We have a new timetable coming in for the Central Line on 4 July and while I haven’t seen the details it will mean that the depot’s “roster” is going to be reduced by ten and the drivers dropped back into the “pool”. The other depots are also being reduced which can only mean that there will be fewer trains running, one would imagine this will be during the off peak, so passengers might find that the gap between trains when you are going home late at night will be longer and that the trains will be subsequently more crowded. Thanks Boris.

What this means for me personally is that rather than being able to say what I’m doing between now and the end of the year I won’t know exactly what time I’m working or when my rest days are during the week until the Wednesday or the Thursday before. An inconvenience at the very least but I was in the “pool” for my first year as a driver and again for six months when I transferred to my current location. The list for getting back on the roster is graded by how long you’ve been a driver and what did surprise me is that even though I’ve been a driver since 2003 of the ten dropped I’m seventh. I’m going to have to wait for a few retirements before I can get my working life sorted again but think of the poor lot who were already in the pool thinking they’d get rostered soon and now have to wait.

On a happier note we have been told that we will get our pay rise on the next pay day back dated to the beginning of April along with our £250 bonus. After the rise of inflation plus 0.5% we now earn the thoroughly poetic sum of £42,424. Four Two Four Two Four; just rolls of the tongue, don’t it.