In defence of train guards and ticket offices

Part of the current industrial dispute between the RMT in particular and the railway companies is the apparent insistence that, in the name of “modernisation”, that ticket offices and train guards need to remain.

I am not going to comment on the whys and wherefores of the other aspects of the dispute (pay, hours, rostering, compulsory Sundays etc). But I must defend the need to retain both ticket offices and train guards.

Train guards of course play a safety critical role the way flight attendants and ferry staff do (and no-one is proposing eliminating them), particularly in terms of assisting with emergency evacuation and in ensuring that all doors are closed (DOO is inadequate for this as the driver’s view is very limited, as Diamond Geezer pointed out: https://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2022/12/yet-more-london-transport-news.html).

But there is also the customer service role. Lots of people don’t feel comfortable with buying tickets from machines or online, and there are lots of types of tickets which cannot be bought this way, typically for revenue protection reasons (e.g. excesses, staff-discounted tickets, some Rovers, and Groupsave at least used to be this way). There is also the need for a place where passengers can obtain journey advice. While at major stations there may be specific customer information points, these don’t exist at smaller stations. It might be argued that gateline staff could do at least some of these functions (where they exist!) but gateline staff have a reputation for wanting to penalise passengers with incorrect tickets rather than assist, and any assistance requiring a fare adjustment would (for personal safety reasons) at least need some sort of enclosure for the staff member in which the money can be collected. (This is part of the function of the small boxes in London Underground stations near to the gateline on the paid side.)

It might also be argued that a nationwide Oyster-like or OV-chipkaart like system would remove the need for ticket offices and the ticket-selling role of train guards. It is however hard to see how this is practical with the fare system as it currently exists; it is difficult enough on Transport for London with the complications of needing the pink route readers. It is difficult to see how a nationwide stored-value (or contactless bank card based) system could work without massive changes to the fare structure such as standardising (or abolishing) peak/off peak fares and removing/reducing route restrictions. Those wanting such things should be careful what they wish for as it would be likely to mean significant fare rises for many regional journeys and fare cuts for peak journeys to/from/via London.

Nonetheless the government seem insistent on what would be a very passenger-unfriendly move which in my opinion should be resisted.