Underground Gal

Moving...

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:09:03 GMT

My journal is now at http://www.undergroundgal.co.uk. If you want to watch it through your LJ Friends Page, please add the following syndication feed to your friends: UndergroundGal.

Busy-ness

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:02:42 GMT

Busy day today. For one thing I had to do overtime, which meant I started work at 2pm and finished at 1.10am. I started at Turnpike Lane, and we had a few 'stand-out' customers: a bloke with a buggy who got all abusive when I didn't instantly open the manual gate because I was answering a question from someone else - he smashed his fist on the GLAP door then started swearing and yelling at me, then when I did go over to open the gate (which, after that treatment, wasn't fast) refused to show me his ticket a) the right way up or b) at any distance where I could reasonably have read it, then when he finally did and I let him out, he was still swearing and saying he should have spat on me. Which was nice of him, I hear being spat on is a turn on for some people... ;)

Then we had the poor old couple who'd managed to become separated from a five year old child, presumably their grandson, on the train - he hadn't got off in time. The woman was really quite upset but luckily we got onto the station staff at Manor House and they got the child off the train alright, so that ended happily.

And then the drunk, with crutches and a foot in plaster, who couldn't even walk the width of the barriers (seven gates, if you want to picture it for yourself) without falling on me at the end and getting in everyone's way, who was quite insistant that he was perfectly capable of travelling to Croydon. Alone. Despite not actually knowing where he was, or how to get to Croydon. And the whole not-able-to-stand thing. When I left at 9 he was still sitting in a corner; the supervisor had called the police about an hour before because he had no idea what else to do.

Then we had a young lad having trouble getting through the gate, and his companion yelling at me that I was confusing him by asking for his ticket, and threatening to scream if I didn't let him out. As it was, it only took five seconds to find the ticket and show me it. Honestly, people - travelling isn't *that* hard.

While we're on the Turnpike Lane bit still, I should probably note the poor American who managed to drop his phone on the track a few nights back. One of the supervisors who is a bit of a character was there and called him - jokingly! - an idiot, and teased him a bit more when he said he was American. He did, however, go down and have a look to see if it was somewhere where he'd be able to get it, but the back had fallen off when it landed, and the sim card fallen out, so there was nothing that could be done until the current went off that night.

And lastly we had another visit from a rather persistant beggar that hangs around the station, also a few days ago. He's made death 'threats' to various supervisors because they have no compunction about 'escorting' him from the station, and decided to give me verbal because I'd asked him to leave alone a poor woman who was trying to use the ticket machine.

So, back to today: just after 9 I headed off for Southgate, via Bounds Green to pick up a fire extinguisher. I had a five minute wait for a train from Turnpike, and then at BGR they'd forgotten which type of extinguisher was needed, and were having a simultaneous disaster with a missing padlock key. And the fire extinguisher was very heavy, and very dirty, and because I was switching station duties I also had my rather heavy shoulder bag with me - funnnn escalator ride. Then of course we got held outside Arnos for ages, waiting for a platform to be free. But to my relief the supervisor was down on the platform when I got to Southgate so I didn't have to carry it up the escalators again. It was also a supervisor who's quite easy to get along with, and so was the late turn.

Busy Bad Day

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:17:22 GMT

A bit of a difficult day. I was at least at a fairly busy station, but having gone in feeling fairly miserable after a lot of personal-life aggravation, even a cabride from Cockfosters couldn't cheer me up much, and I was apparently "abrupt" with the Station Supervisor, or so she told me later after I'd turned down about the fifth enquiry about whether I'd like a break. (Admittedly not all from her, some were from the CSA on the turn overlapping with mine.) While she was probably right - I'd never worked with her before and I'm *not* good with people until I've worked with them a few times - the fact that neither she nor the CSA on duty bothered to tell me that several of the gates were malfunctioning (and one had been doing so for several days) until I'd already been out on the gateline working for about half an hour didn't help. (Of course I soon discovered that they weren't working - what I didn't know was what resets had been performed, whether jobs were out on them, the exact nature of the problem - ie, were the gates working entry and not exit, or neither, or...?)

Turning down the breaks I actually did five hours (and, naughtily, a bit) straight through without a single break which was what my mind needed to clear it a bit, and I was greatly helped by the appearance of a CSA who was working the next station along, who had come to tell me that she had passed her interview for train operator. She's one of the few people I find it very easy to be friendly with and to talk to, and she's always really nice when she does on-shift visits like this, helping out and opening the manual gate if I'm helping someone else and so on.

Not so good incident - turned a 'customer' away who had a ticket between two mainline stations with no Underground validity, and possibly an incorrect date... having noticed that it wasn't valid route-wise I hadn't paid much attention to the date, but I think it was October 5th. While this is a situation where discretion could be applied, for example someone changing a route at the last minute, or problems on the overground, he very blatantly was trying to blag his way through, demanding I open the gate for him before he'd even produced a ticket. I told him, in rather politer language, to buy a valid ticket or sod off, and he left, sticking his head round a wall to shout a few swearwords and insults. Nice chap.

I also had to explain to a woman that she couldn't use her freedom pass to get all the way to Doncaster, and she gave me a really pissed off look, as if she were entitled to free travel everywhere in the whole country and who was I to say her nay?

We had loads of people getting stuck in gates - not helped by the malfunctions - and the number of people caught out by the early last train times due to it being Sunday was insane.

Thankfully the night supervisor was one I get along with fairly well and we spent some time playing with the gates before the last westbound went, and then there was just the long wait for the last east, which was thankfully roughly on time.

