A TRANSPORT safety regulator is glossing over implications of driver-only operated (DOO) trains by proposing that companies such as Southern Rail should use them, rail union RMT said yesterday.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) released a report on Thursday which claimed that giving drivers the task of closing train doors would be safe with suitable equipment, training and “competent staff.”

RMT general secretary Mick Cash condemned the “complete whitewash” report and cast serious doubts over the impartiality of ORR after Department for Transport (DfT) director Peter Wilkinson last year promised “punch-ups” with unions in his hope to “break” them.

It follows many days of industrial action by RMT and Aslef over safety concerns, including those of DOO trains.

Mr Cash said: “The report proves conclusively that ORR is no longer fit for purpose and is nothing more than an arm of the government, wholly committed to propping up the train companies and the DfT.

“The authors of this report have taken no evidence from the trade unions and have swallowed whole the distorted pictures painted by Southern Rail.

“They have limited their work to the issue of door control when there is a whole raft of safety issues that are allied to the question of driver-only operation. That is scandalous.”

The report by ORR shows that there is “no genuinely independent safety regulation” for British railways, Mr Cash continued.

“RMT has no confidence in ORR whatsoever and will continue the fight for safety on Southern and across our railways and genuine, independent scrutiny free from the stranglehold of central government.”

HM Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser said that Southern’s parent company Govia Thameslink Railway is implementing its recommendations to upgrade CCTV with the view to enable DOO.

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