Train driver bob

This went on for decades as there was no incentive to pay to train the new drivers, poach from next door and keep making profits for the shareholders. This is the sort of market forces the tories love yet when it means higher wages for the staff they suddenly don't like it.

The rest of the article should just be ignored. The reason train driver pay has risen so much is simple, privatisation. The fragmentation of the service into tocs grew a toc vs toc environment. Rather then pay to train up new drivers it was far cheaper to offer a higher wage than the competition.

So the very first thing about ipads is a lie. We were given them, no payrise was involved but then we were not allowed to use them in the cab as they are a distraction. Hence, no one used them, and the company eventually took them back. Company policy on use of electronics makes them unusable.

Use paywall bypass.

Yes, easily. What tends to happen is they do zero/ very little training for years, then suddenly realise lots of people have retired or left and have a massive recruitment drive which then means it's takes longer for the trainees to qualify as there isn't the driving instructors to train them all.

Generally, somewhere between 12 and 16 months. Can take longer if di are not available.

Yes, you need to have route knowledge over the route you are to drive, so speeds, junctions/stations/level crossing names and locations, signals, route risks, braking points, gradients, route indications etc etc.

Yes, but that means they haven't got enough train drivers employed, not that all the train drivers just decided to take the week off.

It may be better now, but on the day I needed it, they checked at 3 local stations, and all of them had been taken/stolen. I would like to think it's better now, but who knows. Luckily, I didn't end up actually needing the thing on the day.

Im confused, do you think the train drivers just don't bother turning up to work every christmas, and nothing happens to them?

First aid kit on every train and station somewhere. Deflib units at many manned stations, but as I found out last year when I had a passenger having a heart attack , all the local ones had been stolen.

Where I live, they have literally dug up the track yet still the locals think it's us just refusing to work.

How are you ment to avoid tax on paye?
No, it's a job that people have zero knowledge off so oversimplified it. Can do it with most jobs, what's a fireman do ? Uses a hose to spray water on a fire. Anyone can do it yeah?
General public are just too stupid to see they are being fed shite.

Where does that happen?

Christ, I'm owed another big payrise then 😂

Yes, that's always been the argument. Trickle down economics. But It's funny how everyone at the bottom has got poorer while the ones at the top have got vastly richer. It's almost like it's a complete made up fantasy and maybe just making the ones at the top pay their fair share might be better.

More food banks then ever more.reliant in gov handouts then ever. Meanwhile the top 1% have not suffered the same at all, ceos have got richer. The large corporations have made more profit then ever. But at least they have you to watch their back and complain about train drivers wages.

Just to add the payrise we got was well below inflation, it is a fact that I am poorer than I was 5 years ago.

Of course, they are gona start by demanding payrise are at inflation if you are not getting an inflation matching payrise, you are getting poorer every single year. Hence why we have so many ppl now using food banks and relying on government support just to survice. Yet the company's make millions.

I think you will find the tories entered a clause into the tocs old contracts allowing them final say on pay negotiations hence the lack of pay talks and strike action. Tocs would have happily worked an agreement. I still don't understand your question.

Again, where are you getting this idea that we are trying to screw everything out of our employer? The pay rise we got was a multi year deal which was well below inflation. You do realise up until the tories got involved all pay deals were done yearly on a toc by toc basic with no issues.

Massive below inflation pay rises you mean.

We are never gona agree because you just state made up nonsense you have read in the daily mail. You have been led to believe that a train driver is your worst enemy while the ones feeding you this nonsense lie and steal. It's like a magic trick and we are the misdirection. But you will not change.

While the pa demic was on and I was out and about with work I regularly stopped off and got food for our local pensioners who were worried about going out. The fact you think it's good that supermarket workers are paid some of the worst wages in the country speaks volumes.

I've only had one payrise a multi year deal. Do you mean like helping out over covid, where we put ourselves and families at great risk moving key workers and goods around the country. Which by the way we agreed not to have a pay rise over that period. You prob sat at home during that.

Train drivers don't set rail fares and the ticket price that covers a driver wage is a tiny proportion. There is also competitive from other rail company's operating the same routes plus competition from coach providers. Again you are speaking complete rubbish.

What difference does it make? Where are you asking pilots wages compared to the passengers, ship captains? It's ridiculous and pointless.

Less than double that..why on earth should I tell you my salary ?. You very clearly have it in for train drivers.

No, it is not correct.

A big below inflation payrise? That has literally nothing to do with pensioners you mean.