Many station groups are struggling with coverage, because of LU management's deliberate strategy of short-staffing. Now it seems that they are trying ever more madcap schemes for patching up the holes.
On the Bakerloo line, management on groups struggling to cover duties are planning to borrow staff from ... other groups struggling to cover duties! Yes, Oxford Circus group management want to offer up their staff to Wembley Central and Marylebone groups. The scheme carries the sweetener of higher-grade working for some individuals, but the longer-term damage it does to staffing levels far outweighs this.
Not only is this a desperate patch-up of a problem that can only be solved by actually employing enough people (eg. filling vacancies), it is also a taste of things to come - staff routinely working off their group, covering a whole line, just so LUL can save a bob or two by employing fewer people.
