Flare Sci-Fi Forums: London

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Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :

Hope all the forumites in London are OK. Heard there was a bad train crash there today, with eight people killed.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog, it's to dark to read. Groucho Marx

Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :

Yes. Train services have been badly affected, but that's about it.

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

Zoiks Scoob!
I was on that line on Saturday! <8-[....]

In future I want to get the bus into London, since this would seem to imply that since the LAST accident on these lines safety hasn't been improved one iota....

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"FOOLS! Will I have to kill them ALL?!?!"

Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :

The death toll is now 26, with more bodies maybe stuck in a burned-out carriage and left overnight. Heads are gonna roll for this one. . .

Posted by Xentrick (Member # 64) on :

!!!

you could not pay me enough to be on those recovery teams.

Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :

Death toll is now 28, with 42 people missing. Apparently you could hear mobile phones ringing in the wreckage, long into the night. . .

A bit of history is needed here to explain the significance of all this. Back at the end of 1988 a train crash in Clapham killed 35 people. Almost ten yeasr to the day ago, the Inquiry into the disaster came up with several recommendations. Then the Conservative government of the time privatised the railways and such safety measures were judged too expensive. Now, twice as many people have died in the UMPTEENTH instance of a train going through a red light.

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

That same stretch of railway is where ANOTHER accident occured two years ago. The same stretch. 7 people dead.

If it is approaching the terminal, SLOW DOWN. Toronto's Union Station has the same track layout as the Paddington Station in London (Someone told me it was the same). The big difference is that the trains go SLOWER when they approach the terminal.

But that's what you get when you have a government who only cares about what's in their pockets rather than what needs to be done to help the people. That's Right-Wing Activism for you. Blame Conservative politics for the accident.

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I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :

Liam, you still with us?

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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog, it's to dark to read. Groucho Marx

Posted by Jubilee (Member # 99) on :

*hopes so!!!!*

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"...when all that is driving my heart forward
is you, thoughts of you, hopes for you,
and a fading dream with a Mona Lisa smile
that whispers "are you thinking of me too?"

44 days till the dreams become reality...

Posted by RW (Member # 27) on :

the phrase "heads are gonna roll" is really a bit unfortunate for more than one reason :/ I mean, it's not just the people responsible who must resign, the whole railway track should be improved. Seeing heads roll is not a priority issue of course.

Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :

Bit of a slip there, I admit. But the fact is, 120 people are now feared dead and for many the only way of identification will be missing persons lists or unclaimed cars in Reading station car park! And all the time the people responsible, the Conservative Party, have been living the high life at their annual conference in Blackpool, daring to claim they speak for the British people.

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

Passed Reading car park today and saw coppers taking notes of registration plates. Very creepy. <8(

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"FOOLS! Will I have to kill them ALL?!?!"

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

Liam's last post was last Saturday....... Unless he posts, we'll never know what happened to him........

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I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

*ahem*

Woo, three people concerned about me. That's nice. I'll send you all a card.

Apparently, in the past 2 years, 7 trains have gone through that signal while it was red. As Lee said, an accident waiting to happen.

Apparently the temperature in one car went up to 1000 degrees. The people would have been fried instantly. That's why it's taking so long to determine who died.

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You know, when Comedy Central asked us to do a Thanksgiving episode, the first thought that went through my mind was, "Boy, I'd like to have sex with Jennifer Aniston."

-Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

Liam, you're okay!

*ahem* Ahh, uhh, er, yeah...

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Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

*gives Liam the traditional fox welcoming gift of a dead mouse*

As for the rail crash, this public enquiry will I fear take six months only to decide that a measly upgrade be introduced to the signal system. An upgrade that lags years behind the standards on the continent, but is all that Railtrack with it's vast profit margin can afford.

It is a scandal, and I'm warming to what some tabloids have been suggesting - that if a significant safety program is not brought in swiftly, Prescott (transport minister) should resign.

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"FOOLS! Will I have to kill them ALL?!?!"

Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :

Good to see all the lost posting. Next thing you know, DT will drop in.
The news said there was a similar rail set up here in the USA. I think it was Chicago, but I'm not sure. Lots of problems there that will not be solved.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog, it's to dark to read. Groucho Marx

Posted by Orion Syndicate (Member # 25) on :

Nothing's ever going to be done. After the Clapham crash in 1988, an inquiry suggested an Automatic Train Protection System - nothing was done.

After the Southall rail crash in 1997, the same reccomendations were made - nothing was done.

In 1998, there was an extremely near miss on the same line as this last crash, but it wasn't even mentioned until this latest crash.

Just this August, the government said that they would install a protection system, but not the one that the inquiry recommended - it would be the next best thing and would cost less. However, now that this crash has happened, they suddenly announce that price is no object and the best system would be installed. Do you believe them? I don't!

Give it a couple of months and when all the attention has died down, the government will come back to the cost saving exercises and installing second grade technology.

You can probably tell that I'm pissed off with the government over this, and the reason is that I travel by train very regularly and have taken the Great Western Train from Swansea to London Paddington quite a few times - this service uses the same line as the one where the crash took place. It's left me wondering just how close I may have come.

BTW: No heads are going to roll, Prescott isn't going to resign and when all this dies down, this incident will quietly be swept under the carpet with the rail executives and government ministers continuing their tasks of saving money at any cost.

They're even talking of privatising Air Traffic Control (or at least part of it). This just goes to show how low priority our lives are compared to the cost saving exercises. Really, who cares if several hundred people die in a plane crash? At least the treasury saved �2-3 million....

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Do business with us, or we'll ruin you.

[This message has been edited by Orion Syndicate (edited October 09, 1999).]

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

Hint: Lawsuit. That oughta teach those conservative-bastards not to skimp on something that is life or death. If you don't spend money on something that can save lives? Fine. We'll sue your f***ing-@ss off. How's that for saving money for your own pockets? Huh?

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I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Take the people responsible for these decisions and move their offices into a train car that passes over that line multiple times a day. See how long it takes them to decide to put in better signals...

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"It'd be a pity if every pencil on Earth suddenly collapsed in on itself and blew everything up."
-Krenim, TNO chat, September 30, 1999

Posted by Orion Syndicate (Member # 25) on :

That'd be motivation enough wouldn't it? The Chinese government is doing a similar thing with regards to Y2K. What they're doing is forcing every manager and executive of the Chinese plane companies to fly in their own planes at midnight. If they don't solve the problem before then......they'll die......

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Do business with us, or we'll ruin you.

Posted by RW (Member # 27) on :

I don't get it. Why would computers switch off if a stupid date changes?!

Posted by Aethelwer (Member # 36) on :

They wouldn't. Nothing will happen with Y2K.

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Frank's Home Page
"I can't find any good quotations." - Frank G

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

I would say, "Watch! Frank may eat his own words!" but I agree with him, completely.

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Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Then you obviously haven't read the third prophecy of Simonius.

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"Quadrilateral I was, now I warp like a smile."
--
Soul Coughing

Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :

Enlightenment?

Well, since it's on page two, I'll be a little more precise. What you talkin about Sol?

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"One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor". George Carlin

[This message has been edited by Kosh (edited October 12, 1999).]

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Just a joke, vaguely related to the recent CapCom.

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"Quadrilateral I was, now I warp like a smile."
--
Soul Coughing