Bank holiday 'action'

So just a brief note to show what my bank holiday 'early' consisted of! 

A 0250 get up saw me in work for just gone 4ish. After collecting the usual stuff and signing for notices a small gathering of staff had a wonder downstairs for the first set of empties to Chester. 

There wasn't anything on the platform and we found that a overrunning track possession still had the up and down East and Up and down Fast closed to traffic and so the signallers were having a mare getting units off the depot. 

Eventually a 150/1 rolls in onto platform 10 and we pile on. We all have a little section of the train each and I settle down into a dark corner near a heater. I then spend the rest of the journey having a good look at the inside of my eyelids!! 

We arrive at Chester and I find my driver already on the platform with Bond themed 142007 fired up and ready. Because this unit has been left on the platform overnight myself and the driver have to do our own 'mini prep' of the train. My main job is to commission the doors for service. This is done by basically opening all the doors on the train in a specific order, testing all of the door buttons and the bell buzzers on 'all four corners.'

Door test complete and coffee supplies topped up (25p at Chester Mess bargain!). I've noted in the repair book that two of the internal door close buttons don't work, the toilet seat has fallen off and there is an air leak in the destination blind cupboard. Nothing to serious and I book her in for a welfare check from the fitter when we arrive back into Picc. 

The journey is mega quiet and I have one man who missed the last train and has slept on the station from Chester to Northwich and then surprise of the morning is a passenger at Ashley!! Was so quiet I enjoyed the ride on the old bus seats as a passenger all the way back! 

To Hadfield next and even on a bank holiday at 0750 I'd had to eject two lads for no money and no ticket at Ashburys! Then got a load of idiots (one who didn't realise I'd seen his Network Rail ID!!) at Glossop! Quick break (and a cheeky BK brekkie) and then a round trip to Crewe (out via the airport back via Stockport) saw the day finished nicely at 1150 ish! 

All in all a nice quiet shift.

Hope your all well folks

The guard! 

Delay by royal decree!

So each TOC will employ someone or a team to attribute delays to other TOCs or Network Rail. A delay can cost a TOC £350 per minute for any delay over 3 minutes. (Or at least that's my understanding of it) so therefor it makes sense to have these teams. 

Ours is based at our York control room.

We are encouraged as guards to report delays as they happen and give a reason if possible. 

So a typical phone call would consist of giving your head code (train describing number). The length of delay and the cause or company you believe to be the cause. (Normally TPE or Virgin!!).

So on my second trip to Stoke the two expresses that leave for Manchester before me left perfectly on time but the signal didn't come 'off' for me in the bay. 

Now I'd noticed a large police presence on the station but I did not for one minute expect the entire royal train to cross over the mainline in front of me! Apparently Prince Charles had decided to go out for a day out in Stoke!! 

Despite all the fun and games I was now leaving 4 late from Stoke so today managed to attribute a delay to the Royal Family! (Ok ok to DBS but that's not the point!)

The guy on delays said it certainly made a change to putting a TPE head code in!

Sorry about the photo quality it caught me on the hop! 

Have a safe evening

The Guard 

Company Brief day (Training)

Well had 7 and a half hours of training today. These 'briefs' used to be called safety briefs as they used to contain training concerning our safety critical jobs. However they now contain all sorts as I will explain below. 

Having worked in a large healthcare trust prior to the railways, where training is often talked about but never really transpires due to 'budget constraints' it really surprises me as to how hard and what effort the privatised railways goto to keep staff up to date. But we train crew are out door dwellers and 7 hours in a small room with 9 others and dodgy air con is enough to tire anyone! 

Today brief contained reminders of the safety critical nature of our jobs.

Firstly - power operated door procedure failures, with CCTV footage of real incidents broken down for us to discuss as a reminder of just how serious these incidents can be. This lead nicely onto a brief regarding the outcome of the Liverpool, James Street incident, which as you would expect provoked a good debate. We then moved onto on train Fire training which was again a interesting reminder of procedures. 

We then moved onto something new the company are starting to assess us on called 'non technical skills' which very briefly concerns the ways in which we behave whilst performing our everyday tasks.  We had a 42ish minute lunch break and then went into the second session.

The afternoon consisted of a customer service refresh and then just basically went into silly mode with manual handling training and health and safety training. (Both videos played by some really dodgy actors).

It's my belief health and safety is 99% common sense and it drives me insane having it rammed down our throats! But hey ho we live in a nanny state and have to prepare to fail I suppose! 

