On 24 May, 12:50, Mizter T wrote:
On May 24, 12:23*pm, MIG wrote:





On 24 May, 12:14, "Paul Scott" wrote:

"Mizter T" wrote:

Good news. It's the physical manifestation of some outlandish plans,
in fact. But I think it'll genuinely serve a purpose, and will quickly
become a routine part of London's transport infrastructure - indeed,
half of it already was, but the annexation of the defunct alignment
into Broad Street (defunct no longer) really means the old ELL route
can realise some of its until now unexploited potential.

Not everyone's happy, it seems:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8700136.stm

Is this just the fag end of some dispute the RMT were having about whether
it should be tube or rail, from about 5/6 years ago?

There was an RMT campaign, although not a dispute as far as I know,
about the fact that this was the first bit of LU to be privatised and
had ominous implications. *Ken claimed that it wasn't privatisation,
and then admitted that it was.

I don't recall him "admitting is was". Depends how one defines
"privatisation", but I didn't really regard the changes to the ELL as
being that, not as such at least. But maybe that's just the angle I
was looking at it from. I suppose I can sort of understand the RMT's
concerns that it could represent the thin end of the wedge.

There was certainly a lot of unhappiness about the successful and
popular public service operation run by LU being replaced according to
what was very topically at the time seen as a failed franchise model
for NR.


Among the issues were that a lot had been spent by LU on new
facilities that were never going to be used by LU and were a gift to
the private operator.

That's simply nonsensical. The infrastructure is owned by London Rail,
part of TfL - all that's happened in that sense is that it's been
transferred from one bit of TfL to another. LOROL didn't build the new
elements of the line, and nor are they going to maintain it either.
And if TfL did decide to award the operating concession to another
company in the future, then LOROL aren't going to rip out the staff
loos or whatever when they leave, not least because said loos wouldn't
be theirs to take.

I think it was specifically around brand new staff facilities which
were paid for by LU immediately before the line closed and were only
ever going to be used by the private TOCs staff.

Anyway, I'm only reporting things I picked up on at the time.

I think there were also issues around redeployment of staff in the
interim, but again I can't recall there being an actual dispute.

Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe, Wapping and Shadwell - plus Shoreditch High
Street as a replacement for the old Shoreditch - certainly transferred
from LUL to LOROL management, and of course it's LOROL drivers and
line controllers (or whatever they're called) along with Network Rail
signallers who run the service rather than LUL people.

I don't know if it was a quid-pro-quo as such, but perhaps worth
bearing in mind that management of all the joint DC Line/ Bakerloo
stations (apart from Willesden Jn) went to LUL rather than LOROL.- Hide quoted text -

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