craigybagel
Established Member
- Joined
- 25 Oct 2012
- Messages
- 5,097
With Southern, it was more that the 377s already had external CCTV cameras, and indeed were already running DOO services on routes closer to London. AIUI they had to do a bit of work upgrading the lighting at certain stations, but other then that all they had to do to extend DOO to their longer distance routes was start using the onboard equipment that was already used on other routes. It's noteworthy that Southern still uses guards on all services worked by 313s and 171s as those units are lacking the cameras.That's a very useful comment - thank you.
So perhaps it could be said that the reason the RMT/guards strikes on Southern (GTR) was less successful than it has been on other TOCs was that there already existed that platform infrastructure, thanks to the already existing DOO services (on Gatwick Express, I think)?
So then it would make sense (if you are of the view that striking does make sense, as the RMT clearly do) to strike early, well before the TOC (or the government, depending on how you look at it) has had the opportunity to install the necessary supporting infrastructure.
One other big difference between Southern and Northern, and indeed a lot of other franchises, is that Southern already had a DOO agreement in place in the drivers contracts, so that the drivers had no choice but to drive DOO on the new routes as instructed. It can't be introduced on Northern until the Drivers contracts there are amended in such a way as to include DOO - which might not be an easy task.