We followed this with a interesting (ish) session on safety critical communications which involves 'playing' signallers and train crew to practice giving emergency messages. 

So I'm home now after nearly 8 hours of death by PowerPoint and media player! Tired and ready to go to bed for tomorrow's 0609 start which in fairness does start with a nice 1st class trip on Virgin to Stoke! 

Bye for now guys

Stay safe

The guard.

Disclaimer. Published in a rush without proof reading so please excuse any typos! 

Photo - Proper train at Piccadilly! I do miss 37's hauling passenger trains! 

 

Copper and an amusing entry!

Two little snippets from today for you ladies and gents. Firstly the electrification of the Chat moss line seems to be really taking shape now and yesterday morning I noticed nice new bright copper contact wire had gone up running along the length of the M602. Hopefully we'll be seeing 'new' EMU's down there before long.

Second, I had a 142 on loan from Heaton Depot to Newton Heath today. One end had a original Regional Railways NE blind in it which someone here on 'the west' decided he was going to note as a defect! I enclose a photo of the said defect report!
You've got to love the comedy reply from the fitters at Newton Heath!

That's all for now.

More soon!

The Guard

Saving the environment one pacer at a time!

So here's something that frustrates me folks.....two units on out of peak services and no corridor connection.

I've just done a full round trip and watched all the fare dodgers walk into the front two coaches and get away with not paying. What can I do about it? Nothing because our procedures (unlike other TOC's state that we have to close the doors from the rear of the back unit 'for safety reasons' and we are not permitted to unit hop into the front set and work it from there. (Some exceptions apply, like curved platforms).

All perfectly fine in other TOC's but not for us!
Why we can't leave units spare at stations or even in the large sets of carrage sidings we lease I'll never know!
I that my friends is what's getting my goat today!

The Guard!

Springing into lates!

Been back in on lates this week following a short city break over the previous weekend!
Nothing really to report this week it's all been very run of the mill to be honest.

Yesterday was about the most exciting to blog about when I got very attached to 142004. My job was 9hrs 50 mins long yesterday and started with a trip to Hadfield.

Those of you who know this line will know that it's hard to do tickets on the full train due to the number and proximity of the stops also a lot of guards have an aversion to working these trains outbound from Manchester. So yesterday on arrival at Ashburys, the blue council house (Man City stadium) had just kicked out which filled my train up a treat. No real bother as always until leaving Guide Bridge when I found a guy in the area behind the drivers door. "Ashburys to Godley" "£3.10 please" "f**king £3.10 I've never paid on this line for 5 years, here's £3.50 keep the change and I don't want a f**kin ticket".
I honestly didn't know what to say (although the £3.50 came in handy for lunch!!) (joking folks don't write in). But that highlights the problem I suppose and the reason Northern take a dim view of ticketless travel.

Anywho! After that the fun really began and at just gone 4pm I got onboard my steed for the rest of the shift! The aforementioned 142004! Me and this beast would spend the next 8 hours together on 3 round trips to Rose Hill and one and a half trips (empties back on the second) to New Mills Central.

As it was a pleasant afternoon I spent the first two of my half hour turnarounds at Rose Hill on the platform basking in the sun. Otherwise all passed off well and we had no further problems!
The last New Mills was absolutely rammed and I spent the first part of the journey locked in the back cab with a driver from another depot.

Sorry it's been a bit quiet and boring but that's all for now!
See you soon

The Guard!

Pic. 142004 waits time at Rose Hill in the afternoon sun.

The other side to the job

Outside of the railway some people see the job of conductor as desirable. If your into trains or the railway in general then I can see how it might suck you in.

However let me tell you about one of the bad bits. The passengers!! (Not all of you)!!
I should probably word it better, what I mean is the fare dodgers. (Who technically are stow-aways not passengers!!)

Now fare dodgers fall into two categories.
1. The type who just goto the front or hide hoping by chance the wont get caught but who will happily pay up if caught.
2. Arrogant rude folk (stronger words available on request) who think the railway is a free service and have no intention of paying.

There are also several sub categories of these passengers but that is the main descriptions sorted.

Anyways onto the story and we find ourselves on a 7pm(ish) trip towards Wilmslow via Stockport. The unit is a 323 and we're doing all stops. The train is lightly loaded so I'm through to the front coach as we arrive at Levenshulme.

