At the beginning of this year, GTR finalised changes to the way they operate on their network – on many trains now the driver is in full control of the doors allowing the new role of on board supervisor (OBS) to spend more time with passengers.
GTR now have more staff working on the trains to assist passengers and the on board supervisor role has the same responsibilities in regards to disabled passengers as a conductor but, without the operational responsibility of working the doors. The platform staff are unaffected by these changes and will continue to deploy ramps and provide assistance to those who require help getting on and off the trains.
GTR always plan to have two members of staff on board trains which previously operated with a conductor, but where this is not possible e.g. during disruption and the OBS is not available, GTR may run the train to prevent it being cancelled and inconveniencing many passengers. In these circumstances GTR will aim to get an OBS to the train at the earliest opportunity and have in place plans to support those who need assistance.
At those stations not staffed from the first to last train and where Southern has moved services from a conductor to an OBS, GTR introduced a new support process, in December 2016, which enables a passenger boarding at certain stations to contact the new ‘Assisted Travel Support team’ based in GTR's control team at Three Bridges. This team can be contacted twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, via the ‘Emergency and assisted travel’ button on the help point or via a new free phone number. This team operates in addition to our existing Assisted Travel team.