Do people actually realise how the railway works, staff tend to be very flexible if they can. If the cuts come in and deterioration of jobs / conditions, that good will soon disappears as does RDW etc
Your considered and eloquent posts, so full of nuance, are always a joy to read. On the above point however, we will have to agree to disagree.
Its quite a common negotiating position outside of the rail industry. Firms prefer the strong optics of "we won't negotiate with a gun to our heads" to the weak ones of union being able to claim "we forced them to the negotiating table". I understand the position from both sides but at the moment it would seem to make it harder for them to see whether there is any middle ground - even if they wanted to.
I hadn't seen the article which was interesting and seems to back up lot of what is being said here. I still believe from the RMT's rhetoric on "pay equality" that they are upset that drivers are still receiving the enhanced payments and their grades are not. I had assumed that in the dim and distant future when the drivers are up to strength and the enhanced payments cease for them, then of course the case for RMT grades to receive them would end.
I agree with what you say, so many people attack traincrew on here but don't understand how complex the railway is.
The SNP only have one agenda and as long as the dispute does not impact that, which at the moment it does not appear to be doing, then they will be quite happy to let the dispute roll on.
What plans do the SNP have for ScotRail in an independent Scotland ? How is the funding worked out once the DFT involvement ceases ?
The fact that there are few trains on Sunday will not really be visible to the dignitaries. The massive fly tip under the M8 might have been so they have done something about that.
The above is the management view as TS/ScotGov are, in practise, the management at this stage. What is the equivalent sound bite from the union side? The best I could find on the RMT website is that the dispute is about a "fight for pay equality and justice."
It’s not working in Strathclyde land just now. Have a look at Journeycheck any morning of the week and there will be cancellations throughout the day on various routes due to “shortage of traincrew” or “train driver taken ill” - which 12 hours in advance says to me “we couldn’t find a spare” not “the driver is currently in an ambulance from the station”
Yeah, the trains can be pretty scary at night, particularly the DOO routes as the ticket examiners don't patrol the trains after a certain time.
I haven’t seen a TE for weeks and that’s travelling in the peaks…
I don't use the train much but the one I seen on a Saturday afternoon 2/3 weeks back on a train to Motherwell was the first I'd seen in 2 years. The closest stations to me barely ever have staff beyond just after lunchtime during the week either and on Saturdays the ticket offices tend to be closed all day.
They seem to be relatively consistent on trains out to Ayrshire... until around 10pm.
Indeed, in the present climate, simply offering what’d amount to state hand outs to certain TOC employees would just tilt the sphere of industrial unrest towards those who’re ineligible & thousands of contractors whom the railway also relies on 24/7 nowadays.
Has the driver recruitment hit the threshold to end their additional payments, or are there still more needed?
Real terms pay cuts for most public sector workers have been government policy for 11 1/2 years, and yet the same party of government keeps getting elected and keeps doing it again.
As you say, people are voting for it in their millions. So, presumably, a good many more agree with the policy than disagree!
Initially the policy objective behind privatisation was that ticket prices would be reduced in real terms as the years went by - i.e. that every year the industry would produce more from less, and pass on a proportion of the gains to end consumers. Although it wouldn't necessarily be my favoured approach in the detail, I would have been satisfied with that personally. While scale rises significantly over 25 years it ought not to be difficult to have unit cost fall. Instead, real prices have rocketed while scale grew.
So why is the Conservative party still so popular? It has been many years after all.