I use the centre coach door controls to open and close the doors, a few get off and no one gets on. We continue and I storm down the front coach (noting that the toilet has been occupied since Picc) and am finished with the check well in advance of Heaton Chapel.

At Heaton Chapel quite a few get off and two gents get on at the front. Again I'm doing the doors at the middle and as we draw out of the station I hear the toilet door open and note a large gent scuttle off to the seats at the front.
I find the two gents who got on at 'the chapel' both have evening returns purchased from the TVM. I then find our large friend at the front. He's clearly intoxicated (you can smell it) and he asks me for an Evening return. I humour him and ask him his origin and destination. He tells me he boarded at Heaton Chapel and is going to Stockport. I ask him again where he got on and suggest that he might have got on at Piccadilly. He reluctantly agrees and I reveal the fare for a 'Anytime single' to Stockport. At this point he argues he wants an evening return and I remind him he needs to buy one of those before he gets on the train. He hands over the £3.40 I issue the ticket and we part company.

At Stockport we load 6 passengers. 4 in the middle and two young lads I recognise as having passes in the front. I quickly check the 4 middle tickets (2 passes, 1 already had one and a sell a single to Handforth.)

Through to the front and the two lads who got on used to be prolific fare dodgers on one of our other lines but got caught and fined and now have weekly passes! I quickly realise that they are travelling in the wrong direction though and tell them to get off at Cheadle Hume and return to Picc on the stopper. I then notice our large friend still sat at the front, he laughs at me I ask him where he is going and he says Wilmslow. I tell him the price for a anytime single to Wilmslow from Stockport and he argues he still wants an evening return. I politely offer him the choice of being reported for fare evasion or the fare and he reluctantly hands over just short of £4 again! This time though he stands up and squares up to me. He tells me he's 'watching me' and he'll 'get me' I tell him to sit down and warn him not to be aggressive or I will ask him to leave the train. As I walk away from him he shouts down the train 'I going to f**king hit you when I get off you fat t**t'.
This is the final straw because I'm currently listening to this stood next to a young family with children around the 5-7 year old mark.
I walk back to him and very calmly tell him that I am now refusing him further travel and that he should leave the train at Cheadle Hulme. He comes back at me with a tirade of abuse so I tell him the train is going no further than Cheadle and the police will be called. I then walk away leaving him to mutter to himself.

At Cheadle Hulme I open up from the middle, the young two lads jump off and run for the foot bridge but our fare dodging friend does not appear. I look up the BTP emergency number in my phone and have it ready dialled in just incase. I approach the front doors and ask him to get off. He starts shouting abuse again but starts to get off. On the platform I walk backwards towards my door controls as the man throws his bag to the floor in a threatening manner. I'm not intimidated by him at all but it's not nice for the other pax (especially the kids) to see so I make haste and quickly close the doors. As we leave he starts shouting about how clever I am and he'll just wait for the next train!

I promptly set the train off thinking 'enjoy your hours wait chief!' then ring control to send out a email to all the other conductors to tell them not to let him board! That'll teach him! (It probably won't but at least he's waiting at least an hour for the next one or inconvenienced by having to find alternate travel arrangements and he's already paid his full fare!)

I should probably add that conductors getting this sort of abuse are rare. Most are easily calmed and agree to pay the fare or sometimes if a genuine reason is given I will use my discretion and let them travel a couple of stops for free (any further and they get the choice of an unpaid fare notice or get off.) In the last 12 months its only happened twice to me and the last one got a nice 2 hour wait at Ashley on a Sunday!

That's it for now hope that didn't rant on to long but thought I'd try and blog a bit more now I seem to have established a small following!

Thanks for your support

The guard!

Failures, faults and engineering alterations!

Well folks what a week it's been!
This week saw me on lates and working Monday through to Thursday evenings.

All of my jobs this week had been 'STP'd'. This term means that the job in its original form has been changed and the diagram of work contains some short term change. This can be a unit change, timetable amendment, early finish due to cancellation of a booked job or a route diversion due to engineering works.

This weeks work contained all of the above and more!

Monday first of all saw a major points failure at Ardwick causing a 'traffic queue' of trains getting into and out of Piccadilly due to the signallers only having selected routes into and out of the station. Many cancellations and delays ensued as this happened in the height of the evening peak. We looked like headless chickens on the ground as the signallers were handling things up in the box and trains were all over the place, we really did have to wing it! This sounds particularly poor
but when the workload is flat out you just have to play it by ear. My service left 23 minutes late and ran through one of the outer roads at Longsight depot to avoid the affected routes. This was a nice change although had us another few minutes of delay due to the low speed limit on the depot.

