Trains

I believe that some of the mess which is Southern (trains) is to do with the proposed introduction of one-man trains.

As a retired and satisfied commuter with Southwest Trains, my first thought was that I quite like having two-man trains. One man can concentrate on driving the thing and the other can worry about getting the passengers on and off. Plus helping with the odd passenger who needs help or dealing with the odd one who is causing trouble. While the man on the platform provides a bit of back up, as well as worrying about platform matters. At busy times, at busy stations, perhaps in the wet and in the dark, this strikes me as about the right number.

Second thought was for the trains on the London underground system, which can also be very crowded and which I think used to be two-man, but which have been one-man for some time now. Maybe this is a more controlled environment, with less going on, and one can manage with fewer people.

The bottom line is that maybe the sometimes obnoxious officials from the railway union have a point and I have a bit more sympathy for their position at Southern today than I did yesterday. But read all about it at reference 1.

PS: there is also the thought that with computers cutting great swathes through decent jobs and with lots of worthy people wondering what to do about it, it seems a bit perverse to be getting rid of these particular jobs.

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-man_operation.