Central Line closure from 1700 21/07/22

[Mojo]

This weekend:
Saturday 11 Sunday 12 September, due to a lack of available Control Room staff, the Central Line will be running shuttle services and there will be longer intervals than usual

Services will operate between:
Hainault-Woodford
Ealing Broadway-Hainault
West Ruislip-North Acton
Leytonstone-Epping

Similar problem forecast this evening judging by what’s been put out publicly. Early close of service from 18.00 throughout the central and western sections. 2 x 4 train shuttle services to run Leytonstone to Epping / Hainault.

 

[43066]

TfL have apparently Tweeted that the central line will be largely closed later today, due to a lack of control room staff.

Not sure if anyone can upload the tweet?

 

[sonic2009]

Link to the article in the Standard. Central Line to close at 1730 - then TFL changed mind and said it will operate.

Chaos as TfL backtracks on early Central line closure

Angry passengers had hit out at the sudden announcement that the line would close at 5.30pm

www.standard.co.uk

TFL has backtracked on a planned closure of the Central line on Thursday evening - only minutes after telling commuters the line would shut from 5.30pm due to staff shortages.
Customers were told no trains would run on most of the line except for a shuttle service between Leytonstone and Epping/Hainault, throwing many Londoners’ regular commutes into disarray.

But only minutes after a decision was announced to close the line cover was found - meaning the service will run after all.


A TfL spokesperson said: “Cover has been found and a normal Central line service will operate until the end of the evening”.


This means trains are scheduled to run to all stations to the usual last train time, as on a normal day.

 

[bramling]

TfL have apparently Tweeted that the central line will be largely closed later today, due to a lack of control room staff

So once again TFL’s failure to competently manage resourcing of critical control staff has resulted in a severe impact on the service.

There can’t be an organisation in the world which cuts its nose to spite its face to the same extent that TFL does.

 

[Simon11]

So once again TFL’s failure to competently manage resourcing of critical control staff has resulted in a severe impact on the service.

There can’t be an organisation in the world which cuts its nose to spite its face to the same extent that TFL does.

Have you read the article? The line closure is no longer happening

 

[bramling]

Have you read the article? The line closure is no longer happening

Happening or not, the fact that it was ever on the cards is enough of an issue. No doubt a load of overtime will have been dangled around, which is hardly the way to manage a critical function.

 

[Simon11]

Happening or not, the fact that it was ever on the cards is enough of an issue. No doubt a load of overtime will have been dangled around, which is hardly the way to manage a critical function.

Or a lot of extra pay!

There is only so much resilience you can have and surprising this hasn't happen more.

 

[43096]

So once again TFL’s failure to competently manage resourcing of critical control staff has resulted in a severe impact on the service.

There can’t be an organisation in the world which cuts its nose to spite its face to the same extent that TFL does.

Have you seen TPE’s and Avanti’s service delivery failures of late? TfL are hardly alone.

 

[thomalex]

This is absolutely mad, not just the closure but then announcing it and pulling it.

What is going on at TfL!?

 

[Horizon22]

It’s all covered now, services to run normally tonight. All very strange to go from one extreme to normal so quickly.

 

[Lewlew]

They would have been doing their best to cover it right up to the last minute. All it takes is the right deal for one person and it’ll all be sorted.

 

[bramling]

Or a lot of extra pay!

There is only so much resilience you can have and surprising this hasn't happen more.

One way to have resilience is not to have shed-loads of unfilled roster positions (or, in other words, vacancies). That’s down to poor management, plain and simple (unless half of your staff spontaneously decide to retire without notice, in which case we’d also be asking questions as to why!).

 

[43066]

So once again TFL’s failure to competently manage resourcing of critical control staff has resulted in a severe impact on the service.

There can’t be an organisation in the world which cuts its nose to spite its face to the same extent that TFL does.

Indeed. Certainly bears out the concerns you’ve expressed time and again!

 

[duncanp]

Proof, if it were needed, that Transport for London regards passengers as a complete nuisance, and running train services an inconvenience it would rather not have to put up with.

What line will be drawn next in the line closure lottery?

I wonder what Sadiq Khant has to say on the matter.

 

[bramling]

Proof, if it were needed, that Transport regards passengers as a complete nuisance, and running train services an inconvenience it would rather not have to put up with.

I’d put it slightly differently. It’s what happens when you have an organisation one of whose purposes seems to be to provide employment for people in positions they’d never be able to sustain elsewhere.

The primary purpose of TFL is to deliver a working timetable of service for each line, and to have the resources in place to achieve that. Provision of control staff is entirely within their gift, so it’s quite reasonable to make criticism, especially when there’s people being paid large sums of money to manage all this.

 

[43066]

Proof, if it were needed, that Transport regards passengers as a complete nuisance

Who is “Transport”?

 

[duncanp]

Who is “Transport”?

I meant to say Transport for London, and the post has now been edited.

Presumably Sadiq Khant is silent on the matter because he hasn't thought of a way to blame this on the government yet.

 

[43066]

I meant to say Transport for London, and the post has now been edited.

Understood.

Presumably Sadiq Khant is silent on the matter because he hasn't thought of a way to blame this on the government yet.

I expect so. It’s not as if he ever says anything worth listening to.

 

[Horizon22]

One way to have resilience is not to have shed-loads of unfilled roster positions (or, in other words, vacancies). That’s down to poor management, plain and simple (unless half of your staff spontaneously decide to retire without notice, in which case we’d also be asking questions as to why!).