Just Bits

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:04:54 GMT

I did a late at Wood Green earlier in the week; towards the end of the shift the barriers were playing up and operating very slowly for Oyster cards - of course people just kept barging into them before they'd opened. I got sick of the phrase "Stand back and wait for the orange light"! I was also amused to see the rather steady stream of people coming and checking the payphones for change that might have been left behind - it seemed like someone was in every fifteen minutes. In fact, I'm sure more people check them for left change than actually ever use them...

The rest of this week I've been at Oakwood. Unlike last week, when I was there for sunlight duties but rarely spent more than an hour to an hour and a half on the platform each day, I've been there on a "proper" duty instead. No one was assigned for sunlight. And of course I've spent most of the day down on the platform for sunlight duties.

The supervisor came downstairs today while I was chatting to someone waiting for a train, and when I gave him a slightly quizzical look, he explained that he'd just seen someone coming through the gates who tried to throw herself under a train about four months ago. He came down to make sure that she wasn't going to do it again! (Apparently she was on her way to visit her boyfriend.. who's in sheltered accomodation.)

The ticket machine at work today kept devouring banknotes so we had to have an engineer out twice for it, great fun.

Next week I'm at busier stations, so I'm quite looking forward to that - I'm also still waiting on LU for a date to start my driver training, I feel like it can't come fast enough at the moment!

8pm, and I'm ready for bed...

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:01:18 GMT

An exciting couple of days, and I'm not even being sarcastic! Ysterday one of the DSM's came along to do a trackwalk with the station supervisor, who had to be refamiliarised with the track around the station - familiarisations expire every six months and have to be redone, which I think I mentioned in a post recently, although mine were station, not track, familiarisations. I was on my lunch break and piped up "Can I come?", determined to remind the DSM if he seemed hesitant that he'd agreed back in April to take me on a track walk at the first opportunity but hadn't yet done so, but luckily he agreed straight away, so I found myself getting my hi-vi on and preparing to go on a wander. We nearly had a last minute cancellation when it looked like I'd have to man the platform for sunlight duties, but thankfully a cloud came over and we got away with it!

We walked around the sets of points around the station, crossing the track over to the cess on the westbound road to walk down to the furthest set - the other three can be done by just walking off the platforms. It was great fun clambering over the ballast, even if the DSM did seem to forget that he was a rather man man with long legs and we were both short-ish girls. I'm not particularly tall and the supervisor is another head or so shorter than me - though considerably fitter, nearly needless to say. Still, we did just about manage to keep up, and being passed by trains while down at that level is really quite a breathtaking experience for me still. Especially since there's a rail gap with the associated sparking!!

After dealing with the west end of the track we walked back, crossing over again to reach the platform, and then walking down to the east end of the eastbound platform. We were at Oakwood and the east end leads to the depot and is underneath the station and road. While we were down in the ten foot two trains passed, one in either direction, and the noise was deafening, but the interplay of the lights of the trains and, again, some sparking, was amazing. We then walked back up onto the platform on the westbound side, which bought the walk to an end. *sigh!*

Today I had my six month performance review, which went okay. The DSM (a different one from the day before) admitted he hadn't been sure I'd make it, but that I'd turned out alright in the end. I had rather a tempestuous first few weeks so I'm not surprised that he thought that! There wasn't much to say on the development side since everything hinges on the medical on Friday.

I was on the gateline at about 2pm, just updating the service board, and expecting to go home within the hour, when the DSM from the day before and the supervisor for the afternoon came over. "How would you like some overtime?" they said, and I said, "When?". Turned out the supervisor had to be re-familiarised with the track around Cockfosters, so I stayed on an extra two hours, until 5pm - I'd started at 7am - supervising the station. I was sent along a rather useless CSA to help - from what I can tell, he doesn't want the job, and therefore doesn't see the point in making any effort - although I was thankfully later joined by another slightly more effective one. Typically, though, the chaos that had reigned during the first half of my supervising died down by the time she arrived. Due to some earlier service problems I had to reverse a few trains, plus there were a few others problems tossed my way, all of which I hope I handled alright! No one perished so I assume things turned out okay.

Odds and Ends

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:46:25 GMT

Forgot to mention this one the other day, but working at Cockfosters recently I helped two foreign sounding chaps heavily laden with baggage through the manual gate. A few minutes later one came back and asked me where to get a District Line train to Wimbledon. Earls Court, I answered, and he looked round. Where are the District trains? he repeated, and I repeated my answer, then got a tube map to point it out. He showed me his itinery, printed from the TfL journey planner. It said to get a Piccadilly Line train towards Cockfosters, and change at Earls Court... unfortunately they'd misinterpreted it as *go* to Cockfosters. The poor chaps had to make another 50 minute journey back again...

Today I was down for sunlight duties which probably explains why it was chucking it down with rain when I woke up, to the point where I actually went and dug out my raincoat for the walk down to get the bus. When I got to the station it was almost as wet inside as out; with the renovation works there were an awful lot of leaky spots, and earlier - about the same time I was out catching a bus - the wind had simply been blowing the rain inside at various points just due to the open design of the station. There was even one leak from the ceiling in the stairwell; thankfully it was incredibly small and was dripping in the middle, at the handrail, so the small puddle wasn't the trip hazard it might have been. The rain also finally cleared up at about 10, so things improved.

I got sent off to a rather hastily arranged team talk meeting, which basically consisted of anyone they could drag off the stations. Since I was officially spare - and the sun hadn't come out enough to affect the monitors - and Oakwood has low staffing requirements, both the rostered CSA and I were sent off down to Arnos, where we were joined by the CSA from Cockfosters and two from Arnos for the informal meeting. Didn't learn much!

Lastly, I finally got a phone call from the recruitment people to say that I have to go in for a medical, which I've booked for Friday since I'm on rest day then. Hopefully there will be no major problems; the only thing that worries me is my weight, which is rather bad at the moment.

Yeah, the weather's my fault...

