My social media feed has come to the view that I need to learn English and is giving me teaching examples in a whole lot of what I would describe as unusual and tense situations.  It makes me wonder if my life is rather too boring and mundane and whether I should solicit more excitement.

Which of the sample conversations would YOU find useful in [a new language]



https://www.facebook.com/reel/1695317711677128

A girl realizes she boarded the wrong train and urgently asks the driver to stop. The driver explains that trains cannot stop outside stations except in serious emergencies. Despite her pleading, he firmly insists she must wait until the next station. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/28117763127915670

The wife, angry and suspicious, demands to know who the other woman is. The husband, nervous and defensive, insists she is just an important client. Furious, the wife accuses him of cheating and demands the truth. Shocked and irritated, the husband denies it, saying they are discussing a business deal. Hurt and accusatory, the wife asks why he didn’t mention the meeting. Cold and dismissive, the husband replies he doesn’t have to explain every work meeting. Angry and convinced, the wife insists he is lying. Explosive and fed up, the husband shouts that she ruined everything and orders her to leave. This scene highlights mistrust, jealousy, and the clash between personal emotions and professional boundaries. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1066494169472405

Two girls notice something unusual near the water. Shocked, one thinks it might be a body, while the other, alarmed, warns her not to get closer. Uncertain, the first suggests it could be a mannequin or trash, but serious, the second insists they must call the police. Nervous, the first struggles to find her phone, while urgent, the second dials emergency services. Worried, the first wonders if they should check for breathing, but firm, the second tells her not to touch anything and wait for the police. This scene highlights fear, responsibility, and quick decision‑making in a tense situation.
 
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1050327304469016

A firm museum guard stops a young man from entering after visiting hours. Worried, the man explains he dropped his wallet inside, containing cash, credit cards, and ID. Serious, the guard insists entry after closing is forbidden. Pleading, the man begs for just a minute to recover his belongings. Considering the situation, the guard agrees to accompany him inside for a quick look. Relieved, the man thanks him, saying he just saved his life. This scene highlights rules, urgency, and compassion. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2602376973550988

A frustrated customer complains to the waiter after waiting more than thirty minutes for food. She points out that another table was served earlier, which makes her angry. The waiter apologizes and explains that the other dish required less preparation time, but the customer insists the service is unacceptable. Finally, she demands to see the manager, and the waiter respectfully agrees. This scene highlights frustration, apology, and escalation in customer service. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/4302126330039663

A husband and wife are preparing for a trip. The husband asks if everything is packed, but the wife realizes the blue bag with swimsuits is missing. He admits he didn’t load it, and she calmly suggests they get it now. The dialogue shows curiosity, worry, frustration, and calmness. 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/4023647764609125

A man is accidentally sprayed with pepper spray by a woman who thought he was trying to steal her bag. The man explains he only wanted directions, and the woman apologizes, offering to help him wash his face. The dialogue shows pain, misunderstanding, regret, and relief.

 
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19HAabutjM/

 

Presumably they will be able to lease them out at very high rates to the new operator.   Train leasing where there is no alternative fleet is very lucrative.   Confirmed by some of the very expensive lease extensions that have happened in recent years.    

It's not a competitive market, it's take it (the high price) or go without, and without a decent pool of universal alternatives, pay up seems to be DfT default short term option.

 

First Group becomes a RoSCo ... supplying to the DfT's companies.  The old rule about not being both the operator and the owner of the stock (for the most part) goes away when the company is no longer the operator, and First Group open access operators could take a commercial decision to have a portfolio of rolling stock in excess of their needs and hire the rest out to the HMG operators.

 
It will also be interesting to see what happens to First Group-owned assets currently being used by GWR....don't they own some of the 803xxx IETs for example? I've been told that they're staying in the train plan after Dec 13th, by someone who possibly is high enough to have heard....