Also appears to be a serious morale problem - or there certainly was when the surface lines were in a constant state of delays last year.

 

[Busaholic]

Understood.



I expect so. It’s not as if he ever says anything worth listening to.

I think it's got beyond the stage of 'disappointing' with him now. He is almost as useless as some in our non-existent-for-all-purposes government.

 

[Basil Jet]

I think it's got beyond the stage of 'disappointing' with him now. He is almost as useless as some in our non-existent-for-all-purposes government.

Part and parcel of living in a great global city is you've got to be prepared for non-existent-for-all-purposes government.

 

[fgwrich]

I suppose, now that CrossRail is open, it could / should take some pressure off the Central Line in instances when it is closed? If they can run Stratford upwards towards Leytonstone / Hainault / Epping then it's really only the western stretches which are left out (though Acton Mainline isn't far from the Acton stations and CrossRail connects with the Central at Ealing Broadway). Though I can understand the inconvenience though, and it is rather odd to announce a closure then pull it almost last minute.

 

[Mawkie]

This particular incident seems like a storm in a teacup. Isn't it simply the case that someone called in sick at the last minute and there was no coverage? They had a call around and someone agreed to stay on/come in. To me that shows dedication beyond what I would give.

I think I saw there were nearly 3m covid infections in the UK currently. This obviously has a detrimental impact on a workforce, who by the very nature of their job, have to work in close proximity with each other, often in confined spaces. The counter argument will always be, "They should have enough people to do the job properly and cover every eventuality", but even with a full contingent of staff, sickness can decimate that at short notice.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I want the operational staff in charge of running a railway to be 100% fit for the job they are doing, if they are sick, they must stay away.

 

[FormerBritInMe]

Services will operate between:
Hainault-Woodford
Ealing Broadway-Hainault
West Ruislip-North Acton
Leytonstone-Epping

Just curious how running all these various shuttles requires less control room staff than running a normal service?

 

[bramling]

Just curious how running all these various shuttles requires less control room staff than running a normal service?

If it implies they’re running a special service (which by definition will be at reduced frequency) there’s generally less workload in the event of disruption. With this type of service the train crew managers will do most of the work.

This particular incident seems like a storm in a teacup. Isn't it simply the case that someone called in sick at the last minute and there was no coverage? They had a call around and someone agreed to stay on/come in. To me that shows dedication beyond what I would give.

I think I saw there were nearly 3m covid infections in the UK currently. This obviously has a detrimental impact on a workforce, who by the very nature of their job, have to work in close proximity with each other, often in confined spaces. The counter argument will always be, "They should have enough people to do the job properly and cover every eventuality", but even with a full contingent of staff, sickness can decimate that at short notice.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I want the operational staff in charge of running a railway to be 100% fit for the job they are doing, if they are sick, they must stay away.

I think the point is that they don’t have a full contingent of staff, so there’s more likelihood of issues arising.

The whole resourcing of control staff at TFL is a complete dog’s breakfast, has been so for many years, with some locations worse affected than others, the Central Line being one such location.

 

[Mawkie]

The whole resourcing of control staff at TFL is a complete dog’s breakfast, has been so for many years, with some locations worse affected than others, the Central Line being one such location.

You've often spoken about the brain drain from TfL. Maybe these kinds of things will only get worse?

 

[bramling]

You've often spoken about the brain drain from TfL. Maybe these kinds of things will only get worse?

The answer is, I suspect, it depends.

To be fair to TFL, there have been some useful reliability initiatives over the last decade or so which have made a genuine - and noticeable - improvement in performance. Though for balance we should also remember that a *lot* of money has been spent on new trains and new signalling / control systems on numerous lines, so for that massive investment we should damn well expect things to be better.

But the snag is that most of this has been engineering-led. The people side of LU has got considerably worse in that time, and in fact I’d go as far as to say it’s now at the point - in places at least - of being utterly dysfunctional. There seems to be no attempt to address this, on the contrary I don’t believe TFL even notice they have a problem. So yet this will only get worse, until some kind of serious incident involving fatalities occurs, as it did at King’s Cross a generation ago. That report makes interesting reading, with significant criticism of LT’s people management.

 

[Busaholic]

But the snag is that most of this has been engineering-led. The people side of LU has got considerably worse in that time, and in fact I’d go as far as to say it’s now at the point - in places at least - of being utterly dysfunctional. There seems to be no attempt to address this, on the contrary I don’t believe TFL even notice they have a problem. So yet this will only get worse, until some kind of serious incident involving fatalities occurs, as it did at King’s Cross a generation ago. That report makes interesting reading, with significant criticism of LT’s people management.

If true, and I have no doubt you know what you're talking about, that's very troubling indeed. Apart from the situation with TfL the London Fire Brigade have suffered significant cutbacks since King's Cross, where the local fire station was 'otherwise engaged' which only made matters worse than they otherwise might have been.

 

[Kite159]

I noticed the Central Line was showing severe delays today due to shortage of control room staff, nobody wanting to work the weekend?

 

[mrmartin]

I've generally noticed a pretty wonky/uneven service on the central line recently. Often 5-10 minute gaps at Stratford; which at busier times leads to very very busy trains. Is this related to staffing issues? I rarely noticed this a cpl years ago.