Recent content by Silverlinky

730's will be out in traffic on West Coast South Saturday diagrams after the timetable change (from 8th June)

There is plenty more which could be done with regards to modernisation and reform. Anything from Sundays in the working week to route learning norms. At my TOC drivers accepted a payment to be given tablets to use, but don't use them as no agreement was reached on what they would be used for...

It's what comes after the "4% no strings" because that's only kicking the can down the road when it comes to modernisation and reform. Any offer soon after an expected election would mean you'd be straight into talking about the next years deal or is the suggestion that "RPI Plus" pay rises...

As the overtime ban includes the Bank Holiday Monday, what will happen on those TOC's for whom a pay enhancement is made for BH working? I think at our TOC drivers have the choice of whether to take/earn a lieu day or get depot average on top of their hours for the day. Will the only option be...

What proportion of the day will 402 seats on a 6 car not be enough? I would assume that with the increased standing room some passengers who only make 5/10 minute hops might actually choose to stand up and have plenty of room to do so now. Its a similar scenario to when the 730's replaced the...

My guess is the latter. Rail Operations Group Drivers moved them down to Camden, Alstom techs will still keep an eye on them and turn them on every 30 days, Alstom have also paid for security at Camden to try and discourage the local vandals. No WMT Drivers course has been agreed yet, neither a...

Four of the 730/2's have made their way to Camden this week for storage, 212 and 217 were there first and they were joined by two others on Wednesday. Looking at the list above it would be two of 205/210/211.

150137 has had intermittent gearbox faults over the past couple of weeks, failing twice in the last week alone. An operational incident put paid to some services this morning. Better news however is that there will be a service on the line on both Good Friday and Easter Monday to assist as the...

A method of working (pilot working) has been agreed and resourced so from tomorrow morning services will run to/from Telford Central. As per post 86 above the only thing that was stopping it was the resourcing of adequate staff on the ground to allow this.

And the book on fee was only paid on Rest Days? Thanks for that info...... so it sounds a lot but actually probably isn't much once the taxman has taken his (or her) 40%

Avanti are advertising for Drivers at a number of depots at present. The stated salary for a fully qualified year 1 driver is £57225 which would work out to be around £1100 for a 35 hour week.... or £31.44 an hour. Assuming an 8 hour average flat rate day would have been worth £251.54 and its...

At my TOC we had a few drivers earning 100k+ five or six years ago, it was only a few though. As above, working a lot of overtime, Sundays outside of the week earning a premium, and being so flexible that they would come off one job to cover another "for 12" Earning consistent money like that...

Hardly "all guns blazing"......but if it was its only to a relatively small audience. I was on the line today and there were 15-20 people on the train I travelled on. To cover the missing diagram today would have meant at least two or three evening services out of Euston cancelled and a set or...

The 150's on the line do not have automatic sanding when slipping or sliding, there were 2 or 3 station overruns whilst they were being tested and on training, it will take time for crews (many who only signed 230's previously) to get used to these units. Also Monday, there was conductor...

The other unit will replace the faulty one (GSMR radio issue) but one circuit will be cancelled to allow the driver to swap the units over, 1645 from Bletchley and 1747 from Bedford cancelled, new unit in traffic to take over the 1847 round trip.