"David F" wrote in message

On Oct 24, 1:14 pm, "Recliner" wrote:

Obviously what Bob Crow doesn't like is that this de-skills the
train drivers

I don't mean this facetiously, but what skills does a train driver
need? I was always under the impression that they just pressed "go"
and the train went to the next station, where they pressed the door
open/close button a couple of times.

Actually, I think they only have to close the doors; they open
themselves when the train has arrived at the next platform.


Is there skill to driving a train? Or, is it more a case of being
equipped and qualified to deal with emergencies?

Remember that most LU lines still have manually driven trains, so they
probably do need genuine skills and route knowledge. I gather the
training takes several months, so it's not trivial, but hardly
comparable to the training and experience required by an airline pilot
(who starts on less money than a Tube driver). As they do need to have
line knowledge, you can't just take a driver from one line to another
without additional training; I don't know how much of this would be
needed with fully automatic trains.