Wednesday was the reverse of Tuesday, rather than having a long first half and then only a little bit to do after my meal relief this duty had me getting off for grub an hour and a half after booking on with everything to do afterwards. Even so it was uneventful until my last trip EB when Auto failed less than half way into STP during the evening peak with a platform full of bemused passengers and once more I had a “Clive” moment. Yes Boris, Central Line trains drive themselves.

There was an interview with Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy in the Standard yesterday and some of the things he came out with were just plain wrong. He’s repeatedly claimed that “Ten years ago if we'd had a dispute with the RMT we wouldn't have run a train”. Back in 1998 RMT called a series of strikes to protest against the introduction of PPP with the first strike cunningly planned to coincide with England first match in the World Cup.

Back then I was a Station Assistant in TSSA working a dead early shift at Paddington so I got the staff taxi in and started around 05:00. Initially there was no service so I was kept busy dashing hither and thither to intercept passengers who had let themselves in and inform them that here were no trains. After a couple of hours the Circle Line started running and by the time my shift finished the Bakerloo had too. Even with my poor education I can work out that was 13 years ago.

He also claimed that following the Royal Wedding strike rumour ASLEF “immediately disavowed one of its leaders” which is absolute bull. As I wrote here at the time ASLEF denied it categorically the day the story started, as did the official who they claimed had made the statement. Either Mr. Hendy is delusional or he’s just lying through his teeth.

I’m sure this all plays well with the Standard reading Neanderthals but it doesn’t do anything to bridge the ever widening divide between senior management and employees. More on that another time.