The Right to Strike?

I’ll give you some examples, both involve staff presence and equipment.

Trains need to be despatched from platforms, Most units are now 4-12 carriages in length. Unless a driver can see every door, usually 2 per carriage , then the train isn’t allowed to depart. This is generally fine on stations with dead straight platforms, trouble is platforms generally are not.
To get around the issue new trains are being fitted with CCTv cameras on every door, so drivers then have to look at up to 24 images before the doors can be closed. That is one way. The other is fitting static CCTV systems to platforms with TV screens at specific points, to the metre , TV screens also on the platform for the driver..

This infrastructure is not in place on Approx 75% of the network, so train guards have to be employed as a second pair of eyes for drivers.

I’ll leave you with this hypothetical thought…. I’m in a wheel chair, yes we have to cater for “me” I get on at Bradford Forster Square with the assistance of staff and ramps. I want to get off at say Saltaire. How do I get off the train and how do I get off the platform.

There may have been £2 m of investment at Saltaire since I left Bradford , but hypothetically follow my example for now.

Railways need staff for valid safety reasons.

I was responsible for Risk Assessments along with Driver teams for managing the safe arrival/ departure of trains on multiple stations and appeared in the Supreme Court in London as a witness to validate my Risk Assessment on a station. The litigant lost a multimillion £ claim because they were at fault for their own actions and subsequent catastrophic injuries.

I close with this thought

Safety on the railways is a serious, expensive business. It should never be compromised, nor used as a bargaining chip in protecting railway Franchise holder profits.

Hope that helps ?

 

Im being facetious. This is no different to Governmental claims that we don’t need ticket offices . Where do City fans go for ticketing and ticketing advice , even though it’s an on line process? No different to me buying a railway ticket and finding out the ticket won’t work or the train has been cancelled?

Online isn’t the complete answer we think it is .

 

It does help and I see why Guards are important on the services where the infrastructure is not yet in place and also why having people on the platform to assist people who are disabled, etc, is necessary.

I didn't get the link of ticket staff with safety to be honest.....convenience for some, maybe, but not a safety issue in my head.

I spend too much time on the tube where they seem to run with basically just a driver and to the untrained eye the amount of staff seemingly stood around at regular stations like Leeds for example is overkill, although not severely so.

I think safety on the railways should always be a major concern but I am also interested in how the whole service can be made more efficient as technology plays a greater and greater role.

 

Question for you Kev,- i use the trainline app and yes its brill, better than rushing to queue to get a ticket BUT say i get on at an unmanned station and get off at an unmanned station say Frizinghall stop before VP who knows if i have bought a ticket?
Getting rid of Guards might not be so efficient if some of us dont have to pay

 

Some people are living in cuckoo land if they think investment is forth coming in the railway round these parts, driverless trains lol, we’ve only just waved bye to the pacers.

 

Have they managed to fix that door at Forster square yet?

 

I know they double up as ticket inspectors in WY . We didn’t have them on my railway because we had Driver operated trains because we had the expensive infrastructure and a £1B of new trains. So yes those clamouring for no guards will only see fare evasion go through the roof.

 

Yes more efficiency re equipment is the key, they go hand in hand

Re ticket office staff
They retail tickets, look after customer welfare, get the elderly and disabled on and off trains, clean their stations and some are even qualified to dispatch trains . Don’t be fooled by Gov spin, that’s all I can say.

Re Tube. I don’t know many work practises on LUL but I can tell you it’s not only DLR trains who can drive around without a driver.

 

Driverless trains are the future. No train staff and no one on the stations with automated ticket machine on the platform for card purchase and CCTV monitoring like VAR

 

What would happen in London if the staff you think just stand about all day werent there when lets say a rush of people hit the station and for quite clear safety reasons need to close the station temporarily?

Im in London a lot too and this happens all the time.

Speaking of people lazing about not doing their jobs, I seem to recall your support for one Boris Johnson.

 

I didn't say anything about people standing around in London?

I support common sense. I think if you search for it you'll see that I don't think that Johnson is either particularly intelligent or a particularly good political. I juts avoided the pile ons when I didn't think they made sense.

 

we'll take Křetínský and you can have Rupp.

 

You might end up with Sullivan

 

This sounds like a dystopian view of a world that has lost all sense of society.
A terrible outlook for our railway.

 

I was reading this article the other day : https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/11/30/california-police-deploy-robots-kill/10801825002/ who'd have believed back in 1987 the futurist "Robocop" movie could/would become a reality in the not too distant future, I remember Harold Wilson ? saying get used to not working as manufacturing will be done by robots, are we that far away in the 21st century.

 

It's already started here in North Leeds. Robot deliveries from the Coop...ROBOSHOP
They are causing a bit of chaos when they cross roads. Drivers are stopping to let them cross but they take their time...but they are kinda cute. Apparently they are going to dress them as reindeer for Christmas!

 

They wouldn't last long in Bradford someone would have them opened and be away with the bottle of Vodka.

 

I can just see it Dave, a new definition of a “Takeaway “ lol!

 

I was reading the article and it said the customer gets a password sent so they can open the robot and collect their things, I'm sure the same would apply with a lump hammer.