They throw their Sunday in and refuse to work, turn down rest day work. Volunteers drop to 21%. You end up with a phenomenal amount of cancellations which DfTO have recently tried hard to address by diagramming legacy units on evenings and weekends. On days they have to be in, on 331s/195s they often require a not to call order if the disorder or overcrowding is too bad. Or cancel the train. Nonsense that is unknown at other operators.
There is a Northern company management produced video, showing the (195/331) 'stuck' method of work where the guard has to put an orange vest on, climb out onto the track, walk up to the last door on the platform, bang on the glass, break an egress and hope enough people get off, then get to the door panel. 5 minute delay, in reality, unworkable on a train stopping every three minutes.
This particular line was described as one of the two worst in the UK for antisocial behaviour two decades ago (no 2 was last train Newcastle Durham, no 1 was Liverpool Crewe evening services) - not a lot has changed in 20 years.
The underlying cause of this new problem is a very small number of short platforms. At times of overcrowding or ASB staff need to remain safe in the cab. It should be noted that as new (or newer) stock arrived at Northern, an assessment of platforms was made and a substantial number of platforms were lengthened. This has not happened here, with several stations having dangerous numbers of passengers up against the platform edge as Avanti flit through at full speed.
