Management's obsession with getting every bit of kit on the Underground to operate and maintain itself is reaching an ever-shriller pitch. Their latest wheeze is a claim that new trains can prepare themselves for service automatically: 'auto-prep'.
Improved technology is, of course, welcome. But management's plan is to use this a pretext to get rid of fleet staff. So the train preps itself, with no actual human to oversee or check it. What on earth could go wrong?! Ahem: mechanical failures, leading to train failures, leading to safety risks, ...
This is among several issues that have led fleet workers to call on RMT to ballot them for strikes and action short of strikes. VOTE YES!
Meanwhile, drivers may like to reflect on the possibility that a company that thinks that trains can prepare themselves may also convince itself that they can drive themselves.
