On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 11:26:24 -0000, "Tony Wilson" a@a wrote:

More important than the numbers, though, is the quality of the alternative.
These early journeys are being made by people who have little alternative
than to travel at those times, because they have to get to work (generally
the low paid) or catch a train/plane at a certain time. Although people can
change jobs or travel the day before, clearly this is quite a burden and
will not always be possible. Without the tube, these journeys would be very
difficult; they are coming from and going to diverse areas, not all of which
have a night bus (we used to live in Dagenham, a few mins from the tube but
half an hour walk to a night bus). Critically, night buses are infrequent
and can't be relied upon to arive on time and to get you somewhere at a
certain time. As these journeys are generally time-critical, or people
wouldn't be up and about making them, the night bus does not cater nearly so
well as the tube for these workers.

I think the above sums up the difference in journey types very well.

On a separate point, anyone who saw the expose of the LU night maintenance
workers will know that it is quite possible to get much more work done on
the night shift if people actually do some work; a friend working for one of
the infracos (no of course I won't say which/where!) went on a night shift a
few months ago and was staggered that the entire shift was made up of people
with no concept of a work ethic and whose stated challenge when at work was
to see just how little they could do and get away with it. If these idlers
actually had some real supervision you could easily have a shorter overnight
engineering period and get the same level of maintenance done, keeping your
revellers and early workers happy.

While you are correct in your comments I think you'll find that pressure
is being applied to the workshy workers you refer to. The Infracos
simply cannot deliver what they have to do and reduce their costs unless
they deal with the efficiency (or lack thereof) of night time
maintenance activity.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!