The issue of removing the train attendants on the commuter train has been controversial.
– It is a complete scandal. The whole decision to dismantle the train attendants has destroyed the entire commuter train traffic, says Rainer Andersson, vice chairman of Sekos Pendelklubb.
– A lone driver cannot be responsible for what happens, from collisions to everyday events where you need to call an ambulance. There should be two.
The politicians in the Traffic Committee in the Stockholm Region took the first decision to replace human train attendants with cameras as early as June 15, 2021.
The idea was for the train driver to see when people get on and off via cameras. Safety on board is managed by the passengers themselves, who raise the alarm about disturbances and disturbances via telephone or an app.
Some train drivers resigned after the change. Criticism of both the work environment and safety was made.
The winding down of the train hosts was paused after that. It was the elected politicians who made that decision.
But on February 20, 2023, the manager in charge, David Lagneholm, decided that the winding down of train attendants would go ahead, despite everything.
“I was upset”
The head of administration decided himself – and rounded up the politicians.
On the same day, subway operator Viktor Risling reported everything to the Administrative Court, a court that reviews the work of municipalities and regions. Risling reported on his own, as a private person, and not in the service.
– I was upset because it was taken in an undemocratic way. Then it’s a stupid decision, about the train attendants. But now I thought: What are you doing? Now you are even making mistakes democratically, says Viktor Risling.
The train drivers resigning led to chaos and protests. But now the deficiency has been remedied, according to MTR.
Photo: PATRIK C ÖSTERBERG/STELLA PICTURES
The officials in the Stockholm Region thought they had done the right thing. An outside consultant had investigated the issue, and then it was not so strange that the head of administration decided on his own, without asking the politicians, according to Region Stockholm.
But the Administrative Court does not agree. David Lagneholm’s decision was illegal – and must be reversed.
“Therefore, the head of administration did not have the right to make the appealed decision”, writes the court.
Extraordinary meeting made decisions – after the fact
On Thursday, the politicians in the Traffic Committee met in an extraordinary meeting. It had only one item on the agenda: To decide after the fact that David Lagneholm did the right thing.
Anton Fendert, traffic councilor and environmentalist, confirms that the politicians follow the manager’s line, retroactively.
– Decisions are made in the places where we think they should be made. Then it is good that we have a judicial system that can make assessments in case someone makes an appeal. Then it is right and proper that we now make a decision in the right place.
Would it have been better to do the right thing right away?
– The decision to cancel the break should have been made by the committee. Now we do.
– Then and there we understood that it was right. It is clear that we have now learned that we should do it this way.
MTR runs the trains without a train conductor
In reality, the MTR has been running commuter trains without a train attendant since October. Niklas Ekström, communications manager, confirms that, among other things, the change with train attendants led to dropouts.
– We have had a period where more people have quit than usual.
– We do not go into details why. Now it is back in balance. We have trained 100 train drivers ourselves and now we have no shortage.
He is satisfied that the train driver checks in a camera that no one gets stuck in the doors.
– We have seen that work very well. We have not seen any security incidents.
– It has not previously been the task of the train conductor to ward off threats or violence. They, in turn, have called for help. Part of the money saved on train attendants must be allocated to more visible security resources.