Makes no difference ... Southern guards have not been making there presence felt on train for years ... it is all very well claiming you undertake this role and that role ... when a large percentage of them isolate themselves at the end of the train.
Have not most London to Brighton services been 12 car for years? Well at least sine the 377s were introduced? Open to be told otherwise, but most appear to take up the whole platform at EC.
Many have been 12 coach trains, but I'm not sure I'd class it as "most". One of the problems has been that staffing of all of Southern's Brighton services has been extremely variable for a number of years now, such that up until very recently, you'd have conductor-worked 4 coach trains on Sundays (where they couldn't get anywhere near most passengers due to hideous overcrowding) and DOO trains of 8-10 coaches with similar stopping patterns for the rest of the week. Admittedly
sarahj (who I believe is based at a Southern coastal location) has probably experienced a little more consistency, but certainly the depots further north have never had much of that, in terms of which trains they've worked.
Judging by how much train appears to be in the platform at East Croydon is not entirely adequate - the curved platforms can be quite deceptive unless you can actually see both ends of the train and which stop board it's at. Bear in mind 377s can run in 3-12 coach formations, and anything over 8 will appear to fill Platforms 2 or 3 at East Croydon if you're standing in the middle. You would do better seeing if the train fills the whole of a straight 12 coach platform such as those found at Burgess Hill, Hassocks or on the Up Fast at Gatwick.
Needless to say, each conductor has a different way of implementing customer service, to some extent. It's one of the things I find interesting about train travel, though of course not an essential element of the experience! There have been quite a few - if not enough - conductors trained in the last 2-5 years, and those trained during this time would have increasingly been briefed to be visible and pro-active in the hope, now looking rather vain, of proving their job roles. Unfortunately it is hard to remove the entrenched ways of some staff, who in fairness are often more experienced at dealing with people who actively approach them, and may have more in-depth knowledge of the Rule Book, but weren't trained with such a strong ethos of providing a visible and audible staff presence, partly because older stock didn't really permit it as much. If you look at the sheer contrast between the number of saloon panels and PA handsets on modern stock compared with older ex-BR designs of units, you can clearly see how expectations have evolved over time. The concept of a dedicated guard's compartment went out of the window about a decade ago on the the Southern network, yet the concept of remaining in one place is deeply entrenched for some staff, and in fact was actively encouraged by Southern at one point. Had there been a little more effective training on this, a far better use of some of a £50 million pound pot supposedly spent by DfT and GTR during the strikes, all of this 21st century conductor equipment could have been put to much better use.
Then the standards were shaken up and the goal became one of seeing every passenger at least once during their journey and, if atmosphere permitted, check their ticket (almost impossible to do, but up until the last few months, quite fun to see if you could achieve!). This is something which was meant to have been a selling point for the new OBS concept, albeit misguided for two reasons: firstly the lack of a guarantee that they'll be there at all, and secondly the realisation that you cannot take the backwards step of having platforms now left unchecked for those requiring assistance, where once this was mandatory for conductors, now meaning OBSs will be required to perform local door operation (safety debates about door control notwithstanding).
This leads me onto another point about conductor visibility. However active the conductor is, trying to walk through and at least make themselves seen, there are many stations, especially with a longer train, where a specific coach (or maybe two) are needed for use as dispatch positions. This is not just about curved platforms, but also about platform staff positions, weather conditions, signal sighting and whether there are any accessibility needs. Often these can tie up a conductor for quite a while on a route which may take only an hour, or a little longer, to cover. Doing a full ticket check between all that can be pretty challenging so unless you pay full attention to those walking past your seat, you may not actually see a conductor face-to-face. It's a pity SWT-style "I'm located in coach x of y if you need me" announcements were never made mandatory, but hey ho...
One thing most conductors have, however, taken onboard is the requirement not to hide away in cabs on 377s. There is an element of this, but it seems OBSs or those not required to dispatch (conductors working trains under "Assist" rules) are anecdotally actually worse for this! No matter who the conductor is, you will usually be able to find (or have found) them by walking through the train. This was encouraged, perhaps accidentally, by 377s requiring the "ten bell" dispatch procedure when worked by conductors from the cabs, which is frankly a bit awkward in some situations.
Last but not least, wherever a conductor actually is within a train, they are not disadvantaging themselves in many of the safety and performance aspects of the role. The important thing is that they are there, so that nobody has to shut down the driving cab to go and reset a passcom, or that they can call the driver to check they're OK after an emergency brake application in the middle of nowhere, or lay TCOCs to protect the line after an accident. Etc. etc.!
