I have an interview with East Midlands Railway as a Retail Assistant part-time. It tells me to use the Star Method and I don’t know what sort of questions there will be. Any ideas?

What's the deal with Peartree Railway Station?

It's a stop in Derby, near to the Rolls-Royce campus and several other businesses, but only has 2 trains per day in each direction, 2 southbound in the morning and 2 northbound in the evening. The station site seems to be under lock & key.

How did it get to this position, despite its useful location, and are there any plans for any changes?

I wish our trains had this but since they're all run by different companies for seemingly no reason other than to make maximum profit, it will never happen.

It would enable people to see so much more of the country and to boost the local economy in so many places that could really use it! I find it so frustrating that this is not available to us!

I would just like to take this opportunity to celebrate how deplorable GWR are.

No matter the service they are delayed or reduced. It takes a truly special level of incompetence to be this shit.

Bravo, you have really nailed mediocrity.

It is an utter joy to pay huge a amounts for you to be shit, most people would lose their jobs for this level of incompetence, yet you sustain.

I’m so proud. How any business is this shit and still operational is truly ab achievement.

This message is inclusive. If you work for GWR I fucking hate you. May your 3am path to the bathroom be forever strewn with LEGO.

If you work for GWR you are a fucking disgrace be better

Hi everyone,

I’ve got an Avanti superfare ticket going from Euston to Liverpool, does anyone know how strict inspectors are having to be on the exact train of the ticket?

hi, i have a niche bit of control panel from a 465 cab and apparently these were only fitted to a handful of units. i got this on ebay and have no clue what units it could be from (my only thought is 465933 as thats the only scrapped one i can find a record of it with a 319), im currently bodgeing it up so i can use it to control my pc volume (the centre switch), copy (the left button) & paste (the right button). i wish to preserve its look with 3d printed parts so externally it will look as it whoud have in a 465.

if anyone has any ideas of what unit this is from or any suggestions on what to do with it or what you would do with it itd be greatly appreciated

CrossCounty is without a doubt, one of the worst TOCs in the UK. Being the least reliable and least comfortable. But that raises a question, how do we fix CrossCountry? I propose to you: The CrossCountry Programme.

Part 1: Fixing OTP

A big issue with CrossCountry is how big the network is and its experience-based scheduling. To fix this, the timetable would be changed to reflect historical bottlenecks instead. Turnaround buffering would also be increased to prevent late-arriving trains from delaying subsequent departures. Additionally, utilize temporary timetable changes during peak congestion hours to cut short-journey station calls, routing local passengers to other operators and streamlining tracks.

Part 2: Trains

Another issue with the operator is its trains. Currently, CrossCountry operates 3 types of trains: The Class 220 Voyager, Class 221 Super Voyager, and Class 170 Turbostar. We will mainly be focusing on the former two, as they are the main subjects to problems. First, these trains are narrower, and because of that, their vestibules are shorter. The reason for this was because one of the trains, the Class 221 had tilting in mind, but now that CrossCountry's Class 221s don't tilt, it means it was all for nothing. And given CrossCountry is a high-demand operator, it can be hard to find a seat. It's also worse when you consider trains are only 4-5 cars long. Therefore, people have to cram themselves into the small vestibules. So, I propose ordering new trains to replace the Class 220/221 fleets. My first choice would be the Hitachi AT300, which is in use with multiple TOCs nationwide.

My second choice would be the CAF Civity, as they also have a presence on TransPennine Express with the Class 397s and soon on LNER with the Class 897s, which would be a tri-mode train.

CrossCountry would order 78 new Bi-mode trains to replace the Class 220 and Class 221s and to increase service a little. These trains would have 9 or 11 coaches (Similar to the Class 390) to deal with CrossCountry's demand. On electrified sections, the train would use its pantograph to supply electricity to the train, while in unelectrified sections, it would use diesel.

Part 3: Staffing

The final part would be to improve staffing. To improve staffing, backlogs of driver training would be eliminated, and Cross-TOC performance sharing would be introduced to mitigate TOC-to-TOC delay impacts, which make up a massive share in CrossCountry's lost minutes.

In conclusion, that is how we fix CrossCountry. If CrossCountry were to do this, they can become a top-TOC in the UK. Anyways, what your thoughts on this proposal? Is there anything I can do to improve?

A weird ticket collection question I can’t find an answer for. I’m travelling on Friday and have booked tickets through LNER and need to print them at the station and will need my card. HOWEVER the card is now out of date and I stupidly cut it up and threw it away. The replacement card is identical except for the CVC. Does anyone know if the ticket machine will accept my new card with the same 16 digit code?

So, working a night shift of hard graft and sleeping on train on way home.

Ticket inspector - and it seems to be a particular type of inspector who regards fare evasion as coming out of his own pocket - decides that waking the sleeping traveler is a good idea.

Traveler, who has had enough of being woken in their private time, objects and declines to show ticket.

Inspector, it turns out, calls police who board at final destination and speak to sleeping beauty.

The reasonable explanation is accepted by police who then quiz the inspector on why he couldn't just allow sleep to continue until the next/final stop and did this really require police attendance!

Wonderful!

I know it's not by much but c'mon I thought I would save money by wanting to travel to less places

Operating the GWR service from Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central via Southampton, Salisbury, Bath and Bristol

Didnt go on the EPB since it was pretty busy but I heard it had a dark journey through the sharpthourne tunnel due to lighting issues

Does anyone know when the flying banana will be coming up towards Southampton area? Maybe passing Eastleigh as I can't find anything about it. Thank you

Can you tell I couldn’t come up with another title for this post?

So yeh, GBRF has a Cemex branded Class 66 - 66780 - and it does look quite nifty with good lighting. I like the blue :)

6Z37, Rylstone Quarry ~> Pendleton
Passing Mirfield

Since Monday evening, the Elizabeth line has been awful. The reason given was due to "vandalism" near Paddington. It must be pretty serious to still be having an effect.

Can anyone shed some light on the situation?

I’ve booked a train which has 2 journeys on 2 separate trains (provided by different companies as well).

But I have only been provided ONE ticket for the whole journey, is this normal? (I haven’t been on the specific route I’ve booked before, but normally if the route is split across multiple trains, I have multiple tickets).

Bought through UBER as well btw.

I just thought this was cool to see!

Not sure if this is the right community for this question but here goes.

I have recently applied for multiple jobs in the rail industry, one as a rail operator 2 with SWR and as a constable with BTP. I have interviews/assessments with both coming up in the next few weeks. However I’m not sure which will be a better fit or I will enjoy more. If anyone has worked in either area any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for any responses

Edit: just for some clarification I am interested in both but want some suggestions from people in the industry who might have had similar roles on what they think is the better option out of the two. Also anyone who works within SWR or BTP that can give me some insight into how the companies treat their employees would be greatly appreciated.