During their dispute Southern addressed this concern by constantly stating they would employ OBS at standard train crew ratios and agreed an ‘exceptional circumstances’ list with ASLEF. The result is Southern getting all the performance and customer service benefits they wanted and the OBS remaining in secure employment. The RMT is still in dispute and has nothing to show in over two years for how they have influenced or affected the outcome except plenty of spare membership cards. Perhaps it is all positive evidence that the TOC rather than the RMT genuinely has the best interests of it’s employees at heart?
I agree that Southern, for now at least, is setting a pretty good example. How long that will go on for, though, is anyone's guess. Hopefully it is a genuinely long term commitment by the DfT.
On Northern, though. They're already chronically short-staffed. What hope is there of maintaining existing train crew establishment figures when they're way off the figure at the moment? "Exceptional circumstances" will help, but I still don't understand how that works in practice - how does the driver, faced with taking a train out on his own in the next few minutes, know that the stated "exceptional circumstances" are genuine?
I don't see why Northern (and indeed Southern) can't get all the performance and customer service benefits they apparently desire without a long-running dispute that was inevitable with their chosen course. The driver releasing the doors would be an acceptable compromise, judging by deals elsewhere. The second member of staff has to check the platform anyway, so there's no 'cost' to them closing the doors themselves (set against a safety benefit, to some extent).
I still don't understand how it's supposed to work when there's a wheelchair user waiting to board, unseen by the driver. Assuming the "OBS" gets to the doors in time to check (otherwise they'll just be left behind), how do they then prevent the driver dispatching the train? The whole thing just seems to introduce unnecessary confusion into the process. If they're there, they should be dispatching it.
I'll be honest, I thought that would be the case on GTR Southern - but thus far there seems no evidence of it being so, and despite being unrecognised by the union (incredibly childish in my view) the role seems to be meeting with some success.
It certainly seems to be the case.
I haven't been following this thread from the start, nor have had the time to read over 197 pages of it. So forgive me for asking, has anyone pointed out that when Northern begin running these new trains upon the Airevalley and Caldervalley a number of them won't have guards, because these brand new trains don't have corridor connections through the cabs?
It certainly seems far from ideal that the new trains don't have corridor connections. Still, it's surely better to have a guard who can at least look after the rear unit, than a situation where the only way that a member of staff can get to the rear unit (to reset passcoms, etc.) is the driver by climbing down into the cess and walking along the outside of the train?
