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Old December 23rd 07, 05:57 PM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway
Steve Fitzgerald Steve Fitzgerald is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2003
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Default The East London Line is dead... Long live the East London Line

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,
EE507 writes
I believe the original plan was to run the 4-car 1938TS in public
service, but the unions refused to allow it and LU was unable to
persuade them.


Why did they object? *Was it to be driven by a non-union member?


I wonder if the union actually asked the drivers...


All this talk about unions is a red herring. It was nothing to do with
them and they haven't objected to anything to my knowledge.

The 38 stock couldn't be used in normal passenger service as it wouldn't
be able to stop at Canada Water due to the platform heights. As this
would have caused service problems, it was decided not to try to run it.

There was talk on the day of an un-refurbished 3 car D stock making an
appearance. I have no information if this was a serious consideration,
but I would doubt very much that the unions would care too much if it
did.

Had any of these trains actually run, they would have had to have been
driven by Test Train Operators as nobody else would have the stock
knowledge and line knowledge together to drive them. It may well be
that these operators are not licensed to drive trains in passenger
service. I don't know the answer to this, but I will attempt to find
out when I go back to work (on Boxing Day!). If so, that would be a
very good reason.
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