When First ScotRail launched a plan to implement one-person operations on the newly opened Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link in 2010, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) staged several strikes, claiming that the system was unsafe. ScotRail replied that they had been using one-person operated trains since the 1980s, and that the Class 334 trains planned for the Airdrie-Bathgate line had not even been delivered with a conductor's door panel. The strikes were ultimately ended by the unions, in part because of disagreements within the RMT about which principal stand to take on one-person operations. Other sources point to a "strike breaker" clause in ScotRail's contract, which enabled ScotRail to draw compensation from Scottish taxpayers during a strike, as another factor in the union's ending of the strikes. Even though the trains are now driven without a guard, a ticket inspector is still present on every train, although the ticket inspectors are paid less than guards.
