If the company press machine is to be believed, stations and in particular the stations on the outskirts of the underground network are ghost stations. Whereby there is very little need for station staff, staff there sit around drinking tea and watch Jeremy Kyle all day. Customers come and go as they please using all this wonderful modern technology such as etop up; wide aisle gates and help points. No need for station staff they say.

Granted there are moments where the kettle goes on and the toast is made but the reality of life on outer London stations is far from what they want you to believe.

It’s often difficult to fully appreciate what the job of others is like or even to fully appreciate those who do the same job but in different locations. Most of the time we get our information from third/forth/fifth parties whether it be interactions with duty manager or the fountain of knowledge which is the evening standard. Given the busy environments we work the augmented ‘truths’ spread in a big game of Chinese whispers, a tool the company uses regularly.

So often I hear about the details of this new thing the company is gonna roll out but when the question is asked of where this came from it all it all becomes a little less clear.

There is no question that London Underground are targeting individual grades and different areas one by in their strategy of death by a 1,000 cuts.

This is the first of a 3 part blog where I will be sharing my first hand experience about my time on stations in the hope of killing off some of the myths making the rounds.