Re: Olympic Sprint Platform - Lidcombe

[Railway Rasputin <bob@fastlink.com.au>]

"C. Dewick" wrote:

> 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.

Agreed, the time it takes to train a guard has more than halved since I was
trained. I hear that it is now only 5 weeks.

>
>
> >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.
>

Having talked to neumerous Guards and Drivers about this, it appears that the main
opponents to this are the drivers, mainly the old ones that still think they are
in the steam age. Don't get me wrong, there are guards as well but it seems to be
mainly the drivers.
To me, the most logical thing to do is make all person that work on trains "train
crew" with pay to be adjusted accordingly. Diagrams might have  "Guard 2 run to
waterfall - bondi - Central. Crib Drive 34 run central - East hills - Central
Sign off.

Of course new commers won't be driving right away. Due to inexperience, a "step up
system will be needed like:
train crew:

1st year 100% guard 0 driver
3rd year 75% guard 25% driver
5th year 50% guard 50 % driver

So on and so on. Baring in mind that "driver" would be guarding trains (until
guards are no longer required) as well as driving.

This is just and example, all things open to change.

>
> Regards,
>
> Craig.
>
> --
>             Craig Ian Dewick

rgds