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I agree, drivers have a unique viewpoint to log issues. I though you had said that near misses in the PTI weren't logged the same way as SPADs. The reason that PTI is not the whole debate is that we are talking about where best to invest money in safety. Is it best to invest in the PTI or...

The problem with anecdotal evidence is that it is anecdotal. I.e. it isn't good data as it is subject to all the perils of confirmation bias etc. Real data would be lovely but the danger for the TOCs is that it might show that DOO is not safe enough under some circumstances. The worry for the...

I disagree. Drivers are best placed to give anecdotal evidence on the effect of DOO on the drivers' role. They are not best placed to give data on the effect of DOO on the whole railway system or the effect of potentially freeing up resource to be used to improve safety elsewhere. DOO is...

First problem with your scenario is whether I know the driver is incapacitated. If he is able to communicate then he is able to instruct anyone to phone whoever is necessary. If not then I have to do something and perhaps I should anyway. First danger is another train. It is track...

I'm playing devil's advocate here so I don't necessarily believe these arguments so feel free to attack them... I agree that crew working sounds like a better situation but DOO does give more flexibility. I.e. the non-driving member of staff can be redeployed to do something that might make...

There are three arguments I have seen: Firstly that in time of disruption only drivers need to be provided. A second member of staff is desirable but not necessary. That means an easier job to get trains and drivers in place as you have only one person's hours and location to worry about...

The problem for management is the cost of stopping them getting away with it can be very high. For instance, suppose there is a particularly lazy member of staff who the company would be best rid of because they don't collect revenue and by not doing so lower staff morale. The management spend...

GTR can save money from reduced cancellations due to a shortage of guards. They also may be able to save some money from fare evasion if the OBS role enables a better enforcement of ticketing due to not having to do dispatch duties. I have no idea of the amount of money involved in either of...

There is the fact that they went to talks with the RMT. From the outside there is evidence that the RMT were not willing to talk, their statements were that they weren't willing to talk about anything if it involved DOO. So from an outsider's point of view GTR has seemed reasonable and the...

I'm sure there will be redundancy payments. But probably the statutory minimum, which is pretty derisory (having been faced with redundancy 3 times now). I fear that the union's refusal to negotiate a better deal than that for their members because they wouldn't discuss DOO is part of the...

I was disagreeing with post 944 that said: The point being that when only one failed, i.e. the guard, then the train failed from a whole system point of view. Failure is not just restricted to SPADs. Adding the guard, as you pointed out, does not significantly seem to affect dispatch...

I'm not sure I entirely agree with you, although you are applying the general statistical rule more tightly to dispatch than I had intended. I was originally disagreeing with the notion that adding a second person halved the risk. It does not as adding a second person increases the number of...

Would TPWS have halted the train in the overlap of the signal? If so then there would not have been a catastrophic failure. "Project Fear" seems to be alive and well in the rail industry. If I am an accountant then you are a politician.

The train was cancelled, from a passenger point of view that was a failure. The failure was safe but it was a failure none the less. I can't judge whether the guard was competent but I would have to see the incidence rate of this type of failure on a normal day compared to a strike day. To...

Define failure. In this case the train was cancelled, that is a system failure. It is a safe failure but it is still failure. Yes the chance of an unsafe action may be reduced but that isn't the only mode of failure. I assume that there are further protections, such as TPWS that would have...

Are you sure about that? I can't ever recall an EMU stopping beyond the signal. Certainly the Norwich sets don't seem to but they may be shorter.

Fortunately we weren't. Our bikes were stowed out of the way, we merely offered to move them so the bikes blocking the door could take their space, but on the condition that our tickets were refunded prior to us moving them. It was a compromise to get the train moving so those of us in the...

It isn't a new problem. Back in the 80s we were going on a family cycling holiday in Norfolk. Loaded the bikes into the guards van of the DMU from Norwich heading to Cromer but too many bikes were present and the guard refused to leave until he could access the doors on both sides. It...

I am not a professional risk manager but I have had some training in risk management. I doubt that the tolerance is zero. Unfortunately to do that the only way would be to not run trains. There will be a figure assigned to a passenger death, I recall reading that the government has a...

Interesting thought, if it brings the price down by the 40% from Philip in Post 13 then it would swing things towards IPEMU. It also occurs to me that rather than a reduction in cost of batteries a 10% increase in lifetime would, in effect, be a reduction in price of a similar amount. For...