Workers' Liberty

The new 09 stock on the Victoria line is a fully automated train with fully automated door opening and closing.

We all know that a station is either Section 12 or not. It can't be Section 12 in parts, not in other parts.

The Victoria and Metropolitan lines will be closed on Boxing Day for engineering work. Management seem to think this means they can book all the drivers off on annual leave for the day.

King's Cross station closed due to overcrowding in the middle of the evening rush hour on the night that Arsenal played Newcastle. Euston became packed with their traffic so had to close as well.

From the start of the strike on Monday, LUL management accepted that they could not possibly run a safe service with all the engineering workers unavailable!

When a signal failed on the Victoria Line, the supervisor couldn't go down to secure the points because they weren't trained, leaving trains stuck in the tunnel for nearly an hour!

Management should not try to discipline this supervisor.

Reserve staff at Victoria are being refused days off, and changes of rest days, when they ask for them. There have been ridiculous stories of being refused days off for weddings in October!

After some staff complained that others were getting preferential treatment with days off, management have stepped in to ensure that everyone is being treated the same – refusing all requests!

Connect is still causing chaos. The latest is that a DMT at Kings Cross called Victoria line control, but got through to the Met instead!

Victoria station needs asbestos removal, and management's plan is that the ticket office should be relocated to a Portakabin outside the mainline station upstairs for the duration of the works.

Brixton crossover caused major problems on the Vic last week with a 10mph TSR imposed. So new points were shipped in from Spain and installed on Sunday. Just a few days later, the points failed, necessitating a Victoria-Brixton suspension during the day to replace the points motor!

Last week, there was a track failure at Seven Sisters at start of traffic, on the points coming out of the depot. The cause? Apparently in overnight maintenance, a bolt of the wrong size had been used and when the first train went over the track the block joint keeled over and failed. Result: major chaos on the Vic Line.

Union reps were surprised to stumble across a "new Victoria Line train" being tested on a recent visit to Derby. It's odd that it could get so far along the production process without our reps being consulted. You could almost suspect that Metronet and LUL are trying to sneak things past us.

Victoria line engineering work duties for last weekend and the next two weekends were posted at very short notice and didn't meet agreed rostering. Union reps at Seven Sisters agreed to work duties provided that all drivers got a one-hour meal relief. Come the weekend shamefully managers didn't honour this agreement. So the next weekend's work may not go ahead.

First, it was Victoria Line passengers trapped until 3am on the last Monday in May.

Then it was 500 trapped on the Central line for 80 minutes on a Thursday afternoon.

And for the hat-trick ... The very next day, 800 punters stuck in the pipe between Bank and Liverpool Street for more than two hours in the morning peak at 38C temperatures. They had to be given oxygen and water to counter heat exhaustion and dehydration.

150 people were trapped in the pipe between Highbury and Finsbury Park on the last Monday night in May - and the last of them did not get out until 3am, more than two-and-a-half hours after their train came to a halt. Somehow, we don't think that's what the Mayor meant by late-night running. So what happened?

It was very reassuring to read in On The Move that station closures due to staffing cuts are no longer a problem now that the new rosters have bedded in.

But this will come as a surprise to the staff and passengers at Wapping (13th May), Edgware Road Bakerloo (14th) and Victoria (15th), who had to close on successive days due to staff shortages.

Victoria Line drivers are finding themselves without help on Platform 4 at Seven Sisters. Since the stations shorter working week rosters were imposed, station staff are now unavailable to help.

This is having a knock-on effect on headway times, and management have already had to agree to the unions' demand that no driver be disciplined for delays resulting from this.

At Victoria - London Underground's busiest station - Supervisors have been cut to the bone. Control room assistants are currently unlicensed and undergoing training.

It's another triumph for PPP and sub-contracting (not). This time, a Victoria Line train travelled with open doors between stations following modifications carried out by subbies.