LUL All Grades Strike

[bramling]

Siding would require three, wouldn't it?

Siding isn’t an option, as there’s no signalled move out of it towards the southbound platforms. The loop can, post Battersea, be used, but requires the driver to change ends twice, so more bother than its worth. It may also be the case that some drivers might claim to be unfamiliar with the loop bi-di move, with it being a relatively new move and with the scarcity of training during Covid.

 

[pelli]

Just a quick question... Is it some kind of industry standard to represent the closed parts of the network in full colour and the open parts in grey?

(Quite a few passengers I spoke to on my local picket line yesterday had come to the station based on misunderstanding this online map.)

There is a menu option where you can select whether to colourize the disrupted sections or the undisrupted sections (see attachment). From a presentation standpoint the colour should be for whichever there is less of (so that the dull grey bits are not drowned out by the vibrant coloured bits), and most of the time most of the network is not disrupted, so it makes sense that the default setting is that colour indicates the disruptions.

I guess fundamentally the problem is that the two colour options are "vibrant line colour" or "dull grey", which are ambiguous as to which one means normal operation and which one means disrupted. Maybe "dull line colour" for normal and "dashed vibrant line colour" for disrupted would work better to both highlight disruptions avoid ambiguity in meaning.

 

[Mawkie]

There is a menu option where you can select whether to colourize the disrupted sections or the undisrupted sections (see attachment).

Ah, thanks for that. I was looking at their mobile phone screens, and I didn't recall seeing that option. In fact, I just had a look at that disruption map on my own mobile and it is a woeful experience.

 

[VauxhallandI]

Just a quick question... Is it some kind of industry standard to represent the closed parts of the network in full colour and the open parts in grey?

(Quite a few passengers I spoke to on my local picket line yesterday had come to the station based on misunderstanding this online map.)

Indeed this confused me

 

[pelli]

In fact, I just had a look at that disruption map on my own mobile and it is a woeful experience.

I just tried that too, and indeed it is. After "Live map" is pressed the map fills the screen and the only buttons available are the zoom buttons. There is no menu option to swap colours, and there is no obvious way to close the map to refer to the text again to find out in what way the colourised lines are disrupted (or indeed find out whether colour means disrupted or undisrupted!). My instinct to press the back button to exit the map instead sends me to whatever page I was looking at earlier and I then have to go in to the options to press forward again to get back to the page. (A "workaround" is to swipe downward to reload the page...)

 

[A Challenge]

Does Moorgate/Liverpool Street Crossrail require both stations staffed, only Moorgate, only Liverpool Street or can it be either staffed?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

All lines still showing as suspended at 07:00



The TfL webpage is suggesting travel after 8am so giving themselves just 60 minutes from now to introduce the full advertised service

I also wonder what time TfL mean when they say beginning of the day 5am, … 6am …. 7am …. what time do they define as beginning

Strikes

Strike page

tfl.gov.uk

I think that'll be to do with shift times; isn't the usual wording for a strike something along the lines of the strikers not signing on for shifts which start during the hours of the dispute rather than for a strict 00.01 to 00.00 strike period?

 

[westv]

Any more of these currently scheduled?

There is then.

 

[Mojo]

Does Moorgate/Liverpool Street Crossrail require both stations staffed, only Moorgate, only Liverpool Street or can it be either staffed?

Only Moorgate, although if Liv St was closed then access would not be possible via the main ticket hall off the NR concourse.

All lines still showing as suspended at 07:00



The TfL webpage is suggesting travel after 8am so giving themselves just 60 minutes from now to introduce the full advertised service

I also wonder what time TfL mean when they say beginning of the day 5am, … 6am …. 7am …. what time do they define as beginning

Strikes

Strike page

tfl.gov.uk

All lines resumed service just after 07.00 as trains had been running empty since start of traffic and hence could advertise a good service straight away.

Remember this was not a normal strike and only affected station staff, so all early turns this morning would have booked on as usual, the reason for the 07.00 start up was that the night shifts from last night would not have booked on, and hence the supervisors and customer service managers that would have been on the night shift last night may not have been present until the early turns today booked on.