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:40:07 GMT

Today I'm going to Oakwood for sunlight duties...

...and it's pouring with rain outside. To the point where I'm about to try to find my raincoat because otherwise I'll drown just walking to the bus stop.

Playing Catch Up

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:49:58 GMT

Dead lates, followed by dead earlies, followed by more dead lates... *groan* Still, a few interesting snippets that I really should have written about earlier:

I've now been out on the platforms for six months... as evidenced by the fact that I have to be re-familiarised with each station now before I can work it. Station familiarisation must be done every six months and involves one of the station supervisors taking you round the station and ensuring you know the layout and where important things like the Staff Assembly Points, fire extinguishers and tea kettles are. Obviously this is quite in depth the first time you do it, but when you've been working at a station fairly constantly over six months anyway it's a bit less crucial, and only the important things are covered, rather than having to point out the mess room and everything that's covered the first time! When signing on for work we have to write down the date we were last familiarised, and for the past six months, I've had it easy: having done all seven familiarisations in one day, I've had only one date to remember. Now, they're scattered all over the place!

I'm still waiting for Occupational Health to call about the medical that I may or may not need. This waiting is almost worse than waiting for the results of the interview and assessments in the first place...

Last night I had a young girl throw up in the ticket hall; I was kicking myself because as she came through the gate with her dad she was making an odd noise, but I thought it was a cough - had I clicked I *might* have got her to the staff toilets in time. Still, it wasn't too bad; I put whiteboards up around the mess since I had no other wet floor signs or anything, and then got the girl a drink of water and a chair to sit on for a while. Unfortunately we had no cleaner on station so the supervisor had to call for one from a different station, which meant it was quite a while before the mess was cleaned up. Not long after the incident I went on my break and apparently the girl's mother came down while I was in the messroom and asked the CSA on the gate to thank me for helping - it's always nice to be appreciated!

Monday night I was at Oakwood and ended up on the platform for quite a lot of the shift because some cabling to the OPO monitors - the screens the driver uses to see when it's safe to close the doors - had been damaged and there were no images. The mirror doesn't cover the whole length of the platform well enough to make it safe to rely on it alone, so I was down there from about 17:20 to 18:00, and again from 19:00 to 22:00... an hour off for break, back down again at 23:00, and finished with the last train into Central London at midnight. During the first stint I didn't wave many trains through because an incident at Arnos Grove - apparently a customer with a knife! - held all the westbound up for a while. I had a nice long chat with the driver stuck in station and we found out more about the incident from the train radio than we did from anywhere else.

The weather was cold but bearable until it started to rain at 21:00, bleh. I was also chilly because I'd dressed for a night in the ticket hall and heated box - short sleeved blouse, skirt and socks instead of tights since most of my tights have holes in and I haven't bought replacements yet. I did have my blazer but my large overcoat was in my car - parked at Oakwood, but I didn't bother getting it out and find it a hassle to wear anyway because it's so frelling huge on me. Of course, even once the waving out was done, I was still down there every ten minutes or so to tip out stablers. I just hope I haven't got a cold now...!

I had a heart stopping moment when, while answering a passenger's question about alternative routes given the Victoria Line closure, I glanced up and saw someone on the staff only side of the grey platform end barriers. I started heading down there but he walked out nonchalantly. I asked him not to do it again and he was obviously drunk and barely made it onto the train that showed up a moment later without falling over. I felt a bit queasy because if he'd fallen over there, or decided to go wandering on the track, things could have got very messy.

No doubt there's plenty of interesting things that I've forgotten to write about. Tough!

Eep!

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:01:52 GMT

Just got a phone call to say I've passed the interview stage for train operator... now I just have to hope that Occupational Health gives me a clean bill of health. *whimper!*

Boredom

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:29:07 GMT

One of the stupidest comments about the strike that I saw was in the Metro, and said something along the lines of:

I work in advertising, they should try to put up with what we have to put up with, working through the night and weekends.

The temptation to grab this person by the shirt and explain loudly and clearly that maintenance workers frequently DO do that since 'engineering hours' are between about 1am and 5am, and closures for engineering work take place at weekends, was overwhelming. The only thing stopping me was the sheer impossibility of doing so!!

In other news I've booked an assessment for Station Control Room Assistant so, if it turns out I've failed train operator (which is looking extremely likely) I'll have something else to fall back on.

Cockfosters has been quiet all week, although you don't realise how long tube trains are until you have to pass messages to two different drivers on different platforms, which means walking the length of four trains. Lovely!

Yesterday the ticket office was out of order so there was a little more to do but, to be honest, not much - the ticket office closes at 7pm normally anyway, and there never *are* any customers. The most exciting part of the evening was the inside of the used tickets bin breaking, and having to fish the bottom out of the secure case using one of the grabby things the cleaners use - it felt like I was doing a Crystal Maze challenge.

Strikes...!

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:56:31 GMT

Well, utter chaos on the Underground in general last night! Unfortunately the Piccadilly got off to a bad start with an incident at Bounds Green, followed by signal failures, followed by problems with the computer that governs the signalling at our end. I didn't actually start work until 5pm, but got a nice dose of the earlier problems because I had to go to Ashfield House for my second stage train op assessment. Luckily I missed the morning problems by about 15 minutes, but my journey back took about an hour and a half instead of the hour or so I would have expected - thankfully I got back just in time for a bus, so I didn't have the added annoyance of waiting long for that to turn up. As it was I still only had an hour at home before having to go back into work.

