Some good news for a change! Over the past 6 months the Trains Safety Council have been reporting on LU’s proposal to introduce a series of safety critical changes to the role of driver, the Operational Effectiveness Programme. These have included: reversing 'blind' back into a platforms after an over-run, drivers self-dispatching at category ‘A’ platforms with defective OPO, checking signal aspect after SPAD and carrying on etc. It was our belief that all these changes were designed to aid service recovery with no station staff available to assist the driver; we felt the changes were unsafe.

We have had numerous consultative meetings and we feel, offered enough comments to shoot their Change Assurance Plans (CAPs) for the changes down in flames. Unfortunately LU, and in particular, the Operation Standards Dept, ignored our comments and concerns and pressed ahead regardless.

On Tuesday we, the Safety Councils and your Head Office Official, Olly New, had a Safety Forum with the LU Director of Safety, to discuss our concerns. This was the last stage of the consultative process. To our shock, the Director agreed with the RMT that the proposals of the OEP were unsafe and he sent the Operational Standards team off with their tails between their legs.

Here is a summary of discussions:

Checking signals following a SPAD then carrying on: We have argued all along that this proposal teaches drivers bad habits and would lead to drivers who were on final warnings covering up and not reporting SPADs. The Director agreed with the unions and ordered the withdrawal of this unsafe proposal immediately.

Detraining of stalled trains with no comms: This proposal would have seen train drivers, with no comms, stalled in tunnels, detraining after 30 minutes with no assistance from station staff. Drivers would have been responsible for getting up to 1000 passengers off the train, on their own (children, people with pushchairs, people in wheelchairs, people who didn’t speak English) and walking them to the next station. The Director ordered that this unsafe proposal was withdrawn.

Carrying passengers over shunt signals: There were 3 parts to this proposal but the union’s biggest concern was drivers taking passengers into sidings at terminus stations. Unions argued that this would increase the risk of assault to our members. The proposal was also seen as a way for LU to get sick passengers who were incapacitated off the running lines by sending them into siding to await medical assistance. What a joke. The Director ordered that this CAP be re-written and re-presented at the beginning of the consultative process with driver taking passengers into sidings element removed. Another unsafe proposal kyboshed.

Drivers self-dispatching at Cat ‘A’ platforms with defective OPO: The unions pointed out the folly of using this method at busy locations across the combine. The problem we had, is that on the Bakerloo Line and District Lines running over Network Rail, there is a similar process in operation for the first train only; afterwards the train non-stops or we have assisted dispatch. This proposal would have given LU freedom to use self-dispatch at Cat ‘A’ platforms train after train after train. Again, the Director agreed with the unions that this method of work was wholly unsafe and ordered that the CAP be re-written and re-presented at the beginning of the consultative process with only the first train self-dispatching and assisted dispatch or no-stopping afterwards. There is no guarantee that we will accept even this watered down version but we will wait to see the CAP when it is re-written

The meeting run over by 2 hours due to the length of the arguments. We were discussing ‘reversing blind after over-runs’ when the meeting ended. We feel we were winning this argument also. The meeting will be reconvened within the next 3 weeks. We will send you all an update as and when.

It has been a long time coming but common sense has prevailed and the Operation Standards Dept have had their wings clipped, for now.

Regards RMT Trains Health and Safety Council reps