Yes, very good points.
A lot of people are literally terrified of even the thought of attempting first aid. Many will walk past other than attempt it. There is a lack of humanity, but there is also a huge lack of knowledge.
I was impressed with your story about helping an ill /injured passenger. It was very commendable, especially as you had to put up with abuse.
The point is that your presence for that purpose was a bonus, not a necessity. People drop down with heart attacks and injuries all the time and all over the place. If there is someone present with first aid knowledge, that can be a huge benefit.
I really think that one would hope that some striking guards on Northern are beginning to think about the real issues of necessity for their presence on the new trains, equipped for driver control. We have heard that the northern lines are difficult to patrol to prevent fare evasion. We also hear that pax often cannot buy tickets prior to boarding, even if they wanted to. It seems to me that having a second person constantly attending to pax on these services is bordering on a necessity. If a train has to depart without an OBS, that would be undesirable but could be tolerated for the sake of maintaining a service for the vast proportion of those who would otherwise be greatly inconvenienced, especially with, say, only an hourly or half-hourly service.
I really cannot see any reason for these strike actions and I think a guarantee of jobs should be sufficient. From what I read of the ticket evasion on Northern, I cannot envisage that other than
even more staff are needed plus a new grade of 'PCSO' in BTP is needed for these late night trains. DfT (we tax payers) should be willing to cough up for these staff.