Delays and strikes on West Midlands Railway

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TimBrown
Posts: 1280
Joined: 05:59 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Worcester

Delays and strikes on West Midlands Railway

Post by TimBrown » 10:17 Wednesday 13th November 2019

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cv0yy ... nds-trains

Guards will be on strike on Saturdays in the run up to Christmas over plans to make local services 'driver only'. You would expect Dutch National Railways owned Abellio to think things out a little better; there are so many stations built on sharp curves such as Foregate Street where, with two way working platforms, the the driver is on the opposite side to his passengers and no line of sight because of said curve any way, even if using the 'normal side! Add in the fact that many travellers prefer to have a guard on the train for added safety and in the case of lone females and the old for a degree of protection from some of the nastier elements frequenting public transport.

For the life of me I cannot see why the heavily used 'dark side' services i.e. those via Stourbridge with 10 minute headway cannot support a second man. If you've ever used the Hereford to Birmingham service it is always rammed and in need of additional coaches so absolutely earns enough revenue for retention of the guard.

There is also the revenue protection side of railway operation, because not all stations have barriers and ticket checks at start and end of the journey. It would be interesting to know just how many fare dodgers travel between Worcester and Malvern and Worcester and Droitwich for example!

chason
Posts: 242
Joined: 14:24 Friday 22nd July 2016
Location: Bromsgrove

Re: Delays and strikes on West Midlands Railway

Post by chason » 10:50 Wednesday 13th November 2019

Couldn't agree more, Tim. The concept of one person operated trains is sheer lunacy.

Ridercross
Posts: 58
Joined: 12:03 Monday 11th July 2016

Re: Delays and strikes on West Midlands Railway

Post by Ridercross » 12:08 Wednesday 13th November 2019

According to West Midlands Trains they are not planning on one person operation:

"We are disappointed at the outcome of the ballot. We have committed to keeping a guard on every passenger train. A strike benefits nobody.

"We reached a framework agreement with RMT in May last year which guaranteed a safety-critical conductor on every passenger train. We remain determined to find a way of resolving this dispute without disruption and inconvenience for our passengers."


https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/a ... -statement

Is the dispute that the driver is to become responsible for operation of the doors, and the guard will be expected to go out and sell and check tickets? If so I this seems like a good idea as there should be more of a visible presence from guards and there should be less ticketless travel.

x68
Posts: 21
Joined: 23:21 Monday 11th July 2016

Re: Delays and strikes on West Midlands Railway

Post by x68 » 23:28 Wednesday 13th November 2019

Not sure if this is still valid. Know there was a union agreement that tickets need not be checked in west midlands area due to frequent stops.

ANDREW
Posts: 765
Joined: 00:38 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Bromsgrove.

Re: Delays and strikes on West Midlands Railway

Post by ANDREW » 18:06 Thursday 14th November 2019

Personally , I have only had my train ticket checked once since the "electrics" came to Bromsgrove. I am only an occasional train user though. Saying that , the flying squad of ticket inspectors have been sighted a number of times on the platforms at Bromsgrove. :shock:

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