I think the next think they’ll try is to dramatically reduce headcount by making cross-discipline teams. You can see the start of this with what they’re proposing for operatives but in future I expect we’ll see the abolition of seperate S&T, P-Way, Off Track, Distirubtion maintenance/faulting teams and everyone will be expected to work on everything (with predictable disastrous results). The MOM grade will probably be savaged and incorporated into their cross-discipline teams too.
So a typical team might consist of someone who knows how to use a meter and has SMTH, someone who can work a shovel and knows the track standards, another who has a live line tester and can put up earths and use the insulated poles, and an operating dogsbody who can do LXA, Points Operator etc.. You’ll end up with four or five man teams but in vastly reduced numbers compared with the maintenance organisation we have now.
I think it's what they ultimately want as well, but I can't see it working at all.
Looking at it just from an S&T perspective, SMTH rules would cause a major problem in such a multidisciplinary team. To change any piece of equipment which requires more than basic installation (securing wires or bolts) both the tester and the installer needs to be competent in the equipment. It's not permitted for the tester to make any adjustments or carry out any set up as that breaches the independent testing requirements. This already causes problems where there aren't two people suitably qualified on one team. With a multidisciplinary team that means two people per team will need a significant amount of S&T training, on top of any training they need to do other things.
It's already considered impossible by most to learn everything there is to know about S&T. There's simply too much. I can't imagine trying to learn all of it as well as learning enough to be passable on other departments assets as well. Plus the more variation in your work the less frequently you're likely to do each individual thing, leading to skill fade and difficulty keeping up the competence.
Related to skill fade, if you're doing bits and pieces of everything you're less likely to gather a detailed history of all your assets. That's not something that can be quantified, and they'll never consider, but it's invaluable. I recently relocated, and while I'm doing alright up here, I'm a far weaker teamleader here than I was at my previous depot because I don't know everything like the back of my hand yet.
I also worry about progression in a multidisciplinary model. As it stands, you work your way up through the grades, having some formal training, but learning a lot through working under instruction. It's like how they say you only really learn to drive after you've passed your test; nothing can truly replace doing something in the real world (obviously under adequate supervision on the railway). In a multidisciplinary team how does someone get to be the "SMTH/S&T/meter bod"?
I think some reasonable cross disciplinary working could work (e.g. train pway and welders to perform FPL tests and only call on the S&T to adjust if it fails, or share straightforward, low level veg clearance out between the disciplines with off track only attending the big jobs), but still keep to discipline specific gangs.
More PCs (Protection Controllers) could be utilised as well to share blockages where appropriate. That would still bring the benefits of making the most use of track access time, especially if inspections were aligned between disciplines as much as possible. Improve access points and walking routes too so that you're not needing to take blocks to get to the site of work, thereby stopping someone else having that block or having losing hours waiting for access
and improving safety. That would require some investment though, and the money is seemingly not there.