#Railway ticket offices

[insidecroydon]

Ticket office decision was 'Halloween nightmare' for Tories

Hailing yesterday’s decision to reject Department for Transport plans to close railway station ticket offices, one local campaigner has described the outcome as a “Halloween nightmare for the Government”. Strong opposition: 600 passengers who use Sanderstead station signed a petition opposing ticket office closures In July, nine train companies announced plans to close 269 station ticket offices…

[gingertomcat]

If you live in the UK right now I seriously urge you to fill out this consultation.

The government and the rail operating companies intend to close nearly 1000 train station ticket offices because they deem them "a waste of money". This is not true. Ticket offices are important, not only to people that are unable to buy their tickets online but most importantly to disabled people. Ticket staff and station attendants are the ones responsible for providing accessible literature and information about travel and helping people board and leave trains safely and securely. Furthermore, they deal with station security, should an accident happen at the station, the ticket staff are first to attend. The government and the train operating companies want to shut these vital services down which will not only make thousands of people redundant but also make the railways a much less safe place to travel.

If you're not from the uk please boost this.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Today in Penzance (at the end of the line) there were protests against ticket office closures in support of RMT industrial action.

[streetsofdublin]

GOOGLE BARD INCORRECTLY CLAIMED THAT THERE IS A PUBLIC TOILET AND A TICKET OFFICE AT THE CABRA LUAS STOP

Today I had a most annoying session when I requested Google's Bard AI for information relating to the Cabra Tram Stop.

28 JULY 2023 Today I had a most annoying session when I requested Google’s Bard AI for information relating to the Cabra Tram Stop. I was advised that there was a toilet and a ticket office. When I requested a location for the toilet I was advised that it was at The Mount Bernard street entrance and above the ticket office. After about thirty minutes Bard admitted that there was no such street…

[colgreen31]

Todmorden Railway Station, former ticket office pictured in 2013.

Former Ticket office at Todmorden Railway Station, pictured in 2013.

http://www.clickasnap.com/.../01GREGQ0P4TC1WMKER12ZNXQ5T Check it out on ClickASnap

[fandom]

How 'bout that Riverdale finale, y'all?

After seven bizarre seasons, Riverdale finally ended in the most Riverdale-possible way. The cast of What We Do In The Shadows sat down with us before the SAG strike and answered a ton of your questions, which you can see here. It's August in the year 2023, so of course the Destiel confession made news again and trended, like, super hard. The first two episodes of Ahsoka have fans clamoring for more. We got our first look at the second season of Our Flag Means Death and if the photos and cast are any indication, it's gonna be incredible. Astarion is reigning supreme as the new Baldur's Gate 3 blorbo. Best of luck to all of the UK given the railway ticket offices closures. Oh also there was a debate in the US between the Republican presidential candidates and Donald Trump did not participate. This is Tumblr's Week in Review.

Riverdale

Donald Trump

Good Omens

What We Do In The Shadows

Destiel

Artists on Tumblr

Our Flag Means Death

Ahsoka

Genshin Impact

Crowley | Good Omens

Aziraphale | Good Omens

Ineffable Husbands | Crowley & Aziraphale, Good Omens

Baldur's Gate 3

The QSMP Minecraft server

Astarion | Baldur's Gate 3

UK Politics

2023 F1 Dutch Grand Prix

Star Wars

Hozier

Neuvillette | Genshin Impact

We'll be taking a break next week! Fandometrics will return on September 11, 2023.

[anonymousblueberry]

Oh my god the Internet is weird... this is my post!

Um, the consultation ends today (July 26th) so please, if you have a few minutes and you're in the UK, go fill it out.

(God why did I not engage fandom sooner?!)

From Blueb, but i shall request you please send it on to any UK folks you know. It's important!

> Hi, um, if you're in the UK it would be really cool if you could fill in the consultation about whether or not train operators should be keeping manned ticket offices and stations... the consultation **ends tomorrow **(July 26th), it was really badly advertised and only had 21 days.

> Large numbers of elderly, disabled, unemployed and people with English as a second language rely on ticket offices because the machines are not well designed, frequently break down, only take card payments for the most part, and require you to know where you're going and how to spell that! Which obviously isn't ideal for a lot of people.

> Ticket offices can do you much better deals, give you advice, and generally help you out!

