Saturday 16 January 2016


It’s quiet.  Too quiet.  Apart from a brief quote in the Standard from Our Man Finn describing yesterday’s talks as “useful” and that there will be more talks next week we’ve heard nothing so fingers crossed, no news is good news and we’re actually moving towards settling the Night Tube/pay deal.  There’s an interesting article by Finn in The Morning Star because obviously no other paper is interested in telling our side of the story.


Meanwhile the Heavy Overhaul is underway and the first evidence is……….the air vents.  If you’ve been on the Central Line you may have noticed that the air vents behind the seats have grown fins however this is not a homage to 1950s Cadillacs or Ford Zephyrs but to stop them being blocked when passengers leave their Metros behind.  What you probably won’t have noticed is unlike the old vents that were vertically straight these ones sort of zig-zag with a little shelf halfway down to catch anything small enough to fall through.

The real important bit of the Heavy Overhaul will be replacing the DC motors with AC which will eliminate flashovers and reduce the number of trains going out of service although as that will only reach the “Pre Tender” stage in June or July we’ll probably still be suffering from a shortage of serviceable trains for a few more years.  I suppose as this is the Heavy Overhaul this could be called the Great Pre Tender ……........or maybe not.

1 comment:

  1. Pic line and Propaganda:

    Train develops severe door problems and opens whilst running to Heathrow on Saturday morning.
    No-one hurt. Train not stripped just "checked".

    Train Operators refuse to take trains in service unless adequate checks and the issue with that train is identified. No point checking all trains if you don't know whats wrong with the problem train.

    Management "Think" they know what the issue was but insist everything is ok, lets sweep this under as a one-off.

    Except the BBC site shows this happened before in 2013 and has happened a number of times in the past few years thanks to TFL/LU's decision not to deliver new Pic Stock.

    BBC reported this fairly mentioning the train door issue but City A.M and probably the Standard will go with "No Train Operators Available; The fookin greedy bastards"

    Performance manager and drivers having strong words at Acton. Drivers, (esp. new ones) told they lose pay and should "Leave LU Premises"

    -

    Emergency talks called. Also talks at ACAS next week. I think with 3 dates announced, a deal could be done before any action or at the most after 1 day of action.

    Crazy.

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