Metropolitan line

A new manager comes in, wants to make a name for himself, clamps down on overtime, interferes with established ways of ensuring coverage, and guess what happens?

Yup. Not enough control staff to run the subsurface and Piccadilly lines last night. No problems for our intrepid new guvnor: the control room equipment can run itself! No, it can't. Still no problem: the staff can work through their meal reliefs. Er, no they can't.

Result: job up wall.

Whatever the S in S Stock stands for it's certainly not Simple Seats.

The driver's cab has a lovely new seat but it has a complex mechanism - in fact, several complex mechanisms! - for adjusting its height, footrest and distance from the handle.

This would not be a problem if only management had bothered to provide training for drivers in how to operate it to ensure that it is ergonomically correctly positioned.

A GLA report has revealed the rip-off which saw TfL £886m out of pocket after awarding contract to Bombardier which it could not fulfil.

Not only that, but the terms of the contract meant that when Bombardier jumped ship, TfL had to pay it for the money it had spent rather than the work it had done. And all this leaves the sub-surface upgrades delayed by years.

The money lost about 20 times the annual saving that Fit for the Future - Stations is due to achieve. Massive job cuts, ticket office closures, ... and all the money saved gets chucked down the drain.

Yesterday morning, the job really did go right up the wall.

We reported just a few weeks back about lumps of concrete falling onto tracks and endangering life and limb. That time, it was on the Central Line, this time it's the Met/H&C.

The falling rock fouled the juice rails and the running rails, and it was only the alertness of a track workers that prevented a potentially-disastrous derailment.

The agreed drivers' prep list for S Stock trains takes 16 minutes. It's been timed by managers and union reps together, and that's the time it takes. So that's the time that should be built into drivers' duties to prep the train, right?

You might think so, but management have other ideas. They would much rather have the driver sprint through the train taking a cursory glance at the prep items, so the train can get out on the road as soon as possible. It's all part of the master plan to employ as few people as possible to run the train service, no matter the consequences.

So Neasden Met depot finally got its new walkboards, needed because the south dock was too short for the trains. Only problem is ...

They are riddled with holes and gaps, there is ballast lying around everywhere, and management somehow forgot the Limited Clearance boards!

Tubeworker recommends that if you need to walk through the station, then do. and if that means your train departs late, then hopefully that will concentrate management's minds ...

Early one morning last month, a driver had to tip out a train alone after it stalled at Croxley. Where were the station staff?

Once again, management had failed to arrange cover for station duties. This time, they had left the night turns at both Croxley and Chorleywood uncovered. A helpful DSM opened the stations then left them unstaffed, depositing the keys at Rickmansworth and texting the early turn Supervisors!

Tubeworker has already reported on London Underground's attempts to cut the frequency of essential fleet safety checks with its daft and reckless 'maintenance optimisation' policy. Now the company has come up with another daft scheme to save money with scant regard to safety - this time, on the Metropolitan line.