For some time now RMT Trains Health & Safety Council (THSC) representatives have been seeking a process for the retention of manual handling / operation skills on automatic lines. With more lines moving to automatic operation it is vital that Train Operators retain their manual handling skills. These skills will be required during degraded working, or be it problems with your train, signalling or some other factor and also form part of your CMS.

At a Directors meeting last week agreement was gained that all automatic lines will now have in place a process to allow Train Operators to manually handle their trains on a regular basis, currently only the Central line has such a process in place. The THSC will now develop a standard that achieves the retention of manual handling skills for automatic lines.

A further meeting will be arranged to iron out the details for the way this will be implemented and the RMT will report back when this has been established.