> Also fuck the Tories for pushing for this to happen... further proof they don't give a shit about anyone!

> https://www.rmt.org.uk/campaigns/rail/save-ticket-offices/ This link has a pre-written letter ready filled out for each of the train operating companies

> https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/ticket-office-consultation/ - This gives you a blank form for stations not in London (and this has some information)

> https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/uk-rail-industry/customer-focused-reform/customer-focused-stations - this is the official page, but the Rail Delivery Group is a government thing, so it's not amazing

[scavengedluxury]

Budapest Keleti railway station ticket office, 1884. From the Budapest municipal photography company archive.

[octuscle]

hey mate, just got back to Stansted from Majorca and fuck i don’t wanna go back to uni. i wish i didn’t have to leave this chav body and go back to studying i just enjoy this way too much. And being able to just not worry about work or being clean or anything has been amazing! would be a real shame if i couldn’t turn back 😏

Mate, I'm heartbroken. But your last persona has already been pre-booked. I can't return that one to you. But go to the baggage claim, I'll see what I can do.

After waiting for half an hour, you start laughing. Fuck, where are your thoughts! Apart from your hand luggage, you didn't have anything with you. You grab your bag, leave the security area and look for a place where you can smoke a cigarette. Holy crap, vacation is a cool thing. But why are you not allowed to smoke on planes anymore? Drinking is okay, too. Hehehehe! You briefly check the connections on your cell phone. There's a bus leaving from the Aiport Coach Station in 20 minutes. You can do that. You can even manage a second smoke. When you ask the bus driver for a ticket, he waves you off. Are you new? Employees don't need a ticket. You have no idea what he's talking about. But hey, you don't force him to take your money. Fortunately, the bus is pretty empty. Amazing, actually… "Next stop Marks Tey Railway Station". What the hell? Where the hell is that? You go up to the driver and ask him if this isn't the bus to Liverpool Street in London. The driver grins. And asks you what you want in London. If you don't want to go home, as usual. Of course, right. Or how? Why do you live in Marks Tey? And where the hell is that? "Bruv, must have been a tough day for ya," says the driver. "get some rest, i'll make sure ya don't miss yor stop." You say thank you, take your seat again, and soon fall asleep.

"Connor, we're here!" the driver calls. "Thank you, mate," you reply, grabbing the bag of sneakers you bought today in the duty free area and walking to the platform. The bus was late, you only have five minutes left. Okay. It's 20 minutes. The train is also late. There's even enough time to get a can of Dr. Pepper and a pack of cigarettes and smoke another fag.

It's only eight minutes to Colchester Station. Just enough time to take a quick look at a newspaper that has been left lying around. The job at the airport is tough, but well paid. And you have a lot of fun with your colleagues. You can't imagine having an office job. You need the smell of kerosene on the tarmac in front of the terminal. Only the way in the morning and in the evening sucks. But the apartment is cheap. And your boyfriend is still studying at the University of Essex. But if things go well, you can soon persuade him to finally give up his studies and take the job as a tanker driver at the airport. Then you would have three hours more a day to fuck! You've got a boner again. You can't wait until your college boy puts on your hiviz gear. If he's going to give you a blowjob, he should at least look and smell like a real man. Just like you do…

Nice pic found @legrand89

[insidecroydon]

Transport watchdogs reject plan to close railway ticket offices

Delayed service: the ticket office at East Croydon, which the rail operators claimed is barely used and was under threat of closure 99% of consultation responses opposed the proposals, with East Croydon and Sanderstead among the stations to attract the largest number of objections It is probably the first cancellation on the railways to be greeted with widespread public acclaim. Plans by the…

[rathologic]

Bachelor ARG is real, it seems

(link to the ARG discussion thread on Reddit)

A physical train ticket for Bachelor Dankovsky, received among Kickstarter rewards and machine translated by u/DerpForceAlpha (who is to credit for everything discussed in this post!).

