Friday 24 October 2014


I had a rather worrying experience last month, as I was booking on the DTSM on the desk gravely informed me that the TOSM wanted a memo explaining why I’d refused to allow a cleaner on my train when I went up the sidings at NOR one evening the previous week.  This came as a bit of a shock as I’ve never refused a cleaner at NOR or anywhere else, quite the contrary I welcome them as some passengers treat the cars like the local tip.  Once I even complained when a cleaner had been lax doing their job, picking up the newspapers but leaving a half eaten box of Kentucky Fried Chicken on the ledge behind the seats.

So we checked to see which duty was driving the train involved at 22:30 and sure enough I was doing that particular duty on that particular day but according to the timetable I would have been somewhere between CHL and STP on my last trip, finishing at LES on the EB around 22:50.  There were no reported delays and I’d not booked any overtime that night so there was no possible way I could have been the guilty party at NOR.  A further inspection of the timetable revealed that there were no booked reversers at NOR at that time of night, the last one is about four hours earlier so any cleaners should have gone home by then.  When we checked that particular train’s schedule in the timetable it does indeed reverse at NOR, at 10:30 in the morning.

You'd think that on a railway the one thing managers should be able to do is tell the time......

9 comments:

  1. This business with cleaners getting on the trains and going up the sidings is downright risky. One had the temerity to have a go at one of our blokes as he was walking through the connecting doors when the train moved off. I know some drivers who DO refuse these people from getting on and sometimes that includes me. How do we get non track trained people off the trains when there is a track failure? NPK or WDF 21rd is not such a problem as they are through sidings. But WC west and Northolt! At times it's cleaner overkill and they get in the way. Eventually someone's gonna get hurt and it'll be the driver ( who else ) who'll get the blame.

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    1. The cleaners are instructed not to walk through connecting doors when the train is in motion, they are meant to get on the first car and stay there until we've finished the shunt move. I know back in the late 90s HMRI were highly critical of the amount of discarded papers that we being allowed to accumulate on our trains which is why litter picking was introduced.

      If they get stuck on a train up a siding then its not our job to walk them off, they'd have to get a DRM up or whatever.

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    2. How not to blame the driver? Do everything by the book, they can't blame you if you've gone by their rules. If you want to play it another way then on your own head be it.

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    4. But I don't want to play it by another way. Why would I want to do that? My response to your very erudite blog was about the safety of cleaners and the consequences for us should anything untoward happen to them.

      But that doesn't concern me now. What does concern me is the phenomenon of your missing time. My theory is this. As you were writing your post you were abducted by aliens, experimented upon and then returned to your keyboard none the wiser. You are missing nearly six hours! I'd check for alien implants if I was you and get on the phone to Bud Hopkins for hypno regression. He's the man!

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    5. First reply written during meal relief at LES, second reply written when I got home after going down the pub - Saturday RD.

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  2. A very similar thing happened when I was on the buses. When hauled into the office to expain why I had sworn at someone, I asked the manager to show me the complainant's letter. Sure enough the time tallied, but the alleged incident had occurred in the morning and I was late turn that day! Needless to say a sheepish apology was proferred; I never did try to find out who the real miscreant was. As you so, when blaming someone it seems easy not to properly check the facts.

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  3. I've had warnings in the past about not making PA announcements. When the details are checked it has turned out on several occasions that I wasn't even on the train concerned and on one occasion I was rest day. There's not one driver I'd say that this has not happened to. Although kudos to the mystery shopper who was out one freezing cold night on the 27th of December, that no man's land between Christmas and new year. He/she got me bang to rights, or should that be wrongs when I didn't make a departure announcement at Hainault at around 22.00hrs. That was a fair cop...................

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  4. The specs agreed upon at the time were very clear that if a driver wasn't ok with them getting on, then it was down to the driver, no memos asked for. Personally, I don't allow them on unless there are 2 with one male one female, and seeing as though there is never that make up, I never let them on. This is after an incident that occured with one of our LOU drivers at EAB several years back.

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