THE controversy over what the railway industry calls “driver only operation” has recently been presented as if the only role guards fulfil is the opening and closing of train doors.

Of course guards or “train managers” do so much more than that.

Apart from checking travellers’ tickets, they assist disabled passengers, help people to find their seat and help with luggage, do their best to control bad behaviour, and raise the alarm in case of illness or accident.

It has also become obvious that we need conductors on buses.

Drivers have enough to do negotiating their vehicle through various hazards during the journey.

The idea that it is safe to have many people, sometimes hundreds, herded together in a locked steel tube travelling at speed without someone in charge is quite frightening, and so obviously wrong.

Why do we have this compulsion to reduce employment to the very bare minimum?

Pamela Brown, Goodwood Grove, York