Metro Guard vs Commercial Guard SWR

[Neeny]

Hi, I was wondering what the difference is between metro and commercial guard from SWR. It may be an obvious answer but as I don’t know I’m going with ‘there’s no such thing as a silly question’.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Scaatman]

The only difference between the two grades is Commercial guard sells tickets too.

 

[Watershed]

The only difference between the two grades is Commercial guard sells tickets too.

There's also quite a difference in salary!

And without wanting to start another DOO discussion, I think anyone applying to be a Metro Guard should bear in mind that it's a role that could disappear in the not too distant future - as happened on Southern a few years back.

If this happened, there would likely be the opportunity to move to another role, but that might require being based somewhere different, and it could be a role that you're not particularly keen on.

But provided you're willing to take that risk on, I'd say go for it.

 

[_toommm_]

I've attached a document below on the proposal by SWR, but the main differences are below in short:

• No train will run without a guard at any grade.
• Metro Guards are based primarily on inner suburban routes, but both grades can be called upon to work any route or traction type they're allowed to work.
• Metro Guards will stop opening and closing the doors as soon as the 701s become universally in service, whereas commercial guards will only do so when there's a procurement of new trains outside of the 701s.
• Commercial guards will retain their current 'commercial and revenue protection duties', whereas metro guards will be limited to examining tickets, and contactless cards, Oyster cards, and SMART cards.
• Before regional allowances, metro guards will earn £33,507 (£17.36p/h), whereas commercial guards will earn £40,616 (21.04p/h) - this is from December 2022 whereupon working hours will drop to their final rate of 37 hours per week.
• In a guards' first twelve months of being fully productive (i.e. being out on their own), both grades will receive 75% of their respective full wage in the first six months, 90% of their respective full wage between six and twelve months, and the full salary upon their twelve-month anniversary of becoming fully productive. At this point, they can also apply for internal promotions.
• Once DCO operation commences, guards will be allocated just five minutes to book on, including collecting their ticket examining device. Commercial guards booking on allowance remains unchanged.

 

[warwickshire]

Does this mean the metro guard could become onboard supervisor.
And loose safety critical status?
However some off the lines served are not pleasant iff dealing with some revenue issues on own.
Hope swr in that case provide body cams and also security support staff onboard to support the staff in the new role iff this is the case.

 

[Michael B]

It probably depends which depot you would be working at however commercial guards tended to get "better" work in their diagrams compared to guards and I suspect that is still the case. I was based at an outer suburban depot and commercial guards had diagrammed work from Waterloo to Portsmouth as well as Alton whereas the guards had purely suburban work with stops every few minutes. As a commercial guard you had a much better chance of walking through the train between stops and interacting with the passengers. I agree with Watershed, if it is a choice just go for it!

 

[Boski]

I've attached a document below on the proposal by SWR, but the main differences are below in short:

• No train will run without a guard at any grade.
• Metro Guards are based primarily on inner suburban routes, but both grades can be called upon to work any route or traction type they're allowed to work.
• Metro Guards will stop opening and closing the doors as soon as the 701s become universally in service, whereas commercial guards will only do so when there's a procurement of new trains outside of the 701s.
• Commercial guards will retain their current 'commercial and revenue protection duties', whereas metro guards will be limited to examining tickets, and contactless cards, Oyster cards, and SMART cards.
• Before regional allowances, metro guards will earn £33,507 (£17.36p/h), whereas commercial guards will earn £40,616 (21.04p/h) - this is from December 2022 whereupon working hours will drop to their final rate of 37 hours per week.
• In a guards' first twelve months of being fully productive (i.e. being out on their own), both grades will receive 75% of their respective full wage in the first six months, 90% of their respective full wage between six and twelve months, and the full salary upon their twelve-month anniversary of becoming fully productive. At this point, they can also apply for internal promotions.
• Once DCO operation commences, guards will be allocated just five minutes to book on, including collecting their ticket examining device. Commercial guards booking on allowance remains unchanged.

so as a metro guard based at Woking would this mean working only
701s or Would there still be 450 and 444 work down to Portsmouth and Basingstoke like there currently is?

 

[DunfordBridge]

I am not an SWR employee but from what I know, Woking metro guards sign Portsmouth Direct and I would expect the traction to still be the 444/450 Desiro stock. The 701 Arterios are replacements for the 455, 456, 458 and 707 stock used on suburban routes.