First night back and the DMT on the desk was happy just to have some night turns booking on. Apparently last week one of the four night turns had been left uncovered and by Saturday night two more were off sick which left no one available to drive the last two WB trains. Next week we start the new timetable and we get an extra ten places on the roster which means ten TOps come out of the “pool” and we have ten less staff to cover sickness, leave, training etc.

In LUL’s in house magazine “On the move” we were given a hint of the service we will be running during the Olympics. On the Central, one of the four lines expected to see the biggest demand, they want us to start 30-45 minutes earlier on a Sunday, last trains to run an hour later than usual, an enhanced service every day and when the Olympic Stadium is in use, days 7-16, we will have an third “peak” between 10pm and 11:30pm.

Now there are rumours that in September they will start training up new TOps but due to the length of training and the numbers of training staff the best we could hope for is around 100 extra TOps spread over the ten lines. All of which leaves me scratching my head wondering how we are going to have enough bodies to run the enhanced service they are proposing but then I am but an ‘umble train driver and such things are obviously contemplated by the great minds that wander the marble corridors of 55 Broadway.

There were no unstaffed stations last night though at STR the CSA was so late that by the time they turned up I’d already called Wood Lane to get clearance and at NHG they managed to stand at a point on the platform where I couldn’t see them until the crowd had dispersed. ATO failed one car short coming into GRE EB; it’s like I’d never been away.