Do staff who are trained as both a Driver and Guard still exist.

Are there any staff left these days who are both Drivers and Guards and can work either role?

I remember that Silverlink used to have some staff that were trained as both Drivers and Guards and they could work either role. So they would be a Driver some days and a Guard on other days. I think this practice ended when the Silverlink franchise finished. I believe that i also heard that Merseyrail might have as well. Possibly a few other TOCs too.

Does anyone know whether any TOCs still have any staff who are trained as both Drivers and Guards and can work either role?

Not strictly what you're after, but the DLR "Train Captain" role involves "guard" duties (doors, customer service) for most of the day, but also driving the train in and out of the depot and driving elsewhere during disruption.

Merseyrail have a few, called Relief Drivers,classed as "guards who can drive"

I've seen Trainer/Assessors who have both Guard and Driver competencies, having worked as both during their career.

Controversially, quite a few TOCs have trained Driver Managers as "Contingency Guards" who can carry out a Guard's dispatch responsibilities on an RMT strike day.

The staff on the Stourbridge Shuttle drive one way, then act as conductor on the way back.

Not sure if correct but , don’t Heathrow Express drives have customer duties as well?
Rather than driving train they work on the platforms / gates at times ?

class ep-09 said:

Not sure if correct but , don’t Heathrow Express drives have customer duties as well?
Rather than driving train they work on the platforms / gates at times ?

Click to expand...

From a colleague who used to work there, this was talked about but never implemented, simply because they were too short of drivers to have them standing around on gatelines/platforms rather than driving trains! That’s generally the theme that prevents a dual role from working in most places. It was reported on here that the same thing has happened at LUMO; a combined role was discussed initially, but the drivers have ended up spending all their time driving.

It’s no longer the case, but the Bromley North “popper” carried a driver and another driver who acted as a guard until long after the rest of SE metro had gone DOO.

Eurostar historically had an on train member of staff who was trained to drive the train out of the tunnel from the rear cab “wrong direction” in an emergency. I’m not sure whether that arrangement still persists.

Other than the Stourbridge Shuttle the only current example I can think of is Le Shuttle, where the drivers switch between driving and acting as “chef de train” (ie conductor). Albeit they’re not actually Network Rail qualified drivers, so not sure it counts for the purposes of this thread!

As drivers at Anglia Railways we had an agreement that we could cover ‘back end’ to save a train being cancelled due to no guard being available. Obviously we didn’t do revenue or much in the way of customer service. That gradually got whittled down to only a couple of less senior driving links but keeping up competency became a pain so it was eventually dropped completely around 2015.

43066 said:

Eurostar historically had an on train member of staff who was trained to drive the train out of the tunnel from the rear cab “wrong direction” in an emergency. I’m not sure whether that arrangement still persists.

Click to expand...

Not for UK crew it doesn't sadly.

class ep-09 said:

Not sure if correct but , don’t Heathrow Express drives have customer duties as well?
Rather than driving train they work on the platforms / gates at times ?

Click to expand...

When it was Heathrow Express before GWR that was the case, it was more a case of redundancy than planned work I believe