It is a wee bit annoying that a number of guards seem to lock the gangway out regardless of how busy the train is. Undermines the purpose of having the gangway in the first place and is particularly irritating when, as seems to be very common, one of the toilets is out of use on a 6 car...
Well, it's a requirement of the RSSB rule book that all internal doors are unlocked except where they're at each end of the train, at each side of any gangway connections which can't be made, or that leads to accommodation which isn't for public use. What instructions individual companies put out is a matter for themselves, but if you're following the rule book, they should ordinarily be unlocked.
A knock on the door and letting them know you need to use the other toilet would suffice. No guard would prevent that from happening.
Is there a reason why the back cab can't be used in those situations?
Doesn’t help if the guard is in the other unit.
Depending on the station, some have mandatory positions due to curvature.
Which shouldn't happen as they should be in the front of the rear unit side anyway. If the staff operated 323s this was mandatory to be in the rear of a double set.
What if it's a triple needing to deselect to 8 coaches, do they still need to be in the 3rd cab or are they in the 5th?
And if you’re in the front unit with a defective toilet? At the very least there’s going to be two end doors between you and the guard who has to hear your knocking above the noise of a moving train.
Obviously not, that's why I said 2x350. For the 3x350 on the Trent you are constantly moving around the train for either mandatory or optimal positioning, due to UDS (cab 3 or 5 if calling at Bushey which is unlikely) or curvature issues.
But only the 1 passenger door should be closed, as happens now with 350s. Either way you're knocking on a door to the specific cab that is closed. A simple announcement letting passengers know to knock if they need to move between units.
Very much depends on the route (and guard). COVID times made it very easy for guards to lock themselves away and some haven't bothered to come back out.
That's not in my experience... I find roughly a third of all 350 workings have the gangways closed, and in these instances the doors are always locked in both units and the button is not illuminated in either. I have only had one instance of 730s being blocked between units, and again in that instance both doors were closed off.
Is this on a specific route? There should never be a situation with both sets of doors locked. But also, the button should not be illuminated if the full cab is in use so that I don't have an issue with.
Out of Euston on the Tring and Milton Keynes circuit.
Why is management so ineffective?
Ahh okay. Probably Bletchley train crew, who also seem to do the least amount of ticket sales!
That and drivers won't accept DOO.
Surely the salary and the benefits the guards get is enough ‘encouragement’?
WMT does but it doesn't add up to much particularly on the local routes, add the fact that cross city trains stop every two to three minutes which provides very little time to issue a ticket without affecting performance.
I think you'll find performance management is exactly what is missing at WMT.
Just to comment on this particular point, onboard ticket sales are very different now to 2019.
But if they've decided the vestibule and cab areas are not for public use then they are permitted to be locked.
