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It's patently ****ing obvious that the government wants this strike to run and run to deflect from all the issues above. They know exactly what they're doing, and have done since Schapps was playing two hands of poker at the same time in the summer when the strikes began "We can't get involved in private companies' negotiations", "We can't allow pay above inflation in the public sector".
An irony is that DOO couldn't be introduced on over half the network yet anyway because the trains and stations are not equipped for it, even with the newer trains. And if you take the Northern network in the North East, for example, the vast amount of stations are unstaffed and have been since a '90s, post-privatisation exercise called 'Matching Resources to Needs" (which was actually the other way around, truth be told), thus the trains themselves would have to be fully redesigned to take cameras and also linked to cameras on the platform at curved stations.
DOO will come, it's progress - but the government's obsession with de-staffing both stations AND trains at the same time is self-defeating - and it'll leave a legacy that some government at some time in the future will have to redress. And it utterly will not in any way, shape or form lead to a reduction in ticket prices nor, I promise you, any reduction in the taxpayer subsidy paid to the Tory-donating, shareholder dividend paying, director bonus rewarding Train Companies.

