I took a Westbound Circle Line from Westminster to Victoria at about 23:15 today. Also just three minutes before my train as i was coming on to the platform a Westbound District Line was departing. On the opposite Eastbound platform there was also a train departing when i arrived and then another one three minutes later when my train came. So at 23:15 there was still both Circle Line and District Line trains running every few minutes at least on the Central London section.
When i checked the departure boards online later it seemed to be very little running at 23:30 and by 23:45 there was nothing left. So it seems that both the Circle Line and District Line actually finished between 23:30 to 23:45 this evening which is much later than they advertised. This is only about 60 or 70 minutes earlier than the usual last trains. I wonder if they knew the trains would finish then but said a much ealier time just to encourage people to travel earlier and not leave it to the last minute.
They were saying online and at stations that it was due to a shortage of control room staff. But this had me wondering why they do not work out the rotas so that the controllers work until the last trains. Getting the night shift controllers to cover the last 60 or 70 minutes of trains seems a bit of a poor way to do the rotas as then you have issues like this with trains having to finish early when there are staff shortages. I am no expert on the workings of LU so maybe they have their reasons but i would think scheduling the evening shift controllers to work until the last trains have finished before the night shift takes over would be better to prevent things like this from happening.
It wouldn’t really work, as the controller has many responsibilities through the night. In particular, switch off of traction current, and overseeing any engineers trains that are running, and any engineering works that require a possession. There’s also planning for the start of traffic, so for example if one depot can’t supply the right number of trains for start of traffic then the controller will plan how to bring them in from elsewhere. Same for planning how trains will be cancelled if drivers aren’t available. Night time isn’t necessarily a quiet time for controllers, in fact it can be very busy on occasions.
The real problem with LU is simply poor leadership and management. Service control recruitment is just one part of this. It’s very easy for things to be blamed on Covid and the last government (this isn’t to say there aren’t elements of truth to this), but a lot of LU’s problems are rather closer to home.
Its all rather unfortunate as over the 2010s there had been some genuine efforts to improve the reliability of LU, which were bearing fruit - all this has now gone to waste, and it’s particularly frustrating as having spent a fortune resignalling several lines, replacing old equipment on stations and renewing several train fleets, things should be much better than a generation ago, but they aren’t.
