Re: Olympic Sprint Platform - Lidcombe

[craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick)]

In <3724E55D.F77BBDE0@qimr.edu.au> Barry Campbell <barryC@qimr.edu.au> writes:

>This is a sad indictment of CityRail management that the distinction
>between Guard and Driver on suburban trains as separate types of work
>still persists. Electic train guards were required to be able to drive
>trains in emergencies (I assume this still applies)

Yes, but guards are not given enough training in the first place, and a
great many recently qualified guards who might pass the schools and road
trials can't do their jobs properly, or don't want to.

> but as the electric trains were still part of the NSWGR and its
>successors, guards worked for the Traffic Branch and drivers worked for
>Loco and so they had different lines of promotion.

This still existed until the WB dispute. I didn't start working for the
railways until 1987, and even then I didn't get into electric trains until
1994.

I did notice that this year's travel passese have all drivers and guards
listed as part of network control, which I find to be an interesting
definition, since last year all our passes said 'CITYRAIL' instead! 8-)

> The logical arrangement would be: Entry level > guard > driver as a line
>of promotion which would mean that you could do this with 2 drivers with no
>industrial problems.

>Obviously CityRail has not learned of multi skilling. 

Ah!!! This is a term touted by many train crewing management people as the
great panacea which will save the world. 8-)

In reality we do it now, albeit not officially. If you read my comments
about drivers and guards riding together on late night trains, that's one
aspect. There are other things relating to that, but I'd neen to be careful
about the wording in case any nice CityRail Operations Inspectors (no names
need to be mentioned - I know the ones who read this newsgroup!) read my
remarks...

Lots of small 'local' rules of thumbs which drivers and guards use to make
things work more efficiently (inspectors know about these too!). Some people
would term them 'short cuts' but we use that for something else.

But on an official level, you're right that there's very little
multiskilling. I think it's a combination of, as you say, old style work
practises persevering and being actively preserved by the more union-minded
people who like to keep seperate "sub-EBA's" for each 'division', and also
that our rail system here in Sydney has so many unique things, such as train
sizes, passenger volume, station design, which require some aspects of the
seperate classifications to be seperate without requiring some
inordinately-clever tinkering with current job structures, etc. in order to
integrate drivers and guards together somehow.

Regards,

Craig.

-- 
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
 Send email to craigd@lios.apana.org.au |  Visit my Australian rail transport
   Professional Train Driver, Cityrail  |      and rail modelling web site:
       and HO scale rail modeller       |   http://lios.apana.org.au/~craigd