable because Southern/Tfl/or whoever decided they didn't want to pay the extra to have fast ones like the tube and 2 exiting the station in rush hour is woefully inadequate.When Oystercards arrive in six weeks time, almost all of the problems associated with ticket purchase, awkward staff on gates, ticket machines not working, gates not opening etc etc will largely be a thing of the past.
I'm not so sure Willy.
I know the ones you mean. Certainly they're more violent and inifintely noisier than the ones at our station but I do wonder if they're really that much faster...or do they just speed flow up as people run through them for fear of getting trapped by the powerful beasts?
Seriously though. All over the underground network and at main-line stations whenever barriers are put in or a station is refurb'd or built it's our barriers that are put in. And at stations that are markedly busier than our own...
So I'd query just how much slower these new quieter, smoother ones are.
I know the ones you mean. Certainly they're more violent and inifintely noisier than the ones at our station but I do wonder if they're really that much faster...or do they just speed flow up as people run through them for fear of getting trapped by the powerful beasts?
Seriously though. All over the underground network and at main-line stations whenever barriers are put in or a station is refurb'd or built it's our barriers that are put in. And at stations that are markedly busier than our own...
So I'd query just how much slower these new quieter, smoother ones are.
I'm also confident that the gates at Sydenham are just as quick and reliable as those used elsewhere.
The basic standard is that they can handle 40 people in a minute using Oystercards (as opposed to 25 people per minute using cardboard tickets). So we can expect the two gates to handle slightly more people in May when virtually everyone is using Oystercards.
I agree entirely with the views of Ulysses, Willy and others that two gates at Sydenham are inadequate, especially during evening rush hours. Southern are aiming to run fewer (and longer) trains and with ELL there will be a one third rise in passengers . That inevitably means even more pressure on the gates.
However, there IS a genuine problem. TfL is not averse to having more gates at the main entrance at Sydenham but there is really no extra space in the booking hall at present. I've talked this over fully on site with the manager from LOROL (the company who operate the trains and stations) and he can see no immediate solution - although he IS keen to widen the entrance door to alleviate crowding.
If anyone has any easy solutions I'd like to hear them. There simply isn't room to do as Ulysses suggests above and create two extra gates facing sideways.
The basic standard is that they can handle 40 people in a minute using Oystercards (as opposed to 25 people per minute using cardboard tickets). So we can expect the two gates to handle slightly more people in May when virtually everyone is using Oystercards.
I agree entirely with the views of Ulysses, Willy and others that two gates at Sydenham are inadequate, especially during evening rush hours. Southern are aiming to run fewer (and longer) trains and with ELL there will be a one third rise in passengers . That inevitably means even more pressure on the gates.
However, there IS a genuine problem. TfL is not averse to having more gates at the main entrance at Sydenham but there is really no extra space in the booking hall at present. I've talked this over fully on site with the manager from LOROL (the company who operate the trains and stations) and he can see no immediate solution - although he IS keen to widen the entrance door to alleviate crowding.
If anyone has any easy solutions I'd like to hear them. There simply isn't room to do as Ulysses suggests above and create two extra gates facing sideways.
I wondered that Willy but would it mean an extra person to man it? It might not be viable for that reason.
Another (probably non-viable) idea I had was to still follow the 'fan' route. I can see where nasaroc would mean that there's no space with people queueing to buy tickets and use the shop but at evening rush-hour the little shop has long since closed...
So, is there space to have a barrier immediately to the right as you come in from the platform? In fact given after 6 even the ticket booths and the shop are closed we could have an extra barrier to the left and right ONLY for use in the evening rush-hour which seems to be a very dangerous time.
Or am I STILL not getting it and physically there is no space for any extra barriers to be plumbed in currentlly.
Another (probably non-viable) idea I had was to still follow the 'fan' route. I can see where nasaroc would mean that there's no space with people queueing to buy tickets and use the shop but at evening rush-hour the little shop has long since closed...
So, is there space to have a barrier immediately to the right as you come in from the platform? In fact given after 6 even the ticket booths and the shop are closed we could have an extra barrier to the left and right ONLY for use in the evening rush-hour which seems to be a very dangerous time.
Or am I STILL not getting it and physically there is no space for any extra barriers to be plumbed in currentlly.