Information Overload

Things I’ve learnt this week:

1 – Everyone I’ve met this week has been great!

2 – TfL is a bigger organisation than I ever could have imagined.

3 – Stratford Westfield needs better air conditioning...

Oyster

 Monday started at the London Transport Museum at CoventGarden, with the issuing of the FREE Oyster Cards and name tags. We were put into groups and played TfL related games which involved us running (/walking quickly) around the museum to find things. It was fun and obviously was a great way to get to know one group of people straight away. Including all the grads, 12 month ‘year in industry’ placement students, apprentices and 12 month Olympic grads there is about 70 of us and even after 5 days I think I’ve probably only spoken to half of that number – not because I haven’t bothered to say hello – but because everyone is so great that you get talking and just don’t stop!

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday we were based at St. James Parkin 55 Broadway, an amazing building built in 1929 where days were broken down into 1 hour chunks and various people presented to us on subject such as Equality and Inclusion, Trade Unions and Employee Relations, SAP (a system TfL uses throughout the organisation), the GLA and our Government Relations office, TfL and the Olympics, etc etc…. There were so many!

It was really good that such senior people in the organisation took time out of their schedules to come say hello and tell us a bit about what they do.

Assembly Chamber

Wednesday was a bit different; we started the day at CityHall with a briefing from the external relations manager for the GLA. At 10am we moved into the Assembly Chamber for Mayors Question Time with Boris Johnson and 24 assembly members. This was the first MQT since the riots in August so there were a lot of questions around that topic but eventually they did move onto some transport related questions which was good for us to hear. There was a booklet filled with the hundreds of questions that were submitted for this MQT, my personal favourite:

‘What is the highest selling item in the Covent Garden Transport Museum?’

Towards City Hall

I have no idea why that question was asked or where the assembly member was going with that but according to one of the presenters later in the week, it costs £75 for each question to be answered – so I hope for the good of public money that one ended up in the bin or mysteriously disappeared. Wednesday evening was a chance to meet graduate alumni and hear from Peter Hendy the TfL Commissioner. It was great!...Peter Hendy was in the building for all of 12 minutes but what he said was interesting and really everyone just fancied heading to the pub as it was 8pm by then. Speaking to the ex-grads meant we had a chance to get some real answers and advice about different placements – where to go and maybe where to try and avoid…

Friday ended with presentations on how TfL could set a ‘world class benchmark during the 2012 Games’ – We came second out of eight! Celebratory drinks in a bar around the corner and home quite late meant dealing with dull head pain pretty much all day Saturday and suddenly it’s Sunday and I start work for real tomorrow in the LU IM PMO... basically all IT related projects for London Underground are based in one office an I’ll be based there doing…something. Until tomorrow it’s all still pretty vague.

Westfield Stratford City

Today I visited Stratford Westfield (East London equivalent of the Trafford Centre). Now, for those of you that no me at all will probably know my feelings towards anything shopping related so visiting on opening weekend may look like a strange decision… but it was ok! Apparently it’s supposed to be the biggest shopping complex in Europe but it didn’t feel as big as the Trafford Centre and I actually managed to get a few things that I needed AND the NatWest is shiny and new and friendly and open on a Sunday – so that’s nice.

Must dash, off to Euston to watch the United match with the BFF.

Until next time.

Bren x