Would there be support for a railway staffing increase?

[AnonymousUser1]

I freely admit to not knowing owt about those operations. Do they have a lot of school services or something to cause the need for split shifts?

just peak working may cause a requirement for split shifts with extras and duplicates thorwn in , orfor the more rural operators early positioning moves and part route runs

 

[CockneySparrow]

I would support every train, where reasonably possible, going over to DOO and every station, where reasonably possible, going over to being a manned station.

I don't really agree with DOO as it makes it easy to avoid paying a fare, whilst the majority of the public pay the fare the hard core that don't will carry on not paying

Since Govia took over from FCC the gates at most stations are open 24/7 and the trains are DOO

 

[GatwickDepress]

Since Govia took over from FCC the gates at most stations are open 24/7 and the trains are DOO

Sounds exactly like it was under FCC in my experience.

 

[yorkie]

I don't really agree with DOO as it makes it easy to avoid paying a fare, whilst the majority of the public pay the fare the hard core that don't will carry on not paying

How does it? It's a lot easier for someone to evade a fare on a SWT inner-suburban service (with a non-commercial Guard) than it is to do so on a Scotrail Strathclyde electric service (which is DOO with ticket inspectors who patrol the train constantly selling/checking tickets) or on London Overground (which is DOO with an ever increasing number of gated stations as well as spot checks) or on Southeastern High Speed 1 (DOO with an on-board manager).

 

[Aictos]

Sounds exactly like it was under FCC in my experience.

That is only because of a acute shortage of revenue staff which started under FCC and sadly as much as drivers are needed to run services, they need revenue staff just as much hence why I think sooner then later there will be a massive recruitment drive for more revenue staff especially with more stations being gated and having the RPIs only work trains.

Now below I've highlighted the London Travelwatch response to the then First Capital Connect proposals to reduce the opening times of the booking offices and what actually happened.

* City Thameslink, London Blackfriars, Finsbury Park, Bedford, Luton Airport Parkway, Hertford North, St Albans, Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City stations are staffed 24 hours per day. At most of these stations, tickets will be available from staff at ticket barriers for those unable to purchase tickets at ticket machines when booking offices are closed. In addition, the ticket office will remain open at Hertford North on Sundays for Arsenal and some other Premiership home matches;

This never happened and never will do, despite the number of users at that station staffing either the gateline or the booking office won't happen in my lifetime.

* First Capital Connect have promised to upgrade their ticket machines to enable them to issue weekly and monthly season tickets which are currently only available at ticket offices, and will install top up facilities for Oyster cards at London stations. Changes are being made to maintenance regimes to ensure that ticket machines are available and have adequate change and ticket stock wherever possible;

Again, this hardly happens as at one station for example once the ticket office closes early afternoon on the Saturday which doesn't reopen until early Monday morning I can safely say out of 4 TVMs I will see three with faults with nobody available to be called out to attend between these times.

End of the day, yes I do believe the industry needs more staff and not just on the ECML as lines such as the St Albans Abbey line and more need more staff especially revenue staff.

If the former Network SouthEast area TOCs had a DOO agreement with the DfT and the Unions to change the agreement to be more along the lines of the Scotrail Strathclyde DOO agreement with every DOO train having a RPI and Driver then trying not to be cynical but I think a lot more revenue will be gained especially if more staff were recruited to operate the gatelines at stations which already have them or will be getting them.

Note I don't believe former Network SouthEast area TOCs which currently run services with both a Guard and Driver ought to be changed to DOO operation, it's just the existing DOO services need to have a second member of staff onboard who's primary role is revenue protection.

So basically a huge reversal of the BR Open Stations policy, not only would revenue be increased meaning more money to be spent on inprovements for the railway but also with the DOO arrangement being brought into line with the Scotrail Strathclyde DOO agreement, it means a higher presence of staff onboard services which previously would be lucky if they had a onboard ticket check not only that but they would be able to offer more customer service to the passengers.

 

[HH]

Actually FCC had a fair few Revenue Protection Staff. It's just that the Commercial Director thought it was a better idea to put them on train rather than on gate lines outside the peak. Given Thameslink's problems I expect their planned route was usually disrupted. In any case, they were not very effective. Perhaps GTR will get someone who knows what they're doing, but from what I hear I wouldn't hold out too much hope.