Election 2019 - promises

Robertj21a said:

I am more than used to having a very happy workforce. That's why I find the continual battles, usually involving the RMT, to be so frustrating.

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WatcherZero said:

Belgium brought in the minimum service requirement at the start of this year and its been used twice since (June and July).

The way they work it is on the ballot paper the staff member is required to indicate if they would work or not during the strike, the Union is then responsible 72 hours in advance for organising the required number of people to be working that day on that line to operate the service.

The union and the TOC have a formal standing agreement of how many people in what roles are required at a minimum to safely operate the required service level on a line by line basis. Though complicated in the June beligium strike it was by a non-recognised conductors union, SACT, so they had to agree the staff provision at short notice before the first strike date.

Rail service levels were 60% during the first strike and 53% during the second.

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Mag_seven said:

Rather than creating another quango, why not just let the rail operators do the day-to-day decision-making!

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Dave1987 said:

Like I said work to rule is the usual go to thing nowadays. I’ve not heard the word strike uttered for quite a while now. I cannot foresee anything that will result in a full blown strike. Why strike when you can work to rule? Tories can’t legislate against that! I believe a certain former Tory transport minister was quoted as saying “they are working to rule it’s not fair” a few years back. So even if this was implemented it would be largely academic.

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387star said:

Labour guarantees a guard on all trains for clarity this includes DOO operators like Thameslink?
Tories would legislate so trains run during strikes. Disgusting party hell bent on destroying unions

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Chew-chew said:

The starting position for these Labour socialists is that state control of an industry/service will deliver a better service. There is little real logic behind this, other than a hatred of wealth creators and profit.
The reality is that state ownership of most industries will have little impact on their finances. Most rail services, for example, will still be loss making and require subsidy. Their plans fail to recognise that its an industry with very high costs, and that won’t change.

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387star said:

Labour guarantees a guard on all trains for clarity this includes DOO operators like Thameslink?
Tories would legislate so trains run during strikes. Disgusting party hell bent on destroying unions

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WatcherZero said:

Yeah but if they've been renationalised they benefit from (the definitely not an election giveaway) Labour promise of a 5% pay rise for every public employee.
:P

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Mountain Man said:

I suspect it will be a very popular policy.

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Robertj21a said:

A totally sensible proposal.

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Deepgreen said:

Labour doesn't "fail to recognise" the need for subsidy, but it wants to reduce the unnecessarily high subsidy by abandoning the expensive pretence that profits are there to be made.

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thenorthern said:

A metro system in Leeds as apparently it's the largest city in Western Europe without one, thats a Conservative pledge.

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387star said:

Tories would legislate so trains run during strikes. Disgusting party hell bent on destroying unions

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Robertj21a said:

You've '.....not heard the word 'strike' uttered for quite a while now.....'

Are you ignoring the SWR strikes planned throughout December ?

Are you ignoring the strike on WMT yesterday, and the strikes on every Saturday in December ?

Given that the RMT called them, and refer to them as strikes, what does it need to convince you ?

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Dave1987 said:

I have never been on strike. I cannot foresee any situation currently that would need strike action. The Tories are targeting all operational staff with this.

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Darandio said:

Of course they would pledge that, Leeds is Labour through and through.

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WatcherZero said:

Labour are reeling today from the big gaffe that they claimed to produce a fully costed and funded manifesto and for the most part they did £83bn extra spending with matching tax increases (even if some of the corporate taxation maths was shaky) but they didnt include in their costings one pledge, that women would be compensated for the increase in the pension age to the tune of £15,000 each) this amounts to a further £58bn over five years that is totally unfunded.

Meanwhile Conservative manifesto launched today is totally unambitious, theyve done a u-turn on some of their previously announced tax cuts and instead pledged to keep the three primary taxes unchanged. Their policies amount to a total increase in spending of just £3bn and theres no sign of their promise of big additional infrastructure investment.