We arrived at Crewe 30 mins late but had been booked 46 mins stand down time in the sidings so we stayed in the platform and went back to Manchester right time.
Following that it was a trip up to Chester which saw me on changed traction (150/2 instead of a 142 :-( )
This was the last train of the night and would be stabled overnight at Chester and we got a taxi back! Normally I'd have worked back to Piccadilly so a nice change and a early finish as the taxi driver didn't take his time!!

Tuesday saw more alterations still with the last two services to Chester cancelled so a very early finish having worked only two services.

Wednesday was a carbon copy of Monday but all ran smoothly and allowed me a nice americano and cookie at Crewe!!!

Thursday saw me working one of the worst 'late' jobs we have. The job consists of a trip to Crewe then Hadfield then a further 2 round trips to Crewe.
Pretty uneventful for me really. However a vacated birds nest at Newton for Hyde knocked out the power on the Hadfield line for nearly 2 hours as it filled with water and shorted the lines. But 'luckily' for me it had been returned to service before my trip up there.
This was my 4th STP'd job of the week again due to engineering works and so my last trip back from Crewe was via the Styal line express from Wilmslow as the route via Stockport was blocked.
However we left Crewe 3 down due to a late running Arriva service then approaching Chelford we got cautioned down only to be taken across 'wrong road'. All became clear a minute or so after crossing over as we 'overtook' a Failed Freightliner class 70 and its full rake of waggons before being crossed back over to the right line just before Chelford station.

Still finished a full 20 minutes in my favour and the end to a pleasantly different week!

Enjoy the sunny weekend folks

The Guard

Pacer fans look away now.

I On a Ex Merseyrail class 142 today (142054) to be precise. Now Pacers are definitely a love them or hate them affair (common theme on the railway!!). I actually quite like them. I've used them since being a school boy and I'll be sad when (if) they ever go.

However I have been amused by the defect book today on this particular unit.
Defect books I should explain are the railways gossip pads. You find all sorts written on them. But today's graffiti (or honest remark?) had me chuckling!

The photo as always is below for your viewing pleasure!

Off topic slightly just before our photo if you are having a bet on the nags today all the best and good luck!

Stay safe folks

The guard!

Back to work...

Back to work yesterday and did a grand total of nothing! Today is the first day back after the bank holiday weekend for most and a lot of grumpy faces can be seen around the station!

This morning I'm travelling in style to my first destination with a bit of first class action on a pendolino! Today we will be travelling to such exotic destinations as Crewe, Chester and Hadfield!!
Hope you all have a good week back in work if your back again today and I look forward to seeing you on the train again soon!

The Guard

4am spare!

So at interview they ask 'how would you cope with the shifts' to which most give a reply about having worked shifts before and give examples of coping mechanisms.

Mine was my previous job of 11 years working 12 hour rotating nights and days! I almost laughed when the manager interviewing me told me 9 hour shifts on the railway can be demanding having been in a very high pressure job before!

So this week I've been on our early turns.
The earliest of which is '0415-1215 Standby'
Now working shifts is one thing but getting up to start work at 0230 takes some effort! You don't know if your late for nights or early for days!!

Basically your the first guard in the depot and first reserve just incase anyone goes sick. Now this again is one of those marmite shifts, love it or hate it, it's got to be done!

Booking on with the depot manger and due to the shortages on our depot usually sees you being given work to do immediately but at the moment things are quite settled and with our newest guards now in the saddle as permanent surplus staff until the timetable change in May I'm told to 'take rest'.

I collect a float and ticket machine and take it up to the mess room upstairs, check my cash and machine are in fully working order and log on. Watching the coming and going of the early staff is funny virtually everyone asks the same question 'You spare??'
It's something of a novelty to have spares on the depot you see and sometimes it can work in your favour if you have a particularly grim job!

Eventually I retire into the TV room until I'm joined at 0605 by one of the newer guards who is also spare! (You can now see the older guards literally doing the maths at what job your going to be covering for them at this point!)
We're now joined by a few of the drivers who are coming in for breaks having started at 0330 ish and also a couple of spare drivers. The atmosphere is jovial as we chew the cud over various trivial matters and current affairs!

