Funnily enough pretty much everyone who would have to work with the new staffing levels under the service control restructuring said that the proposed levels were too low, and that there would be shifts uncovered. Management confidently asserted that their calculations (based on calculations for covering station jobs) were accurate and the proposed numbers were workable.

Well surprise, surprise, there are now shifts uncovered all over the place, signal operators working overtime (don't do it - it's only when the job comes unstuck because of lack of coverage that it really comes home to managers that they NEED more people), and some cases cabins closing (even brief closures mean the service is suspended and causes big disruptions) and desks being uncovered.

The service control restructuring has been pretty shambolic all along - on the coverage issue people went on severance before replacements had been fully trained which has exacerbated the problems. The apprentices are coming back into signal cabins now, which is welcome and not before time - they were treated quite abysmally in being displaced to station jobs without any protected earnings, despite having been taken on to train for the job of signal operator and then being told (after an extensive training period) that there were no signalling jobs for them.

Whoever did the sums and imposed these numbers - and it's pretty high up in management as even some Service Control Managers would privately admit that they weren't sure what they were being given was workable, but they had been told from on high that it was the most they would get - should get a severe arse-kicking. After all signal operators and controllers have to face disciplinary procedures if we make mistakes - the same should apply to managers!