I don't think it would have been beyond the wit of South West Trains to find out where the next train is; after all, there is that wonderful invention, the phone. Occasionally they came out with weirdly specific announcements that the 7.27 to Hounslow was 42 minutes late etc (which was very good mental arithmetic practice), so obviously they did have access to some information. Being to the South West of London, the weather wasn't that dreadful - we had less than an inch of snow.

The train moves quite a bit further than one small area...
We've got over a foot - in SW London/N Surrey. And the temperature plays quite a significant part.

No doubt it usually does, but today they were running some trains back and forth over quite a short stretch of the line which wasn't badly affected, i.e. roughly Waterloo to Feltham, and the temperature still didn't affect phones. I'm not saying they weren't doing a sterling job, just that the information for passengers was a bit rubbish.

Sorry, this must be intensely boring for those not enthralled by the workings of South West Trains.

Our local station has one bloke selling tickets - that's the whole staff! And I'm not sure how he'd cope with answering the phone at the best of times.
As far as I know the automated messages are generated centrally (presumably at Waterloo). Or in our case, Victoria. They rarely bear much relationship to reality.

A few years back, in really heavy snow, we had an announcement at Wallington that a train was heading our way and had left Carshalton Beeches (about 2 miles away). It never arrived. Stranger, it never went back either. So we had an announcement that it had disappeared...
I still look out for that train, with its load of passengers with 80s shoulder-pads and smoking carriages, and wonder which alternative reality it slipped into.

Ours doesn't even have that most of the time. Then when you get to the other end of the line without seeing a guard and ask to buy a ticket you get treated like a criminal.

Sent to a free holiday camp?

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The upper hand is on the other foot now.

Where you make costumes for the Notting Hill carnival.

I know it had nothing to do with snow, it just pisses me off.

Have we had any comments about how teachers from closed schools should be denied pay and ritually flogged yet?

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The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands - OSCAR WILDE, The Soul of Man Under Socialism

Give it time.

Last year, if you remember, the sharp idea was that teachers (or people claiming to be teachers) would just heave up at the nearest school and offer their services teaching/grooming the kids there.

You have to remember many Mail readers probably only see school as a handy means of childcare...

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"Even when you're a super-computer with an IQ of 2000 it's brown trousers time."

Reclaiming "methinks" for the nation

Latest blog post - 2011 - a review (updated 07/10)

Yeah. Teachers certainly come into the 'pen-pushers' category. Like doctors...

First the freeze, now the panic buying despite the slight thaw in some areas today

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z179rvp3bs

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"Fanaticism is the only form of willpower to which the weak minded and irresolute can rise."

I love snow. It's sent us to the top of the table!

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'Because we've reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us'