I have a day to myself today

After i pay my bills, I'm off to watch Star Wars by myself. Then come home and relax with a couple of beers.

Well it's week 2 of my annual leave

Yesterday was payday HOORAY, and i spent an unusually quiet day with my mum helping her clean windows, hanging pictures, fixing things around the house, just like any good son is meant to do.

However today is the first day i'm back at my own place since last Friday, and after climbing over all the bills that we're lying on the door mat, its time to to go out and pay a couple too.

I rang Abbey National to transfer money out of my Bank Account into my Savings Account, and after bieng asked the usual question i:e name, address how much was paid into my account, who paid it in, what does TFL mean, date of birth, we are finally ready to get A) a bank balance and B) what account are you transfering it into.

Now for the difficult bit. I want to transfer money from MY OWN bank account into MY OWN saving account, what is the PASSWORD on your savings account.

There both my accounts, they both have only my name on them and there both registered at the same address. No wonder i've lost my hair. Prozac Please.

Ah annual leave at last

I'm on Annual Leave at the moment, and i'll be away from my station for over a month.

I've just come back from a lovely weekend away with my girlfriend to Brussels.
I found out that they have a metro sytem, and guess what I did, that's right I avoided it like the plague. It's bad enough working on the Underground with out travelling on another system.

But back to the weekend, we had a lovely time away and just relaxed all the time.

The one thing about being on AL is that by the time you go back to work, your hands don't have any crap under the nails, and when you blow your nose it comes out the proper colour, not black from all the dust.

London Underground Diary by Annie Mole

My Colleague has been going on about this blog ever since we started blogging about just over a month ago, and i've finally got around to reading some of her entries.

Annie has quite a lot to say about travelling around on the tube and quite an interesting read

I used the QUIET word today

As you may have noticed I normally tell people that i had a peacful shift or peaceful day at work, however during a phone call from an old friend of mine I was asked how my day was going, quiet I said, unfortunately this was a mistake, as with in 30 minutes of the call the service to the Mets, H&C and Circles were delayed by a track fire at Euston Square.

Luckily the initial delay was only for about 10 minutes, but after a problem like this it can compact on the service quite badly, but not this morning, we are lucky to have a good service on all 3 lines.

At around 2pm the Circle and district between Edgware Road and Earls Court and South Kensington was suspended because of a trespasser on the track. Luckily for me I was finishing at 2:30 and i got out (went home) before there was any really major problems and left my colleagues to deal with it.

Talking of VIP'S and political correctness

At two stations that i have worked in the past, I used to deal with a couple of blind men.

One of the blind men had a wicked sense of humour, he used to come through the station i was working at, and instead of a guide dog, he had a shopping trolley instead.

So this one time he walks down the passage to platform 3, where i just happen to be doing platform duties.

"Evening Patrick" says me "Evening" says he.

"I see you have a new trolley now" to which Patrick replies at the top of his voice during an evening peak.

SHOPPING TROLLEY? SHOPPING TROLLEY? those bastards at the indstitue for the blind told me they gave me a new dog with a sore throat.

Now at anothor station i used to work at, I used to deal with a lovely man called Micheal, when i breached the subject about political correctness and staff now calling blind people visually impaired. His quick reply was. Visually impaired, i'm as blind as a bat.

Tin Pot Managers

Getting back to tinpot managers.

All our managers now a days worry about is Figures. From upper management so our Duty Station Managers, none of them could manage a piss up in a brewery.

The latest craze for managers are UTS Gate Line figures and especially the Manual Gate. Every day we get an email from the managers with a run down of when the gets were open how long for and the question asked who was the SS on duty, I recently got into a blazing row with one of my DSM's about this and he said well as the Upper Managers are pestering them about the gates we get the flack when there left open for all of maybe 20 minutes through out the course of a working day.

I just happened to be in my DSM's office when the Upper Manager walked into the room. So i asked him the same question, and was given a reply such as well the gate should be closed at all times, my reply which really upset him for some reason came as this, "Why are we so worried about the gate being unlocked, when we have a member of staff on duty to work on the gates manning them all day, it not as if there left unattended" his reply "Well that doesn't matter, they are supposed to be kept locked at all times" my reply "Well why don't we just WELD THE FUCKING THING SHUT end of story" and i promptly walked out.

And people wonder why i now have no respect for any of my managers anymore.

Day to day and how it's changed

Isn't it strange how you get used to things in life, and especially at work.

I got into work this morning and i sat and pondered, when i first joined the underground al those many years ago, we worked with nothing apart from ourselves and our voice.

Now on the underground what do you have CCTV, Station Radios, NCC Status Screens, RPA (underground jargon for remote P. A. i.e. those staff on the platform who talk into there hands and it comes out over the tannoy system) Information at your finger tips, you name it this job now has it.

Unlike my 2 colleagues at The Station Log Book and On the District who have only been on the job for what 8 years, they never knew the job when it was a real job.

I used to work at another station on the Northern Line for over 5 years, when the station was a running office, this meant that the Station Manager (and i mean real managers unlike the tinpot muppets we have now) dealt with the day to day running of not only a station but the rail service too. Unlike after company plan which was introduced in 1993 and the grade was seperated into DSM and DTM now called DMT. (Jesus this job is great for abbreviating job titles equipment and rooms).

I learnt so much when working there that when i here what staff say today i think, aww poor you.

One of my colleagues has had a couple of problems with his staff of late, when I first started on this job, Staff respected the man in charge, what the person in charge said went, you didn't back chat you didn't argue, you just did it.

Unfortunately I still have some of that same mentality where it comes to some of our staff. And if i need to tell staff off like my colleague I'm not afraid to put a person in there place.

I don't like Earlies

I don't like early turns at the best of times, but today has been a fun day as I had two Trainee SS with me, and basically this means that they are staff who have been on the job for a little while and have gone for promotion to a new grade.