When I arrived the lines were already dropping like flies, with severe delays on quite a lot of the lines, and a part suspension on the District, and as the first hour of my shift passed, more and more turned from delays to part suspension to full suspension. In the end the state of play was:

Bakerloo - Part Suspended - No service Queen's Park to Elephant & Castle.
Central - Suspended
Circle - Suspended
District - Suspended
East London Line - Suspended
Hammersmith & City - Suspended
Jubilee - Good Service
Metropolitan - Suspended
Northern - Good Service
Piccadilly - Part Suspended - No service Rayners Lane to Uxbridge, Severe Delays on the rest of the line
Victora - Suspended
Waterloo & City - Suspended

Due to the earlier problems we had large gaps in trains anyway, and we weren't helped by the fact that news was going out regarding the strike saying that "Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly are unaffected"... strictly speaking we weren't affected much at that point, but we *were* still under the effects of the signal failures! So people were turning up expecting a normal service from us and we had fifteen minute gaps between trains, some trains being taken out of service because the drivers had gone right up to their shift time and there were no reliefs, etc, etc, etc. Then, just as the worst gaps were out of the way and the last of the peak passengers had come through, the line controller told us we'd be withdrawing and only running Heathrow - Northfields and Hyde Park Corner - Cockfosters. Trains were still being taken out of service, so we were having to run up and down and tell them this since frequently the drivers themselves didn't know yet, plus on top of it all someone who had been "drinking a bit" because it was his birthday decided to collapse on the platform.

With all the excitement I barely had time to fret about how the assessment had gone, which was rather a relief! The shift passed pretty quickly, and I helped to tip one train out - not that there were many people on it. I also had to show the supervisor how to use the new PA system since he'd been away on paternity leave until recently and didn't know how to use it as a result. People did keep asking if we'd have service tomorrow, though, and the answer was "Goodness only knows!". At the moment, at least, it seems we're running a good service apart from Rayners Lane to Uxbridge, which is Metropolitan track. The Bakerloo is fully suspended today, however.

I've Been Busy

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:56:05 GMT

Busy weekend, but also rather fun - we had another Wood Green to Cockfosters shut down. The worst part was trying to get home, it took me an hour and a half on Sunday and Monday from Turnpike Lane, whereas normally I'd expect about 30 to 40 minutes from there. To make things even more exciting there was a signal failure at Turnpike on Saturday, and a shutdown from Hammersmith to Wood Green (later dropped to Hammersmith to Kings Cross, but the shuttle service from Wood Green to Kings Cross was virtually useless - at one point between Finsbury and Manor House there were three trains in the tunnel, and it took 20 minutes to turn one train at Kings Cross.) On Saturday we had to shut the gates at Wood Green a few times due to overcrowding on the platform - mainly caused by Arsenal fans travelling to the game. They're supposed to not do shutdowns on that sort of weekend!

Today I nearly went to Baron's Court in a driver's cab due to a train radio failure - ordinarily I'd kill for the chance but today is my partner's birthday and his family are coming over, so I needed to decorate the house (balloons etc - yay!) and also bake a cake, cook dinner, see if we could actually fit six around the table, etc, so when someone offered to replace me at Finsbury, I reluctantly agreed. Oh, well! Just have to hope it happens again soon...

More I ought to say, but I've a cake to ice and more balloons to inflate... and a dead early shift again tomorrow.

Not Much Going On

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:56:19 GMT

I've had a few fairly dull shifts, though I did finally get to work at Southgate, which was the sole station I'd not done a full shift at yet. Yesterday I got to do some platform duties at Arnos, and there was a signal failure at Cockfosters but it didn't have much impact on me as I was stuck on the gateline at that point. Luckily service to Cockfosters was reinstated in time for me to go home!!

We have a shutdown between Wood Green and Cockfosters coming up this weekend, I'm working at one of the closed stations which I've not done before, so I've no idea what to expect.

Back To Work

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:46:33 GMT

So, joy of joys, I was back to work on Sunday - then had Monday and Tuesday as my rest days this week. So today felt like my first "proper" day back.

Sunday was okay up until near the end, then some things happened around the time of the last two trains with the supervisor that threw me for a loop very badly, to the point where I was driving home wondering what on earth I was doing here. As a result Monday and Tuesday were a welcome relief, but I was also dreading work today.

I shouldn't have done. It was one of the rare good shifts, quite a bit to do and the time went quickly. I got into work with only a few minutes to spare because my train from Cockfosters crawled all the way, stopping between stations several times and, since I was at Arnos and therefore only three stations along the line, that's saying a lot! I got in and one of the CSA's was in the office, no supervisor - turned out delays on the Victoria had held up the 7am supervisor and the night turn one couldn't stay on to wait for him. At about two minutes past he walked in anyway, then left the office in my hands while he wents to do some checks and such.

So I'm sitting there pretending to be important (and better paid, heh!), watching the CCTV and keeping an eye on the Victoria line problems. Sent out a radio message when its service resumed to severe delays since we have quite a few customers who change at Finsbury Park to the Vic. Then the phone rang and I picked it up, and heard: "Regulator here, there's a PA at Manor House, delays resulting". I put out a radio announcement to the staff and was busy wondering why on earth an announcement at Manor House was causing such trouble even as the phone rang again, saying that train 314 was going into the sidings. Glanced up at the CCTV - chaos on the platform, what I'd originally thought was an Eastbound was a Westbound, and therefore very busy. Radio again, called for any of the spares to get down to the office or platform 4, and the supervisor to get to the office, only to have no response from either. After much fiddling, I figured out how to use the manual PA system (whilst I'm familiar with the PC one that generates messages, I've never used the manual before - and that fact also contributed to my problems on Sunday evening, oddly) and made an announcement to the platforms, hopefully successfully. The platform was packed - not quite dangerously so, but definitely busier than I've ever seen Arnos Grove get before, and they are island platforms, so if there's a crush with no trains you can have a very bad situation if it does overcrowd. I sent out another message over the radio for the supervisor to get back, while trying to field calls from the gateline who wanted to know if we actually had a service or not since obviously customers were up there and complaining that they'd just been turfed off the train.

