Guaranteed trains in event of strike

[northwichcat]

I've noticed that in Italy the following applies:

Essential services in the event of strike (law no.146 of june 12, 1990)
On days when strikes are held Trenitalia guarantees minimum transport services provided as a result of agreements with trade unions and as considered appropriate by the Commission responsible for guaranteeing the implementation of Law 146/1990.

For local transport in particular, essential services have been planned for the peak time-bands (from 06:00 to 09:00 and from 18:00 to 21:00 Mon-Sat). Some long-distance trains are also guaranteed on all days including holidays.

If trains that are travelling when a strike begins are not cancelled at their departure station, they will normally reach their final destination – provided those stations can be reached within one hour from the strike’s beginning. After this one hour, trains may stop and terminate at stations before the train’s final destination.

In addition to the essential services, Trenitalia can provide additional services, on which information is given by notices at railway stations, the media and on this website.

Since unpredictable changes (e.g. change of route for long-distance trains) could also occur during a strike, customers are kindly requested to pay special attention to the notices given at the stations and by the media.

What are people's thoughts on this?

 

[DavidBrown]

The trains arriving up to one hour after a strike start time wouldn't really apply here given that most of the network has no passenger trains overnight - I wasn't aware that Italy was different in this respect? If not, then I can't really see the need for that law, to be honest. As for maintaining minimal rush hour services, the risk is that people will think there's a lot more trains than there actually are, and the resulting chaos would soon cancel those services anyway!

 

[Jonny]

Once the ERTMS/ETCS system comes in, there isn't much of a leap necessary to program a computer to do all the driving. It just needs to know the acceleration and braking characteristics of the train and any associated considerations (+/- weather sensors if necessary), as well as any station stops and its signalling status (as well as normal parameters and maybe a few basic fixes). Then, there isn't much of a leap to not needing operational crew (or just needing some with a lot less training) as well. Then let's see what happens when traincrew go on strike...

 

[A60K]

The trains arriving up to one hour after a strike start time wouldn't really apply here given that most of the network has no passenger trains overnight - I wasn't aware that Italy was different in this respect? If not, then I can't really see the need for that law, to be honest.

A strike doesn't have to be for a calendar day - it can start at a shift change time (look at some recent London Underground strikes) or can be just for a few hours (uncommon on British railways).

 

[northwichcat]

The trains arriving up to one hour after a strike start time wouldn't really apply here given that most of the network has no passenger trains overnight - I wasn't aware that Italy was different in this respect?

They have overnight sleepers.

As for maintaining minimal rush hour services, the risk is that people will think there's a lot more trains than there actually are, and the resulting chaos would soon cancel those services anyway!

If that happened here I imagine the times would actually be 06:30-09:30 and 16:00-19:00 to allow for school/college travel as well as workers. That way all trains would be 'peak' trains and only essential travel would be made as the people who would make non-essential travel would wait for the off-peak trains, which would be the next day.

 

[Legzr1]

Once the ERTMS/ETCS system comes in, there isn't much of a leap necessary to program a computer to do all the driving. It just needs to know the acceleration and braking characteristics of the train and any associated considerations (+/- weather sensors if necessary), as well as any station stops and its signalling status (as well as normal parameters and maybe a few basic fixes). Then, there isn't much of a leap to not needing operational crew (or just needing some with a lot less training) as well. Then let's see what happens when traincrew go on strike...

The system goes down,fails to re-boot,the human-designed software has a hissy fit and the train is stranded in the midle of nowhere (or even worse,fails to brake/slow down).

Then let's see how smug 'all important' railway commuters are...

 

[AeroSpace]

The system goes down,fails to re-boot,the human-designed software has a hissy fit and the train is stranded in the midle of nowhere (or even worse,fails to brake/slow down).

Then let's see how smug 'all important' railway commuters are...

And how often does this happen on the many driverless rail networks in the world?

 

[notadriver]

And how often does this happen on the many driverless rail networks in the world?

The DLR, Central and Jubilee tube lines have to be manually driven on a variety of occasions. Didn't the entire signalling system of the Jubilee crash stopping all trains for a few hours ?

 

[krisk]

It will never happen, strikes are held for a reason

 

[Legzr1]

And how often does this happen on the many driverless rail networks in the world?

Quite a few times - do your own research


It's worth remembering that these systems are built from scratch with full automation in mind from the start of the project and they still aren't perfect.

Now,add that 'full automation' onto todays UK rail network,sit back and watch what happens.

There are lots of threats to workers rights and the right to withdraw labour - full automation of UK rail (as long as I have a hole in my a$$) isn't one of them.

Time to move on methinks...

 

[Greenback]

Going back to the OP, it may work in a similar way to that which we have in the NHS in the UK. Unions and management work together to agree which essential services need to be maintained in times of industrial action, and how many staff of each grade will be needed.