Tourists are lovely

My favourite kind of commuters are definitely tourists. The majority of the time, they are friendly, polite and generally nice folk, especially Japanese tourists.

Fortunately I can reasonably converse in Japanese, giving directions, selling tickets etc so I try to help them where I can. I was helping one old Japanese couple almost everyday last week, with directions, tourist attractions etc. On their very last day, they came to the station and brought a box of Japanese coffee sweets as a token of thanks. Really cheered me up. A few months ago, another Japanese family gave me a box of Pocky which realy are to die for. Luckily there is one shop in West Acton that sells them. Not likely to get that from a regular commuter though :)

Last trains/first trains

It still surprises me the sheer number of people who turn up way after their trains have departed. I mean how long does it take to check the last train times (every station has at least 3 posters) before they head back home. I was closing my station the other night and one bloke came dashing down the platform stairs. I informed him that the last trains had already departed, then this guy pulls out his staff pass and shouts "But I'm staff". Sorry mate, but what the bloody difference does that make, are we supposed to magically produce a train just because he's a member of LUL staff.

Also in a similar vein, if you are relying upon public transport to get you to a certain place at a certain time, wouldn't it be prudent to check the train times. Every morning we get droves of people lugging their suitcases in order to get to Heathrow for a flight that boards at 06:00am for example. The first train for Heathrow airport doesn't leave central London until around 05:40 ish. There isn't a cat in hells chance they'll get there in time, especially when it going to take at least an hour to check in with the airlines.

Oystercards

Remember that from the 25th September (tomorrow) all adult weekly travelcards will all be issued on Oystercard stock. No more magnetic tickets. So all those naughty people buying zones 2&3 for example and then travelling through zone 1 won't be able to do that anymore.

I imagine we are going to have loads of angry/annoyed customers when they found out they will have to pay the correct fares for their journeys.

It's been a while.

Haven't really made any blog entries for quite some time. I work on a group of stations, rather than being rostered at one particular station like my colleague. The problem with this is the uncertainty as to where I am working at what shift pattern. For some unknown reason I have been given a large amount of night-shift duties approximately every week and a half I have been working nights. I am alas working nights this week also until Tuesday:(

Not much has been happening at work though, its been a pretty uneventful month or so.