As we enter week two of RMT`s and ASLEF’s dispute with London Underground over their unsafe detrainment procedure we are happy to inform you that the action on the ground by drivers remains solid. Drivers are united and determined to force Bakerloo management to introduce a safe procedure for detrainment at terminus locations.

Week two of our dispute has generated a letter from Mr Lance Ramsey, the General Manger of the Bakerloo Line to drivers expressing his view that “the safety of our staff and customers is our top priority.” Let’s take a closer look at this claim.

This is the manager who has overseen the introduction of a procedure that has allowed over 3000 incidents of passenger over-carries into sidings; a procedure that has seen a 12 year old boy wandering around near live rails and moving trains; a procedure that has seen a sharp increase in the verbal abuse of drivers by angry and frustrated passengers.

During the course of this dispute, this same manager has over seen vindictive strategies waged against drivers who want no more than a safe detrainment procedure and a safe working environment. The staff he cares so much for are being forced to stay till time when spare, are being forced to wait in Baltic temperatures for hours for trains that are late or fail to arrive; are being forced to give passengers misleading information about the running of the Bakerloo Line.

The customers whose safety he cares so much about are being forced to wait ages for trains; being subjected to severe overcrowding, are taking an eternity to travel from A to B on the line; are being forced to carry push chairs and the like up and down stairs to get to the right platform as trains are late turned on the southbound platform at Queen’s Park. And are being lied to about the state of the service.

Recent history on the Bakerloo has seen TOM’s instruct drivers to ignore safety critical procedures and take trains into tunnels without a functioning train radio; and has seen other TOM’s hang out of the front of trains with a brush attempting to sweep ice from rails. So the safety record on the line is not that good, is it?

If Mr Ramsey is serious about the safety of his staff and passengers then why punish them for wanting a safe working environment.

He is right in that he did undertake ‘consultation’ with the unions in the past about the implementation of the current unsafe procedure. But your unions well founded concerns fell on deaf ears and the dog’s dinner of a detrainment procedure was imposed upon us. The only line on the combine that operates such a procedure.

Here is a message from Bakerloo Line drivers to Mr Ramsay: “OUR action has eliminated over-carries on the line. WE have eliminated the unsafe consequences of taking hundreds of passengers into the sidings. WE have made the line safer for passengers and staff alike. What we need from you is less propaganda and dishonesty. Get round the table with the unions to find a safe procedure that we can all work with. The days of ‘flash and dash’ are gone. We are prepared for the long haul to ensure a safe detrainment procedure for all!”

Attached is the pdf.