Recent content by Economist

At this stage it's a protest, the current government have no intention of trying to reach a settlement but if we stopped industrial action it would encourage the government to try it on with other T&Cs etc. Personally, I'd have much preferred ASLEF leadership to have made it clear in December...

I'm surprised First Group didn't take the DfT to court over that, talk about being set up to fail. Makes one wonder who would actually want to run a rail franchise/concession these days.

This is, as far as I can tell, the first increase in any form of driver pay and/or conditions at an operator in the national dispute not agreed before March 2020.

Do we reckon a government might try and force a contract on us before they leave office?

At this stage I think the strikes are very much a form of protest, the government's position in the dispute is a purely ideological one and I don't expect any progress to be made until a change of government. The most important thing to me as a driver and I presume it's the same for other...

Regularly absolutely rammed in my part of the world, four and five car sets for long-distance intercity work doesn't fit the bill. I've noticed that the car parks are quieter on Mondays and Fridays but any peak or weekend service is usually full and standing and First Class is often...

I've seen Trainer/Assessors who have both Guard and Driver competencies, having worked as both during their career. Controversially, quite a few TOCs have trained Driver Managers as "Contingency Guards" who can carry out a Guard's dispatch responsibilities on an RMT strike day.

It never ceases to amaze me how many colleagues are a couple of weeks from falling behind on bills despite the driving salary, I can understanding expensive divorces and emergencies but the idea of regularly living for years without any substansive savings is bonkers. Three months living...

The first ASLEF EC strategy in a long time I strongly approve of. Avoid MSLs and we'll only disrupt a single day, play daft and try and implement them and you'll get a week of your services at 40%. Your choice, pick wisely. That said, ASLEF should have emphasised the importance of every train...

The narrators of decades past were far better, they had a very sober, almost distant, form of elecution and the scripts they used certainly didn't shy away from quite a high level of detail when compared with today. The alternative would be for staff involves to narrate such a programme...

There's a massive pilot shortage in the US and has been since around 2016 (Covid excepted), a quick read of the 2023 Salary Survey thread on a US-focused pilot forum highlights it well. First Officers were typically reporting $200k-$400k and most Captains $350k-$700k due to bidding for...

I'd like to see ASLEF work with one of the TOCs to produce a documentary that goes into detail about driver training, as opposed to focusing on personalities. I'd like the general public who think we are overpaid to try and understand everything from Absolute Block signalling to traction...

A Train Driver earns about the same headline pay as a Lieutenant Commander and that's before you factor in things like subsidised housing, food and private education for the latter. When you factor in things like working hours, I'd say it balances out fairly evenly, since a naval officer will...

A technical interview is far better than a competency-based one since at least you know that the people you're hiring are clued up as opposed to being good talkers, a sim ride might be good too but if a TOC only has sims in one location and depots at opposite ends of the country it could be...

I think the fairest way of assessing candidates is a very technical interview process with a rules exam and lots of face-to-face technical questions. I'm admittedly a bit biased because it's how I got the qualified driver move to my current TOC. The DfT seem to be very anti-competitive for...