Ok, I’ve had a quick shufty on the RMT website and initially the call for a ballot comes from the LU Fleet Branch which is made up of staff employed by Metronet and TubeLines including the Test Train Drivers. I still can’t find any source that actually says that driverless trains will be tested on the Jubilee at any time but that isn’t to say they won’t despite LUL’s denials back in July.

When the Deep Tube Railway document first surfaced LUL said it was a paper exercise for middle managers, a bit of “blue sky” thinking, quite believable when you read some of the proposals regarding staffing at stations, obvious that those who drafted the document have never worked down here with our passengers. It was only later they admitted that it was indeed their plans for the future of the Tube, little wonder 67% of staff think that management are being less than honest with us.

So the ballot will initially be restricted to those Test Train Drivers who are asked to work on the driverless trains over on the Jubilee or wherever and then will spread to any other grades that LUL asks to, er, drive them. I assume that infers that they haven’t set things up so the trains can get in and out of the depots on their own or that maybe it’s just they know that as with everything at LUL it will inevitably break down at some point and need a human presence to move it.

While were on the subject of RMT they’ve just announced that the joint working party that was set up after the strike at TubeLines over pensions and free travel back in May have failed to come to an agreement. While they now have their staff and family Oystercards the matter of parity with Metronet staff is unresolved and as a result RMT members will refuse to do any overtime over the first weekend in October.