1,000 signatures reached
To: The Secretary For Transport (The Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP), The Public and Rail User Groups
Help Protect the Vital Role Of The Conductor On The West Coast & West Midlands Networks
To understand the role and the responsibility of the Conductor / Train Manager / Train Guard and to try to understand why this is a vital role on British Railways currently. Furthermore, another aim of this petition is to make sure the public realise that the TOC’s who currently run the various franchises are under the remit of the McNulty report which calls for cheaper, unskilled labour and less pay which will have a detrimental effect on the next generation of railway employees. Contractors are being brought in on the cheap to undermine current employee’s terms and conditions along with job security, good wages and a worthwhile career to serve the British public. Future franchise agreements need rethinking and rewording.
Why is this important?
The role of the Conductor is extremely involved, incorporating safety, customer service, and time keeping along with revenue protection / collection responsibilities on train services. Sir Roy McNulty published his report on 19th May 2011 on how to reduce costs and make Britain’s railways more efficient with the Government and the heavily subsidised TOC’s bulldozing the report into the railways currently. This is now putting the safety, a decent level of customer service (especially helping the elderly, anti-social and disabled passengers) and the erosion of T’s & C’s in favour of cheap, untrained agency staff on zero hours contacts. As you can see, this is not just about a grade within the railway but much, much more throughout the industry.
The Department for Transport’s consultation on the future of The West Coast & West Midlands railway services could see the successors of London Midland and Virgin Trains being forced to make further cutbacks because of the McNulty Report that Unions are fighting to stop on a large scale. However, be in no doubt the new 2017 franchises on the West Coast and West Midlands could introduce, the closure of more ticket offices with reductions in staff who are safety critical trained at stations. Reduced hours at remaining ticket offices, gate-lines (barrier staff) and revenue protection grades and replacing them with outside contractors on reduced T’s & C’s and a minimum wage.
Driver Only Operation, which will see the end of Safety Critical Conductors on the network not for any other reason than cost and to get staff off TOC’s books that, will put safety of the travelling public at huge risk.
Two-thirds of the UK’s railway services have a Driver and a Conductor, and for good reason! The Conductor not only opens the doors and sell tickets, but also makes sure the permanent way is safe for their colleague and the passengers. Take for instance any issues which may afflict the service, such as broken down trains holding the journey back; delayed goods trains; or making sure the passengers don’t miss their train – more so at request stops. To deny the Conductor any duties of operating the doors and/or train despatch will reduce the skills and mission critical nature of their job. In the words of one trade unionist several years ago, reducing them to ‘glorified Kit Kat sellers’. What is forgotten about are their other skills which Conductor-Guards possess. One is as a point of contact in the event of a serious incident is protecting the train, arranging for the arrival of emergency services, alternative transport for subsequent journeys. In addition, the use of signal posts telephones and the use of GSMR on board the trains to make the emergency calls. If anybody reading this assumes they only sell tickets, they are wrong by a mile off!
Another important aspect of the job is he or she is able to help stop any form of anti-social passengers from getting out of hand. He or she could speak to their colleagues in their respective controls / liaise with British Transport Police so if trains needed to be stopped safely, they can be. Another good example would be for an instance of a lone wheelchair needing to board a service and the Driver cannot leave the cab without causing some delay to the timetable, as there is also no station staff on hand. Hence the need for Conductors!
With passengers who are taken ill on train services that before DOO came about, the neighbouring passengers could have given the Conductor a friendly knock on the rear cab door or finding them whilst they are performing revenue duties, he or she would tend the passenger with little interruption to the service. Under DOO, he or she cannot knock on the driver’s door. Therefore, the neighbouring passenger has to pull the emergency alarm, stopping the train. Will staff on board have had the same level of training as the Conductor if there was no Conductor aboard to tend to passengers who are unwell under the new franchise / s? Driver Only Operation not only demarcates the Conductor’s duties. It has an effect on the driver’s role too. He or she should be able to concentrate on the permanent way ahead. As the McNulty, report states;
…other staff on-board the train are able to focus on customer service and revenue protection.”
Customer service has overtones of ‘is everybody all right’ style. On no account is there within that section any reference to the safety and the welfare of its passengers – which is important. The safety and welfare of its passengers, which has made the UK’s rail network one of the safest in the world. The economies of DOO are a falsehood. Unstaffed stations could lose revenue if there is no Conductor present and passengers, I strongly recommend you make a passionate case against DOO in the future franchise requirements which we could all see be implemented in the near future.
The Department for Transport’s consultation on the future of The West Coast & West Midlands railway services could see the successors of London Midland and Virgin Trains being forced to make further cutbacks because of the McNulty Report that Unions are fighting to stop on a large scale. However, be in no doubt the new 2017 franchises on the West Coast and West Midlands could introduce, the closure of more ticket offices with reductions in staff who are safety critical trained at stations. Reduced hours at remaining ticket offices, gate-lines (barrier staff) and revenue protection grades and replacing them with outside contractors on reduced T’s & C’s and a minimum wage.
Driver Only Operation, which will see the end of Safety Critical Conductors on the network not for any other reason than cost and to get staff off TOC’s books that, will put safety of the travelling public at huge risk.
Two-thirds of the UK’s railway services have a Driver and a Conductor, and for good reason! The Conductor not only opens the doors and sell tickets, but also makes sure the permanent way is safe for their colleague and the passengers. Take for instance any issues which may afflict the service, such as broken down trains holding the journey back; delayed goods trains; or making sure the passengers don’t miss their train – more so at request stops. To deny the Conductor any duties of operating the doors and/or train despatch will reduce the skills and mission critical nature of their job. In the words of one trade unionist several years ago, reducing them to ‘glorified Kit Kat sellers’. What is forgotten about are their other skills which Conductor-Guards possess. One is as a point of contact in the event of a serious incident is protecting the train, arranging for the arrival of emergency services, alternative transport for subsequent journeys. In addition, the use of signal posts telephones and the use of GSMR on board the trains to make the emergency calls. If anybody reading this assumes they only sell tickets, they are wrong by a mile off!
Another important aspect of the job is he or she is able to help stop any form of anti-social passengers from getting out of hand. He or she could speak to their colleagues in their respective controls / liaise with British Transport Police so if trains needed to be stopped safely, they can be. Another good example would be for an instance of a lone wheelchair needing to board a service and the Driver cannot leave the cab without causing some delay to the timetable, as there is also no station staff on hand. Hence the need for Conductors!
With passengers who are taken ill on train services that before DOO came about, the neighbouring passengers could have given the Conductor a friendly knock on the rear cab door or finding them whilst they are performing revenue duties, he or she would tend the passenger with little interruption to the service. Under DOO, he or she cannot knock on the driver’s door. Therefore, the neighbouring passenger has to pull the emergency alarm, stopping the train. Will staff on board have had the same level of training as the Conductor if there was no Conductor aboard to tend to passengers who are unwell under the new franchise / s? Driver Only Operation not only demarcates the Conductor’s duties. It has an effect on the driver’s role too. He or she should be able to concentrate on the permanent way ahead. As the McNulty, report states;
…other staff on-board the train are able to focus on customer service and revenue protection.”
Customer service has overtones of ‘is everybody all right’ style. On no account is there within that section any reference to the safety and the welfare of its passengers – which is important. The safety and welfare of its passengers, which has made the UK’s rail network one of the safest in the world. The economies of DOO are a falsehood. Unstaffed stations could lose revenue if there is no Conductor present and passengers, I strongly recommend you make a passionate case against DOO in the future franchise requirements which we could all see be implemented in the near future.
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