Expert report gives safety green light to DOO

BOSSES of rail company c2c warmly welcomed the long-awaited official report into the Driver Only Operation (DOO) of trains published today (23 November).

The independent report by ERM Risk for industry experts Railway Safety, re-emphasises that DOO is a safe way to operate trains.

The RMT guards union had been staging a series of strikes and other industrial action, exclusively targeting c2c services since the summer, claiming DOO was unsafe and refusing offers by the company to halt the industrial action, pending the outcome of this official report.

The dispute arose after the union reneged on two deals it signed with c2c for the implementation of DOO, once the company had introduced its new fleet of sliding door Electrostar trains.

Today, in welcoming the Railway Safety report, Managing Director Dominic Booth once again urged the union to end the dispute so that full services could be restored for passengers.

He said: "This report is very thorough and says in no uncertain terms that DOO, which has been the operating norm on most urban routes in this country and abroad for up to 20 years, is safe."

Indeed, Railway Safety goes as far as to say that following the introduction of the Train Protection Warning System (which is being installed on the new c2c trains) "DOO is assessed to be safer than non-DOO."

Mr Booth said the company's huge investment programme has not only seen security enhanced on stations but it was also being rolled out to trains as well, with CCTV being fitted in the carriages of the new Electrostar fleet. Security officers already patrol late night trains and rather than getting rid of staff on trains, c2c actually wants to see more of them, for safety, security and customer service reasons.

He said: "Not only are we committed to keeping guards on 12-car trains in a safety/train dispatch role, we want to see customer service staff on other trains too, but in a more visible role than guards are at the moment.

"This would do a tremendous amount to both reassure and help the public. We want our staff getting out of the guard's van and walking the length of the train, helping people with access problems on and off the train, providing travel information, selling and checking tickets to provide extra security."

In recent weeks, due to recruiting additional guards, c2c has been able to restore the full peak services used by 85% of its customers to commute to London. Because of vulnerability to wildcat action by the RMT while the dispute continues, c2c has been forced to run a reduced off-peak and weekend service, but has pledged to restore the full timetable as soon as the union signs up to end the dispute.