It's started.

I accept your excuse. I know what you mean.

 

As if on cue:
http://tinyurl.com/3yqkqhs

"Next month, Citibank will begin testing a card that has two buttons
and tiny lights ...
The microscopic engine powering the plastic will help breathe new life
into a 1950s-era technology — the black magnetic stripe found on the
back of the 1.8 billion credit and debit cards circulating in the
United States. Much of the world has already moved to using more
advanced cards, like the ones in Europe that require a PIN and use a
chip instead of a magnetic strip. ...
The U.S. is the last bastion of the magnetic-stripe technology and
shows no near-term desire to switch to chip technology"

harumpf.

 

See my "Nice holiday" thread. My Mastercard has been cloned. Presumably
just the mag strip, not the electronic "chip & PIN" device. Where has the
card been used? NYC, Broadway & Hyatt hotel.

 

I'm in the US at the moment and the hotel just swiped it and asked for a
signature. It's a works card so not too concerned...

 

Campaigning for the Democrats or setting up the ASLEF US branch?

 

...at Harvard for lectures.

 

Oooooh lucky you. Anything interesting if you don't mind me being a
nosy parker?

I'm likely to be knocking on Mr Duncan Smith's department door saying
"gissa job" in a few months time. Such is life.

 

Through the TUC - analysing various organising models, societal and
demographic changes. Aimed at Gen Secs, national officers etc.

Not sure if that's good - cuts at TfL or by choice?

 

Interesting stuff.

Via our lovely "Support Services Review" which is LUL only. It doesn't
look good when you see the numbers being axed and the remaining
"opportunities".

The TfL reorganisation ideas will emerge sometime in the New Year. No
clue yet as to what impact that would have but it is unlikely to be
positive for job numbers.

 

won't there be plenty of jobs going in DoSOCC[1]? An EKS opportunity,
maybe: Mr Corfield, Crossrail Cock-up Tsar.

[1] Dept of Sorting Out Crossrail Cock-ups?

 

There are no spare or vacant TfL or LUL jobs on Crossrail (AIUI) as the
central teams are being kept pretty small. The concept seems to be to
allow the contracted organisations to get on with it. What will, of
course, be very interesting is to watch the commercial "scrap" that
ensues between the likes of Bechtel and the other consortia tasked with
building / managing the project. I suspect Cross London Rail Links (the
TfL company tasked to be client) will have to manage that particular
interaction.

If you believe, and I'm not sure I do, some of the pointed comments left
by "an insider" in the comments boxes under some Crossrail related
articles on the Evening Standard website then "Crossrail" is already
dysfunctional. The tone of the comments is very much of someone who
worked there and was kicked out / contract terminated / whatever so
rather large pinches of salt are needed. A project of this scale will
always have tensions and issues - it's just the nature of the beast.

The ticketing and revenue arrangements for Crossrail are likely to be
fascinating and that's something I'd love to get my teeth into. However
Crossrail will be a separate franchise, to be let by TfL I think, and
it's not clear what commercial parameters have been established so far
in terms of assumptions about ticket pricing and its relationship to
other ticketing policies of the TOCs and the rest of TfL. There are also
oodles of other technological, commercial and organisational issues that
will come in to play between now and 2018 that could affect the whole
thing. I don't know if someone is already looking at all of this in
Crossrail or TfL or ATOC. If they're not they bloody well need to be. I
wouldn't leave something this important to the construction / project &
programme management consortia.

 

I thought Bechtel went pop a few years ago but they've obviously
managed to drag themselves back from the brink.

 

I might appear to be an expert here but there are cleverer and more
experienced people around. I don't wish to go into detail about our
reorganisation because I've been "hauled over the coals" for other posts
on other subjects (not on this group). You simply don't know what gets
sent where or who reads what. I am just not very confident of surviving
the process given the scale of job losses that is proposed. The
speculation is that there will almost certainly be a further
reorganisation right across TfL next year. They're doing the planning
now - so if you "escape" this time round then you may well get done next
year. It's not very pretty.

You might be right but a "one man band" consultancy with no track record
of delivery outside of LUL is unlikely to do very well when all of the
mainstream transport consultancy businesses have been shedding staff for
months and will shed yet more following Mr Osborne's lunatic decisions
last week. There's no money and there's little or no business - I
struggle to see how the private sector are suddenly going to build
motorways, railways and metros of their own volition! So much for them
coming to the "rescue" following public sector cuts.

 

Is this unusual in TfL then? Where I work that sort of thing seems to
happen every couple of years.. I must have been through it about 5
times now and somehow keep seeming to dodge the bullet.

 

It's been a bit of a shock to the system to some TfL types to realise
their jobs might be at risk. Talking to a few at work (and watching the
RMT antics) they seem to think we're all invincible to cuts.

I'm just sticking with my driving at the moment as whatever happens,
they will still need drivers. Well until someone comes up with the few
billions that would be needed to bring in No Driver Operation anyway.

For what it's worth, I'm really sorry that Paul's job is at risk; having
chatted with him at a reasonable length, I sense he's one of our better
managers and his skills should be put to good use elsewhere in the
organisation.

 

Yes and no. I appreciate the private sector do such things more
frequently and perhaps more ruthlessly or quickly. We have lost jobs in
the past and we have been reorganised before - in fact the last one was
barely 1 year ago. We have gone from a time of relative expansion and
growing funding to something that is almost the opposite despite funding
for things like Crossrail.

I guess the difference, on a personal level, is that I am at a more
senior level and thus more "expensive" and the cuts seem to be
concentrated in my grade. I am not arguing that we can't become more
efficient - we clearly can. It's just a shock that 25 years of career
may simply end pretty soon.

 

But death by 1000 cuts is the new growth - didn't you get the memo?

I'll bet the amount of work isn't going to reduce and a lot of public
sector employees are going to find themselves doing 2 jobs rather than
one. Be interesting to see how that pans out in a more unionised
workplace than the typical corporates that have done it before, but in
the last 5 or so years it seems to be the only blueprint so many big
businesses are using, and as their executives move around... well.

You'll probably find one of your suppliers would pay handsomely for
you to sit on their side of the table when they're bidding to TfL in
the future. You've got the kind of knowledge and experience that the
private sector just can't build on it's own. On a more personal note
you might even have a bit of fun being able to play the "bad cop"
role.

Best of luck whatever happens.

 

I was thinking of that, earlier. One of those "experts" brought in by the
media to slag off the government. Radio 4 would be the ideal environment
for Paul's analysis. Any other broadcast medium would be a bit low brow for
his style, plus, like me, he has the face for radio

AOL