Overground Nightmares

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

Spare a thought for the staff and passengers of Highbury and Islington station, which is now served by the Night Overground service as well as Night Tube.
When this was first announced, staff and our unions had plenty of issues to raise with management, not least of all minimum numbers, staffing levels, cleaning and emergency procedures. Bear in mind that following a recent uprating, Highbury now has to carry out hourly security checks, and Night Overground has added three platforms to the scope of the checks.
Nevertheless, our intrepid management proceeded to ignore staff's concerns. Then, just when we thought the start date of Night Overground from Highbury would have to be put back, it was brought forward to the last weekend in February!
Not that management bothered to tell the staff. With all the issues still outstanding, it took some intense fuss-making over the week before to get any answers.
The first weekend went off without any major disasters, partly because management arranged for the gaps to be filled by police and Overground Travel Safe Officers. Since then, though, the station has had to contend with no such assistance, with promised extra staff not materialising, inadequate cleaning coverage, and a violent assault on staff.
This scenario will doubtless sound familiar to staff at Canada Water, the first station to be connected with the Night Overground, which also saw extra help for a short while, only to be left to their own devices within a few weeks.
What a way to run a railway.

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