In an all grades strike you may have been potentially missing all, or any combination of train operators, service controllers, signallers, depot staff, and others, missing, meaning that trains would not have potentially even been in the right places; however this was not the case today.

 

[PeterC]

Indeed this confused me

Me too

 

[Snow1964]

It has now emerged that Bernadette Kelly (a senior civil servant) has formally written to TfL about the lack of plans for pension going forward. The plans were supposed to have been during this 4 month funding settlement (which expires next week). TfL had been intending to take nearer 18 months to report

TfL funding crisis deepens with fresh row over pensions reform

The DfT permanent secretary has accused London's transport commissioner of failing to provide a recommendation for long-term pensions reform, Sky News learns.

news.sky.com

Reading between the lines it appears the staff that have been guided by their union to strike next week because of pension reform might have shut themselves in the foot, as all they will achieve is a worse financial bailout from the Government which puts more jobs at risk and increases the amount that pension scheme in current form is unaffordable

Having checked back through the bailout (which was extended on similar terms) it is there in section 8d (see link) that pension fund proposals were a condition

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/tfl-extraordinary-funding-and-financing-settlement-letter-1-june-2021.pdf

 

[endicomark69@g]

One might wonder just what this "laser-like" focus on the Pension Fund by the Dft/Tory Govt (very little difference between the two these days it seems) is actually for?

Who knows something we publicly don't?

After all this is a Govt that can spaff away 11 £Billion on stuffing-up it's interest payments scheduling and only "notice" when the Financial Press digs into the matter.

Laser-like focus isn't usually their thing it's fair to say.

 

[Mawkie]

Reading between the lines it appears the staff that have been guided by their union to strike

I've corrected that for you...

The union has been guided by the staff.

The independent pensions review found the pension to be over funded, and that TfL had recently reduced the amounts it paid into the fund (they were previously paying a high amount due to a payment holiday).

We on this forum, and those within TfL, know exactly where tha blame for this 'unaffordability' claim lies and it is nothing to do with TfL financial management. I would say that TfL are in a difficult position - they're being manipulated by central government. If there any lines to be read between, it's that there is no real will within to TfL to take on the unions for a made up fight from government.

 

[Snow1964]

Decided to post the latest TfL Finance report here as it includes some of the latest data

page 23 (pack page 26) for period 2 shows that Underground had income of £340m, but cost £348m to run, so lost money

Tube journeys are 75% of pre- pandemic levels, up from 65% at the end of last year. Passenger income is £334m in the year to date, (£6m) lower than Budget; journeys are slightly up on Budget, but ticket yield is lower than expected where we have seen a reduction in peak journeys (from 52% before the pandemic to 46%) and higher levels of contactless daily capping.

page 6 (pack page 9) has notes on staff

TfL staff levels are now over 400 lower than pre-pandemic levels and are down from the end of last year, mainly driven from lower permanent headcount.
Permanent employee numbers are 500 lower than before the pandemic and are almost 200 down from last year; ongoing labour market issues and funding uncertainty are hampering our ability to recruit; agency and NPL staff have increased slightly since the end of 2019/20 but remain significantly lower than 2015/16.
The organisation is facing a high number of leavers (averaging around 170 employees per period), labour market challenges, and significant reward constraints.

If 170 staff are leaving every 4 weeks, the leaving rate is 42/week

For anyone interested in what is happening with pensions, it is on page 15 (pack page 18) and says the final report (required under the funding agreement) was delivered to HM Government in March

https://board.tfl.gov.uk/documents/b2598/Supplementary%20Agenda%20Wednesday%2022-Jun-2022%2010.00%20Finance%20Committee.pdf?T=9

 

[Snow1964]

The latest TfL Board (remuneration committee) papers are now published. Strangely for an organisation that claims to be skint, there is a list of 127 approvals (since last meeting) for posts where the salary is over £100k.

See appendix 2 on attached link

https://board.tfl.gov.uk/documents/g687/Public%20reports%20pack%20Wednesday%2006-Jul-2022%2010.00%20Remuneration%20Committee.pdf?T=10