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    ScotRail Class 170's

    It's about the same time both ways, if timed properly - which it isn't. Perth to Edinburgh via Ladybank with two stops and green signals all the way will take just over 1hr 5mins, or thereabouts. Likewise Perth to Edinburgh via Stirling with just the Stirling stop and greens all the way. You're...
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    Staff entering the cab while train is moving

    It's forbidden in the rulebook for all TOCs. The difference seems to be that some overlook it and others don't. ScotRail, as previously stated, are just very firm on it. If a trolley steward chaps the door, and I answer it, then later on the same journey I'm involved in any kind of incident -...
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    Scotrail HSTs - 4-5 years in

    I've never heard the term 'high-speed' brake before, and I think what you must be talking about is running with one E70 isolated (must be rear one), which from memory restricts max speed to 100mph, which would be fine other than the brake would respond a little more slowly. I've never heard of...
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    Scotrail HSTs - 4-5 years in

    They've always had good spells and bad spells, availability wise with ScotRail. I've had whole diagrams that were booked HSTs and every train has been a unit. That said, the past month or so I've not had a unit covering for an HST once. I've maybe just been lucky, but I do have a sense that...
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    Different Driver Depot, Route and Traction cards

    New ScotRail depot (drivers and conductors) as of June, at Leven. I don't know what route they'll sign besides the obvious, but other depots learning the Leven branch are Edinburgh (link specific), Dundee (all), and Perth (all).
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    ASLEF accept (subject to members agreement) 5% Scotrail Pay Offer

    The current Sunday agreement is up to 1 in 3 Sundays. Minimum turn length is 7hrs 30m, maximum turn length is 10hrs, and average turn is 9hrs. Hourly rate is £28.83 Enhanced Sunday payment of £84.29 So the average Sunday is worth £343.76 If you are rostered 1 in 3, that's 17x 343.76 So the...
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    ASLEF accept (subject to members agreement) 5% Scotrail Pay Offer

    This is comedy gold. Next time I'm sat outside a major station waiting on a platform, I'll just give the poor overworked signaller a wee ring and negotiate over which platform I go into. I can't imagine for a moment that he or she would only become even more likely to hold me outside for as long...
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    Ongoing ScotRail disruption - Day to day discussion and updates.

    It's almost impossible to do so for Sundays, I'd be very surprised if they ever managed it. Sundays are almost totally inflexible for traincrew, so staffing any altered timetables is challenging to say the least. It's all because of terms and conditions, Sunday not being part of the working week...
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    Headwinds

    It does make a small difference. A strong headwind tends to mean you won't coast as well. For example, a route I work has a section where the speeds drop 90 - 80 - 70 - 60 in fairly rapid succession. Normally you'd need to use a little step one brake for each reduction in speed, but if it's...
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    HST replacement

    Edinburgh don't sign 156s anymore. Just Queen St and Stirling on the 'network side', as there's no booked 156s into Waverley at all these days. That said, the conversion course for 158 to 156 would be minimal (two days I think?), so not a big undertaking to retrain Edinburgh, or even Perth and...
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    ScotRail Industrial Relations issues (including conductor strike action)

    Now there's a novel idea! It's something that's long overdue, but the appetite for it from the companies side seems non-existent. To the best of my knowledge, ScotRail have never under NX, First, or Abellio seriously discussed this with staff / trade unions. The staff, I'm fairly certain, for...
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    ScotRail Industrial Relations issues (including conductor strike action)

    I think the offer RMT accepted, whilst decent, shows how little they really wanted. Transport Scotland, and Abellio to a lesser extent, are completely inept.
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    Anomalies in the Scottish timetable: Inverness to Edinburgh and Glasgow

    Firstly, the majority of people do tend to go to / from Edinburgh (as mentioned, tourism is a much bigger draw in Edinburgh), its down to keeping the timetable sensible as much as anything. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh get an hourly service to / from Perth (Glasgow moves to a half hourly service...
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    Class 156 DMU vs Class 158 DMU - Which Is The Better DMU?

    158 - hugely unreliable, dreadful build quality, shocking air con, extremely poor legroom. 156 - noisy, basic, bouncy, but...very reliable and very well put together. I'm not a fan of either unit but over my own twenty odd years experience, 158s are (at least in reliability terms) far far...
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    ScotRail Industrial Relations issues (including conductor strike action)

    It's worth remembering that only one class of traction (334) and only one route (Bathgate) is passed for DOO passenger trains out of Edinburgh. So 380s, 385s - even though they are used as DOO trains in the former SPT area - cannot be used in that way outside of it.
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    How Often Does a Driver Forget to Stop at a Station and What Are the Consequences?

    That's truly bizarre. Dunblane is very much on an uphill gradient and they would've certainly arrived (has to be a terminator if it was an EMU) to a red. Must've been something weird with the unit brakes, because the hardest thing at Dunblane is not stopping short rather than the other way around!
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    ScotRail Industrial Relations issues (including conductor strike action)

    Up to a point, but there are still booked spare turns that have to come in and sit a few hours, and also a few turns that are taxi one way and bring a set ECS the other, in order to balance things out for the Monday morning, plus the obvious late / night turns that set yards and stations up for...
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    ScotRail Industrial Relations issues (including conductor strike action)

    I should clarify that Sundays are indeed overtime with ScotRail (for Drivers, Conductors, TEs, Station Staff etc), the contract is 35 (36 if you're a driver) hours a week, Monday to Saturday. You will be rostered to work 'booked Sundays', however these are paid at a premium and not part of your...
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    "This is a no smoking train"

    Fact of the day - I didn't actually believe until reading this that any trains really did have smoke alarms in the toilets. Certainly all the trains I've worked in my career (and still do) have "this toilet is fitted with a smoke alarm" stickers in, but I know none of them really do have any...
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    ScotRail Industrial Relations issues (including conductor strike action)

    Yeah, I mean possibly even more than 39. I meant that Sundays not being part of the working week dates back to BR.

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