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GWR Class 166 Declassified First Class closed off

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bramling

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Its a chicken and egg situation, the TOC has a duty of care to both passengers and staff. Whatever the TOC does someone will says its wrong.

Unfortunately it’s one of those things which they’re simply never going to win.

It isn’t great, and quite understandably doesn’t look good as trains are getting busier. However as someone who has been pleased to have the opportunity to utilised spare driving cabs over the last few months I can see how there would be a need for staff to be able to distance when in the workplace (which travelling pass is).

It’s making the best of a bad job unfortunately. The TOCs should think about whether they can provide extra carriages to make up the space, of course, but quite often this won’t be viable.
 
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ValleyLines142

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It's not the equivalent of half a coach. It is 4 tables/16 seats. The sections at the end of the coach where the toilet is seat the same amount, and the middle bit (the main saloon between the doors) must seat over double that. It's more like a quarter of the coach.

If a 3 coach turbo has 80 seats per coach, we are talking about 12-15% of total capacity lost per 3-car unit, if that.

I meant each individual section combined together, so 32 seats.
 

Scottychoo

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3 car 195 on the 1459 Windermere to Oxenholme today. Guard kicks everyone off the rear coach then puts the dreaded big yellow sign up saying this area closed off so guard can carry out his duties. So the guard needs a whole coach to be able to operate the doors safely while fare paying passengers try to socially distance in 2 coaches. What a clown
 

py_megapixel

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3 car 195 on the 1459 Windermere to Oxenholme today. Guard kicks everyone off the rear coach then puts the dreaded big yellow sign up saying this area closed off so guard can carry out his duties. So the guard needs a whole coach to be able to operate the doors safely while fare paying passengers try to socially distance in 2 coaches. What a clown
I'm not sure calling him a "clown" is particularly accurate...

On a 195 the door control panels are not positoned opposite each other. This is the same on many other units, and explains why the guard requires access to both sets of doors to carry out his work.
 

HamworthyGoods

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I'm not sure calling him a "clown" is particularly accurate...

On a 195 the door control panels are not positoned opposite each other. This is the same on many other units, and explains why the guard requires access to both sets of doors to carry out his work.

Do the cabs not have door controls?
 

hstmatt

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As far as I know, the Class 331s and 195s do not have cab controls for dispatch, other than the ones for drivers to use on the desk.
 

Fokx

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3 car 195 on the 1459 Windermere to Oxenholme today. Guard kicks everyone off the rear coach then puts the dreaded big yellow sign up saying this area closed off so guard can carry out his duties. So the guard needs a whole coach to be able to operate the doors safely while fare paying passengers try to socially distance in 2 coaches. What a clown

Hardly a clown trying to safely do his job.

The CAF fleet do not have door controls that the guard can utilise in the cab due to the fact the trains were built for DOO use for Northern. They were only retrofitted with GOP door controls due to the strike action that occurred a few years back. Sadly with most fleet, the GOP controls are not on the same door set.

There’s a GOP for the right doors on the set closet to the cab, and the left doors are on the second door set from the cab.
 

43096

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Hardly a clown trying to safely do his job.

The CAF fleet do not have door controls that the guard can utilise in the cab due to the fact the trains were built for DOO use for Northern. They were only retrofitted with GOP door controls due to the strike action that occurred a few years back. Sadly with most fleet, the GOP controls are not on the same door set.

There’s a GOP for the right doors on the set closet to the cab, and the left doors are on the second door set from the cab.
Do Northern guards do ticket checks currently?
 

43096

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Not that I’m aware of, but there are travelsafe officers and revenue across the network
So we can have Travelsafe officers and RPIs mixing with the public but the guards can't go and open the doors.
:rolleyes:
 

Fokx

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So we can have Travelsafe officers and RPIs mixing with the public but the guards can't go and open the doors.
:rolleyes:

If it’s anything like my own TOC, it Probably wouldn’t be an issue if passengers actually bothered to wear face coverings correctly, follow social distancing rules, sit only in window seats, listened to instructions etc.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the privatised railway where out-sourced staff have less benefits and working conditions to those in-house.
 

LowLevel

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If it’s anything like my own TOC, it Probably wouldn’t be an issue if passengers actually bothered to wear face coverings correctly, follow social distancing rules, sit only in window seats, listened to instructions etc.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the privatised railway where out-sourced staff have less benefits and working conditions to those in-house.

I am a guard for a TOC and have been doing RMT sanctioned revenue duties for weeks. One of my great frustrations about the whole RICF thing was it was meant to allow a common approach. Instead it's a piece meal mess. My own trains are 15x DMUs and have no more than "keep a safe distance" and "wear a face covering" stickers in them. No cordoned off seats, I do the doors in the passenger area and I check and sell tickets. Yet my colleagues elsewhere are basically riding around in the cab all day. It's bizarre.
 

cactustwirly

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If it’s anything like my own TOC, it Probably wouldn’t be an issue if passengers actually bothered to wear face coverings correctly, follow social distancing rules, sit only in window seats, listened to instructions etc.

There's nothing in the rules that says anything about sitting in window seats. I'm not aware of any ToCs that ask this, except LNER and their ridiculous compulsory reservations.
 

Fokx

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There's nothing in the rules that says anything about sitting in window seats. I'm not aware of any ToCs that ask this, except LNER and their ridiculous compulsory reservations.

LNER and Avanti (presumably XC?) with their reservations will automatically place you by the window to create the largest gap between you and other passengers where possible.

TPE also ask that you sit in window seats only (advertised on the onboard screens and rare PA’s) but again largely ignored (rightly) by those travelling as a family with kids for example or (wrongly) by those who just want to sit in an aisle seat with no real reason for it
 

cactustwirly

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LNER and Avanti (presumably XC?) with their reservations will automatically place you by the window to create the largest gap between you and other passengers where possible.

TPE also ask that you sit in window seats only (advertised on the onboard screens and rare PA’s) but again largely ignored (rightly) by those travelling as a family with kids for example or (wrongly) by those who just want to sit in an aisle seat with no real reason for it

XC say nothing about window seats, except a rogue TM who made up their own rules.
 

TEW

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There's nothing in the rules that says anything about sitting in window seats. I'm not aware of any ToCs that ask this, except LNER and their ridiculous compulsory reservations.
SWR guards are also instructed to make announcements asking people to use only the window seats before they carry out revenue duties. Not all guards are though, and I don't think many passengers are listening.
 

cactustwirly

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SWR guards are also instructed to make announcements asking people to use only the window seats before they carry out revenue duties. Not all guards are though, and I don't think many passengers are listening.

I haven't traveled with SWR, but I have traveled a lot on GWR, TfL Rail and also GTR, Southeastern and XC. No mention of anything.

I can understand why passengers are ignoring, it's a ridiculous rule, especially when everyone is wearing a facemask.
 
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