To be a rep to the public at a time of crisis

well, couldn't really think of another title. This blogg is dedicated to all the commuters who remained calm at Charing Cross station yesterday evening upon the news that there had been a major signalling failur in Sevenoaks and ALL TRAINS were cancelled or rerouted. Great ! How to get home ???

And the whole saga had actually started for me a lot earlier as I started my usual journey homeward around four fifteen. Having walked the 15 minutes to Greenford Station, we the commuters were still experiencing the consequences of Central Lines computer failure from yesterday. This computer failure had the amusing side affect, that on Greenfords' train arrival notice board, at one point in time it was saying that the next train to Epping will be arriving in 1 minute, you blinked and whoops it had turned into a North Acton Train arriving in 11 minutes. That was monday. Tuesday ended up taking the 1st train along, which stopped at North Acton. There had to wait 'only' about 5 minutes for the train to Epping, standing room only, which brought me safely to Oxford Circus. No probs catching the Bakerloo train down to Charing Cross, in plenty of time for the 17:19 when over the tannoy system the anouncement of the signal failure came through. And the station concourse was 'packed' with people for Chelsfield, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and beyond. Outch! First things first though, called home to say I shan't be able to pick the kids up at six.

Then it became apparent that the best thing to do was take the 17:27 'slow' train to Orpington and pray that (a) Bus replacement services would be operating; (2) a cab might be available; or (3) trains would be back and running again. So took the train to Orpington, and sat next to an 'old acquaintance' actually who commutes in also from 7oaks, but catches the 06:31 train (which I used to take in my previous job). So we had a good chat and natter about this, that and the other, glad at least we had managed to get a seat.

Minor chaos in Orpington as it seemed no buses were laid on, nor were there any cabs to catch. Fortunately though, systems were getting back up, and a delayed Sandwich train just arriving on platform 3 would be stopping at all stations to Tunbridge Wells (except Hildenborough, to the annoyance of one lady in the carriaqge I ended up in). So back into the station, platform three, front of the train and standing room only. Still the train got away, through Chelsfield, Knockholt, Dunton Green, and very slowly (so not all symptons had yet been resolved) into Sevenoaks. Needless to say, got home by seven.

And so, whilst writing this, it sure takes a lot of patience on the part of employees of the SE Train company, who had to face the crowds, no hoards, of commuters complaining about:
(1) being let down by the train company,
(2) when it costs so (!) much, and
(3) what has happened to the alternative routes,
(4) why is nothing being done, and
(5) how am I going to get home.
And I thought how strange and selfish we all are in situations like that - what can the poor platform rep in Orpington do about the technical failure in Sevenoaks ? Nothing! So why have a go at him ? You shouldn't ... ... ... ... and didn't. And one more thing, whilst contemplating with 'the Boss' on how to get home, I was reminded again that all things work out for the best in the end.

Picadilly Line Saga

Well, what do you know? It is monday morning and yet again there are concerens on the supply of trains in the right direction on the Picadilly line. It seems that the delay in completion of emergency engineering works in the Northfields area fo the Picadilly line (this is between Acton Town and Heathrow Airport, please note) has caused severe delays in the running in all direction sof the Picadilly trains.

What does this mean in reality? Well, it basically means around 10-15 minute wait till a train turns up in one or the other direction, very likely NOT the direction you are going on. And then, upon arriving at Acton Town (as in my case) it meant that every 2 -3 minutes there was a train to Heathrow (!!!) but over a 40 Minute wait (!!!) for a train to Rayners Lane/Uxbridge or Ruislip. During this wait, believe it or not, there actually was a train trundling into Acton Town from who knows where, left in the siding for some 5 minutes, then back into Acton Town in the direction of Uxbridge (or Heathrow) BUT "NOT IN USE" and left standing in front of us poor, freezing (it was just about plus something degress outside) passengers on the platform for a good five minutes, before moving on without opening its doors.

The hight of London Transport Efficiency???

If we ran industrail projects and work on such a basis, can you imagine what the state of the nation would really be like?

'nuff said. And its back to work

Complexities of SAP

Those of you out there who may have only surface experience with this tremendous german software package will concure with the following:

Here I am, a simple Engineer, trying to keep a record of what Purchase Order has been set-up with one specific vendor, and to my amazement have opend up a can of worms no bird would want to swallow. Expecting to find just one reference number I have now been lumbered with at least four (Vendor Number, Contract Number, Purchase Order, Work Order) And to make things easier, I discover that this one particular vendor has actually two vendor numbers (one of which of course was wrong), with the wrong one having a contract number and a PO set up against it, as well as already having some invoices paid out too.

Confused? Well, it could only get better (or worse?). To my further amazement, having informed the data department of their error, I discover later on, that the corrections made were yet again against the wrong Vendor number. But to cut a very loooong story short, the current situation is that I have had three contracts with three different purchase orders set up for the supply of just one item from one and the same vendor. Needless to say, I hoep and pray that it will remain with this third contract. But ... .... just to reflect the cleverness of the data and accounting department, in the interim time a second Purchase Order (PO for those not in the know) was required for a second, different item from the same vendor. So what do I discover ? The wrong vendor number had again been used and the whole procedure has to be repeated again.

Hence the proverbial IT motto - if you can't do it yourself, forget it!
And with SAP you don't want to do it yourself.