The Government also doesn't know what it is talking about if the press release is to be believed. It was based on parliamentary answers. Perhaps they should fact check before answering!
another poster who thinks differing viewpoint = must not understand life. You must be fun at parties.
Lets try not to be silly eh? There aren't any parties right now...............................
I'm pretty sure that's already been done enough - TOCs have ordered new stock and planned refurbishment/withdrawal for non compliant stock. Dumping raw sewage on the tracks is going away soon my point is that the RMT are trying to make a big deal out of this when there is now very few stock non compliant. The exaggeration in the statement doesn't help them either in my opinion.
Not soon enough for the people getting spattered on a regular basis. Deadlines have been constantly missed and there is little trust that they will be met any time soon.
You seem to be missing the point that in a lot of these cases it's down to the DfT's cock-ups over franchising - i.e. the change of franchise was too close to the deadline for it to be possible by then, and they did nothing to come to an agreement with the previous operator to modify existing stock or order new. How do you expect new franchisees such as EMR to deal with this? Cancel a load of services? RMT wouldn't like that either.
But of course, no blame can be placed at the door of the DfT because the RMT has a very simplistic view that everything 'private' is bad whereas everything 'public' is good, whereas in reality it's nowhere near that well-defined.
And for those who have been franchise holders long enough to have been able to do it, the delays are in most cases not their fault, but in any case how do you think fining them would help? They are currently under management contracts, so the government would be fining itself, and even under normal circumstances some of them (e.g. Northern) make a net loss so receive a subsidy, so similar would apply - and Northern is also now run by the DfT (indirectly), so another reason why it would be fining itself.
The fault lies somewhere between the Government, the TOC's and the ROSCO. All are culpable in different ways and in different degrees. I would be making them pay. You seem happy to shrug and let it carry on. What happens when the next deadline is missed? Or the one after? Or the one after that. When do you say enough? Do you just let it slide?
As for the accusation that I think it is acceptable to dump it on the track, I don't as I have said several times, but you seem determined to ignore this. Unfortunately you do seem to be one of those millitant types keen to shout 'something must be done' without actually having any ideas about what. Fining companies would not stop it - the only options are either a) accept that it's bad but that it will continue for a little longer or b) cancel a load of services. Nobody seems to be able to suggest any other option.
But by your own words ( option a) you are happy that this should continue. You therefore seem happy to accept some people getting hit with pooh while at work because, despite long standing deadlines, private companies and government couldn't be bothered to get their finger out and sort this out. I am not. It makes me quite angry. If that makes me militant then so be it. I am fairly militant on this topic anyway because a) it is disgusting and b) I don't want hitting in the face with pooh. ( It is really, really, horrible. I don't think i appreciated just how bad it was until it happened to me. yuk.)
I would like to think that some form of mitigation, short of cancelling all services, could be considered especially at times of very light loading. if, as you say, it is acceptable to continue discharging for a period of time I would want to see each TOC, ROSCO and supplier define a proper plan for rapid rectification and be held to a firm date when they stop discharging with clear penalties for failure. I am happy to be flexible with the supply market but clear dates are needed along with an understanding that an important and long known deadline has been missed coupled with some form of contrition for poor past performance.
(it is also not just track workers - it is maintenance workers in depots who have to clean this stuff off. imagine having to go under one of these trains and fix something. Urgh. I am sure if it was the directors getting coated in ordure on a regular basis this would have stopped long ago!)
Because the unions are the ones screaming about having multiple people in the cab which prevents training on the replacements.
Well that is blooming silly!
I apologise if sensible discussion bores you.
It doesn't bore me at all. Many posters here have complained about accuracy then launched into tired cliches about unions of a type the most rabidly right wing press would be happy with.
That’s the problem: it’s become OK to publish lies as the truth. See the current incumbent of the White House as exhibit A.
Shouldn’t be surprised by the RMT: but I’m not holding my breath on journalists doing any fact checking before printing it.
Exhibit b would be Mr Johnson and his gang. He is just as bad!
This press release will go in local papers in the areas served by the TOC's listed. Most of those papers are run out of massive publishing houses with very limited staff. They don't employ fact checkers. They will just lift this straight into the paper/ on line. That is what local journalism is now.
And that's exactly the problem. A couple of posters on here, and also a couple of others I've met elsewhere, were arguing that it doesn't matter if a press release is utter c**p because it's not meant to be consumed by the general public. But many news outlets are simply republishing press releases, and many others are taking parts of them without fact-checking.
I would love to live in a world where the man on the white horse rides into town and saves the day. In my world he gets shot in the back. I admire the fact you are able to retain such worthy principles. I had them when I was a kid but I have dealt with too many awful people for too long and had too many kicks in the unmentionables to be anything other than cynical and I find it hard to understand how people don't see the world the same as me. Hopefully you avoid those issues!
I would love it if the way to beat idiots like Trump and Johnson was with accuracy and truth but it isn't. It is with fire. This sums up my view:
Eliot Ness: I want to get Capone! I don't know how to do it.
- Jim Malone: You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way! And that's how you get Capone.”
All OT of course!