Rant - train conductors/guards
Comments
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Presumably this sort of thing happens on London Underground trains and Docklands Light Railway trains also?
The guard is an anachronistic idea favoured for the most part by unios who wish to protect jobs at all costs.
Having some sort of customer service rep on a train who does many jobs but not closing and opening the doors seems a move forward. There are many ways that the railway could become more efficient and this is one of them.0 -
LU and DLR are in the most watched city in the world with frequent stations and a very good police force. Try dealing with them sort of incidents in the middle of a farmers field... good luck!0
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And why would a guard responsible for opening and closing doors be any better at this than the customer service man? I travel from rural area to London regularly and have yet to see a guard go to the middle of a field!
There was a prolonged rail strike when trains moved from two in the drivers cab to one. Amazingly we all survived. This is more of the same even though there is a pretence it is a safety issue.0 -
I don’t know, nor care who opens and closes doors. At the end of the day your still going to have to pay someone to be on the train to deal with them incidents.
My point about being in the middle of a field was not a guard picking flowers or stroking cows but police and other emergency services getting to the train surrounded by fields. Let me explain the process of a passenger hitting the emergency stop button on a mainline train...
- Passenger hits emergency stop
- Driver overrides emergency stop within 2 seconds (after 2 seconds the train automatically goes into an emergency stop demand)
- Guard is now notified of an issue in X carriage
- Guards goes to said carriage and asses situation
- Meanwhile the driver has warned the signaller of an issue on board whilst still hurtling down the track this allows the signaller to inform surrounding trains, next stations and start the relevant procedures
- Guard speaks to driver and tells him of the issue
- Now, the driver will decide if it’s safer to proceed to the next station where emergency services can meet the train OR stop the train immediately (not in a tunnel or on a bridge)
- Meanwhile the guard is putting out a fire, seeing to a medical emergency or dealing with a possible terrorist incident
Alternatively the emergency stop has been activated accidentally, and the train driver does not have to stop the train, get out and walk the possibility of a full trains length, check, reset, get back to the cab, inform the signaller, wait for approval to continue and hold every train behind and oncoming. Imagine how late the 9-5 workers would be if this happened!
The guard is there to advise the driver what exactly is happening whilst allowing the train to continue at its permitted speed. And don’t think CCTV is going to solve that, the driver already has plenty of things happening with just seconds to react to various safety systems without having to work out what his passengers are doing, thinking, smelling or seeing on a small 7” screen.
Not to mention you need as many members of staff as possible to evacuate a train, take one of them a way and you could end killing a full carriage of people... to save a couple of quid.0 -
I know this may be a contencious subject however I have recently started using a train to commute to work. I used to drive for several years.
My rant is with train guards. It may be just me but the length (and usefulness) of the announcements during the train journey is tedious, pointless, repetetive and frankly annoying. There is little information that the guards on my journey add in value to the journey, other than apologising for yet another delay or repetitive drivel read about see it say it sorted or equivalent useless info. They often have little information of what the delay is but feel obliged to repeatedly voice themselves over the tannoys to repeat how sorry they are. Very infrequently do they actually remind customers about delay repay either. I have used this many times and its worked and only know this because I travel frequently
Perhaps the train companies could invest in ticket barriers at either end to ensure tickets are purchased. Then be done with train conductors/guards all together and if there savings pass these on to the thousands of customers paying £000s for tickets.
The trouble is sometimes they may not have a lot of information either. Then if some people are not informed on a regular basis they would also complain.
You say they give out too much repetitive information but you think they don't mention delay repay enough?
Trouble is there are often connecting stations that do not have these barriers. Guards would still be needed to check tickets.
Barriers are not infallible. It can tell you have a valid ticket but what about one that has been purchased with a railcard discount that the holder does not have.
I have a great respect for guards and the difficult job that they do. Most of them are always polite and good natured too.Back on the trains again!0 -
All I can say is: I used to commute to work via train, I've also never been closer to jumping in front of one. Before you get to that stage, try moving a bit closer to work, they never change and they're constantly dangling a carrot in front of us. The fact is, too much can go wrong and it does always go wrong. Strikes, fires, signalling problems, trespass and other incidents and they're often overcrowded. The overall service is dreadful and the railway system hasn't really evolved like other methods of transportation, otherwise it would be more like the hyperloop than not.This dude makes websites.. Founder of MINDYOURWATER. com0
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Other than strikes, that’s not the staffs fault, it’s the government which decides how many trains to order and put on a particular line. Timetables also cause major issues but once again, the staff you see have nothing to do with it.
Strikes - staff
Fires - sometimes no fault of anyone
Signalling problems - network rail
Trespass - network rail and those trespassing
Over crowding - government and poor timetables0 -
You should think yourself lucky that such a station has a Sunday service at all! In my conurbation of 170,000 and four stations, it was years before we had a Sunday service to anywhere.Played out over the speakers at my rural local station on desert platform on a sunday evening...0 -
How much of a pay increase would that be, in percentage terms?My partner used to be a guard for the east coast mainline, he’s now a train driver.
I think they would get more respect if they were better known as train managers. I'm surprised you have not referred to them as such, even though your partner may have been promoted after the new name came in.0 -
Kernel_Sanders wrote: »How much of a pay increase would that be, in percentage terms?
I think they would get more respect if they were better known as train managers. I'm surprised you have not referred to them as such, even though your partner may have been promoted after the new name came in.
Job titles in TOCs are Conductors, Train managers/supervisor etc. But tradition is they still refer to themselves as guards.
LNER drivers are on £62k Guards on £36k 70% increase?The world is not ruined by the wickedness of the wicked, but by the weakness of the good. Napoleon0
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