I've read with interest the rantings and bitterness as usual towards railstaff on here. Here are just a few corrections and observations. Firstly wages.
The reason they are so high for drivers is quite simply down to greedy TOC's who when the railway was first privatised they decided that despite warnings regarding staffing they would cut their staffing levels by a third. They allowed all the older drivers to retire with a lovely payoff on a friday and by the following monday realised that all the drivers they let go were needed to operate their services.
Now these drivers liked the idea of staying at home and didnt fancy coming back to work on their old wages so the TOC had to offer a very large incentive to get them back. This created a big difference across the network and since then wages have risen to try and balance them out.
As far as subsidies and train operating costs are concerned there really is only one cause and that is the leasing companies who are instructed to keep leasing charges artificially high so as to make newer rolling stock look more attractive.
Now if your Virgin Westcoast and making a profit then thats great lease a fleet of Pendolinos for a little more than you were charged for a fleet of 30 year old electrics then you can make that commitment and look really cutting edge.
However at the other end of the scale Northern Rail who depend on subsidies and have to watch every penny are charged roughly 900k a year for pacer unit that cost around 250k to build.
Now the catch comes in because the arguement here will be why not allow Northern to buy their own new rolling stock and operate it. The reason is that the Government ( the same ones banging on about paying out too much subsidies) forbids the train operating companies from buying their own stock due to the franchise length and no guarantee of retension in the future.
So before we start persecuting staff and judging their wages maybe it may be helpful if those armchair fat controllers learnt a little about the modern railway and how it works rather than trying to make scapegoats of the people who actually make the mess that is the current system operate
The reason they are so high for drivers is quite simply down to greedy TOC's who when the railway was first privatised they decided that despite warnings regarding staffing they would cut their staffing levels by a third. They allowed all the older drivers to retire with a lovely payoff on a friday and by the following monday realised that all the drivers they let go were needed to operate their services.
Now these drivers liked the idea of staying at home and didnt fancy coming back to work on their old wages so the TOC had to offer a very large incentive to get them back. This created a big difference across the network and since then wages have risen to try and balance them out.
As far as subsidies and train operating costs are concerned there really is only one cause and that is the leasing companies who are instructed to keep leasing charges artificially high so as to make newer rolling stock look more attractive.
Now if your Virgin Westcoast and making a profit then thats great lease a fleet of Pendolinos for a little more than you were charged for a fleet of 30 year old electrics then you can make that commitment and look really cutting edge.
However at the other end of the scale Northern Rail who depend on subsidies and have to watch every penny are charged roughly 900k a year for pacer unit that cost around 250k to build.
Now the catch comes in because the arguement here will be why not allow Northern to buy their own new rolling stock and operate it. The reason is that the Government ( the same ones banging on about paying out too much subsidies) forbids the train operating companies from buying their own stock due to the franchise length and no guarantee of retension in the future.
So before we start persecuting staff and judging their wages maybe it may be helpful if those armchair fat controllers learnt a little about the modern railway and how it works rather than trying to make scapegoats of the people who actually make the mess that is the current system operate