This discussion was triggered by a comment from First Great Western that there are some recent topics on the forum which may not be totally accurate, and it was set up as an opportunity to allow such matters to be raised. Four of our members have raised points, and we've had an interesting discussion but - over to you Ben - is there anything else that you wanted to comment on from the forum that's not been raised? I'm very conscious that we've not had questions on the electrification schedule, whether it will be completed all the way to Swansea (from Cardiff) to Oxford (from Didcot) and to Newbury (from Reading) nor on the current timing of that electrification and the knock on effect on cascades and their scope, nor on how current industrial issues can be resolved in a industry where - surely - everyone should be working together for everyone's benefit - company, managers, staff, and - please - the passengers and wannabe passengers
Are there any areas you would like to add comment?
There are loads of topics we could discuss. I guess the one I expected to be asked about was our proposals for the operation of
SETs▸ , the operation of the doors and the suggestion that the trains might operate without a Train Manager in disruption. This is a key issue in the current dispute with
RMT▸ that caused last week's strikes.
The main messages I would like to get across about this is:
1) We absolutely get that customers want helpful, highly trained staff on board. That is why we have said we will always plan to have a Train Manager on an SET. Even those that replace journeys currently operated by Turbos. That is why we will be recruiting 25 extra
TMs‡ to operate SETs.
2) The SET comes with equipment that means there are benefits in the driver operating the doors. These benefits are around journey times. Getting the driver to operate the doors is faster. On a congested railway in the Thames Valley the time saving will help to make the service run smoother. There are also safety benefits of the driver using the
CCTV▸ . He will always be able to see all the doors along the train during the dispatch process.
3) We have proposed that the train operates without a Train Manager if one cannot be found immediately. This does happen sometimes during disruption. Despite what people have suggested having additional standby turns does not completely solve this. We have added a number over the past 2 years. Sod's Law says they are never where you need them to be when things go wrong. At the moment if we are short of a Train Manager at Paddington during disruption we either cancel the train or we put people on a Turbo and take them to (say) Reading where we start the
HST▸ . If SET can be operated with just the Driver why would we not want to let customers stay on the SET and pick the TM up at Reading if the alternative is a cancelled train or an overcrowded journey on a
DOO▸ Turbo?
4) Despite what people have suggested this is NOT the thin end of the wedge with on train staffing. Our customers want staff on board our long distance services. We would have lots of unhappy customers if we started taking them away. However, in times of serious disruption customers main priority is that there train just runs to get them home.
