Guards/TM's Talking to Drivers

[diffident]

I was on a journey from Birmingham to Euston the other day, and it had me wonder....

How often, if at all, in a normal journey of that length, would the driver be in contact with the guard/conductor/train manager?

Do both parties communicate often, or do they both just go about their business?

 

[74A]

It's quite rare due to the fact it will be distracting to the driver. If you are running under green signals the driver will usually answer but they don't have to if the consider it unsafe to do so.

 

[dk1]

Quite a bit usually especially like yesterday when there was a door issue. Then for a cuppa/ice cream/breakfast sometimes during the shift too if staying together. Doesn’t bother me answering even if on restrictive signals. I can multi-task.

 

[O L Leigh]

In normal circumstances you wouldn't expect to be chatting with the guard at all, but if the wheels fall off then you could be chatting with them quite a bit. Obviously we'll have a natter at each end but once the wheels are turning then it becomes only as a matter of operational necessity.

 

[craigybagel]

If you've got request stop working that will require a lot more interaction between the two one way or another.

Many of the jobs at my depot sees the driver and guard paired together for the entire shift which does make things better I reckon. You have your break together and if there's disruption at least you're both in the same boat.

 

[vikingdriver]

It depends on the crew!

 

[Horizon22]

In normal running (assuming no request stops on route) there wouldn’t be much need. In some form of degraded working (say the bell buzzer isn’t working properly) or disruption (faults on board, special stops, running fast, infrastructure failure etc.) the comms would obviously ramp up. The guard would want to speak to driver to find out what’s going on to tell passengers (although some drivers will happily give this direct). It will vary by crew.

 

[43066]

I was on a journey from Birmingham to Euston the other day, and it had me wonder....

How often, if at all, in a normal journey of that length, would the driver be in contact with the guard/conductor/train manager?

Do both parties communicate often, or do they both just go about their business?

Where I am it’s considered good practice for drivers and TMs to confirm stops on each others’ diagrams at the start of each journey. We won’t then generally speak as a matter of course, unless something untoward happens. Usually TMs know more about why delays are happening than drivers do unless we have spoken to the signaller.

Some TMs ask if you’d like a cuppa, and when to bring it in to you. Of course there’s no obligation on them to do this, but it is always much appreciated on longer runs!

 

[Mak1981]

Driver to guard

"Can you check traksy to see why we are getting yellows"

"Can you bring me up a tea at xyz"

Guard to driver

"Control want to know if you will work your pass train home?"

"there's an earlier pass home on the cards as late running service but only got 2 minutes to get it"

"were terminating at xyz control want to know if you will shunt it there?"

Just a few I have had this week, lots of trivial messages etc

 

[LowLevel]

It depends. Quite often never. We are meant to confirm stops and any issues at the start of the trip/at a crew change but otherwise it's entirely down to what is going on.

I might call the driver at a convenient moment to say there's some disruption further along or a train fault (most of my traction requires some teamwork, it will tell the driver there's an engine out somewhere but that's it, the guard gets dispatched down the train to find out which!), or to relay a control instruction.

I don't do small talk, it distracts both of us from our job. I might at a push if we are running well ring up to ask if they want a brew fetching at a convenient location but that's it.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Its quite rare at my TOC to spend the day with the same driver. Also there's so many new ones it's hard to know which depot they're from unless you look on Genius.
On branch work you see the drivers when changing end so there's time for a quick hello when passing. However on the mainline it's quite possible to have no interaction with the driver at all especially if you're relieving a guard halfway but the driver works through.

 

[dk1]

It’s such a pity they don’t really come up front anymore. It always helped me get through a monotonous late late shift.

 

[dctraindriver]

Quite a bit usually especially like yesterday when there was a door issue. Then for a cuppa/ice cream/breakfast sometimes during the shift too if staying together. Doesn’t bother me answering even if on restrictive signals. I can multi-task.

Never on a single yellow.

 

[dk1]

Never on a single yellow.

I doesn’t really bother me but know it does some drivers.