What is hacking you off today?

[Tangled up in Blue]

I have been helping older people(Usually over 75) for years when able. They are from a different age. Most don't have a smart phone and computer. Some don't have a debit card. Those that did don't understand contactless. They all prefer to use cash. Yes there are some that can use this sort of technology, and can understand it. But from my experience, about 80% are having all sorts of problems at train stations, and car parking machines, etc. They need help in purchasing their ticket.

We stayed up in town the night before our last NL game at home last season.Personally I was rather miffed (staying near Lancaster Gate station) that there was an unmanned ticket office .Had used an all day travel cards the day before but the ticket machines weren't working when all I needed was a couple of single tickets to Tower Hill.Thank God for the helpful member of staff who explained the situation and told us we could use our C/C's to travel on. Either remove redudant ticket machines or put up a notice to explain the situation.NB this was well befoire peak tourist season had started..

 

[Holy Joe]

What I don't understand on contactless on the underground is how does a Child, say a 14 year old, pay the child fare using their debit card?

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

What I don't understand on contactless on the underground is how does a Child, say a 14 year old, pay the child fare using their debit card?

My son is 13 and nearly all of his mates have bank accounts and can pay using their phone. This of course means he wants one!! I wouldn’t let him travel up to town on his own yet though. I guess in London they can get Oyster cards.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

Whilst I’m in favour of cheaper public transport, the travel cards are an anomaly as they make it cheaper for those outside London travelling in than those in London doing the same journeys in reverse.

That’s a good point. I think they should be making rail travel more affordable generally (I won’t stray into politics here!!)

 

[Holy Joe]

My son is 13 and nearly all of his mates have bank accounts and can pay using their phone. This of course means he wants one!! I wouldn’t let him travel up to town on his own yet though. I guess in London they can get Oyster cards.

I wasn't thinking of my kids on their own, but if we had a day out in London. I looked on tfl website it looks a right faff! You can either apply for a 11 15 yr old oyster but that costs £15 or you can queue up at a ticket office and ask for a oyster to be converted to a kids ticket but that only lasts 2 weeks, so would need to be repeated. For the sake of a few quid it's probably not worth it unless you go up town frequently.

There must be a better solution out there for kids!

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

I wasn't thinking of my kids on their own, but if we had a day out in London. I looked on tfl website it looks a right faff! You can either apply for a 11 15 yr old oyster but that costs £15 or you can queue up at a ticket office and ask for a oyster to be converted to a kids ticket but that only lasts 2 weeks, so would need to be repeated. For the sake of a few quid it's probably not worth it unless you go up town frequently.

There must be a better solution out there for kids!

And over 75’s. My Nan wouldn’t know how to use a station ticket machine let alone a smartphone or contactless debit card. She pays old school cash for everything. Likes to deal with real people (something I’m happy to avoid doing )

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

And over 75’s. My Nan wouldn’t know how to use a station ticket machine let alone a smartphone or contactless debit card. She pays old school cash for everything. Likes to deal with real people (something I’m happy to avoid doing )

Not just the over 75's.I'm 71 theses days and my wife clocks in at 70 (she's the one with the smart phone) but while I''m fine with the net I don't have any particular need for a mobile phone in my life.People still have to know what the situation re-travelling is from a so.-called unmanned,,ticketless station.

 

[RHB]

The weather at Old Trafford.

 

[Mad Cyril]

All of the roadworks in Benfleet.

 

[londonblue]

I went to pick my son up from a party last night. On one stretch of road, about 2.5 miles long, I had to stop at three sets of temporary traffic lights for three separate roadworks. At 11.00 at night with no other cars on the road, all three were red.

 

[RHB]

We finished painting the outside of our house about a month ago and had the best part of 20 ltrs left over. So the plan was to decant 5 ltrs to a smaller paint pot and donate the rest to the charity shop. So the deal was I pour and Mrs RHB hold the smaller pot still. So we're pouring and she moves the pot a bit, but more than enough to pour dove grey Sandtex all over my left foot which happened to be inside my favourite Under Armour trainer.

How come it's my fault she moved the pot?? FFS

 

[ESG]

All this technology and people and they still can't get the weather forecast right unless it's too bloody scorchio

 

[united we stand]

What I don't understand on contactless on the underground is how does a Child, say a 14 year old, pay the child fare using their debit card?

It’s a good question- the answer is they can’t. They need a zip Oyster card

https://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/do-kids-need-an-oyster-card#:~:text=Children%20under%2011%20travel%20free,or%20a%20Young%20Visitor%20discount.

 

[Holy Joe]

It’s a good question- the answer is they can’t. They need a zip Oyster card

https://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/do-kids-need-an-oyster-card#:~:text=Children%20under%2011%20travel%20free,or%20a%20Young%20Visitor%20discount.

Problem with that is it costs £15 admin fee. Ok (ish) if use regularly, but if a infrequent user probably not worth it. I guess point is no easy way.

 

[Mad Cyril]

The roadworks in Benfleet are beyond a joke.

Huge tailbacks ay 7pm last night.

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

The roadworks in Benfleet are beyond a joke.

Huge tailbacks ay 7pm last night.

Where are they?.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Where are they?.

A13, High Street (two lots), Kents Hill Road...

 

[hlane17]

Got a so called 'priority ticket window' for PDC World Championship Darts. All the good tickets were instantly bought up by bots. Tinpot from the PDC.

 

[Grayson]

Got a so called 'priority ticket window' for PDC World Championship Darts. All the good tickets were instantly bought up by bots. Tinpot from the PDC.

I haven't followed this year so don't know if it remained this way, but for the past few years, PDC.tv subscribers get 24 hours ahead of the mailing list 'priority' window. Well worth the £40-50 a year if want a specific night at the Worlds. We got semi-finals tickets easily every time.

I've stopped going because even semi finals night has become full of arseholes on drugs whilst paying zero attention to the game.

 

[Holy Joe]

Another corporate ripping off the taxpayer and citizens...

As UK electricity prices skyrocketed last year, Drax Group Plc was in a position to blunt Britain’s pain.

Since December 2016, a generator at the firm’s giant power plant had received £1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) in green-energy subsidies from consumers — payments above the market rate for electricity. The goal of this public aid was to make it profitable for Drax to fuel the unit with “biomass,” pellets made from wood that are considered a renewable energy source.

This expensive method for weaning Britain’s power grid off fossil fuels contained a consumer safeguard: If electricity prices ever increased enough that Drax’s “Unit 1” generator could comfortably make money without subsidies, its earnings would be capped, and the company would have to send any extra cash back to bill payers.

But when that moment came, Drax changed course. As household energy bills began more than doubling, the company slashed production at Unit 1. Idling the generator for weeks at a time — and instead using others that weren’t required to cap their earnings — has let Drax avoid sending consumers an estimated £639 million as of July, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of thousands of power market records.

Meanwhile, the company sold some of its biomass pellets at high prices on the open market, according to its public statements and to five people with direct knowledge of the biomass market. Drax posted a record £731 million in earnings last year, almost double its 2021 income.



Full article

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Not sure if behind a paywall though