I like having trainees with me as it makes a shift down here go a lot quicker.
As I see quiet a few of these because I'm part of the "LIVE LEARNING TEAM"
(Station supervisors who are willing to have trainee supervisors with you during the course of there shift) and you can always tell who are going to be decent SS and who you would be scared to work with.

I try and make the day as easy going and informative as possible and no I don't get any extra money for doing this, So far the trainee's I have had with me have all given me good feed back, however I had a trainee earlier in the year who I apparently upset because I bollocked him in front of another member of staff.

Some times with the training you get University Grads and in general I don't like working with them, as they haven't got a fucking clue what the real world is like. Sorry if that offends any one but it's my opinion not yours.

Any way back to the story.

I received a phone call from another station telling me that there is a VIP no not a Very Important Person but a Visually Impaired Person (blind person to you and me), on train 205. Bloody Political correctness.

At this the Uni. Grad asked me if it was ok if he met the train as he had never dealt with a blind person before, I said yeah if you want to go ahead.
The other trainee who has got 15 years of experience on this job, aid he would go with him, at this i told the more experienced staff to let the grad deal with the customer as it will help when it comes to dealing with blind people in the future.
So off they potter to the platform, and straight away the old timer flies off to the front of the train and gets the blind person and escorts them off the station. By the way I was watching all this on the CCTV
Well by the time they got back to my office i was fuming, So i turned round to the old timer and the first thing i said to him was when you tell a member of staff something as a SS do you expect that member of staff to listen to you, and carry out the instructions as they were given,

Yes he replies,

My answer So why did you just totally ignore what i fucking said to you and take the blind man off the train. Who needs the experience you or the new man.

At this i get a sheepish apology from the old timer and so does the Grad.

Station to Station Phones

On thing i forgot to mention about the station to station phones, although generally as and SS i don't throw my weight around as I get most out of my staff with banter, I (un)fortunately upset a member of staff from another station.

As i only have 2 platforms at my station I have a set routine for testing the phones, yesterday at another station that has 4 platforms I had the unfortunate pleasure of a trainee on the other end of the phone.

When it came to test time I get this little voice telling me "right i'm now going to test platform so and so" NO we're not i replied your going to test such and such a platform.

Now the trainer gets on the phone "why are we going to test it that way.

My reply Well as i only have 2 platforms i'm not going to walk back and forth twice just to test the phones and as you have 4 you can walk around and test both your eastbounds first.

Day 3 and only 4 left to go until annual leave

Well its Sunday morning, and as my first train doesn't get me into London until 09:15 I decided I would drive into London. So I left my house at 05:45 and arrived at work at 07:00.

First thing i had to do when i got in was CUPPA TIME.

Second thing is paperwork time, and oh joy!!!

On a Sunday morning theres certain things a Supervisor has to do.

Apart from our usual station checks, theres the Station to Station phones to be tested, meters to be read, various bits of paperwork to be sorted and finally get ready to go home early if theres no manager about :))

DAY 2

And the service fell down
0810 The Eastbound Outer Rail Clockwise Circle service is suspended because of a Defective train at Gloucester Road. Unknown to us the train is slowly making its way to Edgware Road when all of a sudden it becomes GAPPED (underground jargon for becoming stuck in a space between 2 current rail
sections) .
So this now suspends all services through Edgware Road I.E. Circle Hammersmith and City and the District line, so all westbound trains are terminating at Baker Street.
All's fine until 08 50 when a lovely District line train has taken the wrong route (much like a filter system when driving a car to indicate which way you should be going) and ended up at Liverpool Street.
So up pops the Line Controller with the idea we will move the train forward to moorgate and reverse the train Eastbound back towards Liverpool Street.
So the train moves forward and then stops, the driver moves to the other end of the train, sets the train up and promptly starts off against a RED signal, So now the service is suspended EVERYWHERE and with no trains running East or west its time to say bye bye to our lovely customers and let them meet Mr Bus.
09:10 we have the Hammersmith and City service running to Hammersmith again but as there no trains coming through, so we stay shut.
09:45 Hooray the service has resumes with SEVERE delays. And all this time my manual gate was open oh dear what will the management think

7 Early Turns

I really hate early turns, as I live outside London and have to COMMUTE to work every morning. So I was awake this morning at 04:45 into the shower and out the door to work at 05:15 (no breakfast tut tut) and on to my train at 05:30. I reach work every morning (except Sundays) on this duty at 06:50. Not bad for a 07:30 start.

So to all those commuters who complain about our service, how did I get to work this morning and yes I was here before you.

Unfortunately for me i'm a bit of a night person, so i tend to hit the sack after 12 midnight every night, so by the end of the week i'm dead on my feet.

However i'm really looking forward to finishing this week, as i'm off to Brussels on the Eurostar on Friday for a long weekend with my girlfriend.

When I get home on Monday i am then on 3 weeks leave, actually the way my rota works out i'm actually off for 24 days, thats 24 days off passenger bliss. As i don't live in London I dont see a single Tube Train for 22 days.

NCC Review

We have a place at 55 Broadway called NCC and for all my years at the Underground I have never know what this stands for.

Any way one day last week i came across an interesting item of infomation.


05.15 - Burnt Oak -

Unidentified item on track

During a routine station check by the supervisor an unidentified cylindrical pink object was noticed on the northbound track at Burnt Oak. The station remained closed in consequence with the first 2 northbound trains non-stopping whilst Tubelines staff made there way to site to investigate.
At 05.33 the all clear was given after the offending object was found to be a salami sausage and removed. A 22 minute delay was recorded.

Ho Hum

Sorry i haven't been blogging for the week but i've been off work sick for the week.

Nothing serious just the usaul problems with life.