South Western Railway.

siremoon

The reason RMT are going so hard at SWR is because they know they'll get no support from the drivers.  This is because many years ago as part of a pay award settlement ASLEF agreed to DOO operation in principle with SWT and it is written into the drivers contracts.  This isn't the case at the other TOCs where action has been happening recently.  SWT had a gentlemen's agreement with ASLEF that it would not implement DOO so long as they held the franchise.  Now they don't and SWR do it's potentially back in play. 

darthed1981

Haych said:

To be equally cynical I believe this is job justification gone mad.  If the RMT weren't crying, kicking and screaming over some non-issue there would be no visible need for them.

Maybe not gone mad, but job justification, definitely.

The thing is, they admit defeat on guards, then they KNOW that trains have been capable of safely driving themselves basically for years. 

Trains could be run with a tiny handful of the people currently paid very high salaries to run them, but as soon as one company wins that battle, a whole profession ceases to exist.

It's the Uber principle.  There is a company that purely exists to wait for driverless cars, content in the meantime to undercut taxis with clever technology.  With trains, the technology arguably already exists.  Certainly one-person operation (guard NOT driver) like on the DLR could be brought in quite easily.

scrumhalf

siremoon said:

The reason RMT are going so hard at SWR is because they know they'll get no support from the drivers.  This is because many years ago as part of a pay award settlement ASLEF agreed to DOO operation in principle with SWT and it is written into the drivers contracts.  This isn't the case at the other TOCs where action has been happening recently.  SWT had a gentlemen's agreement with ASLEF that it would not implement DOO so long as they held the franchise.  Now they don't and SWR do it's potentially back in play. 

Most acronyms per paragraph on TFB?

LoFi

scrumhalf said:

siremoon said:

The reason RMT are going so hard at SWR is because they know they'll get no support from the drivers.  This is because many years ago as part of a pay award settlement ASLEF agreed to DOO operation in principle with SWT and it is written into the drivers contracts.  This isn't the case at the other TOCs where action has been happening recently.  SWT had a gentlemen's agreement with ASLEF that it would not implement DOO so long as they held the franchise.  Now they don't and SWR do it's potentially back in play. 

Most acronyms per paragraph on TFB?

If you've done much commuting recently in the areas involved in this dispute, you're only too familiar with all of them...

siremoon

scrumhalf said:

siremoon said:

The reason RMT are going so hard at SWR is because they know they'll get no support from the drivers.  This is because many years ago as part of a pay award settlement ASLEF agreed to DOO operation in principle with SWT and it is written into the drivers contracts.  This isn't the case at the other TOCs where action has been happening recently.  SWT had a gentlemen's agreement with ASLEF that it would not implement DOO so long as they held the franchise.  Now they don't and SWR do it's potentially back in play. 

Most acronyms per paragraph on TFB?

Really?  Ok if you insist:

ASLEF: Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen.  Union representing train drivers at national railway companies and train operators at London Underground

DOO: Driver Only Operation.  Driver opens and closes the doors as well as driving the train

RMT: The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.  Union representing Guards and other staff at national railway companies.  Has a handful of drivers as members.  Largest union at London Underground including about 60% of train operators (aka drivers).

SWR: South Western Railway.  Franchise holder for the train service out of Waterloo to Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset

SWT: South West Trains.  Former franchise holder for the train service out of Waterloo to Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset

TOC: Train Operating Company.  Company that operates passenger train services on national rail either under a franchise or concession contract.

siremoon

darthed1981 said:

Haych said:

To be equally cynical I believe this is job justification gone mad.  If the RMT weren't crying, kicking and screaming over some non-issue there would be no visible need for them.

Maybe not gone mad, but job justification, definitely.

The thing is, they admit defeat on guards, then they KNOW that trains have been capable of safely driving themselves basically for years. 

Trains could be run with a tiny handful of the people currently paid very high salaries to run them, but as soon as one company wins that battle, a whole profession ceases to exist.

It's the Uber principle.  There is a company that purely exists to wait for driverless cars, content in the meantime to undercut taxis with clever technology.  With trains, the technology arguably already exists.  Certainly one-person operation (guard NOT driver) like on the DLR could be brought in quite easily.

That battle has already been lost.  Thameslink, Gatwick Express, C2C and London Overground run totally without guards.  Most of Great Northern, Southern, Chiltern and Greater Anglia do together with South Eastern inner suburbans and Great Western in the Thames Valley.

In fact apart from those into Euston, some Southern and some South Eastern routes pretty much all commuter routes into London are driver only.  The glaring exception south of the river is South Western Railway which has none.  Elsewhere in the country there are none at all apart from a few around Glasgow.

scrumhalf

https://londonist.com/london/transport/south-western-railway-failway-store-parody?fbclid=IwAR3y5oudBWkJ2vRVxHdAym3edyZoIMfm6krGznh2e6dWPsjTxG4YNeWSw2A