In which Signal Failure supports Bob Crow's position

Tube from Paddington to Waterloo was on time yesterday, but the train suffered delays owing, sequentially, to a late departure from Waterloo because of a previous train being held at a red signal, and then congestion at Vauxhall, Clapham Junction, and Wimbledon.  Got home five minutes late in the end for £12.50.

This morning, the train from Hersham was a minute late by the time it arrived in Waterloo, and the tube to Paddington accrued three minutes from there.  Plus the two-minute Paddington penalty charge to make another 5 minutes and £12.50.  So 10 minutes and £25 in total.

And finally, whoever would have thought I would find myself agreeing with Bob Crow?  But he said:

"With transport taking a massive hit in the spending review, and with jobs cuts and fare increases looming large, it is outrageous that the top brass across TfL are raking in combined bonuses of £2.5m."

And he's right.  This was in reference to the news that TfL has been splashing around serious amounts of money for its senior staff because they didn't manage to cause any massive cock-ups during the Olympics last year, when there was a record number of passengers and a 20% reduction in delays.  I do have to wonder, though, whether there was a record number of passengers anyway, or if it's only because of the Olympics boost.  Because if it's the latter, then they're basically using the Olympics twice as a justification.  And potentially three times because they don't state how delays are calculated.  For example, if they were based on reported delays per passenger, likely a lot of Olympic visitors didn't know or couldn't be bother to complain (not to mention the regular commuters, who have learned it's rarely worth bothering to complain about delays), thus reducing the ratio.  Possibly that information is somewhere out there, and if anyone has more time on their hands than me and would be willing to check it out, I'll happily post an update/correction to the proceeding.

In for a particular windfall was head honcho "Sir" Peter Hendy, who got a £319K bonus on top of his £331K salary.  Nice work if you can get it.

Peter Hendy
(Graphic credit: allcandycontainers.com)

But much as I don't feel TfL staff in general deserve all the perks and pay they already receive (as mentioned one or two times in this blog before, I believe), it's hard to see how liberally dousing the bosses with cash can be reconciled with refusing to give any more to the staff on the ground (r under it, as the case may be).

A lot to cover

Sorry for the lack of updates: work and life have been busy in the offline world.  Bonus for you is a bumper crop of updates!

Monday morning, the train from Hersham to Waterloo was a minute late.  The connecting Northern Line tube to Leicester Square (I had a long meeting in Covent Garden) was on time.  Coming back, the tube was a minute early, but this didn't affect the train I could take, which was on time.

Yesterday, I took the train from Norbiton to Waterloo (four minutes late) and the Bakerloo Line to Edgware Road (one minute late: six minutes late overall if I could have taken the tube I would have had the train been on time).  Going home, the first tube was too overcrowded to physically get onto, and the next a minute late (making me four minutes late overall.  The train was on time, and was the one I would have got onto anyway, so no charge for the earlier delay.

This morning, I took the same route in as yesterday.  The train was three minutes late, the tube four - seven minutes late overall if the train had been on time and I'd been able to catch an earlier tube.

So, since the last update, that's 13 minutes and £32.50

In the news recently, TfL boss 'Sir' Peter Hendy is busy gloating about his knighthood for managing to get TfL to work properly over the Olympic period (what about the rest of the time?).  Without even getting started on the cheapening of the knighthood institution (as if it needed more cheapening) by doling them out to people for doing a couple of weeks' good work, the gall of the man is incredible.  Describing his own rise from bus conductor 37 years ago, he glibly tells 'young Londoners' that he sees no reason why they can't accomplish as much as he has too.  I couldn't have put it better myself, though at least he had the decency to recognise it was other people's hard work that got him the knighthood, even if he didn't do the decent thing and refuse it for that reason.

If you're an app developer, or aspiring one, you could enter TfL's not-at-all-a-PR-stunt competition to develop an 'accessibility' app for the TfL network.  Of course, if TfL really cared about making the network more accessible, it would talk to the affected people, build up specs, and commission professionals to just do the work.

And finally, another story about TfL blighting the landscape to line its own pockets with nary a thought for locals.