Everybody always goes on about the cost savings of DOO as if they are absolutely guaranteed . Is it going to save any money though .
In the short term it will cost a lot to implement in terms of staff training , infrastructure upgrades but is that going to lead to any ongoing saving in the cost of operations .
Aslef will want more money for drivers + another aspect to driver training and ongoing competency assessment
RMT will want more money for dispatchers + More dispatchers will be required
RMT will want to retain pay for the on board staff
I dont think that once the drivers have been paid extra , dispatchers have been paid more and numbers increased and a decent salary set for an on board member of staff there is going to be much of an ongoing saving even taking into account the supposed revenue increases
The costs you cant substantiate need taking into account , increased delay minutes because of slow passenger boarding and Drivers having to reset pascoms and call for aid alarms in toilets
But a guard with a whistle can gee them along a bit saving a lot more time than the driver doing the doors and having to wait for the last dawdler to get on board in their own time, a good strong blow on the whistle can save 20 (or more) second a station and that adds up!
This is one thing I do wonder about , when you get someone holding the door for their mates the guard can blow their whistle and shout for them to move and then if worst comes to worse run down and tell them to stop being stupid .
Whats the drive going to be expected to do just sit there and wait for the person to stop holding the door ?
Often a guard can save a lot more than even 20 seconds when its busy shouting for passengers to make use of all of the doors on the train .