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WatcherZero said:

Meanwhile Conservative manifesto launched today is totally unambitious, theyve done a u-turn on some of their previously announced tax cuts and instead pledged to keep the three primary taxes unchanged. Their policies amount to a total increase in spending of just £3bn and theres no sign of their promise of big additional infrastructure investment.

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OxtedSignaller said:

To be fair if the RMT were not intent in striking so often I doubt the policy would be worthwhile or necessary. ASLEF seem to manage to negotiate with employers without going out on strike unless absolutely necessary. Bet if you compared the two, the RMT would be way out ahead. Last time they striked on the mainline network must surely have been on Southern? RMT are happy to strike over who opens the doors let alone closes them on a weekly basis despite having made contradictory agreements elsewhere. No different to their chum Mr Corbyn.

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Conservative 2010 manifesto:

Create a modern transport network

A rebalanced economy requires an extensive and reliable infrastructure. but transport has been a low priority for Labour, and the hassle of getting around is bad for business, bad for families and bad for everyone’s quality of life.

A Conservative government will begin work immediately to create a high speed rail line connecting London and Heathrow with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. this is the first step towards achieving our vision of creating a national high speed rail network to join up major cities across England, Scotland and Wales. Stage two will deliver two new lines bringing the north east, Scotland and Wales into the high speed rail network.


Because travel abroad is so important for our economy and for family holidays, we need to improve our airports and reduce the environmental impact of flying. Our goal is to make Heathrow airport better, not bigger. We will stop the third runway and instead link Heathrow directly to our high speed rail network, providing an alternative to thousands of flights. In addition, we will:

• block plans for second runways at Stansted and Gatwick; and,

• reform air Passenger Duty to encourage a switch to fuller and cleaner planes.

To improve life for commuters and encourage people to switch to lower carbon public transport, we will reform our railways to provide a better focus on tackling problems that matter most to passengers, such as overcrowding. We will grant longer, more flexible rail franchises to incentivise private sector investment in improvements like longer trains and better stations.

We support Crossrail and the electrification of the Great Western line to South Wales. We will turn the rail regulator into a powerful passenger champion and reform network rail to make it more accountable to its customers. and we will introduce a moratorium on building on disused rail lines still in public ownership, so they are available to be re-opened.


Conservative manifesto 2015:

We will rebalance our economy and build a Northern Powerhouse

We are committed to a truly national recovery, benefiting all parts of our country We have devolved powers to Scotland and Wales, and set out long-term economic plans to raise the growth rate of all parts of England, bringing areas which have grown more slowly up to at least the national average Over the last year, the North grew faster than the South By connecting up the North with modern transport links, we will enable its great cities and towns to pool their strengths We will invest a record £13 billion in transport for the North We will electrify the main rail routes, build the Northern Hub, and provide new trains for the North We will upgrade the A1, M62, M1 and A555 link road And that is on top of our £50 billion commitment to build High Speed 2 – the new North-South railway linking up London with the West Midlands, Leeds and Manchester – and develop High Speed 3 to join up the North. We will back scientific and technical strengths by creating new institutions such as Health North; the Royce Institute for Advanced Materials in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield; the National Centre for Ageing Science and Innovation in Newcastle; the Cognitive Computing centre at Daresbury; and by making investments in energy research in Blackpool, Cumbria and Thornton.



We will transform our railway network

We will invest £38 billion in our railway network in the five years to 2019. Electrification of the railways is a key part of our investment programme, with work already underway across the North, the Midlands, and South Wales; there are plans to go further in the rest of the country, including East Anglia and the South West In addition to rolling out our national high-speed rail network, with High Speed 2 and High Speed 3, we will complete the construction of the new east-west Crossrail across Greater London, and push forward with plans for Crossrail 2, a new rail route running through London and connecting Surrey and Hertfordshire We will support a fairer deal for taxpayers and commuters: we will keep commuter rail fares frozen in real terms for the whole of the next Parliament – regulated fares will only be able to rise by Retail Price Inflation, and train operating companies will not have any flexibility to raise ticket prices above this. We will also introduce smart ticketing and part-time season tickets and require train companies to improve compensation arrangements for passengers when trains are more than a few minutes late. We are investing millions of pounds in fitting out trains with new wi-fi equipment and improving mobile phone signals, which will benefit passengers on trains across England and Wales


Conservative manifesto 2017:


Investing in transport

We are working through one of the largest-ever investment programmes in our roads and railways, putting some £40 billion into transport improvements across the United Kingdom over the rest of this decade.


