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Old 27th May 2019, 12:21
Beeyar Wunby's Avatar
Beeyar Wunby Beeyar Wunby is offline  
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: NW Norfolk
Posts: 830
Yo Steve.

So a driverless train had an Overrun. That's funny. I don't suppose they suspended it from duty whilst it underwent a drug/alcohol test? And I wonder what sort of an action plan it will be issued with? Will it be made to apologise to its line manager and promise to try harder? And will it have this incident etched on its safety record for the whole of its career ?

Of course not. It's only dangerous when humans make mistakes, but perfectly acceptable for machines to do it. hah.

We've seen this day coming for a long time. Driverless trains will cost less to run, but they won't benefit the passengers any. The cost savings won't result in cheaper tickets.

Train drivers don't just drive trains. We have spacial awareness, and are able to see and report problems out on the network that no one else will see. We are the eyes and ears of the Signallers. We also notice and fix the cock-ups that Rosters, Train Planning and Maintenance inevitably introduce. Driverless trains don't know when they're marshalled wrong in the yard and are stuck behind later departures, and they don't know when they've been double-booked.

The politicians are taking us towards a railway with no ticket staff, no platform staff, no despatchers - and a 17 year old kid with an ipad in charge of a train with 1200+ passengers on. To misquote an old saying, when it'll be good it'll be good, but when it'll be bad it'll be very very bad.

Cheers, BW.

Last edited by Beeyar Wunby; 28th May 2019 at 11:23.
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