Staff displacement - Ongoing dispute

Just a thought, these trains were being run empty to get stock to east end depots or sidings so that a good service can start up tomorrow , if you are short of trains in the east you move them out of service .

Presumably some were, unless it was retraining for the managers...

Wouldn't have been necessary to de-ice at 11 am?

That's right - just enough time for me to have my haircut!

If I may pick up on a comment re Staplers observations on the buses provided on the East-end of the Central Line on Thursday. The service was organised and procured by London Buses (LB) at relatively short notice. This was not a London Underground service. The intention was to provide additional assistance for the local bus network which would have been under pressure at that time and to help divert customers to alternative lines & bus routes where London Buses felt capacity existed.

Given the sensitivities of the subject, I am at pains to point out it was not a railway replacement bus service but an additional bus service operating alongside local buses. As a result we are not permitted to show the traditional RRS blinds. The EXTRA labels were provided by LB and we made A4 size destination labels for the front windows.

Given the lack of resources it would have been foolhardy to try to replace the Central lines capacity on a like for like basis. The section between Stratford and Liverpool Street is amongst the busiest on the network, and by Leytonstone W/B trains are already arriving full to capacity. There are clearly insufficient buses available to handle this level of demand and there’s insufficient space at termini’s to support the number of vehicles required.

Regarding the schedule, we surveyed the route the day prior using a bus and some of the volunteer drivers that had agreed to assist on Thursday. The outcome was a comfortable peak running time of 45mins from Epping to Chingford. Some additional time was added for safety. Unfortunately on the day this increased to 1h45m at its peak which caused the service to gap. Several traffic hotspots including the junction by Bancrofts School in Woodford added significant additional time to the journey. As a result ‘on the fly’ we seeked out alternatives using drivers knowledgeable with the area. Hence Earls Path which is perfectly suitable in a single decker bus. Although I don’t think that was perpetuated.

Clearly some lessons have been learned and we will feed this back to London Buses. I accept it may not have been perfect – but it delivered additional capacity when it was needed within the limited resource available.

Or let Dean Sullivan sort it!

Loughton and Epping have one supervisor who works from 0700-1500. Monday to Friday they also have a part time Supervisior working 0630-1030, but due to shortages these part time duties were not covered. Reading the Loughton logbook, posters regardling the extra bus services were put up approx 0745.

Incidentally, further to deansullivan's point about whether this was a railway replacement service, I checked the direction markers at the top of Old Station Rd yesterday (which are still there)--they clearly state Rail replacement buses. So there was evidently some doubt on that point.
Also, I think - but can't be sure - the whiteboard notice referred to replacement buses. It was very unclear as to whether tickets had to be bought from the machines, which were still accessible; but if these buses were "extras" to route 418/397,and not rail replacements as dean says, presumably tickets had to be bought on the bus. In fact route 418 does not accept oyster/contactless, so that might have been a bit of a problem. Or quite possibly, passengers were just waved through (I heard a discussion on this but not its outcome)
By the way, the leaving of the direction markers in place --does that imply another strike is on its way?

Yes another all lines station staff strike is on the cards, Sunday 5 Feb from 18:00 until 09:59 Monday 6 Feb, Tuesday 7 Feb from 10:00 until 00:59 Wednesday 8 Feb.

If this goes ahead this will effect services all day Monday and Tuesday. I have no information about the Drivers dispute on the Central Line if this may be ongoing .

TSSA have suspended next weeks for its Station Staff membership , again LUL are try to divide staff on Stations and Trains tactics well honed in past disputes .

I'm certain I read/heard it explicitly stated that they would not be liable for any extra cost incurred due to having to make more expensive journeys, which I thought was a bit wrong too.

Would it do that if the first journey had been in the morning peak?

if you normally use a Travelcard the bus journeys anywhere in London are free.

I certainly do; a mixture of working abroad and cycling a couple of days a week means that it's usually the best option for me.

Even if not - my other half does have a monthly travelcard so it cost her a couple of extra bob too because of the detour to zone 5 on the way in.