ASLEF District Line action

They will always do that where possible looking at this morning the wimbledon road seems to be suffering more

That’s where the Picc comes in handy

There wouldn’t be except saying severe delays

Depends on the service patten which they introduced

There was a special timetable in operation today to the exact details of it I wouldn’t know

Earl's Court drivers were balloted, 125 were eligible but only 63 voted (50.4%), 49 Yes (77.8%), 14 No (22.2%). Unfortunately 49 votes is only 39.2% of 125 and the Trade Union Act 2016 requires 40% support for industrial action "in important public services". ASLEF are re-balloting and hoping that more members will vote next time

www.aslefdistrict8.org/single-post/2018/04/12/Earls-Court-drivers-vote-to-strike-But-the-law-says-they-cant-

Hopefully management start talking or the next strikes could be a lot worse for the west end of the line, the whole District Line and finally the whole network

Don't mess with ASLEF!

I understand moves to ATO lines is now frowned upon - by both union and LU. Firstly it means people potentially get fast-tracked on movements ahead of people on the transfer list, thus being seen as a reward for poor performance. Secondly it means the ATO lines get lumbered with problem people, which a greater than proportionate amount of multi-SPAD drivers seem to be.

'ASLEF are re-balloting and hoping that more members will vote next time' - does this mean that one party to a dispute can just keep balloting until they get the result they want or is there a limit to how often a ballot can be called? (A genuine question based on my ignorance as I have never been directly involved in Union matters, as either a worker or as a manager).

As an outsider, I find this transfer to an ATO line business very surprising. Not everyone has the skills, including concentration, needed to be a train operator. Not having those skills doesn't make you a bad person. But you need to move aside and let the one of LU's many other candidates take your place as a driver. I find it worrying that someone who's not got what it takes to drive on a manual line might next be driving manually on an ATO line in degraded conditions because the s**t has hit the fan somewhere.

Although it didn't involve signals, I'm reminded of that Victoria line incident in which a driver was clearly under pressure due to door issues on the new trains and ended up overriding things and driving away with passenger doors open, if I recall correctly.

In order to get to this stage the driver would have been through the entire selection process, undergone 4 months of training, passed all the relevant testing and been considered by the IOps/trainers as fit to drive a train.  In the past LUL haven't been keen on wasting time and money on training people as drivers only to get rid of them.  Up until now the redeployment to ATO line system has worked and some drivers have returned to manual lines after a period on ATO.

Everybody makes mistakes.  I've been a driver on the Central Line and W&C since 2003, I've had two SPADs and I've opened the doors on the wrong side once.  Mistakes happen, its what you do afterwards that matters, as this driver was not disciplined it suggests that they did things by the book and didn't "aggravate" the SPADs which undoubtedly would have led to them being sacked.

The last driver to aggravate a SPAD at my depot had been on the job for around 30 years, management allowed them to retire without disciplining them and possibly affecting their pension.  Maybe we're lucky at Leytonstone cos Acton Town's management have started a war!

First post in some time but having read through this thread I couldn't resist adding my thoughts.

Apologies to aslefshrugged as it looks like I've picked on you - nothing personal meant; its just that you've raised some points I wanted to answer.....


The driver that had the three SPAD's was an Acton Town (District) driver and so it's their local Union rep that has insitigated the dispute.


That option is only offered to established drivers and will very much depend on what's led to the point where redeployment is on the table. Its not an automatic right of passage.


With the greatest of respect, that is a poor attitude to adopt.

Passing a signal at danger is a safety critical error and is rightly dealt with and recorded on one's staff file as such. By the very nature of the name of the error, you are taking your train (and its passengers) into danger. To say its not really a bad thing cos the signalling system will stop you is not a particularly proffesional way of going about the job IMO.


This did happen after the first two SPAD's and is not disputed.


So what do you do with someone who has reached the threshold for SPAD's (or indeed any type of safety critical error) and is considered no longer suitable to drive trains?


I feel its worth pointing out that as an Instructor Operator if I have a weak trainee - one that I feel will not make a good train operator - I can raise my concerns till I go blue in the face.....they will still get their road test. They are then judged solely on how they perform during the road test - any concerns I raise beforehand are not taken into account on road test day. A poor trainee can pass their road test if they manage to catch a lucky break with the questions they face and fully concentrate for the hour or so they have to drive.

I've even had a situation where I and another instructor both independantly raised our concerns. New drivers get a practice road test two weeks before their final road test - this also highlighted issues. That's three independant individuals raising concerns. The final road test still went ahead as booked.

My point is poor performers are given plenty of rope to prove they're not cut out for the role. Obviously none of us are party to the full details leading up to the current dispute, but I'd urge caution if anyone is assuming the individual at the heart of this dispute 'must have proved themselves competent' during their training or final road test.

As for the ATO thing.........again this is something offered to established drivers but even then its not a right of passage.

ATO is not always the magic answer - particularly in the case of a new driver that has had a number of safety critical errors and hasn't shown the right aptitude for the role of train operator. Three SPAD's in 11 weeks........if that dosen't ring alarm bells.......what does?!

On National Rail, the consequence of a SPAD is potentially much more serious because on most of the network, there is no way to bring the train to an automatic halt if the driver should inadvertently or subconsciously cancel the warning.

Take a look back to the first page of the thread.