I should possibly have added a bit more in the original post. Firstly, I am not suggesting that staff should give all their personal details to anyone who asks. The point is: do their contracts, railway rules, or whatever say they are actually required to provide sufficient details, even if anonymised as far as the public are concerned, for railway management to identify them when asked? Or can they just refuse to give out details and, effectively, walk away? I am not thinking so much of guards, etc. whose duties mean that management can, even without a name, identify who is involved. I am thinking of cases where there may be a number of people on site (station staff at large stations, for example) or whose duties are less controlled.
This started with a question from a friend’s wife about a journey she made when there was somebody who she reckoned was a railway employee of some sort, based on a telephone call he made and some paperwork he was studying. However, he was in a suit and so she couldn’t be sure. On a fairly busy train he hogged four seats, rudely told anybody who wanted to use them to go away and when another passenger getting off at Reading said something about his behaviour to him, replied with a short sentence including a four-letter word. It doesn’t help that she can’t remember who operated the train, exactly what time it was or or where she got on, although that was probably Oxford. Her question was on the lines of, “Would I have the right to demand that he identify himself so that I can make a complaint?”
