Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Dangerous ginger Scotsman warned by police for smoking out of a train window...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6278414.stm

Charlie for PM!

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

No doubt his Lib Dem pals will soon be rallying around claiming he doesn't have a nicotine problem. :D

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

It could be worse, he could have been having a fag in the toilet!

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

oh no, some-one is going to say 'butt', now :erm:

- bum, I just did :dozey:

- they have suction toilets in trains, now ;)

But (single t), & trying to be serious, he was a little silly, wasn't he?

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

A proper Charlie! :erm:

*looks both ways for Nug - talk about gold plated opportunity!

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

The law is, however, not totally clear on this. My local station is smoke-free despite having no buildings other than a booking office open only on weekday peaks. The rest of the time there are no staff and the breeze wafts gently up from the river. There's a public road immediately behind the platform, and I've wondered if smoking leaning over that would be illegal. Charlie would presumably have been fine if the train was moving, but smoking out of the window in a station is either illegal because smoking's banned in the train, or because it's banned in the station. Whip round for some Niquitin?

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Strangely, I noticed a sign on the tram stop, near my work, saying that smoking was banned there. Apart from a rain shelter that has one side and a roof, the platform is open, with no buildings.

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Isn't there a bi-law that prohibits smoking anywhere on the railway where there is a no smoking sign? :shrug:

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Linky
"From 6am on Sunday 1 July, smoking will be prohibited on all station concourses, ticket halls, on platforms – covered and uncovered - and footbridges and subways at station premises. Also retail and food outlets will be covered.
This will affect all 1,900 railway stations in England and also applies to railway offices - station offices, canteens and workplace areas which are covered by the legislation. However, smoking will still be permitted on most station forecourts and in (uncovered) station car parks.
......
While the legislation affects covered or partially-covered premises, the railways are using existing railway bye-laws to extend the smoke-free environment to all uncovered platforms and footbridges for reasons of practicality and simplicity."

And at the bottom of the article
"Station premises including corridors, lifts, toilets, waiting rooms, reception areas, waiting rooms and shelters etc; railway offices - No smoking
On trains - No smoking
Platforms and footbridges – covered, uncovered and partially covered; Subways - No smoking
Areas external to the station such as most uncovered car parks and station forecourts - Smoking permitted "

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

I assumed that the train was moving at the time.

That report doesn't say that it wasn't.

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

I somehow gleaned that he was leaning out of the window at a station, otherwise it would be rather difficult to light, I suspect. It's a pretty desperate addiction that forces you to hang out of the window of a moving 125, surely?

Given the number of unstaffed stations, it's a fairly silly extension, since it's fundamentally not enforceable enough to act as a deterrent. For instance, a footbridge not at a station is presumably OK, or a road bridge over a station, or leaning against the station fence or [etc.]. Full of loopholes - at which point does the forecourt become the station - at my local stop they essentially merge into each other with no barrier.

The fact that it's a railway byelaw does let Charlie off, as he wouldn't have been voting on that (we can assume that he's either familiar with the primary smokefree legislation or not doing his job properly, but he might not be familiar with the extent of the simultaneous railway extension).

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

If you use the trains regularly (which I assume he does) you know they're all non-smoking and have been for a while now. Who was the last to go GNER? There's normally announcements too so there's no excuse. :(

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

I presume he knew it was non-smoking on the train, hence the hanging out of the window on arrival at a station gasping for a fag. Unfortunately, it's now illegal to do that, too.

At Winnersh Triangle station there's an underpass (actually a normal brick rail-over-road arch) which is half shared with a public footpath (fence down the middle, usually busted at some point for a shortcut). Presumably the half that's part of the walking route between the platforms is smoke-free, while you can freely smoke a couple of 12 inch cigars on the other half.

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Are tram stops covered by railway byelaws? They aren't part of the railway.

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

"He kept puffing throughout the three-hour trip"

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

:rofl:

Then again, I just quoted the daily mail :dozey:

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Love the fact they had to use an old "slimline" picture of Charlie :rofl:

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

So on a long uncovered platform the one at my local station is totally open air and about 150 metres long i cannot smoke a ciggie lmfao what a fu*king joke. How does that fit in with the term "enclosed public spaces". I wish this government would just have the balls to totally ban smoking and make it illegal rather then this creeping bs they are doing right now.

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Not smoking on Railway property is not down to the government it's a decision taken by the rail industry. :)

They've just extended their original no smoking on trains and the new "enclosed spaces" legislation to cover all of their land so as to make it more simple for people to understand.

Personally (as a non-smoker and someone in favor of the new ban) I have no issue with people smoking on uncovered platforms but obviously ATOC and the like do. :(

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Someone on uk.railway pointed out that Charlie is a regular user of the Sleeper services to the Highlands, and these were the last trains in the UK to be smoking, in the lounge cars, so he might well have been one of the last legal train smokers in the UK.

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Addicts have been known to do far worse things than that for their fix.

From the Daily Mail article:-
"It has also been claimed that Mr Kennedy was late for an interview for BBC Newsnight last year after stepping off a train to have a cigarette.

The train reportedly left without him but his secretary and his briefcase were still on board."

Oh please let it be true :D

Re: Rebel without a nicotine patch
 

Lest we forget it is also an addiction that keeps the tax of non smokers down.