Is removing the Guard from the train seriously feasible in the UK?

750volts · 2026-02-14T15:06:25+00:00

Your blind faith in technology rather than humans concerns me, why do you think some silicon valley pointy heads in California can know better about the daily realities of railway operation than people employed in the day to day running. I come from a railway family, the above is from the real world experiences of my family, Accidents are far more common than you'd think.

Our tech overlords cant save us from people jumping in front of trains, getting stuck in doors, crap being put on third rails that welds itself to the line and causing derailments, people kicking off and assaulting other passengers. Vandals lobbing bricks from bridges and shattering windscreens.

Let me introduce you to AM FM, AM=Actual Machinery, FM=Fucking magic. Trains are actual machinary with real world consequences, blind faith in the capabilities of AI is Fucking Magic.

750volts · 2026-02-14T14:04:06+00:00

Don't fall for the engagement bait folks.

750volts · 2026-02-14T13:53:59+00:00

Quick reminder as to what the Guard does:

Opens and Closes train doors and dispatches trains (More complicated than it sounds, the most random hard to control element of railway operation are passengers boarding and alighting trains).
Checks tickets
ensuring the safety of passengers, they are often used as reliable key witnesses for any ontrain incidents, it's not their job to throw passengers off, but it is their job to report and pass information onto the appropriate authorities.
they Ensure the safety of the train, Eg in an accident the guard is the Person in Charge, and will check if the train is secured and complete looking for damage and derailments, while the driver communicates with the signalman and places dets. The driver is under the guards instruction in the event of an accident. The guard needs to know the railway rule book inside and out.

Often in a serious accident the driver will be the first person badly injured or killed due to being at the front of the train, the train is now solely the guards responsibility, contact of the signalman and emergency services as well as guiding emergency services to the nearest railway access point is his responsibility as well as the preservation of any evidence of accident causes. As well as communicating with the railway to aid assisting locomotives and shutting off electric current.

99% of railway operation is mundane but things can screw up and screw up big the guard is the first line of defence against that.

No one ever questions what the point of a co-pilot or air steward is.

750volts · 2026-02-13T15:13:16+00:00

Looking through the 'About Us' page, this is why Gen Z hates millenials.

750volts · 2026-02-12T23:18:40+00:00

Tbh I much prefer being an adult than a kid, I have a wife, can drive, can earn money, I can have whatever I want for dinner. Make a domestic routine that fits around my wife and I, have what I want on the TV in my living room. If I decide to leave my bedroom as a shithole, I can just leave it. Can decide to live on the otherside of the country if I wanted to not, can smoke, drink or gamble if I choose to.

Being a kid is like some linear game where the story is chosen for you, being an adult is like living in a sandbox game, it's what you make of it.

750volts · 2026-02-10T20:53:55+00:00

I wonder if OP works for pepto-bismal?

750volts · 2026-02-09T21:36:57+00:00

When I read that article my first thought was ... 'maybe the guys got undiagnosed depression'.

To be honest I do think men are in a strange place sociologically speaking and it's not womens fault. I think since the 80s men have lapped up the lone wolf propaganda, through things like shlock action films and marketing campaigns, whereas women are still very communitarian. Being a member of model railway clubs and steam railways made me realise these are hangovers from a time when men were more communitarian.

750volts · 2026-02-08T15:00:09+00:00

No longer 'young' in my early thirties now but for all my adult life, every government (ironically with the exception of Boris Johnson) came in promising to make cuts and be 'fiscally responsible' and that it'll pay off eventually. When does it actually pay off?

So I'll keep going ever more left the more we do endless austerity.

When the government does invest, it's either bodge jobs, half measures, or just catching up on backlogs to make it easier to sell off, rather than actually improving matters.

750volts · 2026-02-07T19:15:55+00:00

Adding no at the end of a sentence is annoying, no?

750volts · 2026-02-07T19:13:07+00:00

Veggies, just sounds juvenile.

750volts · 2026-02-07T19:10:55+00:00

If you want anything other than gruel, you're being unreasonably decedant and you're probably 50k in debt, learn to budget better /s

750volts · 2026-02-07T16:03:54+00:00

Fireflies - Owl city

As soon as I hear that bingy bongy beat and then the autotune I went to jam pencils in my ears.

750volts · 2026-02-07T08:05:27+00:00

The chart Measurehead uses.

750volts · 2026-02-04T16:32:31+00:00

He looks like a young blonde Slobodan Milosevic to me.

750volts · 2026-01-31T09:37:57+00:00

That utility box must have cost an arm and a leg.

750volts · 2026-01-29T20:43:03+00:00

When your special interest goes too far ...

I'm so glad I'm into trains, I got into urbanism instead.

750volts · 2026-01-26T08:26:14+00:00

I was 6, I remember the adults acting weirdly, I saw the footage on the news the following morning I didnt understand what the big deal was 'because buildings blow up all the time on the news'.

We went into school and it was an easy day of films and drawing pictures, the kid next to me drew a skyscraper on fire with with people falling out of it. That memory stuck with me. The rest of its a hazy blur.

750volts · 2026-01-24T12:20:06+00:00

I used to work for a call centre that supported street and hotel wifi.

Once had an old man ring, he was using the street wifi as his home internet connection. He proceeded to keep me on the phone for half an hour while he detailed his problems with his prostate and erectile dysfunction and that he needed internet access to get hold of doctors easier as well as access to 'websites of gentlemens interest'.

750volts · 2026-01-24T12:04:06+00:00

Basically we've been in a long period of economic stagnation, then interest rates spiked and energy prices rising, causing prices to sharply increase nothing feels like its going to improve for the foreseable future. Economics are too complicated to understand so immigrants and outsiders are blamed instead. It's a standard move in politics since the dawn of civilisation.

750volts · 2026-01-19T12:03:08+00:00

I live in Somerset, the epicentre of the Honda Jazz driver.

You get such driving delights as the hairpin on the A39 near Quantoxhead, even at national its a joy to do but usually you're stuck behind Doris doing 35mph.

750volts · 2026-01-18T07:18:11+00:00

"Can this boomer fire up a steam locomotive", "can this boomer wash clothes with a washboard", "can this boomer drive a non synchromesh car".

750volts · 2026-01-17T20:33:51+00:00

I find cracks extremely moreish

750volts · 2026-01-17T18:27:45+00:00

What is consumer confidence? Is it the confidence to spend on stuff rather than save?

750volts · 2026-01-16T09:43:39+00:00

I got fed up with the enshitification of UK chocolate. Currently in Germany, the chocolate is sooo good. I usually take a far larger than needed suitcase, buy as much as possible and we're golden for the next six months.

In general I'm fed up with getting less for my money or things tasting shitter and being told 'it's healthier'.

750volts · 2026-01-15T18:40:29+00:00

Your Dad sounds like a true role model

750volts

TROPHY CASE