Thankfully at that point the supervisor finally came back; I grabbed my hi-vi after briefing him then legged it down to the platform to handle the chaos and the PA's. The service remained patchy for quite some time, with some large gaps in the service, trains reversing instead of continuing to Cockfosters, and at one point a signal refusing to clear. Despite the fact that I'd stated on the PA several times that platform 3 was due to go first, and made no announcement to the contrary, as soon as a train pulled into platform 4 they all decided to jump on it - and got very pissed off when the signal finally went to green for platform 3 and the driver tried to close the doors before they were all back on.

All in all, great fun. I got off the platform at about 9:50 and went up to the office to help the supervisor send an email, he's not very good with computers! After doing that, and spending a bit of the time just hanging round the office, occasionally covering the phone, I went to have my meal break. I was nearly done when the supervisor asked if I'd go to the mail room near South Kensington station to drop off and collect some mail, and I jumped at the chance. Being paid to spend 40 minutes on a train each way? Heck yes. Far more interesting than hanging round an overstaffed station now that the peak was over. I had no trouble on the way in, and even managed to find the offices without having to ask anyone, then made my way back, also without incident - and also managed to finish the book I was reading, which was a history of transport in London.

When I got back, I got sent off to have a cup of tea, then went on to do some verrrry sloooowwww platform checks and OPO checks (where we ask the driver of a train if they can use the CCTV monitors or mirrors to see the whole length of the platform/train interface - some stations have a lot of problems with sunlight affecting the view), filled up the leaflet racks a bit, then ended up manning the office again for a while, which was actually quite good fun. I felt like Manager Attention Central today, with three of the DSM's speaking to me and also the GSM - can't remember the last time I even saw him. One asked if I'd enjoyed my control room visit the other month, one said in the course of a discussion about the morning's disruption that it sounded like I'd managed alright with the situation until the supervisor got there, all things considered, and the other came in while I was doing office cover duty. GSM collared me as I was going through the gateline after getting back from South Ken, and just asked how I was.

That was pretty much it for the day, beyond ruling out a few extra pages in the lost property logbook and the traffic circular logbook. Although I don't want to talk much about Sunday, there was one highlight - an asian looking lad coming up to me as I was sitting in the box watching the gateline (it was about 10:30pm, and very dead!), with a phrase card in his hand, asking me how to pronounce "figures" and "reasonable", and then having a little chat about the difference between "That figures!" and "That sounds reasonable". Bright spot to an evening that got bad later on!

In more interesting news, I found out that I passed my first assessment for train operator, which leaves the second assessment and, if I pass those, the actual interview - which is the bit I'm dreading. It's booked for early September which is nowhere near as far away as it actually sounds! I've also applied for Station Control Room Assistant, but they have no assessment dates free at the moment. Unlike train op, which has a host of help and information for candidates, I've seen absolutely nothing about SCRA, so I'm flying blind.

Mmm, fun.

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:45:13 GMT

Heading into London today to have an assessment... ah, the joys of trying to get a promotion already. The more I hear about the interview for train op, the less sure I am that I'll ever get it. I'm on my last week of Annual Leave and, with this today and a trip to the Doctor on Thursday that I'm dreading, the time seems to be slipping through my fingers at a scary pace.

Semi-Unofficial Train Op Shadowing

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:14:38 GMT

I've put in for the train op position, with an assessment in August, and since I'm now on leave and my manager never got round to sorting me out a shift shadowing a train op, I took matters into my own hands. Upshot - I travelled with an instructor operator on the District Line, from Earl's Court to Richmond back to Dagenham East (should have been Upminster, but we were behind and got turned earlier) and finishing at Earl's Court.

The chap was pleasant, quite talkative and made me feel relaxed straight away - then again, I would hope so, since it's his job to deal with new trainees. ;) He explained a bit about the functions of most of the stuff in the cab, some of the differences between the two types of trains they have on the District, the differences in operating over Network Rail track and London Underground track, and lots of other information, both useful and trivial! Quite a bit of the line I'd not travelled on before or, when I had, it was a very long time ago - for example, the stations past West Kensington I'd only gone through as part of a Piccadilly Line service back when Jade came over the first time - so it was especially interesting from that point of view. And quite mind-numbing to realise that once steam operated over a lot of that line. Some of the gaps in the roof have since been filled in but even so.

So, the next big thing is Monday (that close? Argh!), which is a training workshop which goes through the sort of things the assessments and interview for the job will cover. A week after that is the actual assessment, which I'm simply not allowing myself to think about it - I don't think I really have much chance of passing it; I've never interviewed well and I hate roleplays, and I'll do something stupid like forgetting to use the phonetic alphabet!

Victoria Line Open Day

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 08:06:29 GMT

Yesterday, after doing five hours on a spare shift at Arnos, I trundled up to Seven Sisters for an open day for people who are thinking of becoming train operators. There was a morning session and an afternoon session and, thankfully, I'd booked on the afternoon one - the morning on ended up in a pile of chaos due to the Victoria line having a part suspension, which meant a) people couldn't get there and b) they had to have staff taxis take small groups of the group up to the depot at a time, because the staff train wasn't running either. Luckily by the afternoon they'd gone down to minor delays, so we were alright - just rather wet! Especially the few people who arrived after they had to close off the entrance that we were supposed to use, due to flooding! They had a slightly longer walk. *g* I think I must have got there just in time to make it out of the entrance, a CSA had the Bostwick gate nearly fully across and wasn't letting anyone in.

