Conductor (transportation) - Train Guard (United Kingdom and Australasia)

Train Guard (United Kingdom and Australasia)

In the UK, Australia and New Zealand, the person with ultimate responsibility for operation of a train is usually called the guard, a term that derives from stagecoach days.

Until the latter part of the 20th century, guards on passenger trains in these countries did not have routine responsibilities for ticket inspection or sale. Their jobs focused more on safe operation of their trains, timekeeping, handling parcels, and other consignments. A dedicated 'travelling ticket inspector' handled fare duties. In recent years, passenger train guards have been assigned more responsibility for on-train revenue collection and ticket inspection. Under British Railways, there were several grades of guard, depending on whether the guard worked on freight or passenger trains—and a purely operational guard grade worked freight and passenger trains without customer contact. When the Guard has significant customer contact, the position is usually classified as conductor-guard or conductor. Since British Rail, there have been a number of titles for a guard's grade but, with a few exceptions, all now perform some sort of customer-facing role.

On long-distance expresses, the conductor's title is sometimes enhanced to senior conductor, in line with the implied prestige of operating these trains. Historically, under British Rail, long distance intercity trains were normally worked by the most senior guards at the depot, hence the name senior conductor. Several more recent private UK passenger train operators have further renamed the senior conductor's passenger facing title to "train manager".