At 0745 the tannoy crackles into life 'Conductor *the guard* to the signing on point please' duty calls. I collect my machine and make my way down one floor to the signing on point. One of the other guards has become sick on duty and I'm to cover his last two trains. However because he is coming in from Crewe and he was due a break my first train is not until 9ish then it's a quick trip to New mills followed by a trip to Hadfield!
A quick pit stop to Greggs is now on the cards then and after a bacon barm and a coffee (black no sugar thanks!) I'm off on my first trip and its a double 142 set upto New Mills with a 'sleepover' in the sidings.
I'm not keen on double sets out of the peaks worse because we are restricted to the back two coaches and our fare dodgers know this.

People think I'm ticket mad but as a fare paying passenger before joining the railway it gets my goat seeing people get away with it!

As it happens I check the front coach before departure and despite no barrier on platform 1 all have tickets. Then my driver draws up as far as possible at stations enroute which encourages all but one determined soul to join us in the back set. Had a little walk round New Mills on arrival and the back to Picc!

My Hadfield was equally as uneventful with the vast majority having tickets or 'blue wrinkly passes'!! Managed to keep to time all the way back but got held up again by damn TPE at Guide Bridge and then held for what seemed like an age outside Picc for a platform!

The best bit about being standby is the possibility of going home early and sure enough on arrival at The depot I'm told I can go home around half hour early! Not my best result to date but an early finish all the same! There is something satisfying about driving home and getting paid for the privilege!

Photo. Old style blind on one end of the 142 had some fun putting some odd destinations up! (Small things and all)!!

Recovering from lates and a trainee driver!

Sorry I've not been around for a week or so! I was worried that I wasn't going to entertain folks! But evidently I've been getting complaints about not blogging!

So I'll recap my last shift! The latest job in the depot! This is a shift which involves going on one of my fav routes for a double round trip! We talking about the Mid Cheshire line to Chester via Altrincham!

The lower links* of the depot do a lot of Chester work as Chesters tend to start very early and finish very late and we wouldn't want the old boys finishing after 10 would we?

Anyway tonight's episode of conducting gives us a 1hr break in Chester. The unit we bring up goes to bed in the bay platform ready for service the next day and we wait for the last train of the night from Manchester to come up before all piling on together for a empty stock move back to Manchester!

Tonight like I suppose a lot of passengers do I sit with The national rail enquiries app open on my phone chatting to my driver in the hideous 70's inspired mess room that is Chester. We note that the service is steadily losing time and is currently around 15 minutes late at its last timing point! We ponder the reasons for this. We know its a double set (booked 150 + 142) so are they having trouble. Have they an engine out? Passenger problems? Just like everyday passengers there is no information to tell us. My company issue Blackberry also stays silent with no updates so its unlikely to be a signalling/permanent way issue.

Anyway 16 mins late she rolls into Chester (2x142) and we note a trainee in the drivers seat. After the 5 of us (2 Guards + 2 1/2 drivers) empty and secure the train and the trainer advises Chester signal box we are ready to start we get the signal and depart. We chat to the incoming guard who is himself reasonably new. He tells us that the journey has been a bit slow due to the trainee being spoon fed route instructions (he's fresh from the school by all accounts) but the main reason was passengers unable to find/press the door open button on his units. This had caused 2 pass com (alarm) activations as panicked passengers realised that the train was setting off with them still on it!

He has then had to reset these alarms open and close the doors again (twice) and this is what has caused his delay (and the fact he was 4 late leaving due to a bloody TPE getting in the way)!!

All in all we got back to our Home Depot 10 minutes late after a pretty rough ride home in a luke warm 142 at around 0210!!
Then the red eye drive home and bed where I'm now having a few days off!

Thanks for reading

The guard!

*Links - groups of set rotas in the depot which run over about 30 weeks. These advise of your duty number, start time and finish time.

We have 5 links, the bottom link (link 5) does all of the earliest starts and latest lates. Link 5+4 work all routes that our depot sign excluding Buxton.
As you work in the depot longer you progress up into the higher links where the work is more 'cushy'. In Link 3 you learn Buxton and in link 2 + 1 you lose Liverpool (unless you specifically keep it on your card through overtime)
Link 1 also benefit from no starting before 6am and no finishes after 10pm. These are blokes that have done 10 years + and although this splits opinion I believe this is fair as they have done their amount of the crap work!

Photo. Chesters beautiful crew room!

