Personally I'd prefer a guard on the train just in case, even if they just sit doing nothing for 99% of the time. Having one person being responsible for the safety of hundreds of passengers whilst also driving the train seems to be based on train technology making it possible, rather than it being a reasonable thing to do. Incidentally most of the long running disruption has been based on workers opting not to work overtime, because even in this day and age, train operators rely on workers wanting/needing to do regular overtime - they wont employ enough drivers to full-fill timetables because of this.
And why should they? Why should anyone? You could argue that a tube driver is responsible for the safety of hundreds of fabulously wealthy city executives every day, but what value does business place on them?
Yep. I know a retired tube driver with a fantastic pension (which he loves to brag about) and still travels for free ( including his spouse) on any train and often 1st class. He used (when he decided to go to work) the 1st class seats wearing his hi vis work 'costume' to rub it in.
So why to train operators plan timetables around overtime assumptions and panic when drivers decline it?
Shall be going to the elites Glynebourne opera. Coming in at less than half the price people's Glasto.
my point is that if you listen to the unions then the poor old tube and train drivers have to strike because they are so down trodden and poverty stricken. The reality is that most of them are earning double the average wage and the only reason the unions call out strikes is so they can weld power. It’s an ego thing for the union bosses. Who incidentally earn over £150k a year and swan about in chauffeur driven cars, whilst pretending to be men of the people. there’s some properly poor people in this country and guess what they aren’t represented by a union. The unions aren’t interested in the genuinely poor, as they can’t afford to pay them monthly subs.
Corbyn was a sad old relic from the 1970s. He wouldn’t have lasted a month as PM, as the guy’s as thick as a plank. You look at the scum that have taken over the Labour, you do wonder whether it can ever be fixed. RIP Labour. You had a good run.
strict driving conditions enforced by government and unions are not broken during times of crisis - for example a driver who is spare in the morning can't be moved to say cover a driver who has gone sick in the afternoon and the staff in a depot are the correct number for the jobs required
Jezza always looked to me like someone whos grandchildren had entered him into the ‘be labour leader for a day’ competition. Slightly confused and wondering what time his taxi was turning up.
What a load of rubbish! You've embellished your story a bit there -unions were formed for the absolute benefit of the poor to improve the grim existence post industrial revolution conditions! I can't recall train drivers unions claiming their members to be downtrodden and poverty stricken, just ensuring their terms and conditions are as good as they can get, although track workers getting covered in $hite from passing trains sounds quite Dickensian to me. Just because you've embraced the free market economy and now have to compete with others that might undercut you, you think everyone should be treated like it? Perhaps you should join a union. Alexander is now threatening to pass a law banning train drivers from striking - because its popular with commuters, but seems to have forgotten that train drivers work for private companies, often foreign companies.
So are you saying said train operators don't operate timetables that assume drivers will volunteer for overtime?
That's a very misleading chart as it only compares training timescales - post a chart with the respective earnings and conditions after they have finished their training and moved into specialist medicine, moving into private consulting (benefiting from allocated private consulting days whilst working for the NHS) you'd see that the comparison with a tube driver is blown out of the water!
Labour have brought all this on them selves . they should have known he would be a problem . It's almost as if everyone else did accept for labour ...i am amazed they let him carry on . They should have had SIR Keir Starmer ....having said that he comes across as dull as ditch water.
I reckon he will be the next leader, but sounds like he always needs to blow his nose - just like the wrong Milliband they chose.
