Have you a source for this? And how are you classifying the "South East"?
All I said was that no one should be complacent about the outcomes associated with industrial action on the operation of the railway and noted the fact that some routes are more viable than others.
Stop scaremongering, that isn't helpful either.
Yes, temporarily
I'm afraid you are out of your depth. Cause of the dispute is lack of a payrise. It's that simple. No amount of you posting is going to change the fact that staff are going on strike because of that. This Wednesday is the latest round of that. With more to follow. Simple really
Nobody going on strike is wanting to drag passengers into it. Industrial action in previous decades we're around manufacturing, so the customer was only slightly inconvenienced and the employer took a direct hit to its income/profits. This quickly sharpens minds.
Erm many public sector workers have had to accept major changes to working conditions in previous deals, and in some parts large numbers of job losses are still going to be expected.
Exactly, previous deals. Are there any in these deals? Plenty of staff have left the railway through natural wastage which aren't being filled.
It will be a protracted process, but extremely unlikely that no common ground is found.
There are a few big bits available to trade, but for me the only way people would even consider throwing in either is with a large no strings offer now in exchange for an agreement to talk or introduce within a certain timeframe. A further offer would then be made to actually exchange (i.e. Sundays)
I'm afraid that you're very misguided in your approach. The reason that a pay rise hasn't been offered is because performance is so poor and the government has decided to play hard ball in order to squeeze the industry for more money. Note how they're not doing that to most other public sector workers and are now agreeing to pay 4.5% to 5.0% rises to school staff, police workers, hospital workers etc.
Apparently they are reballoting Northern who are currently going to take action short of a strike. Certainly going to be interesting in Sheffield
Much of that is down to poorly run franchises that failed to keep up training during Covid. Those like us at GA have flourished with traincrew & returned to normal very quickly indeed with no shortages now.
You can’t just say that posters like myself take passengers for granted because I realistically and thoroughly believe that passengers will still use the railway after the disruption. That’s personal and not fair in any way as it doesn’t reflect my attitude while at work. Before I was in this industry, I was affected by the long strikes on Northern, and I wasn’t happy with it as it caused me real problems commuting, but that certainly didn’t stop me returning to rail, and then joining it a few years later. Passengers will be and are annoyed, they might not travel for a while, but usually they come back.
regarding staff losing money you said " ultimately a few hundred pounds here or there is little in the grand scheme of things" you must be on a good wage to say that...
I certainly can, because that's precisely what you said:
If it doesn't reflect your attitude at work why have you posted it several times in this thread?
The examples I've provided are because demand doesn't justify the return of these services. In all three cases the rolling stock is available to run them and if the government were willing to pay the crew would be there. However the demand is not (which is one reason why the government won't pay for the extra time for the crew to work them).
Where people in your industry keen to match some of those previous public sector deals?
You mean the remaining Norrhern trains after cuts across many parts of the network, the same ones that also regularly have to soak up the missing TPE capacity. Yeah the definitely seem busier when they run less often and have to deal with other operator's passengers. And all this before the strike action. Colour me cynical, but you are hardly selling it here.
Obviously it's likely that someone posting on a railway forum is going to be using the service. That's not in any form of doubt. But that's not what you said and not what I'm pointing out. I've never agreed with wholesale suggestions of a permanent boycott, and wouldn't argue for that. You said "passengers always do" in response to a genuine issue that's affected someone. It's unreasonable to take this line.
It's worth noting that trains being full and standing doesn't have all that much to do with customer satisfaction or earnings. In the case of TPE, it usually simply means that multiple other services have been cancelled.
The number of flows where this is actually true are small, and nearly all of them are to and from Central London.
It does happen to be more than the occasional strike day in the memory banks of the rail passengers when you recall the length of dispute time that occurred on the franchises of both Southern and of Northern (which you do mention above) not so very long ago.
In case you missed it, a payrise has been offered, and been dismissed by RMT. You seem to be missing the facts. Here are some more facts....RMT members are going on strike on Wednesday. Some ASLEF members are also going on strike on Saturday, with more to follow. No amount of you wasting your time on a public forum is going to change that.
I believe it is you who is missing the facts given you said "lack of a payrise" in your post.
No I don't think so, but it's a common straw man. There are a lot of people here who do work on better public services as their day job, however, and that includes railways and other public transport.
Indeed! Perhaps you can point out where anyone has disagreed with that?
Doesn't matter what you think.....I work in the industry and you don't. Which puts me in a much better position to actually understand what's going on. Clearly some of the internal stuff isn't available to you. Which of course it would be should you actually manage to gain employment in the industry. Give it a go.....
It's unlikely that any lines will close permanently, although a small number of little-used stations (e.g. Barrhill, Stranraer or Holton Heath, Pevensey Bay, Lake etc) could well end up losing their train service permanently. But many services have already been withdrawn permanently due to financial cutbacks and a lack of demand. There are lots of examples where services won't be returning for the foreseeable future.
I could say the same to you.
Oh, is that a fact?
Oooh does it. How scary for me!
I'm not sure I'd want to work with whoever your employer is. I currently work for an organisation which requires that I value the satisfaction of its customers. I don't currently feel the need to go around on the internet saying that I will take my customers for granted, and it would be unlikely to be tolerated if I did.
