CharlesPottins wrote:
Last night I heard on the news that LU "no longer needs" so many staff, and
that people will no longer be needed in ticket offices or or on the barriers. I
suspect that either the news teams know this is crap, but don't care, or that
probably like some of the management, they don't use public transport very
often.

With no barrier staff on hand, they have to leave the barriers open.
This means all journeys between two unstaffed stations are free, and
all journeys from unmanned to manned stations cost only the minimum
fare, to the unscrupulous.

I wonder how many staff this lost revenue would pay for.

With no staff on trains or in stations, vandalism would get even
worse. Last I looked, if several hundred EXTRA staff could prevent
half the existing vandalism, there would be a net cost saving.

With no staff around, many passengers - the sort who pay - will be too
frightened to travel late at night.

I wonder how many staff this lost revenue would pay for.

Why are bean-counters so stupid?


Colin McKenzie


--
The great advantage of not trusting statistics is that
it leaves you free to believe the damned lies instead!

Colin McKenzie wrote:

Why are bean-counters so stupid?

An interesting question. Is it stupid people who become bean counters or
does bean counting make people stupid?

On 01 Jul 2004 08:20:11 GMT, (CharlesPottins)
wrote:

Last night I heard on the news that LU "no longer needs" so many staff, and
that people will no longer be needed in ticket offices or or on the barriers. I
suspect that either the news teams know this is crap, but don't care, or that
probably like some of the management, they don't use public transport very
often.

Oh goody - another swipe at the management who "never" use the service.

Hence they won't have witnessed the patient way some staff have to deal
with sometimes reasonable and sometimes quite stupid questions. They won't have
experienced the bewilderment and frustration of waiting for information on an
apparently deserted station. Nor will they have seen the Greater London Schools
Athletics teams vaulting gracefully over the automatic ticket barriers.

I think plenty of people are aware of these issues.

But what I would like to know is the procedure for reporting suspect packages
when one arrives at completely unpersonned stations. (And there I thinking we
were having too many "terrorist alerts"! )

There will be a piece of technology to use I would imagine just like
there is on the Barking - Gospel Oak line which I used last weekend. No
staff at all apart from the driver and guard on the train and you don't
see them except when you get on or off. It's not a new phenomenon to
have unstaffed facilities.

I'd also be interested to hear the mayor's ideas on how removing staff will
square with his past pledges to make stations safer for women and elderly
passengers.
And talking of which, if LU wants to redeploy staff, how about putting guards
on trains to deter vandalism and anti-social behaviour? It might reassure the
rest of the travelling public that someone actually cares, and encourage us to
stand up to the yobboes..

All the above are fair observations. The only comments I have heard on
this subject are :-

a) Ken saying that he wants to see people's jobs changed to make them
more flexible and involving.
b) The RMT routinely stating that 800 jobs are on the line.

If the jobs are redesigned properly then staff will be far more visible,
providing more reassurance, better information and helping on the issues
to do with security and vandalism. You have to ask what value there is
in locking people away in back offices, ticket offices where they sell
few tickets at quiet times or else in collectors boxes. You will never
get guards back on trains as it increases the risk of trains not running
if half the crew don't turn up.

I have no idea what the detailed proposals are but the issue is not
going to go away. There is enormous pressure to reduce staffing all over
the business because of pressure from TfL and the need to demonstrate
"best value" under government legislation. TfL and its associated
"companies" are now part of the local authority regime and therefore
lots of changes will have to made to prevent outsourcing and all sorts
of other possibilities. If people do not perform or don't "add value"
then they are being booted out.

On a final note it seems that the respective positions of LU and the RMT
are more entrenched than ever over the strike issue. I think the fact
that the Mayor has a new mandate means that it may turn into a fight to
the death over who is really in charge of the Tube. Get your walking
shoes repaired as I expect to see lots more strikes (please note this is
my guess and is not based on inside knowledge).

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!