Tube Companies and their management
Its seems from the commnets I have been getting lately that its time to re-direct my ire at the Tube companies themselves and the ridiculous management that run them and subsequently are the invisible faces responsible for such shit service and high prices.
It is obvious that the customer is the very last person considered when it comes to service, ocnsideration, timeliness and any kind of courtesy or professionalism involved in provision of transporting us long suffering souls around subterranean London.
If any of my readers can advise me of companies, name names , examples of bad management nedlect and nepotism then I will publish and be damned.
posted by DT @ Wednesday, March 28, 2007
2 comments
2 Comments:
Before I even read all your posts, I though "I'll tell him all the firms!"
There is an abatement policy with most, whereby they pay LU if hey fail to do what they should and also LU pay them "service charges" and if they fail to do what they should......
In the "olden days", when things were different but possibly not that much better. LU did everything, so it wasnt so much as an Us & Them (or rather Us vs. Them culture) and there was pride to do the best. This does still exist, depending on where you travel and the local management.
Right!
The main ones are the Infraco's Metronet Rail UK SSL and BCV and Tubelines (who maintain the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Northern. As well as the Emergency Response Unit, Distribution (incl Refuse Collection, Vehicles and Mail, and TransPlant the Engineering & Speacial Trains & Plant section).
They provide the assets that LU need to operate each day: Tracks, Signals, Trains, Cleaners. As well as working to deliver the requirements of the PPP - Line Upgrades!
There is stuff about what they should be doing and who owns them on their websites!
If they cock something up then it is reported to their Fault Reporting Centre, where staff "Raise A Job" (100's a day are given over).Thy then have a set time to resolve the issue or pay a fine. Train Service Delays are reported by the Line Controller and investigated by an LU Duty Manager, some of these are then argued and passed back and forth until someone pays up!
Some fines are paltry, but a signal failure that shuts down Earls Court in the morning peak could well be £500,000! A bit like a City Trader, only you need to act quicker ;-)
Anyway, the other firms are:
TranSys -
They own all TfL/LUL ticketing equipment under a PFI contract called Prestige. They maintain ticket gates, passenger and staff operated machines, hand held and other oyster readers, Bus Ticket Machines and the Oyster Card.
They are a consortium of Cubic, EDS, Fujitsu and WS Atkins.
They pay fines for defective equipment and LU pay if a working ticket issuing facility is not in use.
EDF Energy PowerLink -
They provide Electricty to LUL from the National Grid under a PFI deal. Power now comes from the street to stations and to sub-stations and stations from Bulk Supply Points. Sub-Stations supply Traction Current, Signal Mains (Power) and Air Mains (Compressed Air for Points and Train Stops- signalling equipment). There is also an Emergency Power Station.
Connect
Another VERY LATE PFI which is proving to be a pain in the arse as the software is not good for a Railway!
It is the new super duper radio system for stations and trains.
The name of the consortium is City Link. Citylink's shareholders are Thales (33 per cent), Fluor (18 per cent), Motorola (10 per cent), Laing Investment (19.5 per cent) and HSBC (19.5 per cent). The cost of the design, build and maintain contract is £2bn over 20 years.
There is more about the project here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect_Project
On top of that the trains on the Northern are owned putside of the PPP by another PFI Project.
Train Tech staff who used to fix the the trains were sold off as they were too well paid. The new staff were there, not fix the problem firtsly but to blame LU.
Sadly that is now what the The Tube is for Money and Blame.
I hope this has helped. Just ask if you want to know more.
Also LU are now wanting to dumb down a lot of jobs. This will mean that when something happens, staff will know even less than they do now. Just compare the bloke looking bored at your local station (unless he really is useless!) to some of the morons who are paid peanuts on the dumbed down National Network.
Regards
In short: Gordon Brown ought to have been shot over the PPP.
He shafted the lot of us.
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