 

No, and no.  GWR and TfL systems may have been updated, but that doesn't / hasn't meant that all derivatives will have been updated and some third party sites, which people use, remain advertising (I have just looked) through trains from Cholsey to London, for example, for tomorrow.

Case Study:

The Interrail planning and ticket app is a necessary part of Interrail travel as you go through the trains on offer and add the one(s) you want to your ticket - it's not just a nice little planner.   And typically it's good real time - in Germany, where trains are notoriously late, it'll give you real time delays and platform changes; used it a number of times on one late running train to see if the connection will make to the next late running train, and also to find the platform information.  We made a 4 minute change in Frankfurt Hbf - complete with mobility device (used in racer mode) thanks to it.   

You CAN add trains that don't come up or differ manually to the app and your ticket if I was travelling Cholsey to Paddington tomorrow, though, and knowing what I known would add the falsely advertised train as far as Reading, then an IET diesel express into Paddington.

 
22 out of 23 of our voters have travelled more that 75% of American residents if you measure that by countries visited - which perhaps goes to show how different we all are, how skewed our readership is, or how you can show just about anything with stats if you put your mind to it.

Original post about the USA residents aside, the poll has confirmed what a bunch of well travelled folks we are on the Coffee Shop.

 

So are all GWR/TfL systems/timetables fully updated?

National Rail's latest update (0701 this morning) states "Disruption is expected to continue until further notice".

Have all impacted customers been alerted as you suggest?

 

Shareholder's money (and that's, perhaps, your and my pension pots) is there son that it can be an engine for the company to invest and provide more money over time as value and dividends.  Where there's only a short time before a cutoff after which the gains from investment won't come to your shareholders then, yes, the company won't build. 

The temptation must be to use their resources (including income from operation) to build for the longer term, which perhaps means vibrant markets from London to Carmarthen (from Paddington), Stirling (from Euston) and Hull and Edinburgh (from Kings Cross) where there is potential for significant ongoing healthy income without the need to support loss-leader service and trains line the - perhaps - 04:57 Plymouth to Gunnislake.

There's a further temptation when doing stuff that will last longer term for others to do so at as high a price as can be reasonably charged to increase the shareholder benefit, and where there's a resource shortage to auction it to the highest bidder.  That's the way it's designed to work, and that ripples down too so that other suppliers *to* GWR can also charge a market rate for scarcity resources, and not what it really costs.

As Webmaster, I should point out these are my own musings and do not suggest a forum's view on the system.

---

Now - take a local or regional train from ... Par to Newquay, Bristol to Portishead, Swindon to Westbury, Exeter to Barnstaple or any other non-intercity route.   
* It's shorter than a London to Plymouth train so it needs more staff per passenger carried
* The fares per mile are typically regulated lower
* The miles are covered slower, so the "take" per seat per minute is less, even at the same mileage route
* The route is shorter so there are more turn around times when the train is idle
* They are commuter-y routes with a much sharper peak than the intercity stuff
* Flows tend to be one way in the morning and back in the evening - no revenue one way even in peaks
* Higher proportion of unpaid fares / fewer barriers and shorter time to engage with people

Many of these may not be very significant on some lines, but compounded that make an order of magnitude difference.

Edit to add another reason that intercity trains are so much more lucrative for the TOCs

 
With torches from a previous era, a question is: 'Can I replace the bulb in this with a quality LED'? If the answer is 'Yes', this is rewarding (and even more so if a warm white LED is available, but perhaps that's just me.)

 

And that projection remains:


Our cancellation / disruption map at the head of the Coffee Shop pages looks/ed welcomely clear of the great grey splurge of issues from Paddington this morning, but my research has confirmed that's because the changes are no longer short notice ones, but have been entered into systems so that they've been known about and planned a number of days ahead.

