SPADs have shot up over the last year, rising 18% from 775 last year to a whopping 951 this year.
The cause? Well, remember Tubeworker reporting on those impractical new timetables on the Northern, Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines? Could it be that if you cram too many trains in, then drivers come up against reds more frequently, and therefore will drive through them more often?! And could it be that the stress caused by impractical timetables that make people run over their duty times doesn't help either? And here's one more suggestion - taking staff off the stations, including off SATs duties, is hardly going to reduce SPADs, is it?!
Management are obviously in a big flap about this, reckoning that SPADs cost them £6,200 a time. Tubeworker recommends that they look at the root causes, but fears that instead, we might have more gimmicks to look forward to.