Th first part was mainly about cramming into the room and learning a bit about the application process, especially the interview. Then the fun came, and everyone who'd come with their official shoes got into hi-vis and hard hats, and went down to catch the staff train (ooooo!!!!) to the depot. We went through the train wash and got out at the staff platform, which is not much more than a raised metal grille over some blackberry bushes. We split into two groups; our group went first on a depot tour - at least as much as is permitted - and saw the train cleaning sheds, maintenance sheds, the normal sheds, the wheel lathe, spare parts (you don't realise how big the wheels are really until you see them sans train...) and various other little bits and pieces. Then we moved onto the really fun part, and got taken round the test model of the new 09 stock that's starting testing on the Victoria line at the moment. The interior of the carriages aren't yet fully complete, and the seat in the cab was out of an old train because they hadn't settled on a design yet, but even so it all looked quite impressive - and Lisa got to press the button for the whistle. *g*

We took another staff train back to the station, and went upstairs to have a last chat and question time, and also eat the rather large amounts of food that had been laid on - somewhere the caterers had got confused and supplied far more than was necessary! Luckily the depot trip had made us all pretty hungry. *g* Even so, the train ops no doubt ate well that day!

Then it was time to go home - I wandered down to the platform, needing to go one stop to Finsbury, and got invited into the cab. At Finsbury, Lisa caught up with me on the platform, and we got another cab ride - and at the next station, two others who had been on the day with us (also from our station group), who we'd seen leaping onto the train at the last minute, came down and *also* joined us. As we got into Turnpike there was a CSA who we all know on the platform, and his face when we all started waving at him was priceless! At Arnos the other three left (with assorted bad jokes from the drivers assembled on the end of the platform waiting for their trains!) and I went on to Cockfosters. The people on duty there were people I know and like so I stayed chatting to them for about five minutes before I even thought about the time properly, and in the end I stayed on for about half an hour until my partner's train came in so we could catch the bus together. All in all, a good day!

Late Nights

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:12:24 GMT

I had a string of 7 lates - lates are never my favourite shift, and seven at once, 6 of which were at very quiet stations, was nearly enough to drive me batty. On Sunday, I also ended up doing 2 and a half hours of overtime, since my shift was supposed to finish at 11, but the staffmember at Cockfosters had called in sick, so I ended up staying on until gone 1am once the last train had come in.

Let's see, a rundown of some of the more exciting moments... well... given that I was doing lates at a station that has a few stablers, there were plenty of trains to check and sleeping passengers to rouse. The best was one where we had a call from a few stops down the line, saying there was a drunk in the first carriage, so could we see he got off at our station (this train wasn't actually stabling, but going on to Cockfosters - I think it may have been the last train, however). So down we went, and were looking in the first carriage as the train pulled in. We couldn't see anyone obviously drunk, and certainly no one asleep - at least until the doors opened, revealing the passed out gentleman in question, lying on the floor, one leg propped up on a seat. Given that we were both female and, while I'm fairly strong if rather unfit, the supervisor is on the petite side, we left him there for Cockfosters and, if necessary, the BTP to deal with, since if we'd held the train at our platform to remove him, we would have been causing a hold up.

I also had a drunk in the very last carriage of a train that would *not* wake up - typically it was one I'd gone to detrain alone, so I had to call the supervisor down and get the driver up. Eventually after much hammering on the wall, some not-so-gentle shaking and an awful lot of hollering, he finally came round!

At Cockfosters on Sunday, one of the people we removed from the last train had been in a fight, had barely-congealed blood all over the back of his head, and informed us he actually wanted to be in... Uxbridge. And having locked up the station, we came back down to find we'd missed someone on a bench, who we had to half-drag upstairs. Earlier on Sunday we had an off-duty policeman bring us someone off the train who was acting confused and apparently had cuts over his legs, and we had to get the police out (who also called an ambulance just in case). I also got kissed by some customer who I'd been chatting to while there was a slight delay in the service.

Monday I was at Wood Green, nice and busy, with a supervisor and CSA's that I quite like, so the time seemed to fly! We had some nutcase foreign woman yelling down the telephone for about twenty minutes - we made a couple of on-duty police officers go over and tell her to keep her voice down when they came through the station for a routine check. *g*

I also got an email from LU asking me to choose an assessment day for my Train Op application - I need to see if I can get on one of the workshops first really, I have a feeling I'll need all the help I can get. Then, come Sunday, I'm on annual leave, so posts here are going to be even more sparse than they have been anyway lately!

As for the Metronet mess, I'm not really qualified to comment; I've read a book and a few articles about PPP and that's about the extent of my knowledge. *g*

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:04:34 GMT

Currently working nights. Things could be worse. Lovely supervisor for the last two hours of the shift. I feel like giving her a hug at the end of shift and saying, "Thanks for being you. Thanks for appreciating me. Thanks for giving me stuff to do, and having a sense of humour." But I just say "Goodnight, see you tomorrow".

Actual Excitement? Never!

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:12:14 GMT

It's actually been a pretty good week all round. The supervisor I've had for most of the time has been really friendly, nice and supportive, and the other CSA I can get along with, though I'm never quite how much of his teasing he actually means... It's the same sort of humour I usually deal in, however. Despite being at a fairly quiet station, we've had a few fun moments - things like the ticket machines going out and service disruptions. Yesterday, for instance, there was a problem at Green Park that resulted in a lot of disruption, and today there was a one-under at Wood Green, a few stops down the line, that meant chaos from 2pm until after I went home. We had a few incidences earlier in the week of lost property, including someone at Wood Green who'd left.. a loaf of bread. We searched two trains and then a customer handed it in. Someone also left their handbag on the train and we had to send her up to Cockfosters to collect it after they'd gone and hunted all the trains for it.

