The transport unions reiterate their “no” to the proposal to abolish the figure of the conductor, in view of the meeting on Monday 26 July with Ansfisa, the National Agency for the safety of railways and infrastructures. “In tomorrow’s meeting we expect Ansfisa to review its approach and confirm the figure of the conductor on passenger trains” declared Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti. “It is not possible – they explain – that the new regulation for railway traffic, currently subject to consultation by the agency with the various stakeholders, provides for the lowering of safety levels in rail transport in our country with the transformation of technical and qualifying requirements in functions and general principles that, in the absence of substitute technologies, only adequately professionalized figures can guarantee ».
“Ansfisa – continue the workers’ representatives – cannot foresee that the safety functions are generically performed by” people or technological devices “, without the provision of qualified personnel and without saying what happens to the railway service in the event of a breakdown, failure of the technological devices, illness of the driver or a passenger. Even the arguments used by the agency in support of the amendment are not convincing, according to which the abolition is consistent with European directives, because on this, from the documents at our disposal, we have no evidence of incompatibility between the rules contained in the decree currently in force and the European reference framework standards. For us, the role of the conductor is still not replaceable, especially in the presence of emergencies or deterioration ».
In recent days, the transport unions had already explained that “this is not how safety is increased. On the other hand, interventions of a completely different type would be needed, such as addressing the numerous criticalities linked to the presence of level crossings that often cause railway accidents ».
“We expect from Ansfisa – the unions write in the last note – exhaustive answers regarding critical issues that we have already reported several times, such as the slowness in the replacement of level crossings, which are currently about 5 thousand in Italy and continue to constitute a danger, with underpasses. We will not discount anyone, because safety is not a joke; we are determined to take every action to defend and protect the role of the conductor ».