Night Tube Discussion

Whilst it doesn't bother me in the slightest what other people's political opinions are and whether or not they appear on here, I do find myself in the unusual position of actually seeing where RT is coming from.



Again, while I don't really care either way, these are the rules that he's correctly alluded to:

(4a) Foul language, extremist, political or religious views, racism, and sexual/gender orientation is not allowed: the forum holds neutral views on all these topics. Foul language, obscene images, sexually related jokes, personal attacks, aggressive posting, etc. are not acceptable here.
(4b) This forum operates a policy whereby if it's not suitable for a 13-year-old or younger to read, it is not suitable for this forum.

May I respectfully suggest that in consideration for those members that prefer moderation by the book you either apply rule 4a, as detailed above, with vigour or amend it to add the caveat that political views are allowed provided they are civil and balanced?

Anyway, to add further balance and to sail precariously close to breaking the same rule (re: foul language) I'd like to add that the whole lot of them, Crow, Johnson, Tories, Labour and Uncle Tom Cobley are a total bunch of.............

I don't have a problem with the term 'special service', it pre warns passengers that there is not a normal service. But to say the Northern line is operating a good service (which is incidentally every 4 minutes) and I had to wait 30 minutes is pure propaganda. As I said in my earlier post, management have been lying from the very start, fobbing off staff concerns as to what actually their plans are. Bits and pieces come each out day, but invariably it's 'we'll get back to you'.

Clearly the underground needs to change, but getting rid of 750 jobs when demand for travel is going through the roof is not a great idea.

As for Boris saying only 3% of tickets are issued by ticket offices, that's still 100,000 every day, based on the 3 million daily journeys. Something he doesn't mention.

I can only speak in what I see at work and when I'm travelling outside work, is that the ticket offices are always busy.

For management to have so much faith in ticket machines, ok 150 new machines are coming, shows how out of touch they are with the sharp end of the 'business'. The ticket machines now are notoriously unreliable. Software glitches, mechanical failures. Coin and note jams are commonplace. 150 new machines won't replace all the current machines. The company clearly wants to go contactless, so when there is a problem with a card, we will only be able to refer the passenger to their bank, which is very poor service. No doubt assaults will go up, that's ok though we will have a new uniform and a refurbed ipad, which in some dodgy areas will make us as staff feel very unwary.

Yes. My opinion of TfL has certainly gone down because of the way they have presented themselves to their customers during this dispute, but perhaps that is like blaming a dog for the behaviour of its master.

As to whether this thread should be locked, the Moderators probably realise that if they do lock it, one of us will just start another one. I think the rubric banning political discussion is ultimately unsustainable: better to allow it in one section only and warn people that they will find "robust" views there. Mind you, what do I know? I've been banned from two internet forums - once for saying to another member that I thought his comments about me were defamatory and once for advising a (female) member that if she thought my suggestion that she needed counselling constituted sexual harassment she should report me to the Moderator! I've always had a glass chin...

All of us need to remember that this Forum is private property and we should be prepared to accept the consequences of saying things we wouldn't say in someone else's front room.

Yes, there was consultation (of sorts) through 'Every Journey Matters' workshops.

However, this wasn't formal consultation with the trade unions which is the accepted normal way of doing things.
The results from the EJM workshops are being used to suggest that staff are in favour of the plans, but everything I've seen suggests the outcome of the workshops was an agreement on change but not the nature of the change.

Prior to the "company plan" there was staff consultation. it involved the Group Manager taking staff aside individually and asking ten questions as to what a passenger wants and you had to put the answers in order. Typically the top answer was more trains, middle was about cleanliness and last was ease of buying a ticket.

The result was obvious as you answered the questions, and I was a Chief Clerk, that more trains was the priority and the ticket office days were numbered. Only the technology stopped them closing years ago. They effectively have in outer London already.

Even with staffing at the current levels we get incidents like this:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560778/Horrifying-CCTV-footage-shows-drunken-brawl-broke-train-moments-man-20-crushed-death.html


OK, not the Tube, but the same PTI dangers.

New strikes have been announced for April 28th for two days and May 5th for 3 days

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27069391

The RMT's release about their reason for calling another set of strikes reveals somewhat of a disappointing response from management regarding their station by station review. It seems that they are still trying to press on with a four-sizes fits all approach and stiff people over the pensions and salaries.

Group of us looking at taxis at the moment. Whilst you are correct to say that Heathrow Express and Connect will both be running, we've got to get from Liverpool Street to Paddington first! If last time is anything to go by, who knows how long we could be waiting to get on an (almost certainly) already overloaded bus...with both normal sized and over sized luggage!

Thanks for the tip about Willesden Junction, might be worth exploring as the relevant bus route may be quieter than those in the central area (quieter to the extent we may actually have a fighting chance of boarding the first bus, that is!)

No need to go to Liverpool Street or Paddington: Hackney Downs/ Hackney Central, or Stratford are both possible interchanges between Greater Anglia services and the Overground (depending which line into Liverpool Street you are using). As I said this can get you to close to a Great Western Main Line station although I had overlooked that, as so a further change at Ealing Broadway would be necessary. (Neither strike covers a Sunday, so I assume Acton ML will be open on the day you are interested in.) Heathrow Connect is also half-hourly and the journey AML to Heathrow, including the connection, is 41 minutes. There are also direct buses from Acton High Street - round the corner from Acton Central Overground station - to Ealing Broadway, which is served by Heathrow Connect, and would probably be easier)

Another possibility is to walk up the road from Liverpool Street to Shoreditch High Street. This has no direct service to Willesden and Acton Central, but does go to Clapham Junction, from where you can take SWT to Feltham and then the 285.

Yes, it will take longer than nipping round the Circle Line. Bonne chance.

But whether or not the strike lasts 3 days sseems to be unknown. Some people are suggesting that by the 3rd day an almost normal service will be operating on all lines because the striking staff might baulk at the idea of losing 3 days pay

This is quite possible, however remember that it's not necessarily the objective of the strike to cause disruption to passengers. Indeed, it could be argued that less disruption caused would actually serve to avoid losing public support. Getting the publicity and disrupting the internal workings of the business are as much of a result as is needed for a strike to be regarded as successful.

There does come a point where one has to say that if Mr Brown is evidently incapable of implementing change without upsetting staff on mass, perhaps it's time to get rid of him and bring in someone who can achieve that?