Today I had a visit to Earl's Court control room, which was good fun, though made extra special by the driver who kindly let me in the cab for most of the journey, and was really chatty and happy to explain all sorts of things about how the train worked and the signalling and the speed restrictions, and pointed out the sites of the disused stations and such. We were there a while after the Central Line incident happened and there was a lot of gossip and speculation flying round about that, obviously.

Yesterday the afternoon supervisor was late and the morning supervisor couldn't stay - because the station I was at was above ground and is very small, I was drafted into the control room to take messages and, if anything went wrong, get assistance from the neighbouring stations. So I got to experience life from the supervisor's office, which was fun.

On Tuesday we had a failure of the OPO equipment - the monitors and mirrors that a driver uses to check whether the doors are clear before shutting them - so I was stationed down on the platform acting as the driver's eyes. However we then had to man the *other* platform due to sunlight affecting the OPO equipment that side, so we had an amusing half hour of it before the sun deigned to go back in and it started pouring buckets instead. Not long after that the engineer turned up for the monitors, so it wasn't too bad. We had to man the platform for about two hours and 15 minutes, I think.

Not As Boring As Expected...

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:11:53 GMT

I was expecting a verrrrry dull shift today since I was marked down as sunlight duties, and the weather was miserable. When I turned up, however, it turned out that I was the sole CSA in and:

- the ticket office clerk (SAMF) hadn't turned up
- the computer that controls the gateline was not working
- as a result of the above, one of the gates was open and couldn't be closed.

As a result, the day went past fairly quickly, with helping people through the gates and with the ticket machine, especially when the damn thing kept running out of change.

To make things more fun, about ten minutes after the SAMF did turn up, the machine decided to eat someone's £20 note, which meant ages spent trying to prise it out and then getting them to fill in a form before we could reissue the tickets and such. After this I (very thankfully!) went off on my lunch break and after eating, decided to poke around the intranet and see how easy it was to apply for the train op post. Easier than I thought since the intranet could pull up all my details from my CSA application, meaning all I had to make were a few small changes. I finished it off when I got home and submitted it... we'll see what happens.

We also got a message from the line controller (or is it service controller now?) saying not to run any evacuation drills until further notice and that all staff should wear hi-vi vests - those fetching bright orange waistcoats - until further notice.

Later in the afternoon the bloke finally turned up to fix the gateline computers, and the coin-only fare machine decided to eat someone's money too - I think it was feeling a bit neglected; nearly everyone was using the notes/coins/cards machine, so it wanted some attention too.

Then five minutes before my shift's ending time, I got sent down to do a final check of the monitors to make sure the sunlight - what little there was of it - wasn't affecting the drivers' sight of the platform. So down I go. And I wait... and I wait... and I wait... and I wait... At 4.15, 15 minutes after I was due to finish, a train finally turns up! Apparently there was some holdup at Arnos Grove with reversers blocking both the platforms used for eastbound services. Luckily I had some company in the form of a fairly chatty and friendly driver who turned up after I'd been waiting for a few minutes.

Then finally it was home time - for an eight hour shift, however, especially at a quiet station, it actually went pretty damn quickly.

Nothing of Interest Here...

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:11:46 GMT

And yet more rather dull shifts. That, combined with Internet problems most of this week, is why I haven't been updating... at least, that's my excuse!

I've signed up to go on an Open Day at the Victoria Line depot, for people who are considering becoming drivers, which takes place shortly before my annual leave at the end of next month. I'm quite excited about it. Also, on Wednesday, I felt fairly miserable after work and called my partner and told him I'd be mucking around on trains instead of going home, and meeting him at work so we could travel back together. I hopped on a train at Arnos, where I had been working, and when we got to Bounds green we sat there... and sat there... and sat there... and eventually got going again. When we got to Turnpike Lane, same thing, we sat there and the driver told us there was a signal failure in the Green Park area - although it did turn out that it was Caledonian Road, not Green Park, hence why it was affecting us so badly. We sat there for a while longer and I eventually worked up the courage to go down to the driver and see what was going on, and he invited me up into the cab, so I got a short-but-long ride in the front down to Finsbury Park, which was very educational.

I took the Victoria line to Euston (this had been my plan even without the signal problems) and took the Northern Line from there (after helping a woman and child find the platform they needed) to Waterloo. There, I picked up the Jubilee to Canada Water and changed to the East London line until Shadwell, where I helped someone else find the DLR station, and got the DLR out to Poplar, switched to a Stratford train, and went up to Stratford and back, another switch at Poplar to get to Westferry and meet my partner. There were no issues on any of those lines but, of course, when we got back to Bank to get the Northern Line the platform was packed with no train for 5 minutes, so the platform was getting worse and worse. Judging by the sound of the announcements from the poor CSA doing platform duties on the adjacent platform, it was equally bad that side! We squeeeezed into the next train and changed at Kings Cross for the Piccadilly, where we discovered there was a service suspension due to a passenger under a train further westwards that was causing severe delays. We again squeezed onto a packed train and at Holloway I turned to Him and said, "I bet this terminates at Arnos Grove...". Sure enough a few minutes later the driver announces that he's very sorry, but he's just been told the train will terminate at Arnos. Of course when we get to Arnos the next Eastbound is about ten minutes away... we did wander up and contemplate catching the bus but for some reason they still haven't replaced the 298 timetables at the bus stop, so we didn't know how long we'd have to wait, and in the end we headed back down and caught the next East to Cockfosters, and managed to get a bus shortly after arriving there.

I got the chance to actually go down on the platform today and play at directing customers around through my amazing PA announcements. I got a "Thank you for the nice clear announcement!" from one woman, who I don't think was being sarcastic, and an "Oh, really?" after my announcement that a train was going to Uxbridge, followed by being pounced on from behind. Luckily for the service it turned out to be my partner, not some drunken nutter. Luckily I also remembered to take my thumb off the press to talk button.

