The Blood is the Life for 02-01-2019

[miss_s_b]

The Vimes Boots Theory: Further Reflections

"Vimes' Boot Theory says that the reason rich people get to save themselves money on boots is that they have the $200 for boots that poor people don't. That is true, of course, as discussed above. But that's not the whole story. They also know where to buy $200 boots. They also know which $200 boots to buy."

Great people who turned down New Year’s Honours

These Leaked WhatsApp Chats Reveal Just How Brexiteer Tories Relentlessly Fight The "Smeary" BBC

"A huge cache of leaked messages show how Eurosceptic Tories have repeatedly pressured the news outlets to shape coverage of Brexit – and joked about cutting off a BuzzFeed News reporter’s testicles."

Northern admits it has not begun retiring Pacer trains as promised

Hands up anyone who is surprised? Anyone?

Just Give It 7 Seconds

Are you prone to overthinking, guilt-tripping yourself, and beating yourself up about things that nobody else is really that bothered about? This might work. I'm not going to guarantee it, but it might.

Predictions for 2019 – Nick Barlow

Linking to this purely for the last one, which is genius and I fully expect to come true.

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Comments

[po8crg]

I was on an updated Sprinter coming home from Brighouse today! With the new seats (more comfortable, I think) and a nice little dot matrix screen telling you which station you're at and which stations it will stop at and when. That should be the basic train on Northern by the end of the year - and even if there's still a few junk buckets still around, they will definitely be rarer.

Northern's trains are taking their time getting better - they had delays on deliveries of new trains from Spain, delays on deliveries of used trains from Scotland and delays on deliveries of electrification in Bolton (which means they don't have enough diesel trains), plus their own internal crapness, but they do have (almost) all the Scottish trains at long last (only two of 30-ish still left) and are starting to get West Mids trains (first delivery on time), and the Bolton electrification is complete (first test train went through just before Xmas). All we need is for the Spanish manufacturers to deliver trains that pass testing and run reliably no more than six months behind their current (delayed) schedule, and then the refurbished Sprinters will be the worst trains on their network - that's the train I was admiring today as being a big improvement.

Northern say "end of October" - I suspect that "next Summer" is more likely - but even if I'm right on timing, there will still be a lot of improved trains running around this time next year, and we'll definitely be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now, Northern, all you have to do is decide to keep guards, stop treating your staff like shit, and learn how to run a reliable service on time, and you might get all the way up to "acceptable".