In yet another indictment of the privatised railway system, staff at Victoria station were recently shocked to discover that an ongoing leak into their mess areas contained more than just water.

As part of the upgrade of Victoria station, staff mess facilities had been moved to a part of the station owned by Network Rail and leased by Southern Rail Group. Water was first seen leaking through the ceiling in the men’s locker room and then, on another occasion, through the lights in the catering area. These were reported each time to the Victoria Line Upgrade Team and were brought up by the local Safety reps at two consecutive Tier 1 meetings. At the time, the leaks were believed to be nothing more harmful than water.

On 19th September, water was found leaking into the women’s locker room. Network Rail sent their plumber to look at the leak; while he was there talking to the local Safety reps, he dropped a bombshell: the leak was actually coming from a urinal waste pipe. Upon receiving this shock news, local Safety rep, Peter Basley, asked management to close the mess room and told staff to use the Supervisors’ area instead. He also conducted his own enquiries and discovered that the landowner (Network Rail) was already aware of this problem and that it had existed for the last five years. Apparently, Network Rail and Southern were still haggling about who was contractually obliged to fix the problem and pay for repairs.

Reps called an Emergency Tier 1 meeting with the local GSM and handed in a collective grievance stating that Network Rail had failed in their duty of care under health and safety law. Meanwhile, the female locker area has been shut and alternative changing facilities are being provided in the BTP room. And while Network Rail and Southern continue to point fingers at each other, our members at Victoria are having to eat their meals in the computer room.

Article from the October 2009 edition of Finsbury Park Monthly News