Sunday 23 December 2007

Hmmm

Well, after reading the comments to my last post, I am touched at the support I have received and I am glad that the blog has been useful to those of you who read it.

Mr anonymous: I still think you should grow some balls and get an ID if you wish to slate me but no matter.

I have worked for First Great Western for a number of years now. Althought he company does do some mind-bogglingly dumb things from time to time, I do still think that they are trying their best and so, like Lee, I may be given to taking things personally. I'll not say, however, that this is a bad thing

The fact that so many of you seem to have gotten something out of this blog and your positive comments has lead me to rethink my position on this as I do still want to help wherever I can. I don't think that a single moron should be allowed to spoil that.

I think that I'll leave it to the new year and then I'll see about making my 'triumphant' return. Given the state of things lately, I doubt that I'll be short of material.

I want to encourage free discussuion, so I won't enable comment moderation or stop people from speaking their minds and I won't stop anyone from disagreeing with me. I will though, once again, reiterate that I'm not interested in fights so please try and argue reasonably.

Until the new year.

Peace.

Friday 7 December 2007

For the most part, I enjoy talking to you guys and perhaps this has led to a better understanding of some of the problems faced by First Great Western.

I have other things in my life, a beautiful finacee, a handful of close friends and a couple of interesting hobbies. What this means is that I do not do this for the good of my health or because I like the sound of my own voice (so to speak).

So to have my posts savaged by some trigger happy gobshite without the courtesy to introduce himself makes me wonder why I bother.

So Mr Anonymous, what position of authority do you speak from, what gives you the right to pass judgment and how do you know what I am and am not qualified to speak on? Actually, don't answer, I don't care. My advice to you is to read what I write, not what you think I've written.

The point is that I've never minded discussion or criticism of the things I have written, but what did I say in my first post, no flame wars, no mud slinging. If you can't manage to comment pleasantly and constructively then follow the advice given by my mother to me: If you can't say anything nice, SHUT THE FUCK UP!

As I've been writing this I think I've decided, sod it, no more blog, I can't be bothered. For those of you who think this is me throwing my toys out of the pram at the first sign of someone saying a cross word to me, see second paragraph.

Out.

Thursday 6 December 2007

Fatality!!

Firstly, an apology. I've been away for a bit so not had time to talk much on the blog. Sometimes I think they're on to me and are finding things for me to do that keeps me away from a computer, but anywho.

This is gonna be a bit of a rant inspired by the events of today, or one event anyway. That would be the fatality today. I hope that you guys weren't too affected by it. Now this may just be my slightly biased view on account of the fact that I work for FGW, but it seems to me that committing suicide by jumping in front of a train is an increadibly selfish thing to do.

If it has dcome to the point where you feel the need to end your life, then that sucks. BUt is it really necessary to f*ck up everyone else's day by jumping in front of a train. There are many other quick and private ways to do this.

I know that soem of you must have been stuck because of a fatality at some time, as they seem to happen depressingly frequently and they are a royal pain in the ass. The whole line has to get shut down while the police attend and secure the scene. Then the coroner has to get there and rule out foul play. Then Network Rail have to get in there an inspect the line to make sure there is no damage to the track, fitters have to make sure the train can still move, not to mention that the whole mess has to be cleaned up.

Add all this together and you can have a delay of several hours, which throws the whole timetable to sh*t and leaves you with a train full of angry people and many stations full of equally angry people who can't get where they're going because the trains can't run.

However, this is not the main reason why suicides on the railway piss me off so much. Think of the driver, either in his cab when someone jumps in front of him or somone standing on the track as the train comes down theline and the driver has the firm realisation that he cannot stop in time and that he is going to hit someone. And knowing that he can't look away because he has to keep control of the train.

Think how traumatic that must be. It's shitty if you feel that suicide is the only way. But do you really need to screw someone else's life up on your way out? I've met drivers who've been involved in fatalities, and there are precious few of them who weren't screwed up by the experience to some degree. Some never drive again.

Some of you may remember the famous fatality at Ufton Nervet, where that sonofabitch parked his car on the track, derailed a train and took 6 other people with him. That includes the train driver, Stanley Martin, who stayed in his cab applying the brake until the point of impact to perhaps save other lives. I respect that.

I was quite heavily involved in the aftermath of Ufton Nervet. I used to talk with one of the passengers fron the fron carriage for about three months afterwards because it helped him to talk and get some stuff off his chest.

I won't use the word hate so we will leave it as, I intensely dislike people who use the railway to end their lives and I feel sorry for all the poor f*ckers who have to sort it out afterwards.

Rant over.