We are investing to reduce travel time and cost, increase capacity and attract investment here in the UK. We will continue our programme of strategic national investments, including High Speed 2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and the expansion of Heathrow Airport – and we will ensure that these great projects do as much as possible to develop the skills and careers of British workers.


Conservative manifesto 2019:


A transport revolution


A key part of our plan to level up the UK’s cities and regions is to connect them. Leeds is the largest city in Western Europe without a light rail or metro system. And European cities are often more productive than our own in large part because they have better infrastructure.


We will connect our cities:

We will build Northern Powerhouse Rail between Leeds and Manchester and then focus on Liverpool, Tees Valley, Hull, Sheffield and Newcastle.

We will invest in the Midlands Rail Hub, strengthening rail links including those between Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Coventry, Derby, Hereford and Worcester.

We will also invest in improving train lines to the South West and East Anglia.

We will extend contactless pay-as- you go ticketing to almost 200 more stations in the South East, meaning that 50 per cent of all rail journeys and almost all London commuter journeys can be completed using a contactless bank card.

We will give city regions the funding to upgrade their bus, tram and train services to make them as good as London’s, with more frequent, better-integrated services, more electrification, modern buses and trains and smart ticketing – such as the vision proposed by Andy Street for the West Midlands.

The railways need accountability, not nationalisation. So we will end the complicated franchising model and create a simpler, more effective rail system, including giving metro mayors control over services in their areas.

We will make a £28.8 billion investment in strategic and local roads. We will invest £1 billion in completing a fast-charging network to ensure that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid electric vehicle charging station. We will consult on the earliest date we can phase out the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel cars, while minimising the impact on drivers and businesses.

We will require that a minimum service operates during transport strikes. Rail workers deserve a fair deal, but it is not fair to let the trade unions undermine the livelihoods of others.

HS2 is a great ambition, but will now cost at least £81 billion and will not reach Leeds or Manchester until as late as 2040. We will consider the findings of the Oakervee review into costs and timings and work with leaders of the Midlands and the North to decide the optimal outcome.

Connectivity is not just about the UK’s great cities. To help communities across the country, we will restore many of the Beeching lines, reconnecting smaller towns such as Fleetwood and Willenhall that have suffered permanent disadvantage since they were removed from the rail network in the 1960s.

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Parliament has voted in principle to support a third runway at Heathrow, but it is a private sector project. It is for Heathrow to demonstrate that it can meet its air quality and noise obligations, that the project can be financed and built and that the business case is realistic. The scheme will receive no new public money. More broadly, we will use new air traffic control technology to cut the time aircraft spend waiting to land, reducing delays, noise nuisance and pollution. We will also build on Britain’s pioneering work in electric and low-carbon flight.

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Mag_seven said:

Maybe its suddenly dawned on them that the economy will take a hit as a result of Brexit.

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WatcherZero said:

Meanwhile Conservative manifesto launched today is totally unambitious, theyve done a u-turn on some of their previously announced tax cuts and instead pledged to keep the three primary taxes unchanged. Their policies amount to a total increase in spending of just £3bn and theres no sign of their promise of big additional infrastructure investment.

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Mikey C said:

"we will restore many of the Beeching lines, reconnecting smaller towns such as Fleetwood and Willenhall "

Surprised there's a specific commitment to Fleetwood, I assume it's a target seat for the Tories

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Justapunter said:

None of it, when you scratch the surface, is actually remotely sensible, costed or viable in the real world. But they peddlie it to try to get into power.... by lying to the electorate (they know it's pie in the sky..., comrade).

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