DURING a recent 14-minute rail journey from Allens West to Middlesbrough, I watched the guard help people safely get on and off the train – an elderly man in a wheelchair, a father with a baby carriage, and a mother with two children and a pushchair. He did all of this plus check the doors and take our tickets.

This Saturday, March 3, the rail union (RMT) is striking to protest against the company’s plan to get rid of guards and make their trains ‘driver only’.

Northern (part of a German state-owned company) makes good profits in the UK. It could make more if it sheds the cost of guard salaries.

Northern’s executives should realise that passengers aren’t just lines on balance sheets. How many of them ride their own trains?

If they did, even for just 14 minutes as I did, they would see that guards are key to passenger safety and an essential part of their business. It is time for Northern to sit down and talk to its guards.

Ann Logan, Eaglescliffe