Arriva have, allegedly been making some unhappy noises to DfT for a while. So perhaps this is not a million miles from what has gone on. The DafT have had their heels dug in deeply for a long time, so to suddenly give way suggests more of a fear of another franchise fail rather than bowing to union pressure. And also consider who is the stakeholder of DB, and a certain political stalemate. Just saying like...
I for one would pay good money to hear & view that oneAnd indeed, I (and many others I guess!) would be interested to hear of the views of DfT's Peter Wilkinson on this solution ... But sadly I expect we never will
Interesting if perhaps Freudian comment about this Saturday; “It won’t be a full service but it won’t be as bad as a NORMAL Saturday”
If the drivers are going to operate (at least release) the doors I think you're going to see more of them anyway. It will make the revenue part of the guard role much easier.
Unfortunately there will still be the same small number of guard’s who don’t do revenue duties because they don’t want to do revenue duties. By removing their door duties you’ll likely see nothing of them from start to finish.
From your aircraft analogy above, let's hope this issue doesn't suffer a "go-around"
Well, to exercise us, here's a few ideas.
Plenty to go at. All in their own threads of course
- What about training for all these new trains whilst maintaining a full schedule
- And now we appear to be getting a 6 day railway again, what about Sunday driver availability?
- Electric trains via Bolton?
- Withdrawal - or not - of Pacers by the end of the year
- Northern's "customer service"
And indeed, I (and many others I guess!) would be interested to hear of the views of DfT's Peter Wilkinson on this solution ... But sadly I expect we never will
Rumours are (and they may only be rumours) that Arriva have hit a brick wall when they've approached ASLEF over DOO and SDO operation over the past through weeks when discussing training for new units and have realised that they can only progress training if they end their RMT dispute.I’m guessing something has happened behind the scenes, as they’ve been to ACAS before and nothing ever changed.
I expect Arriva have reached the end of their patience playing this game of the DfT’s making, and either they threatened to pull out of the franchise and/or some money has become available meaning Arriva can now afford to keep the guards without any financial impact.
Eh?
The RMT hasn't caved. The offer was second person on board, which could mean any employee.
Today's offer is a conductor on board every train.
Capitulation has happened on one side only.
Do we foresee an argument over the definition of conductor perhaps?They've been offering this for several months, RMT sticking point was it had to be a Guard rather than a conductor, now they are saying its a Conductor.
Do we foresee an argument over the definition of conductor perhaps?
They've been offering this for several months, RMT sticking point was it had to be a Guard rather than a conductor, now they are saying its a Conductor.
With the guards back to work let’s hope they Up their game and the old timers who just sit in the back cab stop doing so. I can’t imagine many jobs were they’d be able to get away with such lazy behaviour and not get sanctioned.
That is quite an odd one actually because I don’t think I’ve ever heard the RMT use the word conductor. It’s always ‘guard’ in their world, yet suddenly they are using the word conductor.They've been offering this for several months, RMT sticking point was it had to be a Guard rather than a conductor, now they are saying its a Conductor.
Rumours are (and they may only be rumours) that Arriva have hit a brick wall when they've approached ASLEF over DOO and SDO operation over the past through weeks when discussing training for new units and have realised that they can only progress training if they end their RMT dispute.
RMT sticking point was it had to be a Guard rather than a conductor, now they are saying its a Conductor.
That is quite an odd one actually because I don’t think I’ve ever heard the RMT use the word conductor. It’s always ‘guard’ in their world, yet suddenly they are using the word conductor.
They've been offering this for several months, RMT sticking point was it had to be a Guard rather than a conductor, now they are saying its a Conductor.
I don’t think we have enough information yet to call who is the ‘victor’ in this dispute.
I hope this means the end of the matter now.
This is fantastic news for rail passengers and the Northern economy.
Lets not start using terms such as 'Victory' and 'Climbdown' As a Northern guard I don't feel very victorious in respect that everything I predicted has come about.
In reality it had to come about, because these new train sets are causing issues. Not technical issues, issues with training and the whole way they operate. The driver has to push a button to operate the selective door opening for the guard, two buttons to operate it himself. But the issues were that ASLEF has flatly refused at this point to engage in this. I think Northern have had to come to their senses for two reasons, perhaps three.
1) They are saying the new stock will be introduced in May's timetable when not a single unit has been trained on by anyone. There is a very real risk of chaos that would make last years chaos look pale in comparison.
2) ASLEF I believe are possibly blackmailing. Perhaps that is too strong a word to use. But it is clear that they would demand big bucks for the changes, and perhaps the economic case is somewhat weakened.
3) Northern is not Southern. There is no way that a decent reliable service for all could operate up here without a second person.
I always felt something was in the air when Peter Wilkinson appeared at Leeds station the other week. He took part in the Northern side show for the Leeds-Morecambe line that has been dubbed 'Dementia friendly' Just how friendly to anyone it could be without a guard and unstaffed stations was a mystery, but he clearly never appeared at Leeds for that reason alone.
So now lets get back to work and make this work. It has been too long and too bruising to view anything in any way other than a sad episode.
Whilst ASLEF members in Northern want to see their pay increase to levels on a par with other TOCs, there is very little appetite for DOO at any price.At some point the TOCs and DfT are/were going to notice the price tag attached to DCO/DOO by ASLEF in non-DOO TOCs. If the sincere intent is to keep the second person grade on every train beyond the short term, the imposition of DCO/DOO makes no financial sense whatsoever. Maybe we've reached that point.
They've been offering this for several months