Tube Lines ready to train

Tube Lines is to build a £7.5m training centre to tackle the severe shortage of specialist signalling engineers on London Underground.
But the RMT union warned this week that Tube Lines risks losing its new trainees unless it can compete with the rates paid by recruitment agencies.
Tube Lines plans to train 25 specialist signalling engineers a year at the centre, which will be built at its Stratford Market depot. The tube concessionaire hopes to attract trainees from its own in-house signalling staff and through a recruitment campaign that it is about to launch aimed at the armed forces.
Catalis Rail Training will provide the training programme in a 10-year contract worth £1.8m.
Tube Lines employs 85 permanent specialist signalling engineers and hires a further 15 signalling engineers from specialist agencies to make up the shortfall. A recent recruitment drive among its freelance signalling engineers failed to attract any significant numbers into permanent employment with Tube Lines.
Andy Good, Tube Lines human resources director, said: "It is a well recognised fact that the rail industry suffers from a shortfall in trained signalling maintenance staff. Their specialist skills and knowledge are much sought after and, while we have an excellent body of 85 trained staff, we fully intend to grow upon this in-house skill set."
Tube Lines technical manager Roger Haines said the centre would fill a training vacuum. He said: "The technical training centre will develop scores of Tube Lines staff in a specialism that can be applied directly where it can be of most benefit - on the Underground. A centre of excellence of this nature is something this industry has been lacking for years."
But RMT regional organiser Bobby Law said Tube Lines would have difficulty competing with recruitment agency pay levels and retaining the staff it trains. "The problem is that the agencies can pay their specialist signalling engineers so much more than Tube Lines or Metronet. Despite Tube Lines offering a £10,000 bonus over three years, on top of around £37,000 a year to its engineers, it is still losing staff because freelance engineers can earn between £75,000 and £120,000 a year with recruitment agencies.
"It needs to develop better terms and conditions for its workforce in order to compete," he added.