East West Rail Train Door Row May See Launch Delayed
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
The launch of a new £7bn railway faces being delayed because of a row over who will control the opening and closing of carriage doors.
These three paragraphs add more details.
The BBC understands train operator Chiltern Railways is in a standoff with the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which represents train guards, over how East West Rail services between Oxford and Milton Keynes will run.
The RMT said the operator wants train drivers to open and close the doors at stations, with no guards required.
Passenger trains were scheduled to start running between Oxford and Milton Keynes for the first time in nearly 60 years by the end of December.
I suspect that the unions won’t be satisfied until all trains in the UK have a crew of two.
The Anonymous Widower 
This cost 1.2B to rebuild thats another story in itself but anyhow back here they’ve had five years to come up with a plan. They decided to nick 6 of WMT 196s three years ago. Another self inflicted rail industry failure and hardly conducive of getting govt to invest more
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | November 22, 2025 |
The Government announcement last week said that the existing section between Oxford, and Milton Keynes and Bedford, is going to be extensively upgraded and equipped with battery electric trains because of the theme park and new housing.
I’m writing a long post and I agree they’ve got their planning wrong.
The post could be this afternoon.
Comment by AnonW | November 22, 2025 |
When things go wrong on a driver-only train is when a two-man crew looks the better option. Better to have a ‘guard’ walking through the train giving reassurance than just a voice from the driver’s seat.
Comment by JohnC | November 22, 2025 |