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The RMT union has warned Southern Railway that it has until Friday to amend a proposal to extend driver-only operation on the Brighton main line. Otherwise, the union said, it will declare a formal dispute.

The problem concerns Brighton Express services which are an extension of the route formerly run by Gatwick Express between London and Gatwick, and which use Class 442 units cascaded from South West Trains.

The RMT says it understands that Southern proposes to extend DOO to all Brighton Express services, and if this took place it would be a breach of a 2001 agreement. It also claims Southern has already reversed a plan to abolish guards on some Brighton services with effect from Sunday, when the summer timetable started, and has apologised for the mistake.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: ^We will not tolerate a situation where Southern, or any other train operating company, attempts to rip up national agreements and bulldoze through Driver Only Operation plans that remove Guards from any services. Guards on our trains play a vital, safety-critical role and RMT will continue to fight to defend their retention. We have given Southern until Friday to confirm that they will adhere to existing agreements and remove this threat to our Guards members. If they don^t then we will notify them that we are in dispute but we hope that they will recognise that they have made another mistake and bring the summer timetable services to Brighton via Gatwick back into line with existing agreements.^

Southern has yet to comment.

Meanwhile, the RMT is currently still in dispute with ScotRail over plans to run trains without conductors between Edinburgh and Glasgow, when the restored Airdrie--Bathgate line opens in December. ScotRail has argued that almost half its trains already have their doors controlled by the driver, and denies that safety is at risk. The Airdrie trains would still carry a second crew member, who would work as a ticket examiner.

No talks on this dispute have been held since three days of strikes were called last month, during which ScotRail said disruption had been slight.