UK: 'Driverless' tube trains: a guide to the guff

[John Ashworth]

'Driverless' tube trains: a guide to the guff

Dave Hill
Wednesday 29 February 2012 22.54 GMT
guardian.co.uk

Once more that phantom chariot the Bob Crow-crushing "driverless" London Underground train has been summoned by Mayor Johnson in the hope of drawing hearty cheers of "good old Boris!" from strike-maddened commuters - and, of course, sticking a bit of red scare dirt-by-association to his Labour challenger Ken Livingstone in the process.

The last time Boris's "driverless" train set came out of its box was just over a year ago, when the headlines claimed that these saviour vehicles would "break" the RMT union. It was twaddle then and it is twaddle now. Let's recap…

London Underground already has trains that are "driverless" in the sense that the term "train driver" is traditionally meant. The Victoria, Central and Jubilee lines are operated by Automatic Train Operation (ATO) systems - the Victoria partially so since 1968 - which mean they aren't manually controlled by people sitting in cabs at the front end except in an emergency. The main responsibility of those individuals is to safely operate the carriage doors. Also, they are members of trade unions.

Trains on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) don't have drivers even in the ATO kind of way. Instead, they have "train attendants" or "captains" who travel on the train but move around inside it rather than sitting at the front. These people do, however, look after the doors just like their ATO Tube counterparts. They too are expected to operate the train manually if something goes wrong with the system. And they too are members of trade unions. Indeed, Crow's RMT lays claim to nearly all of them.

So if staff on the truly "driverless" DLR are every bit as unionised as those on the Tube – and prepared to withdraw their labour too - how does Boris think making the Tube progressively more driverless will weaken the Tube unions?

The Evening Standard's report, flammed up in a style reminiscent of its wretched Wadley era, described the long-gestated plan to introduce ATO to the Northern Line in two years time and others in 2018 as enabling Boris to "take away the unions' ability to hold the capital to ransom," but failed to explain why.

The accompanying leader column at least tried. "Automation would mean that any qualified member of staff could act as train captain, diminishing the disruption caused by strikes," it said. But how many London Underground staff doing different jobs would also have been trained to be stand-in Tube train "captains" – let alone be willing to cross picket lines – in order to keep the system running?

Transport for London tells me that around 1,950 Tube drivers are needed to staff the system on an average working day. Looks like an awful lot of double-trained strike-breakers would be required to cover for those withdrawing their labour. In short, the "driverless Tube" pitch is, as Londonist puts it, one of those transport promises you shouldn't trust.

As for making it as a means of mentioning Ken Livingstone's good relationship with ASLEF and the TSSA - though not the RMT – in the hope of winning votes, perhaps Boris should think again. There have been many more Tube strikes under him than when Ken was mayor. People might start thinking that's not a bad reason for making Ken mayor again.

[John Ashworth]

Tube driver saves fallen child

11:46am Thursday 1st March 2012
Your Local Guardian

Unions have stepped up their opposition to driverless Tube trains after a young child fell between a carriage and the platform.

Drivers' union Aslef said the driver of a London Underground train spotted a tiny hand reaching up from the track when he made a final visual check.

The five-year-old boy escaped without injury after the incident on the network's Jubilee Line on Sunday evening.

Aslef said all the automatic devices in place showed the platform was clear and it was safe for the Tube train to depart, adding that the driver's action saved the child from death or injury.

General secretary Mick Whelan said: "Mayor Boris Johnson has been playing politics with the issue of driverless trains. He thinks he is currying favour with voters with this stand. How many votes are a young child's life worth? How would he explain to those watching horrified parents that his proposal is a good one?

"On Sunday all the automatic devices showed the platform was clear. Only a driver could have averted a potential tragedy.

"Boris Johnson is wrong to continue to push his policy for driverless Tube trains when it can threaten the lives of London's travelling public. I want him to accept that it is a mistake."

London Underground's network services director Nigel Holness said: "In this case our staff followed their established safety procedures to bring the incident to a safe conclusion and without injury. The whole design and operation of the network would be different with driverless trains and therefore we cannot compare the two."

Transport for London (TfL) confirmed that the child fell between a stationary train and the platform at Finchley Road station, adding that staff followed their established procedures to "swiftly" respond and bring the incident to a safe conclusion. The child and parents were able to continue their journeys without reported injury.

It is standard safety practice for drivers at the station to check CCTV in their cabs before moving their trains off from the platforms and this process was followed correctly, said TfL.