The Morse code shown on the ticket leads to the Reddit account u/FyodorVitin, who currently has a single post titled "The Beginning" - it's a picture of a handwritten letter:

The letter's text, transcribed/machine translated by DerpForceAlpha and very slightly edited by me:

I received a letter from a certain Isidor Burakh, who, they say, is personally acquainted with an unnaturally long-lived man. This man is the ruler of an unknown provincial town that stands at the very end of the North-Eastern Railway. If what he says is at least half true, then this long-liver will become the missing proof. We will finally wipe the nose of the damned Telman, and when that bastard is silent - we will be able to convince the Authorities to spare the "Thanatica". If I don't find anything there, well…science from the corral will go straight to the slaughterhouse. P.S. It is not calm in the steppe regions now, so I am taking the prototype of the Plaguefinder with me. I leave the current work on you all the records in my office. I will contact you as soon as I can. I hope they at least have a telegraph there. Daniil

It looks possible that this letter might be addressed to someone whose name starts with A. I don't think there's transcription of the other text in the image yet, but the top document is attributed to one I. I. Mechnikov. The pocket watch in the lower left appears to show the time 1:30.

No idea how this connects to the mysterious letters that backers have been receiving yet :-)

[weirdowithaquill]

Traintober 2023: Day 22 - Top Hat

The Railway is Prospering:

The railway was prospering. That was perhaps the first thing that the figure noticed. The books had been kind to the railway, in that they had drummed up hundreds, thousands of tourists who flocked to the island to ride behind the famous engines who worked there. The harbour extension at the end of Thomas’ branchline had made loading the stone from the quarry ever smoother, as they didn’t need to drag it all the way to Tidmouth.

And best of all, the engines were all still running.

Sir Topham Hatt wandered up to the ticket office at Wellsworth, spotting Edward collecting passengers for his afternoon train up to the Big Station. Even without a ticket, it was a little too easy to sneak aboard, finding an empty compartment and flopping down on the seats – only, they seemed to pass right through him.

Ah… right.

Instead, the figure of Sir Topham Hatt floated with his head out of the window, taking in the world around him in awe. There was Henry, speeding along with a fast freight train. His rebuild had truly done him wonders – thank goodness Sir William agreed to it, or Henry would… maybe not even be here. And over there was Gordon! He thundered by with the Express, whistling happily at Edward as the big blue engine drew alongside the old engine. They exchanged a fond greeting, and then Gordon was gone again, rocketing along.

James passed by next, grumbling dreadfully with a long train of tankers behind him. So… he’d not done so well with James – but he was still not only really useful, but reliable as well! And in spite of his grumbling, he was still pulling the trucks. As much as Sir Topham Hatt wanted to shout at the red engine to stop whining and get a move on, he recognised just how well the engine was doing.

Then, they passed through the Junction to Thomas’ branchline, and Sir Topham Hatt managed to spy all three of his former tank engines – Thomas, Duck and Percy – all shunting trucks together. It seemed like Duck needed a large order of stone, and the two other tank engines had brought it down for him. Furthermore, Toby stood nearby with Henrietta. All four looked healthy, happy and well-rested, a far cry from those dark days when the big engines refused to work. Then, Thomas, Percy and Edward had been forced to work day and night – nonstop – just to keep the railway open.

But now, they had time to slow down and chat, as well as spend time bantering. Sir Topham wondered just why Percy was talking about ghosts. He’d move closer to listen – but he didn’t want to lose Edward and his train.

Oh, Edward.

The blue engine looked so much happier now. He was running well; nary a clank in his motion. He smiled more too, happier than ever and so much brighter even though the day was cloudy. Sir Topham smiled wryly.

As much as he wanted to say his legacy was the greatness his engines felt now, he couldn’t honestly say it and be right. He’d done some admirable things for his engines, and he’d always been willing to stand up for Edward, or Thomas, or Percy – but at the same time… at the same time, it was clear he’d been far stricter than his son.

Maybe that was a good thing – the railway wouldn’t have survived the Great Depression without a firm hand to guide it. The entire railway had teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for so long, and he’d become so afraid of losing it all. He’d held on tight, almost strangling everyone as he nitpicked his way through every issue. He’d been harsh – harsher than he should have been.

Henry looked so much happier without him around.

But he’d done it for the railway! Being firm, strict and a little controlling was what the railway needed to see in each new year. He’d never scrapped one of his engines (the board, however…), even when they were unable to be really useful. Again, Henry was a testament to how much he hated to see potential wasted.

He’d fought against the LMS for years over the right to keep the railway open… but the LMS fell, and still the NWR remained. It… felt good to know he’d been so successful… even if most of the engines didn’t remember him so favourably.

