Recently in Opinion Category
First Capital Connect measure their overall performance on the following:
% of planned train service that was less than 5 minutes late at final destination
This sounds like a great way to measure performance but for anyone who has read The Fifth Discipline they will immediately see the problem.
The immediate problem with the above performance measurement is that there is no mention of the customer. Taken to the extreme there is no requirements for passengers to be on the train at all for them to meet their performance targets. I know this sounds daft but think about the people under pressure to meet those targets. When a train pulls into a station 30 seconds late with a normal allocated 60 seconds allowed to get the passengers on the train then cutting the time the train actually stays at the platform by 10 seconds means the passengers have 20 seconds to get on the train. This is not too bad but during rush hour it can be a problem, especially at the likes of St. Albans where the train is particularly full.
The problem I have in Luton is that the problem becomes extreme because the train I catch can come in on any of two platforms. The platform is indicated on the board but if any of the trains are falling behind at all the platform might change.This would be no problem but to get to the other platform you need to go up a flight of stairs and across a walkway and down another set of stairs. I have had to do this three times in the past because the platform number has change three times before the train comes in. Originally I thought it might be the controllers working on the nations obesity problem but since some of them were in as bad a shape as me I decided that could not be it.
I then witnessed, one November morning, over sixty passengers changing platform due to a board change. Off they went leaving the platform to get to the other side. I waited on the original platform. I watched as the people got to the other side only to see the board change again. I felt glad I hadn't changed. They all came back to my platform. I could see the train and I noticed that it did not look like it was coming into my platform but I decided not to go to the other side. Anyway, there was an announcement and the sixty potential passengers trudged off with a lot of swearing about how crap First Capital Connect are. I watched the train pull into the opposite platform and open its doors. I have never seen doors on any train in my four years using Luton station open and close so fast. I would not be surprised if people actually got stuck on the train. Anyway the people who had moved to the platform the train was leaving from arrived to the tune of the beeps indicating the doors were about to close. A couple of people (ie the young and fit) got on the train but the vast majority where left standing like lemons on the platform. Having been in the Navy I was convinced no civilian would ever teach me a new swear word, I was wrong.
This was when I realised just what was going on. In pursuit of the set performance targets First Capital Connect had not thought through the impact on their customers. Or if they had they had decided that performance targets are more important than customer service.
I have no idea what would be worse, late trains or being unable to catch the train you want and I imagine Luton is a particularly bad case because of the way the platforms have been laid out. All I can suggest to people in Luton is don't trust the board and wait at the top of th stairs until just before the train arrives. This introduces its own problems but I have found it works reasonable well for me.
The subject heading of this entry sounds a bit mad dosn't it. I mean, who the hell would believe that the position of the moon could possibly affect the outcome of an election. It dosn't, but there are those characters who are basing their election decision on the design of Mr Kerry and Mr Bush's website. Now isn't that fscked up. For those that don't believe me take yourself over to slashdot and have a look around......
Does this mean we are seeing the entrance of the designer website. I can see it now
1. Websites by Gucci
2. Menu's by Prada
3. Footers by Nike
Or, as a dialogue!
Manger
"Ohhh, love your hit counter"
Webmaster
"Yeah! we got Armani in to do it, worth every penny!"
Who the hell could possibly be that shallow?
Wait, we have Hello magazine, Cosmopolitan ( feminist trash ), FHM and Eurotrash that answers that question, the brain dead.
As far as I am aware he now prevents foreign users from visiting and viewing his website. I am not making this up. Unless you are on a North American ip range you are forbidden from viewing his website.
This is the most powerful man on the planet who has more affect on foreign governments and their economies than some of the local governments do yet if you ain't American ( an infidel ) you are not allowed to view his website.
The reason for this dumb ass decision is apparently due to his website getting cracked a few times. Do they really think that banning mass IP ranges is going to stop a real cracker, bollix. Its not hard to crack another PC from inside their borders then launch from there.
All this episode has done is made him and his administration look like people who don't care about us foreigners. But then, why should he care now he hasn't really given a damn before.
I hate getting involved in politics but some things are just too dumb to abstain from commenting on them.
I found a website the other day that had the following results from a pole of who was the best male and best female singers ever. Anyway the results where
Top 10 male singers
Frank Sinatra 21.2%
Elvis Presley 8.7%
Garth Brooks 5.7%
Luciano Pavarotti 3.6%
Elton John 3.1%
Bing Crosby 3.1%
George Strait 2.4%
Nat King Cole 2.3%
Perry Como 1.8%
Luther Vandros 1.7%
Top 10 female singers
Barbara Streisand 14.0%
Celine Dion 8.6%
Whitney Houston 7.5%
Reba McEntire 4.5%
Dolly Parton 3.5%
Shania Twain 3.2%
Ella Fitzgerald 2.8%
Aretha Franklin 2.5%
Mariah Carey 2.5%
Loretta Lynn 2.4%
I know this was a pole about who people thought was the best singers but I can't help thinking that its should have been called a pole of the best known male and female singers not the best ever singers.
How did I come to this conclusion? Well to start, Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby are lower than Elton John, I am sorry, Elton is a fantastic singer but he was not a better singer than Nat or Bing by any stretch of the imagination. Personally I would have had Elvis Sinatra and Nat and Bing in the top four with Nat pipping Sinatra at the post ( Nature Boy is always good for a smokey room if you know what I mean ).
As for the women. Jesus christ they have Ella and Aretha coming in under Dolly Parton. For gods sake are they deaf as posts ( after an hour of Dollys high pitched voice they may have lost some hearing at certain frequencies), don't get me wrong I like Dolly but much more for her writing than her singing ( "Whitneys" I'd do anything for you was written by Dolly) or my favorite 9 to 5 written by Dolly while on the set of the movie. I particularly like the line " "Pour myself a cup of ambition".
I am not even about to start on classical singers.
I know its all subjective but I would be interested to know who each one of the singers thought was the best.
