Then what are the other factors, as I see removing key dispatch staff from the process of an area which is getting increased injuries and accidents each year as been very backwards. This is a key issue here.
Then you're just being disingenuous.
A touch of sarcasm in my previous post, clearly it was a bit lost on yourself. Still I think I've set my cards out on my experience of train dispatch so perhaps I may have a slight idea about what I'm talking about and the first hand risks that come with it.
If it were regularly I would agree. But it doesn't have to be regularly to have an impact. One in a thousand trains is still 0.1% on PPM. As with most things there's a balance between cost and coverage. For instance TfL wanted very low cancellations on London Overground. The solution has been the introduction of cover turns for drivers. That costs millions a year; just to stop one reason for cancellations, and not the biggest either (infrastructure and train failures are much bigger causes).
I suspect a big draw for TOCs is the capability of creating diagrams with the maximum amount of time spent on trains with minimum turnaround times at stations such as Paddington, Bristol, Exeter. The more time traincrew are working trains and less time spent in stations and mess rooms sat means less drivers/guards required. The massive negative on this is because the timings are too tight and no slack means that drivers or guards may have to take a break so their next working goes out late.
Ah, the ASLEF Charter.
Non-drivers might be interested in taking a look. How many millions would that shopping list cost I wonder? What would it add to the price of a ticket?
God bless a strong union. Clearly hits a nerve with a few people on here. For the record, a lot of the items in that charter have been achieved for years. The 55 pension retirement age won't happen IMHO though but let's not detract the main issue here.
£150? You'd be lucky. Shows how insulated drivers are from the real world, if the ASLEF charter hadn't done that already. I think if you were paying £500 a month the biggest single thing you'd be worried about would be the price of your ticket.
I wouldn't say insulated, when it goes wrong I regularly hear the 'do you know how much I pay a month for this [expletive] service???'. £150 was what I used to pay as I didn't have to travel far.
Still my point still stands, if my fare goes up each year above inflation then I would expect some form of improvement. For a lot of places in the country, particularly the North, Wales and South West there is very little, if any improvement. Removing safety critical staff is not improvement, it's anything but.
I agree that a second person on the train in times of disruption is invaluable. Does he have to be a guard?
I think you know my answer to that one
Predicting the inevitable
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Can you come up with an idea to make the railways profitable?. If not then DFT have good reason to try and seek longer term efficiencies and more flexible working arrangements than perhaps currently exist. If you want our railways to have a bright and long lasting future then surely that makes more sense than merely assuming governments will be willing to subsidize everything in its current form/costs indefinitely
I can think of ways of saving money without cutting front line, safety critical staff that actually deal with the public. Start having a look at a few middle managers at TOCs, what their roles are and what they actually do productivity wise.
Network Rail seem to have a great knack at wasting money but that's for a different thread.
