Paging the Tube geeks

Corfield kept this one quiet

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2010/07/09/london-undergrounds-secret-
tube-station/

 

Well I've not actually been to West Ashfield itself but I have been in
the same building a few times.

In times past the training school used to be at White City (now covered
by Westfield) and ran what were called "voluntary classes". They were
evening class versions of the regular courses that operating staff take
- train equipment, operating problems, ticketing etc etc [1]. They were
available for those of us who work in offices and not on the operating
railway per se. Other staff could do them too - e.g. electrical
engineers could learn about ticketing or signals people could learn
about train equipment. It was an excellent way of being able to learn
about the railway and how it works.

I did a fair number of them and I even got to play with the mock train
set (older version thereof - they've obviously updated it judging from
the photos). On the ticketing course I ended up disagreeing with the
instructors within 5 minutes because they said something about how the
central computer worked. Unfortunately for them I was part of the team
running it so I corrected them! I think they were a bit taken aback to
find they had an expert in the room. I got top marks on that course and
even have a certificate somewhere. When I went to collect my
certificate the then General Manager of the Victoria Line (he was
presenting them) said "I should bloody well hope you did get top marks
on this course".

I also acted as an unpaid adviser on the National Rail ticketing course
that they introduced.

Regrettably they stopped running voluntary classes many years ago. I
still think it was a stupid decision - all of the classes were over
subscribed every single year which shows the level of interest there
was. It was an easy way for people to devote their own time to learning
and to understand if there were other career paths they might wish to
take. I also think it gave the Underground a more knowledgeable and
enthusiastic head office workforce.

Ironically the railway industry has had to establish a new institute [2]
to provide a basis for developing the next generation of operational
managers. The decimation of British Rail removed their graduate training
programme and franchisees are only in business for 7 years or so - why
would they bother to invest in staff development over such a short
timespan? The problem, of course, is that eventually they have no one
to run any future franchises because people retire and all the
experience and talent is lost. Hence after 10 years of chaos people
realised something had to be done - LUL is part of the scheme.


[1] I am sure the course titles are very different now but that's what I
recall them as.
[2] Institute of Railway Operators.