Cost of Living Crisis

[Mr. Dazzle]

I don't necessarily think they're overpaid. I just think they need to STFU about it being unfair a bit...their pay is good AND increases faster than most people's.

[v8-powered]

Train drivers get £60k a year nearly ??? WTF.. That's bloody good isn't it ?

Eurostar 100k+

[Mr. Dazzle]

They need to drive on the other side in Europe, must require extra skills.

[mangocrazy]

Have a look at the small print in the offer made to the Rail unions and ask yourself if you'd sign up to these proposals:

These proposals set out a two-year pay package which provides 4% increases for years 2022 & 2023. These are way below the current and predicted future rates of inflation and equate to a 20% pay cut.

A conditional no compulsory redundancy commitment is set out, but only until 1st April 2024.

The proposals are also conditional on your union accepting the following:

That all Workforce Changes are accepted without reservation or industrial action;
Closure of all ticket offices and displacement of all retail staff;
Creation of a new multi-skilled station grades;
A mass job severance programme;
Driver-Only Operation of trains in all companies and on all passenger services;
New arrangements for mandatory Sunday working;
A review of all On-Train Catering services leading to cutbacks in provision and jobs;
Review of Fleet grades’ working practices and depot driving;
Flexible working contracts, working and rosters;
Mandatory adoption of new technology with no payment;
New Attendance Management scheme;
Review of Stood Off arrangements;
New annual leave and sick pay arrangements.

 Your union’s National Executive Committee is of the view that these proposals are not acceptable and believe that the RDG knew this was the case when they made the proposals. Therefore, your NEC has instructed me to immediately inform the RDG of this Union’s rejection of the proposals and to demand an urgent meeting with the RDG tomorrow (Monday 5th December), with this matter to be placed back before this NEC immediately following that meeting.

Source: https://www.left-horizons.com/2022/12/0 ... onditions/

[Yorick]

Is there a union for dog walkers and pool cleaners?

[weeksy]

Have a look at the small print in the offer made to the Rail unions and ask yourself if you'd sign up to these proposals:

The question is... if that's not acceptable, where will the money come from ? in a dwindling business that's getting more expensive to run with less and less customers, how do they propose it should be funded.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The state.

To be fair, trains are/should be a big part of the government's climate change targets. They're hugely more efficient and cleaner that nearly all other popular forms of (powered) transport and for that reason alone I'm not averse to funding them.

[weeksy]

The state.

you mean US then.... well and them themselves lol. How will the state fund it ?

I've used a train once in 3 years.... I can't imagine a scenario when i'll use one next... I could've tomorrow... but they're on strike lol

It's 5miles to my nearest station.

[Count Steer]

Improving the services and attracting more customers would be a start. Not siphoning of vast sums to TOCs and and their shareholders might help.

Looking at how the rest of Europe do it might help too.

[gremlin]

All this says to me is that I need to join a Union.

-IS- there a Union for sad-act desk jockeys? Maybe I should start one? Get on the telly. We could all take our keyboards and throw them out the window.

Union member here, brother. Man and boy.

Proper working class, me.

[Yorick]

All this says to me is that I need to join a Union.

-IS- there a Union for sad-act desk jockeys? Maybe I should start one? Get on the telly. We could all take our keyboards and throw them out the window.

Union member here, brother. Man and boy.

Proper working class, me.

There's no bugger to represent us lazy bastard retired ex-pats

[DefTrap]

People have no choice but to use trains, despite the ridiculous ticket prices. You could use the cheaper coach services yes but, IME, this is an even more deeply unpleasant experience - it really feels like slumming it.

It's even more ridiculous when you look at the prices of flights for similar journeys. I'd way rather mooch about airports and be on a Ryanair for an hour than 6 hours on an effing MegaBus, or 3 hours throwing fivers out the window on BR. In France I think they recently introduced a ruling preventing short haul internal flights, where the train service is roughly equivalent (in time anyway).

[gremlin]

All this says to me is that I need to join a Union.

-IS- there a Union for sad-act desk jockeys? Maybe I should start one? Get on the telly. We could all take our keyboards and throw them out the window.

Union member here, brother. Man and boy.

Proper working class, me.

There's no bugger to represent us lazy bastard retired ex-pats

'What do we want?'

'More tasteless Euro-fizz!'

'When do we want it?'

'When we've woken up from our siesta!'

[Yorick]

Union member here, brother. Man and boy.

Proper working class, me.

There's no bugger to represent us lazy bastard retired ex-pats

'What do we want?'

'More tasteless Euro-fizz!'

'When do we want it?'

'When we've woken up from our siesta!'

Amén hermano

[Mussels]

The state.

To be fair, trains are/should be a big part of the government's climate change targets. They're hugely more efficient and cleaner that nearly all other popular forms of (powered) transport and for that reason alone I'm not averse to funding them.

Second to taxis they are the most expensive way of travelling I know of, it's about time they were modernised but the unions don't want anything that will reduce their subscriptions.
They are also painfully slow, crowded and unreliable.

[v8-powered]

Improving the services and attracting more customers would be a start. Not siphoning of vast sums to TOCs and and their shareholders might help.

Looking at how the rest of Europe do it might help too.

I do 'kind-of' agree with this - it annoys me that the majority of TOC's are owned by overseas businesses and much of the profit heads there but also worth remembering that many of the franchises are now led by the government and the TOC only gets a small management fee, halfway back to a nationalised railway....

[Yorick]

Improving the services and attracting more customers would be a start. Not siphoning of vast sums to TOCs and and their shareholders might help.

Looking at how the rest of Europe do it might help too.

I do 'kind-of' agree with this - it annoys me that the majority of TOC's are owned by overseas businesses and much of the profit heads there but also worth remembering that many of the franchises are now led by the government and the TOC only gets a small management fee, halfway back to a nationalised railway....

TOC ???

[JamJar]

All this says to me is that I need to join a Union.

-IS- there a Union for sad-act desk jockeys? Maybe I should start one? Get on the telly. We could all take our keyboards and throw them out the window.

Unison or Unite would be your best bet.

[Count Steer]

Improving the services and attracting more customers would be a start. Not siphoning of vast sums to TOCs and and their shareholders might help.

Looking at how the rest of Europe do it might help too.

I do 'kind-of' agree with this - it annoys me that the majority of TOC's are owned by overseas businesses and much of the profit heads there but also worth remembering that many of the franchises are now led by the government and the TOC only gets a small management fee, halfway back to a nationalised railway....

TOC ???

Train Operating Company.

[Mr. Dazzle]

you mean US then.... well and them themselves lol. How will the state fund it ?

I've used a train once in 3 years.... I can't imagine a scenario when i'll use one next... I could've tomorrow... but they're on strike lol

It's 5miles to my nearest station.

It's not just about you - or me - though. People alwways "but I don't use the train/schools/doctors" or whatever. You need factory workers to be able to get to their jobs, nurses to get to theirs etc. etc. You don't have to directly benefit from a service to benefit from it, IYSWIM.

For trains to be 'good' in this country we need one thing. Joined up thinking.

Bugger.

AFAIK les frogs have just banned flights where the same journey could be made in less than a certain amount of time on a train or something*. They also spend vast amounts of money on national high speed rail. That's an example of joined up thinking.

*I've really researched the details here, can you tell?