Workers' Liberty

Duty sheets at Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus are showing loads of duties unfilled.

Yes, you won't believe this but drivers on the Bakerloo have been told off and told an item will go on their 'HOLISTIC RECORD' for entering Willesden Junction too slowly on the northbound causing the wrong road trainstop to raise and rear trip the train.

Management want to transfer the Willesden Junction staff to Stonebridge Park next month. All their propaganda states this. But the staff concerned have not been asked nor their rep consulted!

The ink is not dry on the stations agreement with management and they start their old tricks again.

LUL's plan to move detrainments from Willesden Junction to Stonebridge Park will whip staff out of the frying pan and toss them into the fire.

Back in early February, there was a suspected one-under at Kenton, which came to light when a Virgin train stopped short at Harrow & Wealdstone early in the morning.

It seems that staff destined for the Heathrow Terminal 5 are to be trained at Queen's Park station in detrainments.

Despite promising not to let it happen again, management have once again allowed cash to be carried on a train from one station to another on the north end of the Bakerloo line.

LUL is very proud of its new acquisitions from Silverlink. Shame it doesn't put the effort in.

While management still seem to be in denial about the dangers of detraining alone, an incident happened at Queens Park last week that should wake even them from their slumbers.

Tubeworker wonders whether duty managers actually read policies before using them to bash staff.

Mayor Livingstone commisioned a Nuclear Transportation Risk Assesment for London due to concerns about trains carrying nuclear waste through London. This was awarded to Serco Assurance Limited.

So, the marvellous Connect radio system has 'gone live' on the Bakerloo line.

Only problem is: it is affecting the volume of the PA, T-Test and DVA.

Will management ever get this right?!

Management have this policy that they can require you to produce a medical certificate from day one of sickness in certain circumstance - on public holidays, on strike days, or if you have a poor sickness record.

Occupational Health seem to have a case of hearing loss, as they appear not to be listening to Bakerloo drivers' enquiries about, erm, hearing loss.

Yesterday, the OPO equipment at South Kenton failed, and a CSA from Wembley Central was deployed to the platform to give drivers the right.

On last Wednesday's football night, a detrainment CSA was dragged the length of the platform by some blokes who were annoyed that the train wouldn't be going all the way to their destination.

A mere four days into the Silverlink transfer, and it seems that things are going wrong already.

You know LUL's claim that security guards would keep the stations safe at night?

You know when a member of the Royal Family opens a hospital or whatever (no such ceremony when one is closed, of course)? In preparation for the ribbon-cutting and baby-kissing, the management order the building to be cleaned more thoroughly than it has ever been cleaned before.

Tubeworker has had cause to comment on many previous occasions about management's somewhat eccentric schemes for reducing SPADs. But this one really takes the biscuit ... or some form of confectionary anyway.

Literally shocking, as a Bakerloo driver had to go to hospital after getting an electric shock from the Train Ready to Start Plunger in Harrow & Wealdstone Sidings.

Hospital, pah! No need to, erm, take the plunger out of commission, eh? Just keep on using it until we are sure what's wrong.

As we know, management are constantly figuring out way of reducing SPADs. They have expert analysts on the case, and no stone is left unturned in their efforts to deploy the latest scientific strategies. So a prize for innovation, please, to Bakerloo line management, for coming up with this ingenious new plan: drivers should concentrate.

In Queen's Park depot, chemicals are used to clean graffiti off trains in safe area 'A', but not in area 'B', where there is live electric current. It's a simple rule to protect cleaners' health and safety! But managemenst would rather order them to risk their safety by cleaning trains in B.

Tubeworker has told readers before about dynamic risk assessments - otherwise known as 'management making up safety procedures as they go along'.

Recently, the Bakerloo train radio failed (again) between Queen’s Park and Stonebridge Park. LUL could have followed their own rules and sent some hand-held radios up to Stonebridge, shutting down the system until a communication system was in place. But instead, they chose to do a 'dynamic risk assessment', not bother with any proper communication systems and run the trains anyway!

Would you take a drink out of this?! Well, management seem to expect Bakerloo drivers to. Who knows what germs lurk within the water dispenser in the notorious Goldfish Bowl (the drivers' step-back room on the platform at the Elephant)?! There is a horrible stink, and the fridge is appalling too.

Imagine being off sick, there's a knock on your door and ... it's a manager! That's what happened to a member of station staff on the Bakerloo centre group.

'Home visits' are supposed to happen only under certain conditions - the option of meeting at work instead, adequate notice, and the right to union representation.

Tubeworker has reported previously that the Regent's Park refurb included the physical bricking-up of the Ticket Office. It seems that this is not the only problem with it.

From 23rd May 2007, the Bakerloo line had five drivers whose Safety Critical Licences have expired, and who have also gone past their 28-day extensions. By management's own admission, they are therefore not qualified to drive trains in passenger service.

If you've got a refurb coming up at your station, watch out ... You could see it reopen minus a ticket office.

That's what awaits staff at Regent's Park, where the refurb has included designing out the ticket office. It's gone. Completely.

You know that problem of impractical new timetables on the Piccadilly line and the Northern line? Well guess what? Bakerloo too.

The SRC&C (that's some kind of safety check) for the new timetable identified that it would need seven new drivers. Management have brought in the timetable, but not the new drivers.