Transport secretary Chris Grayling says he is powerless to intervene in the dispute between Govia Thameslink, which operates the Southern Railway franchise, and the unions RMT and Aslef, whose strikes over proposals for Driver Only Operation have brought misery to passengers over a period of many months. I am not convinced. Whatever the law says, it is surely within the Government’s power to pass new legislation making it an offence for railway workers to strike, or to allow the Government to seize control of a strike-bound railway service.
There is, however, an even better way for Grayling to spend his time: he should make public money available to any railway company which wants to invest in equipment which renders not only the guards redundant but the drivers, too.
The main role of guards became redundant in the 1860s when improvements in signalling meant that, in the event of their train breaking down, they no longer had to run back down the line and wave a flag to prevent a following train crashing into its rear. Driver Only Operation (DOO) has become routine in Britain since it was first introduced on the St Pancras to Bedford line in 1982. Thirty per cent of trains now operate in this way. Earlier this year the Rail Safety and Standards Board concluded, after looking at 15 years of evidence, that it is safer in some respects than employing a guard to help close the doors, as it eliminates the possibility of misunderstandings between driver and guard.
But trains don’t really need drivers, either. More than 30 railway systems around the world now operate without any drivers whatsoever, and have been doing so for many years. Britain once led the way in rail automation – on the Victoria Line, opened in 1969, the drivers don’t really drive the train; they just open and close the doors. It is bizarre that the Government has sanctioned trials of driverless cars on Britain’s roads when railways – which by their very nature are far, far easier to automate, still employ drivers.
Investment in driverless rail technology would not only end strikes for good, it would hugely reduce running costs – at least on lines with high-density traffic. The technology is not futuristic; it already exists. Southern Railway has come unstuck tickling around with a modernisation plan which doesn’t even involve redundancies. It just shows that nothing will please the rail union luddites. The Government might as well take them head-on and abolish their members’ jobs for good.
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