This isn't the only GNER commuter blog anymore. On Jan 30th this year somebody else started one: -

http://www.blogstoday.co.uk/bloghome.aspx?username=longcommute

The first thing you'll notice is that the author is one hell of a lot more polite than I could ever be. I suppose they have to be as it's published on the P'boro ET web site. They seem to have some anti swearing software loaded cos I entered a comment with 2 minor swear words (bugger & sod) in it and it wouldn't accept the comment until the offending words were removed. Glad this site doesn't have such a facility or I'd be fucked. No chance of me getting a link on the ET web site either.

If you have a read, the second thing you'll notice is that this person got paid £40 for giving a talk at some focus group meeting. Good on you mate. It's good to see a little bit come back the passengers way. It's a good job they didn't ask me, Platform6 or Shahmaker or we'd have been there all night demanding far more than £40. I've also made a mental note to demand payment upfront when asked my opinion in the next survey that gets shoved in front of my nose.

Anyway. It's good to know there's another sado out there like me even if their blog isn't as good as mine. (Sorry mate. Couldn't resist it).

Thanks to the 07.20 running 25 mins late this morning, I jumped on the 07.26 FCC service. Sat opposite was a neighbour of mine and 2 mates of hers. Needless to say we got chatting about our Kids, School and all the usual crap neighbours chat about.

As we neared KX it struck me that there hadn't been any revenue protection patrol so I asked if this was normal. 'Oh, well, yes and no' was the reply. 'Some days they do, some days they don't. Some weeks they're there every morning, yet might only be there 1 day the following week and it's worse on an evening.'

What's that all about then? Do FCC really leave revenue from the ECML largely unprotected? Is this what we can expect if FCC win the franchise? Do FCC (and passengers with unstamped tickets for that matter) realise, Std open return tickets remain valid for 1 month and can therefore be used agaian and again until they're stamped or the month is up depending which comes sooner? I could be wrong on this point and perhaps one of our train readers can clarify but I'm fairly sure this is correct. Ticket! You work for FCC is this normal.