Safety question that divides company and union

TO SCOTRAIL, it is a nonsensical dispute over working practices in force for a quarter of a century that would flush nearly £2 million down the drain.

To the conductors' union, it is about extending an unsafe way of operating trains on to a new route despite a pledge. More than half of ScotRail's passengers travel on trains where drivers also operate doors, following a deal 25 years ago to save routes around Glasgow.

In December, one such line will be extended east from Drumgelloch, near Airdrie, over new tracks to Bathgate and on to Edinburgh. But trains on the existing Bathgate-Edinburgh section are among those on the network in which conductors control the doors.

ScotRail said converting the trains which will operate the new route for conductor operation would cost 1.4m, and 300,000 a year in extra wages.

However, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union maintains that drivers operating train doors "fundamentally compromises safety", because the lower-paid ticket examiners who have replaced conductors on such trains have less safety training.

The union has pointed to a 2004 ScotRail assurance not to remove conductors during the current franchise "from any of the services on which they are now present".

ScotRail has attempted to reassure passengers by stressing it is required to have a second staff member on board all trains. However, the firm later conceded there may be "limited occasions" when there was no ticket examiner on services where drivers operated doors.