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CAF to build new LHCS for Caledonian Sleeper


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Does anyone in the know have info on the what the Fort William portion will be with the new coaches? Accurascale have it down as 2 x seated and 2 x sleeper which doesn’t seem right to me. To fit in with current workings I’d assume it’d have a club car, which you need to sip Whisky through the highlands. And I’d assume on of the sleepers would be an accessible one? Otherwise there’s no disabled provision on the Deerstalker. So the formation would be club car, seated, accessible sleeper, sleeper. 

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I also saw it at Euston this morning from my usual bus going over Hampstead Road bridge. Didn't get a good look sadly but it certainly a longer train with the 92 over the end of the platform this morning. Hopefully will get a better look in the next day or so and perhaps photo. 

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Entry into service doesn't seem to be going at all well. Last week's issues have now been compounded by a new issue today with one of the Lowland up sleepers that stopped the job at Acton Bridge - the day's events compounded by the down Fort William service arriving over 200 minutes late on 21st June, setting off a catalogue of bad experiences for passengers booked on the subsequent up train.

 

Mark

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15 hours ago, Mark_A said:

Entry into service doesn't seem to be going at all well. Last week's issues have now been compounded by a new issue today with one of the Lowland up sleepers that stopped the job at Acton Bridge - the day's events compounded by the down Fort William service arriving over 200 minutes late on 21st June, setting off a catalogue of bad experiences for passengers booked on the subsequent up train.

 

Mark

 

And the on-board staff are not happy about having to deal with the fallout from passengers.....

 

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-to-ballot-for-action-on-caledonian-sleeper/

 

(Yes I know its a month old)

Edited by phil-b259
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On 23/06/2019 at 00:35, phil-b259 said:

 

And the on-board staff are not happy about having to deal with the fallout from passengers.....

 

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-to-ballot-for-action-on-caledonian-sleeper/

 

(Yes I know its a month old)

 

That will hardly improve the introduction of the new stock. Sorry to say it sounds like a petty points scoring exercise by the RMT.

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2 hours ago, admiles said:

 

That will hardly improve the introduction of the new stock. Sorry to say it sounds like a petty points scoring exercise by the RMT.

And it could turn into a big own goal as the operator blames the RMT for trains being cancelled while it busily sorts out its new stock (which had the problems which caused the trains to be cancelled before the RMT volunteered to carry the can for cancellations).

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One wonders exactly what the RMT wants from the TOC.

 

Not saying they don't have legitimate issues to solve, but if strikes are threatened every time new rolling stock has a troubled introduction to public service nothing will ever be introduced.

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2 hours ago, Zomboid said:

One wonders exactly what the RMT wants from the TOC.

 

Not saying they don't have legitimate issues to solve, but if strikes are threatened every time new rolling stock has a troubled introduction to public service nothing will ever be introduced.

From the letter, I get the impression it's passengers giving the staff a hard time and Serco not supporting them. I might be totally wrong, of course.

 

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4 hours ago, Zomboid said:

One wonders exactly what the RMT wants from the TOC.......

 

 

RMT Rule Book.

 

Rule 1.  Name, Objectives and Constitution.

 

4. The objects of the Union shall be:-

(b) to work for the supersession of the capitalist system by a socialistic order of society;

 

 

The Caledonian Sleeper is just another battlefront Mick Cash wants to open in his war on capitalism.

 

 

.

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15 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

RMT Rule Book.

 

Rule 1.  Name, Objectives and Constitution.

 

4. The objects of the Union shall be:-

(b) to work for the supersession of the capitalist system by a socialistic order of society;

 

 

The Caledonian Sleeper is just another battlefront Mick Cash wants to open in his war on capitalism.

 

 

.

 

Personally I'm in a Union on a day to day basis to protect my rights and working conditions. And if my workday got worse because of an inadequate tool for the job then I'd have cause to be aggrieved, especially if it led to low staff moral and sickness.

 

There's "teething troubles", then there's stock that has been designed with a switch to tell it which way it is going but can't handle an ABS situation where all axles are locked up....

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12 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

RMT Rule Book.

 

Rule 1.  Name, Objectives and Constitution.