With one last breath, he slipped away from Edward’s train, taking a moment to wander into his son’s office. He spotted a very familiar top hat resting on the coatrack. “That’s… my hat…” murmured Sir Topham, feeling just a little better.

Everything was going to be just fine.

With that, the almost ethereal figure standing in the Fat Controller’s office faded away.

Back to Master Post

[bluesturngold]

Misinformation's Role in Sensationalizing the Arrest of a Florida Furry

People on Twitter are posting memes about a member of the furry community who was arrested in Florida for murder.

This isn't typically something I would write about, but the furry in question commissioned a profile photo from the same artist who created my profile photo, and people have essentially harassed the artist off of twitter by sharing the art he commissioned from her.

The memes are predicated on a screenshot taken from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office inmate booking blotter, as pictured below:

I'm not humorless and can see how the average terminally online person could find the thought of a furry blowing someone away with a missile funny, but the unfortunate combination of an inadequate booking system and a misunderstanding of what "missile" refers to legally are why this meme exists in the first place.

Here is the full text of Florida Statute 790.19:

"Whoever, wantonly or maliciously, shoots at, within, or into, OR throws any missile OR hurls or projects a stone or other hard substance which would produce death or great bodily harm, at, within, or in any public or private building, occupied or unoccupied, or public or private bus or any train, locomotive, railway car, caboose, cable railway car, street railway car, monorail car, or vehicle of any kind which is being used or occupied by any person, or any boat, vessel, ship, or barge lying in or plying the waters of this state, or aircraft flying through the airspace of this state shall be guilty of a felony of the second degree."

I've bolded the important bits there: this statute covers both shooting within/into an occupied space as well as throwing or otherwise launching something that could cause physical harm within/into an occupied space, i.e. a brick through a window into a business that has customers inside. As someone who's reported on court cases like this before, I would expect to see charges relating to incendiary devices or explosives if someone truly had fired a missile into a dwelling.

This is why I say the booking system is inadequate: the person who typed up the summary of this statute did so with no regard for how easy it is for a layperson to misinterpret, and then the person who selected statute 790.19 whilst filling out this guy's booking information was stuck with the statute description it had already been given... unless they wanted to find someone in their IT department or the vendor who built the booking system and file a ticket for them to change it, which could take weeks.

Misleading statute descriptions are a huge issue when your inmate bookings can be viewed online by members of the public, and it's just another sign of how little law enforcement cares about inmates and the public that they didn't put more consideration into making their statue descriptions easier to understand.

The premeditated first degree murder charge also just isn't accurate; presumably the sheriff's office had little to no idea whether the murder was or wasn't premeditated when they arrested the guy, so the person doing the booking picked the more severe one. (Pretend I repeated the line about how little law enforcement cares again.)

If you didn't know this, here's a public service announcement: it's basically never a good idea to read a law enforcement agency's inmate listings and take what they say as fact. Cross referencing the inmate listing with the county court clerk's online case search made it really clear that the inmate listing was misleading:

'Second degree murder with a firearm' and 'shooting into building' paint such a simple and effective picture of what the defendant is being charged with.

I know a fair number of terminally online people who aren't furries just think it's inherently funny or meme-worthy when a furry gets arrested for anything, but I think if the sheriff's office or the vendor who created their booking system wasn't inept and careless more people would've realized this was just a tragic but otherwise mundane murder allegedly committed by someone with an unconventional, unrelated hobby.

[hartage]

I need more lore on that very attractive Fletcher Jennings (taly)

a bit of a rundown of talyllyn (no. 1) for you :)

- his name is huw jennings, but he honestly goes by ‘talyllyn’ more than he ever goes by ‘huw’. he probably thrives off the ego rub

- he’s 29 years old physically, 159 years old technically. (24 september 1864) i could get into my lore about how they age, etc. but i feel like that could all be compressed into one giant post.

- however! speaking of an ego rub, though talyllyn is old af (turning 160 this year!) he still has a bit of a ‘princely’ manner in how he carries himself. i think a lot of people would think him to be humble like his rws counterpart (skarloey), but i think the fact that he ran nearly continuously from 1865-1945 is a little bit of a flex if i do say so myself. he wants to be celebrated for that, wouldn’t you?