Earlies and travelling 'pass'

I'm working on our early shifts this week and they're a bit like marmite! You either love them or hate them.

Personally I like early turns generally the people are nicer (and less likely to be drunk and abusive!) and while the weather is nice like today the views on some of our lines are simply stunning!

The earliest starts at our depot are 4am for Guards like myself and 3am for the drivers. These shifts mainly involve taking empty trains to there start points around the north west. Sometimes you get a nice treat travelling passenger on another operators service for an hour or so as the train is left there overnight. Usually you get treated well by other operators staff and can usually sneak a cheap (read free!!) brew! Just a shame we can't offer the same gratuities to them back!

I'm currently travelling 'Pass' on one of our services at the moment enjoying the beautiful weather here in the north west off to bring a service back. 'Pass' is the code on our work sheets for 'travel as a passenger' which is always nice to see!

Anyway a little game to get you commenting today and I'm trying to make this one easy......What station is the picture from?

See you on the train soon
The Guard!

So what does a conductor do then..?

The vast majority of the public see the role of the conductor as the person who comes bugging you for tickets, makes announcements and presses that little buzzer to start the train from a station.

But there is a little bit more to it than that.

Firstly it's worth pointing out that all areas are different and each train operating company (TOC) will have different rules and job roles!

In Manchester we have two different types of conductor. The smaller operators have the traditional conductor, the bigger express companies have 'Train managers'. Whatever we are branded in the main we all do the same role.

Our top three priorities in the main are the same though. In this order.

Safety
Performance and punctuality
Revenue protection

and for that the role of the conductor can take around 12 weeks of basic training followed by another 7-8 weeks of depot specific knowledge.

So not quite the ticket checker and door closer now then!!

Guards have to follow a set of procedures set down in the national 'rule book' and then the rules laid down by the individual company they work for. In general a guard will have to learn and be tested competent in the following subjects.

•Personal Track safety (known as PTS)
•First aid
•Company specific rules
•Railway signs and what they mean (sounds simple?) take a look here first!!
British rail signs!


•The different types of signalling used on the railways and how to read signals correctly.
•Traction knowledge (that's knowing all about the trains you work) 5 types at my depot! Knowing them inside out so that when someone locks themselves in the loo you know which cupboard to go in and free them!
•How to operate the doors safety and communicate with the driver using the bell buzzer or platform staff.
•Protection of the train in an emergency. This is actually what you learn first but it is a vastly important part of the guards role and is drilled in at every opportunity!
•Route knowledge is next. Most people will say to you 'surely you just follow the track?' Again in the main we do. But signallers are also humans and occasionally make mistakes and if you take a 'wrong route' like for example taking a electric train down a non electric line.....well your all going to be moaning about delays arn't you now!!
For that reason we have to learn and be tested on every bit of line the we 'sign'!
We have to know every station, signal, junction, level crossing, viaduct, siding, loop and more so that we can keep you on the right track and more importantly so we can tell where we are in an emergency!
•Last but not least we learn 'revenue'.
If you've ever looked how to get from one place to another you'll know you can be presented with many routing options, fares and other supplements. We have to know all of our 'local' fares rules and also the rules of every ticket type, railcard, time restriction, OAP and disabled passes and also staff passes!

Thats just a brief snapshot of the role. There is still loads more than that but I hope this post goes to show that the role of the guard/conductor/train manager isn't all....."tickets and passes please!!"

As always questions welcome.
See you soon
The Guard

Welcome!

Hello,

Welcome to my blog 'Single to Mauldeth Road'. This blog intends to be a light-hearted view of the goings on of a conductor on the railways in and around Manchester. Some informative, some funny, some just down right stupid.

Its my first blog and I don't really know what to expect. I'm open to suggestion and if anyone wants to see anything specific or ask any questions please feel free to do so.

The title of the blog is a tongue in cheek mention of what I like to call our  'most popular ticket'. Its the cheapest fare from Manchester Piccadilly and we sell loads of them. Primarily because people are trying to dodge the barriers and then hoping they don't bump into the conductor on the train. Our railways lose thousands in revenue every year like this and as nice as it is to get something free in life we'd probably have much better railways, better stations, better trains if people actually paid the correct fare!

The usual rant applies....Anything I say on here is my view. It is not associated or affiliated by any train operating company nor other company for that instance. Its my words, my opinion and no one elses. If anything offends you please let ME know and we can have a chat about how i'm right!! ;-)

Thats all for now

The Guard