 

4. The objects of the Union shall be:-

(b) to work for the supersession of the capitalist system by a socialistic order of society;

 

 

The Caledonian Sleeper is just another battlefront Mick Cash wants to open in his war on capitalism.

 

 

.

 

With the additional aim of causing as much disruption and expense to the privatised railway as possible.

 

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13 hours ago, 298 said:

 

Personally I'm in a Union on a day to day basis to protect my rights and working conditions. .....

 

I'm 100% in favour of union protection where necessary or useful, but I do not believe that TU's need to be attached to, or be associated with left, right or any wing of political dogma.

 

It's only right that the union takes up the concerns of the front line staff, but it's pretty obvious that this particular union leadership are more driven by their political motives and are using staff concerns and issues as a convenient vehicle to further their personal causes.

Think Mick Cash is bad?

There appear to be more radical candidates pitching to replace him in the coming re-elections.

 

 

.

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I belonged to a Trade Union for my entire career, for two reasons; To negotiate better wages and conditions, and for support if anything went wrong. (Actually there was a third reason; When I joined BR it was a closed shop, so I had no choice, although I would have joined a Union anyway). As soon as I retired I left the Union, partly because I no longer needed the support but also because I disagreed with their political posturing, the final straw being the General Secretary thinking he had the right to instruct me how to vote in a General Election. I would be surprised if every member of the RMT agrees with Rule 1 Section 4 part (b) (or indeed even knows it exists). 

 

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1 minute ago, caradoc said:

I belonged to a Trade Union for my entire career, for two reasons; To negotiate better wages and conditions, and for support if anything went wrong. (Actually there was a third reason; When I joined BR it was a closed shop, so I had no choice, although I would have joined a Union anyway). As soon as I retired I left the Union, partly because I no longer needed the support but also because I disagreed with their political posturing, the final straw being the General Secretary thinking he had the right to instruct me how to vote in a General Election. I would be surprised if every member of the RMT agrees with Rule 1 Section 4 part (b) (or indeed even knows it exists). 

 

 

Similar arguments apply to Governments and Political Parties!

 

The number of people who attend branch meetings allow minorities to hold sway!

 

Mark Saunders

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3 minutes ago, caradoc said:

I belonged to a Trade Union for my entire career, for two reasons; To negotiate better wages and conditions, and for support if anything went wrong. (Actually there was a third reason; When I joined BR it was a closed shop, so I had no choice, although I would have joined a Union anyway). As soon as I retired I left the Union, partly because I no longer needed the support but also because I disagreed with their political posturing, the final straw being the General Secretary thinking he had the right to instruct me how to vote in a General Election. I would be surprised if every member of the RMT agrees with Rule 1 Section 4 part (b) (or indeed even knows it exists). 

 

Agree absolutely although the abilities of unions to advise and protect their members, plus their overall and local attitudes depends very much on personalities and I think long has done.  I was probably in the same union as you (TSSA) and I was never much impressed by its head office staff and indeed when I was in the process of leaving the industry (on very amicable terms as it happened) I was very badly advised by them and their 'tame' legal firm (who were downright useless).  In fact in one instance I got far better service out of my local MP to resolve an issue with the Inland Revenue than the union had achieved in several years of muttering and spluttering.  But their current General Secretary appears to be equally useless when it comes to actually looking after the union's members in the industry today. as he dabbles in political irrelevancies - if he wants to be an MP  he should pack the job in and stand for Parliament.

 

ASLE&F at one time had quite a reputation for being awkward and 'extremist' and it was indeed quite heavily influenced - as were some other unions outside the railway industry - by members of the Communist Party (one of whom once told me who  the next democratically elected General Secretary of a number of well known trade unions would be, several years ahead,; he was 100% right).  But I always found ASle&F an excellent union to deal with right up through District Organiser level to General Secretary and I did actually agree some stuff with the latter gentleman who was a pleasure to negotiate with.

 

But again it all varied.  I served as a staff rep through a major reorganisation (two tier) and the folk I represented, who had in any case asked me to take on the role, seem to have been happy with what I achieved - as was I.  But there was no need to bang tables or shout (although we were, generally, usually quite gentlemanly on the Western in any case.  But i'm sorry - strike action threats are usually a hollow challenge and i often have a worse outcome for the strikers than the management.

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