This entry probably wouldn't be a complete without a link to this BBC News article: Police Avert Car Bomb Carnage.

Boring Shifts...

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:03:35 GMT

Quietish day today, the main excitements being two attempted fare-dodgers, stopped by an off-duty policeman (which I managed to miss entirely by being on my lunch break), an old confused bloke who was hanging round the station for ages and who we eventually had to get BTP down to deal with so that they could try to get him home, and the GNER and First Capital Connect services being disrupted, so we had lots of people making their way via the Underground instead. I was on the gateline for the whole of my shift (breaks withstanding), unlike last week where I did platform duties as well, although I did have to take two VIPs down to trains. Oh, and I had to reset a gate after coming back off a quick break - the other CSA had also reset it previously, but only did a soft reset, and when I asked him what the error code on it had been, he said he didn't know because he hadn't looked. Maybe it's just me being a bit odd but I like to know these things, even though half of the error codes still been nothing to me, because it's another piece of information that I can pass on to the supervisor if it turns out to be a recurring problem.

Last and most exciting of all, one of the ticket machines was playing up all day. After it had been fixed it managed to issue a ticket for 27th June... *on* the 27th of June. Unfortunately I didn't find out if it was a one-off or not because I was relieved then, but still, amusing!

Quite a Medley of Little Things...

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:11:33 GMT

I've had a few days that could be called "not too bad".

Sunday I was at Wood Green, which started off a bit badly but got better as the day went on; towards the end of the shift I was working two CSA's that I like, and the supervisors there tend to be out and about quite a lot, which is always good. Minor excitements included one of the ticket machines taking someone's money and then not updating the Oyster, despite claiming it had, and not spitting the money back out. Had someone come and told me this I'd have been a bit suspicious, but I'd watched every step of the transaction - and in fact done a few of the steps myself since I was showing the girl in question what to do. Cue utter confusion, and me staying by the machine to watch over the next few transactions after I'd handed her off to the supervisor and ticket office. We also had an idiot who needed to put a couple of quid on his Oyster card so that he could travel, but he decided the queue was too long at the ticket office (it consisted of three people, including the one being served - earlier in the day we'd been at 20+ ...) and insisted on jumping the barrier. Where one of the other CSA's headed him off, asked to see his ticket, and together we herded him back out of the gates again to join the (now even smaller) queue.

Monday I was at Arnos, for an 8.30 start. Highlights included a walk through the secret passage to the drivers' building, which I found highly exciting, though I think the male CSA accompanying me was convinced I was nuts by the end. (Not that he'd be wrong...) I did a stint on the platform that went fairly calmly, and the rest of the time was obviously up on the gateline, but for quite a lot of it there were two of us on and for once I didn't mind it too much. I also got to pretend to be the supervisor for five minutes, sitting in the office and watching the CCTV and computers and listening out for the phone or any important radio messages - typically, of course, sod all happened. I also sent an email from the supervisor's account (accompanied by the usual expressions of surprise at my typing speed - it's been a while since I typed in front of someone other than my partner, who would draw with me in a typing race...) to a chap who'd left a suit behind on a train. Oh, and met a VIP off one train and saw him across the road to the bus stop.

Today was actually quite good overall, although there were some slow and draggy bits. One of the ticket machines ate some of someone's money and I helped deal with that. I did some time down on the platforms and there was some to-do about a train that needed to go out of service, so a train that should have been reversing (terminating at our station then going back into Central London) actually went on to Cockfosters, and the defective train was booked to go back into the sidings. Of course some twit jumped on it just as the doors were closing and the driver set off without noticing - I tried yelling over to the man but the doors were already closed - so I sent a frantic radio message to the supervisor informing him, since passengers into sidings is a big no-no. Then I watched as the train went off.... towards the next station instead. Whether they were running it back to a different set of sidings or even all the way back to a different depot (Cockfosters would, I thought, have been closest, but for all I know it could have been some weird special problem) or had decided to enter it back in service without telling us mere station staff, I don't know, and probably never will. Wherever it went, though, that person was definitely on it!

We had several school parties through, and also a lovely nutcase who'd damaged his Oyster card so it wasn't readable. Of course he had absolutely no money on him and didn't have time to fill in a form because he was going to work. He was halfway through a Bacardi Breezer, though, and definitely had plenty of time to stand round yelling at us because we pointed out he could fill in the form or he could pay for a ticket. Eventually he gave up and miraculously pulled out a wad of banknotes (no doubt from some extra-dimensional hole to the Bank of England's vaults that had only just opened up since, as noted above, he had no money on him for a ticket!!) and bought a £3 single. And spat on one of the whiteboards on the way through - lovely chap. I pity his employer. And everyone else who has anything to do with him.

Best part of the day, however - getting a radio call from the supervisor to say that the chap whose suit was misplaced, and that I emailed yesterday, had called in to say he'd be in to collect it. As the supervisor put it, "Another satisfied customer." Glad to have succeeded at something, and I was touched that he'd actually thought to let me know that that email had made a difference.

More Quietness

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:18:41 GMT

Quiet week at Oakwood, mainly consisting of gateline duties, although yesterday I did get down to the platform for sunlight and a handful of detrainments, which was good. No real excitements apart from the daily hassle of the ticket office closing for lunch, which is of course when everyone turns up wanting to do odd stuff with their Oyster cards, and the machine always runs out of change, and on one day it wasn't taking cards either - we were having to let people through to pay at their destination. Luckily most people take it fairly well, I can't imagine working at one of the stations where the ticket offices are set to close, though. (That said I'll probably go look now and find out some are in our group...)

Discovered today that LU has a staff magazine. Never seen hide nor hair of it until I saw the PDF copy on the intranet today.