- he’s got a crazy rivalry with the other engines on the railway, and chewed dolgoch out over the fact that he would rather buy ‘replacements’ (no. 3 and no. 4) from the corris than give him a full overhaul (like dolgoch and the volunteers could give him a complete overhaul with 50 GBP, but i digress)

- talyllyn has a lot of old victorian mannerisms. if you enter his room it’s like a time warp, a bit of nursing home core honestly. an old iron bed, floral prints, trinkets, the whole grandma gamut.

here’s a quote from railway adventure that i feel like is really fitting of just…no. 1

“…like everything else about the railway this room had remained firmly rooted in the Victorian age; it made no concession whatever to the 20th century, was not in the best state of repair and looked as if it had not been spring-cleaned within living memory. One end of it had been fitted up as a booking office with a long counter, a ticket cabinet and a ticket date stamping machine. This last was of the early pattern on which a change of date type can only be effected with the aid of some pointed instrument such as a penknife, and where the ink ribbon must be periodically wound back by hand.”

- according to railway adventure by LTC rolt (my main ref for no. 1) whenever no. 1 first arrived it was bouncy and wild due to its “horizontal motion” which makes me feel like he’s a lot more brisk than dolgoch.

- huw talks fast, and is a lot more charismatic. he goes “yup… indeed…aye…” in conversation while dolgoch goes “isn’t it?” and “mhm.”

- pre-preservation i feel like that no. 1 was the ‘preferred’ engine. it’s more a headcanon for me rather than fact, but i feel like the reason why no. 1 had so many overhauls in the past compared to no. 2 was because talyllyn was the one who ran better after all of the ‘teething troubles’ were fixed.

- to me, even though the two are quite old, there is still a rivalry between dolgoch and talyllyn to this day. think a big brother vs little brother rivalry. the ‘i know better’ role, y’know?

i think that’s basically all i have now. it’s kind of funny bc no. 1 is actually the least developed of my narrow gauge humanization ocs, (that’s a mouthful) but please send more asks if you want to know more!!

[salmontheking]

Secret police vs regular police

An officer of the Information Security Agency thought she could drive without the papers.

Axis has no shortage of special police agencies, with at least one per every Capital Secreteriate, one per armed force, one for the President personally and then some outliers like the postal service and railway authority. In fact every third prison inmate is there because of them, not to mention all the, so to speak, special prisons. One of the very few advantages of this arrangement is that all the psychopaths, reactionaries, careerists, thugs, narcs and maniacal patriots funnel into them, leaving the ranks of ordinary cops relatively clean. They mostly dispense tickets, give directions and reprimand noisy neighbors rather than shooting dogs and teenagers.

Infosec is especially infamous. Membership notably makes it much easier to get a high-end motor vehicle, a cause of much envy among the general public, so traffic cops miss no opportunity to spite the spooks. They are the only people who can get away with it.

[beardedmrbean]

Bulgarian state railways BDZ is offering trips on a retro train every Saturday in August from Sofia to Bankya and back, BDZ said on July 25.

The multiple unit train was produced in Austria in 1960, with technical specifications and furnishings that were very modern for its time.

Until 1994, it was used for trips by government officials.

It is currently used for hire by clients for private travel as well as for film productions and video shoots.

There will be two trips every Saturday.

The first will depart from Sofia at 8.30am and arrive in Bankya at 8.55am. The departure time for the return journey is 4.20pm, arriving in Sofia at 4.45pm.

The second will depart from Sofia at 9.40am and arrive in Bankya at 10.05am, with departure from Bankya at 6.15pm, arriving in Sofia at 6.39pm.

BDZ said that diesel engine #19 001.7 was manufactured in 1960 in SGP – Wien, Austria.

It consists of one first-class and one second-class department.

The first class compartment has nine luxuriously comfortable headrests and additional individual adjustable reading lights.

The second class compartment is made up of 28 soft seats distributed according to the 2+2 scheme.

The seats in both passenger compartments can be rotated depending on the direction of travel and adjusted to a semi-reclining position. The unit has a luxurious and precisely furnished bar with a coffee machine, a refrigerator and all the facilities for preparing cold and hot food. The price of a ticket for adult travel in both directions 30 leva, including a reserved seat. For children up to 10 years of age, the ticket is half price.

Tickets and reserved seats may be purchased online at https://bileti.bdz.bg/ and from ticket offices and railway desks in all stations in the country.