Was talking to a lovely SWT guard at Walton-on-Thames and mentioned a pet peeve of mine which is guards on SWT trains who spend the whole journey in the rear cab of the train. I've seen people walk the whole length of the train to find a guard and assumed that the voice making announcements was the driver. The other day at Earlsfield whilst the train was pulling out and saw the guard in the rear cab go back to reading his paper!
The guard I was chatting to at Walton-on-Thames said that the guards aren't supposed to do that and should be available on the train for customers to speak to. Is that correct? Most people wouldn't think of peering out of the doors while the train is in a station to spot the guard and even if they did they wouldn't be able to get to him in the cab anyhow. Quite the opposite of Southern where the guard is always near a set of doors or somewhere in a carriage. Surely I can't be the only one who is annoyed by this!
The guard I was chatting to at Walton-on-Thames said that the guards aren't supposed to do that and should be available on the train for customers to speak to. Is that correct? Most people wouldn't think of peering out of the doors while the train is in a station to spot the guard and even if they did they wouldn't be able to get to him in the cab anyhow. Quite the opposite of Southern where the guard is always near a set of doors or somewhere in a carriage. Surely I can't be the only one who is annoyed by this!