Jubilee Line Punctuality "Officers"

No massive waste of yout ticket money - apart from the fetching pink HiVi's.

They are Duty managers and they've been told that they have to spend the peak on the relevant Jubilee Line platform, to respond to any problem quicker than the station supervisor who may have other priorities.

Another London Underground waste of money. One wonders at times if the company goes out of their way to make staff feel as stupid as possible.

Needless to say this initiative will not last long, as someone will realise that it's not good PR to have a load of staff very visibly standing around not doing very much.

Actually, it probably has a negative impact on the service in the long run - for these staff probably have other tasks that they also need to be getting on with. And whilst they're standing around on a platform doing nothing they can't get on with any useful work.

There have been so many incidents on the Jubilee line lately that where a Duty Reliability Manager is supposed to be present, half the time they're stuck at one end of the line, and then when they do turn up, depending on who it is, some of them actually make the problem worse through lack of experience or lack of actual rolling stock knowledge. Most of the more knowledgeable Duty Manager Trains staff I can think of who know all their stock and how the line operates ended up getting stuck with desk jobs on other lines during the restructuring of the DMT role. Surely, during a period where the Jubilee line is going through much change and transition, you'd want to keep your most experienced hands? I think LU shot themselves in the foot on that one, and it shows.


I wouldn't go that far. In fact, their impact is diddly-squat, because half of the time they're trying to get out of this duty to go hide in their offices during peak times. Their rosters now usually have a slot during the morning or evening peak that says one of them has to man the platforms. I'm all for duty managers being out and available during busy periods; there are already far too many DSMs attached to some station groups, and half of them are unavailable to the staff when it is needed anyway either through x amount suddenly having the same designated rest day, despite their being four or even five DSMs per station group. They're also an extra visible member of staff that can make more use of themselves during service disruption by actually helping the team and the passengers instead of, again, holing themselves up in their dens.

How it can be justified that a member of station staff can walk into an office and find four duty managers sitting there in the office doing naff all is beyond me. There's already an admin grade to sort out our duties and general day to day stuff, so that's one less thing for them to worry about. Even now I struggle to think of what these "middle" managers do half the time, because they certainly don't do anything useful, and in most cases are quite obstructive when you're going out of your way to be productive. (I've asked for them to order a new vinyl sign that goes above the ticket machines – because one set of machines has an incorrect sign saying the machines take bank notes when they don't, causing some confusion with some customers. I have to keep mentioning it to at least one manager a week, because it has been 3 months since I originally requested, in writing, that an order be put through. They must be so pressed for work right now that they haven't had the time to order this one vinyl decal.)

As Stig already mentioned, most of the people who have been given this role, who aren't already Duty Reliability Managers, are Duty Station Managers. So it's not costing the Underground any more money than what they spend already keeping these people on the payroll (oh – and the cost of the pink hi-vis, which most of them are refusing to wear anyway).

Someone has uploaded a YouTube clip today about the Jubilee line staff: It also makes reference to District Dave's Forums!

We could have done with these good people on the Jubilee Line last night (Saturday 4th June). But of course, being a weekend, they were nowhere to be seen, because on the Underground weekends don't count in any of the management reporting.

Auntie Diana has been off around London with yet more visitors from overseas again. Walked through Hyde Park, and were going from Knightsbridge back home through Canning Town at about 8 pm, so Piccadilly Line to Green Park. And as we get to Green Park there's a long announcement about "Closed ...... Victoria Line ..... planned ..... (I had seen about that) ..... Jubilee Line ...... Waterloo ..... ". What was that? Didn't sound like the usual mumble about Good Service. It was just being repeated as we came to stop at the station, fortunately. Jubilee Line all closed between Waterloo and Finchley Road because of a power failure.

I write fortunately because we could have hardly got out, let alone back in again, because of the huge crowds on the platform at Green Park, with only one of the three lines there working. Many people there didn't manage to get in. So on we go to Piccadilly Circus, which now seemed even busier that it normally is on Saturday, onto a packed Bakerloo train to Waterloo, and the long march there through that tunnel that goes on for ever. Huge numbers of people going both ways. To the crowded Jubilee Line platform, where the next train is - 14 minutes. With a second one at 15 minutes. Fortunately that was just wrong, about 5 minutes later an empty train came along.

When we got home, later, I looked at the information on the TfL website to find they now had a second problem, this time it was a broken down train, and instead of not working to Finchley Road it was all closed from Waterloo to Stanmore. And at Waterloo and Canning Town there were waits for the next train even worse than when we were there.

Just out of interest, it's Sunday morning as I write this (visitors still sleeping), so I have another look at the website. This time it's Planned Engineering Works that have closed half of the line. But on the other half, our half, there are huge long gaps, and then trains all squashed up together, like 2-12-14 minutes.

I have a suggestion for the good people in the pink jackets, and that is that you leave behind your nice weekend garden barbecues, or your Sunday morning lie-ins, and come and see what it is really like on the Underground in the centre of London at those times, alongside the poor regular staff like 3.1 writing here, who have to face this constantly. Because I think that as management you really do not understand what it is like, you think the rush hour is the only thing to be managed. You could try this at Green Park for example :

"Where are you going? The O2 at North Greenwich? And you're now worried about being late because the Jubilee Line has been suddenly shut? Oh well, you'll have to go the long way round. You know, it's a real shame you didn't decide to go to Cockfosters for the evening instead. Why? Oh, because there's a GOOD SERVICE there. Never mind, you'll know next time".

Yesterday evening's problem was due to a train discarding a current collector shoe somewhere near Green Park and the shoe damaged the CBTC cable. By the time it was all sorted out it was almost 10 pm. Then.....oh never mind....

I'm really dreading the day when TBTC comes to the Northern Line.

It may be okay when everything's working fine, but experience thusfar on the Jubilee does seem to suggest the system is insufficiently flexible and resilient for the needs of London Underground.