Denmark’s Bank Robbers Count The Cost Of Cashless Society
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the second paragraph.
Figures from Finans Danmark, an industry association, show the number of attacks has collapsed in recent years as the shift towards online transactions has led many Danish banks to abandon cash services in branches. While there were 221 bank robberies in 2000, the number of hold-ups in Denmark fell to 121 in 2004, before declining to one in 2021 and none last year.
There were also no attacks on ATM machines.
Doing away with cash certainly cuts crime and it must be twelve years, since a Unite representative on Manchester buses told me he wanted cashless ticketing on Manchester’s buses and trams, as since it had been introduced in London, attacks on staff had declined dramatically.
I also wonder by how much the Income Tax take would rise?
Manchester Arena Attack: Families ‘Disgusted’ By Memorial Trespassing
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
These are the introductory paragraphs,
Families of people killed in the Manchester Arena attack have said they were “disgusted” after a memorial site for the 22 victims was trespassed on.
The Glade of Light memorial in the city centre remains a building site and does not officially open until the new year.
Two bereaved families said they were appalled to find the security fences pulled down on Sunday.
The article also said this.
Ms Curry said she found hundreds of people were walking through the area, which is supposed to be closed to the public.
She said one man stood on a memorial stone and was abusive when challenged, another woman vomited all over the area, and groups of youths were openly smoking drugs.
I can’t understand what led to this aggressive trespass.
When, I am in certain cities, there does seem to be more low life on the streets than you habitually see in London.
I do wonder, if it is partly because of London’s transport regulations and actions as laid down by the Mayor and Transport for London.
London has an extensive CCTV network and after the London bombings of July the seventh and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, I’m sure it was improved.
Did the improved CCTV and the police action in the shooting the unfortunate Brazilian, deter a lot of low life from going to the centre?
Ken Livingstone or was it Boris, introduced a policy of banning alcohol on London’s transport system.
The precise details are given in this recent article on the Sun.
I have a feeling it had a positive effect, but did it mean that less drunks found their way to the centre?
In 2011, I sat next to a guy on a Manchester bus going from Piccadilly Gardens to Bury. I noticed that about a dozen youths were harassing the driver, trying to get his fare money and remarked on this to my companion.
My companion on hearing my London accent, said you don’t get that in London because of the contactless ticketing, as there is no fare money on the bus.
I was surprised at his reply and asked him to explain. It turned out he was a Trade Union Official, who looked after bus workers in Manchester. He told me his Union wanted a London-style contactless ticketing system, as it had drastically cut the number of attacks on staff in London.
Having worked with the Metropolitan Police on the analysis of data, they have also found that contactless ticketing helps in the tracing of people through London’s transport network and has solved several serious crimes.
Conclusion
I feel that terrorism and London’s reaction to it, banning of alcohol on public transport, contactless ticketing and other measures have helped keep drunks and those up to no good out of the centre.
RMT Head Office Closed Due To Strike Action
The title of this post, is the same as this article on ITV.
Looks like a case of the biter bit!
Scottish Transport Minister ‘Perplexed’ By COP26 Strikes
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railnews.
I’ll leave them to continue arguing,
But I am perplexed too! Especially as the other unions have signed up to a similar deal.
Chris Grayling On The RMT
This article on Rail Technology Magazine is entitled I’m A Lightning Rod’: Grayling Dismisses Criticism From Rail Unions And ‘Anti-Brexit Brigade’
This is Grayling’s view of the RMT.
“This is a trade union that regards Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party as too right-wing to affiliate to and wants to stand in the way of modernisation of the railways.
It is one of the better political put-downs.
Engine Change At Bad Bentheim
I’m on a train frim Amsterdam to Osnabruck. The train, which goes all the way to Berlin, is not very fast, but they’ve now stopped for ten minutes, whilst the Dutch engine is changed for a German one! Can’t both railway companies use the dame Euro-blighter and just have a change of drivers, as we do on Anglo-Scottish services.
Surely, these are the problems that the EU should solve. Or do German and Dutch rail unions make the RMT look like pussy-cats?
Have The RMT Seen The Writing On The Wall?
This morning the RMT are on strike on Southern, in the longest strike seen on UK railways for decades.
This report has recently appeared on the Rail Magazine web site, and is entitled Network Rail tests ETCS on Class 700 on ‘Core’ Thameslink route.
The report goes on to say how this successful test will allow Automatic Train Operation (ATO) from 2018.
In other words, the Thameslink trains and eventually, there will only be Class 700 trains operating through the central core, will be driven by computer, with the driver monitoring what is happening.
In a leader, The Times today described the rail unions as Luddites.
Surely, any hint of computers driving trains will invoke the resistance of the unions.
But as with Driver Only Operation DOO), ATO is the way that passengers, train operators and progressive governments will want to go. And if it is unsafe, just look at the Victoria Line which now runs thirty trains per hour using both DOO and ATO. And it has been using this method of operation for fifty years.
So have the unions looked at this and decided that with a big push they can get the whole lot thrown out.
The Times called them Luddites. The Times was right.
As an aside, when did you last see a woman driving a train on the National Rail Network?
Now ASLEF Joins In!
I take the headline from this article on Rail News, which is entitled Southern dispute: now ASLEF joins in.
This Southern dispute and the related one in Scotland, appear that they may continue until 2017 at least.
I used to travel up to London in the 1990s with a driver-supervisor on the Central Line. We would discuss various technical subjects and the questions of efficient operation of trains and driver only operation came up.
Nothing he said, ever gave me any hint that driver only operation was anything but totally safe, if you have good communication with those on the platform. In fact, he did give the impression, that when problems did occur, it was because communication between driver and platform staff failed. I can remember him saying that with trainees, he always impressed on them, the dangers of not checking properly before starting when platforms are long and curved, as at Bank.
My view as someone, who has seen a lot of industrial automation at work in factories and industrial plants, is that the safest way to drive a train, is let the computer do the driving and the train driver should monitor what is happening.
Effectively, that is what has happened on the Victoria Line since 1967.
It’s about time that the UK’s trains joined the twentieth century, instead of clinging to the nineteenth.
The London Overground Grows Without Fuss
I use the East london Line of the london Overground several times a week.
But this article in Rail Technology Magazine is entitled Extra evening services added on London Overground and I didn’t notice anything announcing the increase in services. This is said.
The East London line has been increased from two trains to four an hour between 10.00 and 11.30pm on the routes from Dalston Junction to New Cross and Clapham Junction and from Highbury & Islington to West Croydon and Crystal Palace.
It’s almost as if a Night Overground is being introduced in a Softly Softly way!
What’s gone wrong with the Unions?
They usually see an increase in levels of customer service, as a perceived threat to their jobs and working conditions and vote about whether to go on strike.
RMT Moves The Tube Strike
It has been announced by the RMT, that the Tube strike has been moved from this week to the 10th and 8th of September.
Intriguingly, the new Labour Leader will be announced on the 12th of September.
There doesn’t seem to be any reference on the Internet, as to where the Special Conference is to be held! As the TUC Conference starts in Brighton on the 13th, that must be a possibility.
Or has someone forgot to book the hall?
The Anonymous Widower 