LUL Trains

In the latest incident, which happened at 9.50 on Monday morning (22nd July), the driver was given a target speed and proceeded to depart Finchley Central from platform.

He was already in the process of stopping as he had seen another train heading towards him from Mill Hill East as the Line Control emergency call to stop came through.

The driver was forced to carry out a wrong directional move back to Finchley Central to allow the train from Mill Hill East to continue to Finchley Central, an emergency preventative move that could only be carried out by a driver up-front in the cab.

Attached is the latest edition of RMT up front. This issue focuses on the proposed £350 Boxing Day payments and changes to TOPRA. Main stories follow:

Proposed Boxing Day bonus and changes to TOPRA
RMT demands improvements to deal

The proposed arrangements for Boxing Day payments negotiated between London Underground and ASLEF behind closed doors fall short of RMT’s aspirations. Following a meeting with all RMT drivers’ reps, the union has written to LU demanding further talks to improve the deal.

TUBE UNION RMT demanded urgent answers from London Underground chiefs today over massive breaches of safety that enabled two trains to end up narrowly avoiding a head on collision on a section of the Northern Line on Monday evening.

We welcome the report from our Regional Organiser.

We note that LUL presented its three-month review of its detrainment procedure to our Trains Safety Council representatives on Monday 1 July. The company has made no progress in achieving a technical solution to minimising overcarries, and continues to deploy station staff as part of its detrainment procedure.

It is therefore clear that the work being carried out by station staff is permanent. It is thus no longer appropriate for this to be done by the Special Requirements Team; rostored station staff posts should be restored.

From General Secretary Bob Crow

I have received the following resolution from our Finsbury Park Branch

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow, wrote to the ORR following an incident in 2011 which resulted in the sacking, and subsequent reinstatement of James, due to the strong union response.The RMT complaint regarded firstly James’ alleged responsibility for the SPAD; and secondly, that James had been compelled to drive when unfit to do so. The letter below is the response.

You can read more about the case here.

The Letter

Dear Mr Crow

JAMES MASANGO

We note that London Underground Ltd dismissed Train Operator James Masango in 2011, before a strong response from this union achieved his reinstatement. We note that RMT complained to the Office of Rail Regulation: firstly, about James’ alleged responsibility for the SPAD; and secondly, that James had been compelled to drive when unfit to do so.

We note the report from HM Principal Inspector of Railways Keith Atkinson in response to our complaint, which found that:

• “the case of James Masango’s alleged SPAD does not appear to have been handled in the systematic manner I would have expected from LU”
• “there is undoubtedly room for more structured arrangement between managers and their staff for ensuring clear understanding of an individual’s fitness or otherwise to operate trains”

Referring to decision GWW 21st May 2013. The meeting has now taken place and we note the report from our Regional Organiser regarding the substantial progress made and that the recommendation of our negotiating team is that we should regard this dispute resolved due to the following points:

SPAD Policy

The RMT has made great progress in our S Stock dispute with LU. But one sticking point remains - the issue of Cross Line Working.

Following talks at ACAS on Tuesday 21st of May your negotiators tabled a reasonable solution to the S Stock dispute which was flatly refused by LUL for spurious reasons. The RMT proposed that the timetable should be amended so that trains are picked from Moorgate Bay Road as opposed to Baker St Met platforms; our view was that this would not compromise any existing agreements or require any additional training.