A Bumpy Ride?

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

Another section of the Northern Line automatic signalling system goes live within a couple of weeks and passengers might be in for a bumpy ride!

The speed set by the system is either fast or slow with nothing in between, so the train either lunges forward or grinds to a crawl.

Despite the millions spent, some drivers have said they will drive in manual as it makes for a more pleasant travelling experience for the passenger.

What an irony! New technology has made drivers more necessary than ever for passenger comfort! Where does that leave Boris' ambition for driverless trains?

But problems and glitches with new technology cannot be the basis of our opposition to driverless trains. If bosses are determined enough, they will spend money to make technology work. And when bosses iron out technical glitches, we don't want to be left without an argument.

So we should base our opposition to driverless trains on our demand for jobs. The demand to stop driverless trains is about putting our need for jobs ahead of the capitalists' logic of using technology purely as a means of making us redundant and reducing our pay and our power.

The campaign should not wait until it's too late to fight, as the example of Helsinki's driverless Metro tells us. As soon as we find out that the first train is being commissioned, we need to launch a campaign.

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