Good to know well ahead - customers can have been alerted and have planned to cope with the disruption, which at instigation couldn't have been fairly blamed on the rail industry, though ongoing it does feel as if recovery from incidents takes far, far longer than it use to.   Not unique to GWR, or rail - I note that the FT headlines this morning suggest that the air traffic control meltdown this week and the l-o-n-g recovery that took was due to a military aircraft entering a spurious data flight path into the system.   Probably the right thing to do an "oh sh*t" when wrong / random data turns up - safety first - but the recovery time from events has one wondering.

 
Railtrack seem to spend all their money on renewals, but if someone pays them to build a passing loop such as Newquay branch they will do it. If GWR/First Group paid them (it's what shareholders money is for) they would build. We might have had more loops in Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset.

GWR are not interested in the Southwest unless dragged screaming and kicking by third parties. It's just a loss l(fee)ader for the main line.

 

A few weeks on - and I have noted occasional distinctive red streaks on our cancellation may - so I took a look at the record via recent time trains for the last 8 week.

Whilst it's far from perfect, it's pretty much what GWR's been achieving elsewhere.  I also noted an occasion that it ran with a 166 rather than an IET which I would see as a sensible alternative at times something goes very wrong.

 

Thank you for reminding me.
We still have a large Maglite in the cupboard.  Tried it a minute ago, and still lights up, but not used it for years!

 
On a recent visit to the area, trams terminate at Fisherman wharf,
 due to possible collapse of a building on the tram route.
Bus excepts tram tickets to take passengers to Fleetwood ferry from Fisherman wharf
The rail link to Blackpool North train station is now operational. 
Some trams go from Starr gate to the station and then return
Others go from Fishermans wharf to the train station and return
Some services travel Starr gate to Fisherman wharf and don't go to the train station

What I did find surprising that their are no departure LED displays on any of the tram tops.
I can't believe that all the trams run to time and the planned time table.

The other thing that surprised me is that their are no ticket issuing machines on the tram stops.
We will always have an element that want to avoid the fare,so why not get the money out of those who WANT TO PAY,first.
So the ticket collector can concentrate on those who are trying to avoid paying.
I presume that the ticket collectors machines have developed faults during the course of shift/s. 

 

Do you mean class 897? The 387s (made by Bombardier) are in service with GWR and parts of GTR.

 

Clearly exemplary.

Especially as they'd been landed with a house built on birdshit whereas others were looking out over Windsor Castle, the Long walk and the Great Park.

 
I used to have a very large 'Maglight' metal torch, which took at least three, possibly four, D cell batteries.

It was like lugging around a piece of scaffolding pole. 

 
In my experience, in a previous job delivering groceries to them, the usually Chinese students were always unfailingly polite. A credit to their upbringing. 

 

To be fair, they tend to be very pleasant in Windsor, like the Japanese. Probably pleased to be away from the madness of London for a few hours!

 

 
I shall choose my words carefully here, posting my personal view - not the official view from the Coffee Shop forum.

Any visitors from the USA are very welcome to visit one of our local attractions near Nailsea -Tyntesfield (National Trust).

Tyntesfield, a Victorian Gothic mansion with a sprawling estate, was built up on the fortune made by the first Baron, Lord Wraxall, based on shit. Bird shit, in his case, but Donald Trump could feel at home here.

(Sorry - did I say that out loud?  )

CfN. 

 
Posting here, simply to 'bump' this topic / event.

It looks to be a very interesting talk from the guest speaker, and the venue is very convenient for train travellers to and from Trowbridge - the meeting times are tailored accordingly.

CfN. 

 

 

It sometimes feel that most of them visit Bath ... and Windsor and Stonehenge, many of them visiting two or even three of those in a day.  Away from the "Honey Pots" there are so many places worthy of so many more visitors from USA residents than they get.   

 
From the BBC:

 
Funded by Rock Rail with Alstom also having maintenance contract.
https://mediacentre.tpexpress.co.uk/news/tpe-unveils-gbp-1bn-battery-train-fleet-to-transform-rail-travel-across-the-north

 
From the BBC: