RMT holding strike ballot over Tube job cuts

Looks like last week's negotiations with London Underground haven't worked, as thousands of Tube workers are to be balloted for strikes in the ongoing row over job cuts.


Bob Crow, leader of the RMT said the Union would host a public meeting on the cuts on Wednesday.

Nothing on the RMT's site about this at moment and no statement from London Underground.

Around 10,000 Tube workers will vote in the coming weeks on whether to take strike action. It could be timed hit the run-up to the general election, expected on May 6.

Tube issue open letter ahead of strike deadline

Unions have given the London Underground until 5pm tonight to abandon plans to cut 800 jobs, otherwise they will ballot to go on strike. Ahead of this Howard Collins, Chief Operating Officer at LU has written an open letter laying out their commitment to Tube safety. LU will be holding a Company Council meeting with all of their Trades Unions, today where they will be briefing them on the proposals.

The letter stresses that ticket office purchases have declined sharply in recent years, due to the success of Oyster card, while LU passenger numbers have continued to rise. See the graph below:


Collins writes: "Let me be absolutely clear – safety is at the heart of our vision to transform the Tube and we make the following commitments to all of our customers and staff:

1. There will always be staff present at every station to help customers

2. All stations that currently have a ticket office service will continue to have one

3. There will be no compulsory redundancies

We are proposing to reduce ticket office opening hours because our customers are just not using them as much as they used to. Use of ticket offices is down around 50 per cent on five years ago. Today, only 1 in 20 journeys starts with a visit to the ticket office and this number continues to decline. 80 per cent of all Tube journeys are now made using Oyster.

So we don’t need or want our staff to be stuck behind glass in under used ticket offices; we want them out on our stations where our customers need them – on platforms, in ticket halls and at gate lines."

Bob Crow, RMT leader, is putting safety at the heart of the matter as he knows this will gain more sympathy than purely striking over job cuts and said "We have already warned that the cuts that are being planned by TfL will turn tube stations into a muggers paradise and it now appears that the company are speeding up the process and are already leaving stations unstaffed, or babysat with just one member of staff, without any consultation.

That is a scandalous dereliction of duty and it is only a matter of time now before TfL and Boris Johnson have a tragedy on their hands as a result of their cavalier disregard for public safety."

Collins letter says: "In addition to our ongoing commitment to having staff where customers need them most, there are also more police patrolling the Tube network – 700 officers – than ever before. This helped to reduce crime by eight per cent last year. While one crime is always too many, there are now just 12 crimes per million Tube customer journeys.

We’re also installing more and improved CCTV cameras on stations and trains, to more than 14,000 in years to come, to help us look after you.

All of this must be done in a way that delivers the best possible value for money for Tube customers and taxpayers.

It’s a fact that, like any public service, we have to be as efficient as we can, particularly in the present difficult economic times. It’s true we are reducing the number of staff we have overall; but by putting our staff in the areas they are most needed, we can do this without affecting your journey or compromising your safety."

The full letter will be on TfL's website soon. We'll know by tomorrow whether these efforts and the discussions with unions will be enough to stop the strike threats.

What will Crossrail uncover?

Last night I attended a great talk & reading by Iain Sinclair & Rachel Lichtenstein at Clerkenwell Tales book shop. They are both great writers of London's history & their recent works look at Hatton Garden (a stone's throw away from the shop) and Hackney. Both have an extensive knowledge of the area around Farringdon & Rachel feels she can "smell the farmland & hear the River Fleet", when she walks around the area. Iain brought up an interesting question

"I wonder what history will be dug up or uncovered in the Crossrail construction & will any of it be preserved?"


Apparently where possible "archaeological sites will be preserved in situ; otherwise they will be excavated and recorded" say Crossrail.

The company acknowledge that it has the potential to encounter some really important and interesting archaeology across the route including prehistoric, Roman and Medieval artifacts. But will they go as far as the Athens subway and display what is found in the stations?




The audience in the shop were quite sceptical about this happening, but agreed it would be great to see.

So far some human bones which are 200 to 300 years old were found in an exploratory borehole close to the planned Farringdon Crossrail station on Charterhouse Street. A Crossrail spokesperson said "They probably came from the former burial ground at St Sepulcher’s Church, which had a workhouse attached to it." However, there's little chance they'll be on display at the new London Underground station, as they were tested for bubonic plague. Once tested, they will be re-buried in consecrated ground or kept in the archive of the Museum of London.

London Reconnections wrote that "Anthrax can lie dormant in spore form for centuries, but if disturbed it can spread through the air. When the Metropolitan Line was dug in the mid 19th century, anthrax spores were released, killing several people. The bacteria that causes bubonic plague may also survive, and dealing with ancient remains is an occupational hazard for rail projects in the City."


Interestingly, both Iain and Rachel talked about the massive change Crossrail will bring to the culture of the area, which reminded me of last year's Transformed by Tube talk at the London Transport Museum. In fifty years from now, will we be musing nostalgically, about the little newsagents, bars, shops and KFC outlets, that have been cleared by Crossrail?

I learnt last night that Farringdon Road used to have a daily book market on it (about 20 years ago & evocatively described in Iain's book White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings) and there's clearly no evidence of that now. I was happy to hear that people like Iain & Rachel are still uncovering the history of less famous London streets and long may it continue.

Roundels not on the London Underground

There's a food and drinks bias to this round of roundels spotted outside of their original home on the Tube. Firstly Jemimah Knight found a brilliant spot of a puntastic restaurant sign in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi


I like how they've added a trademark to font & imagery on the sign. This is either them being super cheeky or a case where they've actually got permission from TfL to use it!

Charlie spotted the less imaginatively named "Underground" cafe while on holiday in Na'ama Bay, near Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt last week.


Finally, to complete the round up of Tube eateries, we have Soho 8 in Hong Kong, spotted by James B and taken by g189


Thanks all. It seems that the roundel is popular choice for eateries, pubs & bars including Damon Albarn's famous bar in Reykjavik.

Please keep the photos coming and I'll blog the best. It's nice to know that you're still thinking of the Tube when you're on your holiday! You can see previous sightings of the travelling roundel at the Roundels not on the London Underground set.

Tube Pic of the Week - Dirty Tube

I haven't seen too many white van "wash me" style scrawlings or "reverse graffiti" on the London Underground. So it was a nice surprise to see one that made me chuckle this morning.


Wonder how long it will take to get cleaned off? I'm assuming that Tube trains don't get a daily wash!