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Proposals for a no cap tourist tax, refusal to consider cutting welfare benefits to fund defence & confusions over longer term ramifications of the new Israel policy given it’s forthcoming elections, suggest Mr Burnham’s honeymoon period might be nearing its end. I’ve no idea wether he’ll prove...

Indeed, prior to signing the Mk 5 contracts I wonder why Chilter/Dft didn’t utilise the bit of leverage they actually had by informing the RMT that opting to oppose the method of operation on EWR would result in less or no MK 5s being introduced as additional costs would be required elsewhere.

You could say the same about the weekend LNER diversions via Carlisle but most still call there AFAIK .

Cardiff -Portsmouth had catering trolleys for many years on the 158s etc, they were quietly abolished around 2019, presumably to save money.

Not that easy given RMT also voted for strikes when that OBM role was proposed back in 2008 but I seem to remember a court decision of some kind later prevented the action from taking place. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7562813.stm

Didn’t you realise C2C went DOO in 2004

Better that than nothing running at all.

Seemed a pretty good idea at the time but ultimately can’t have made money given its very short life .

It may be normal not to do much work on the toilets during a major refurbishment as the 390s only had new floor lino, & walls either spray painted or vinyled in theirs.

Until about 14 years ago once north of the central belt it was essentially 2G or nothing until/ unless you reached Dundee, Inverness or Aberdeen

Thanks for the information. Sounds like all sides were fully aware from the outset how this was likely to play out & have essentially sat back & left it to the politicians to sort it out .

If the original media reports of an agreement for OBS type staff are true then ASLEF might have moved the goalposts when the RMT later objected. Similar to enforcing RDW agreements at various TOCs, it’s on the fringe of the legal/unofficial industrial action debate as the former boss of Avanti...

No surprises there as they always sit on the fence in this manor in these scenarios. Ideally we need robust management to call their bluff & offer transfer or redundancy to any drivers not wishing to operate the route with OBS type staff like Southern /Scotrail have for years . Inform RMT...

Realism by who? How many times have the RMT re run the same DOO dispute over the last 30 years must be at least 40 times by now..

So essentially the RMT couldn’t care less whether trains & railway’s exist unless they’ve a pre determined degree of leverage in their operations.

Indeed but Greater Anglia GWR & SWR originally wanted the flexibility of an agreement similar to Southern permitting no second staff member under certain defined circumstances, but presumably compromised to end the strikes, but when opening a brand new railway with new staff surely you go for...

The operator is irrelevant. Primarily they wont be happy that a “customer service assistant” type role won’t have the same leverage guards do when trains run under full guard operation.

The jobs aren’t outsourced to employment agencies but catering contractors like Rail Gourmet or cleaning /service contractors like Bidvest Noonan or Carlisle Group.

I suspect it’s meaningless fluff rather like their GWR DOO dispute a decade ago also pushing for buffet counters on the IETs but conveniently forgotten once DOO was scrapped.

Take a trip on the West Coast Mainline & you’ll see plenty of toilets out of order on trains that have been in service for 20 plus years. :'(