MERSEYRAIL BALLOT OVER DOO

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2017 :: RMTnews 10 R MT is balloting for industrial action on Merseyrail after the company refused to give assurances on the future of the guard and the introduction of Driver Only Operation. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that the union would not agree to any extension of DOO and would fight to retain the safety critical role of the guard and to keep a guard on the train. “This dispute was entirely preventable if the company had listened and to the union’s deep-seated safety concerns, had taken them seriously and had put passenger safety before profit. “They are wholly responsible for this situation and we would call for to drop their proposals and get back round the table to negotiate a safe and secure way forward that protects the safety-critical role of the guard on Merseyrail trains,” he said. The union also condemned highly misleading references to a Merseyside fatal rail-accident report as an effort to justify driver-only trains on Merseyrail. The union expressed disappointment that the report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) on the tragic 2011 James Street accident was being cited by Liverpool City Region leaders as a reason to remove 220 safety trained guards from Merseyrail trains. Mick Cash said that the James Street report recommended that the person responsible for the train dispatch – currently the guard – should be able to ‘observe the platform-train interface without interruption for as long as possible, ideally until the train has left the platform, and be able to stop the train directly and quickly in an emergency’. “The idea that this could be done by the driver of a DOO train is not only completely impractical, but reckless. “No-one can seriously suggest that a train driver, when driving away from a station, instead of looking ahead at the signals and making sure the track is clear, should be watching a bank of CCTV screens instead. “Train drivers are required by the railway safety rules to observe the railway signals and the track in front of them at all times when the train is moving,” he said. RMT regional organiser John Tilley – a signaller of 26 years’ experience – said that to comply with the RAIB recommendation, either the new trains must have a drop-down window for the guard to physically observe the platform-train interface, or the CCTV screens should be sited in the guard’s compartment. “This would enable the guard to monitor the dispatch throughout, without distraction, and to be able to activate an emergency stop should it be necessary. “This can easily be done – and is already being done by Stadler, the very company that is building the Merseyrail trains, on similar trains it is making for another Abellio-run franchise, Greater Anglia. “To misrepresent the RAIB recommendations and use the terrible tragedy at James Street in this way is a spin too far. “And to spin the James Street report to suggest that the union is trying to reject trains that could save lives is beneath contempt. We welcome any new technology that can make rail travel safer – as an addition to a properly crewed train, not instead,” he said. MERSEYRAIL BALLOT OVER DOO Company refuses to guarantee the future safety-critical role of the guard and claims driver-only operation is safer