Service control

Issues and struggles for London Underground Service Control

Corrective Action Plan

At Earls Court control centre, management have introduced 'corrective action plans'. A member of staff gets so many 'items' and they are hauled off by a manager to 'agree' and implement a plan.

But there was no consultation with the union, and there is no involvement of reps in the process...

Wot No Service Control?

The good news is that the RMT leadership has responded to the arguments of rank-and-file activists and agreed to an all-grades ballot against casualisation and de-staffing. This matters a lot, particularly as it is the only union with any significant membership in more than one group of grades.

The...

Licences Expired (Again)

It seems that many of the Control Room staff at Neasden have been working despite their safety-critical licensing having expired.

Management's explanation is that there has been a failure of the 'systemised management system'. Brilliant: a systemised system. What next? Safe safety? A licence to...

That's Magic

Traffic Circular 38 contained a rather odd recruitment advert. Service Controllers wanted, should have a 'bit of magic' and the ability to 'make problems disappear'!

Could this be an admission by management that mere Muggles can not operate their system? Could that be because of impractical...

Watching You

Tubeworker recommends to Endemol and Channel Four a possible venue for the next series of Big Brother - the new Waterloo & City line signal cabin.

It's got cameras pointing at the staff, though no-one seems to know who's looking at the monitors. And you have to walk through the changing room to get...

Going Home

'Tube Meltdown' screamed the newspaper headlines as this morning several lines went totally up the wall.

One upshot was that some early-turn Earls Court service control staff were held up on their way to work. Apparently, management decided that it wasn't really worth sending a taxi to get them in...

Who Put That Switch There?

Monday evening, the District Line was suspended for half an hour, H&C and Circle also suspended, and delays continued well into the evening.

The reason? Loss of train radio from Earl's Court. The reason for that? The Connect project had installed a changeover switch on the desk during the night...

MEL

MEL (manual electronic logging) at Whitechapel cabin has been withdrawn permanently. This is thanks in large part to a lot of hard work by the local health and safety rep - and a good example of what difference an effective H&S rep can make.

We are not against new technology as such but making...

MEL - yet again!

Following a SPAD at Harrow on the Hill reportedly due to Manual Electronic Logging in use in the signal cabin, MEL equipment was removed from Harrow and Whitechapel cabins. HMRI are apparently investigating - but as Tubeworker writes, MEL is being put back in, on test, with new modifications.

There...

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