Next Rail Strikes Announced.

[TinFoilHat]

Ha ha. You see, you lefties wouldn’t know the voice of reason if you fell over it.

You are Mike Graham and I claim my £5 Sir!

 

[halfmist]

Some airport shuttle trains have been driverless for years. They’re closer to your model railway than the national rail network.

Even if a government decided today that money was unlimited and they were updating the whole structure to accommodate driverless trains, it would be many decades before they’d even be close to ready.

Your mention of how signalling has developed is actually a good example of how quickly things change in the rail industry.

I don’t have exact timeframes but it must be getting on for half a century since power boxes first started replacing traditional signal boxes. Yet still, to this day, we have sections of our railway operating under semaphore signalling with blokes literally pulling handles on a piece of wire to change the signals.

I see where you are coming from but a couple of points.
If AI could not incorporate existing technology then there would be no way the car would be driverless by 2026.
So I think your 30 year time frame and costs involved may be wildly off target.
Also as regards time frames, it is my limited understanding that the Union and its members are against ANY job cuts, always quoting health and safety, never self interest of course.
So on that basis, if the Union had had its way every single signal box would have remained open for perpetuity.

 

[halfmist]

You are Mike Graham and I claim my £5 Sir!

That one has already been posted , keep up if you are joining in.

 

[TinFoilHat]

That one has already been posted , keep up if you are joining in.

Just bowing down to your greater knowledge of working in the railway compared to people who make a living out of doing so.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

That’s like asking, are you a cardigan wearing, Jesus sandal, bearded, anti car, left wing looney Mr K. It’s totally irrelevant to the post. Not everyone has swallowed the Doctrine of the revolution of the foot soldiers. The majority of us may have different opinions on different subjects. In fact very occassionally you do go off script and post something sensible, before you fall back in to line.

Sorry you weren't part of the conversation.

You might have missed the point of the question. If he genuinely believes that Eastern Europeans would be queuing up to drive trains it isn't irrelevant if he voted against freedom of movement. His own logic points towards Brexit voters as being a source of higher train fares.

 

[halfmist]

Sorry you weren't part of the conversation.

You might have missed the point of the question. If he genuinely believes that Eastern Europeans would be queuing up to drive trains it isn't irrelevant if he voted against freedom of movement. His own logic points towards Brexit voters as being a source of higher train fares.

I didn’t know you had to be invited in to reply Mr K.
I will have to remember that one when I am batting away 7-8 of you at a time.
I thought you lot were against Brexit so if the Eastern Europeans are prepared to come over and drive the trains it is a win win.
Me thinks the UK train drivers may not be so keen on the idea

 

[halfmist]

Just bowing down to your greater knowledge of working in the railway compared to people who make a living out of doing so.

All as you need to know is they are over paid only due to the fact they can hold the county to ransom.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

All as you need to know is they are over paid only due to the fact they can hold the county to ransom.

Get your application form in then. Get yourself some experience on a heritage line whilst you train up and you too can drive a train and help out the country.

Are you a man of action or just all talk?

 

[Zubrman]

All as you need to know is they are over paid only due to the fact they can hold the county to ransom.

They are 'overpaid' due your Tory mates selling off British Rail. Whilst under public ownership, drivers were relatively poorly paid, having to work a lot of overtime to make a decent wage. Come the Tories and their sell-off, all of a sudden there are lots of different companies all vying for the signatures of the drivers who hadn't taken the early retirement offer that also came with Privatisation. Competition for the small workforce meant salaries increased.

Tory capitalism at its finest. Now they bleat that drivers are paid too much!!!

And when we were in the EU, freedom of movement meant that those East Europeans were able to come over and take up driving jobs here. I could have gone and worked anywhere else in the EU with my EU issued Train Driver licence.

Thanks to Cameron, we are now out of the EU.

And there aren't enough train drivers to run the country's services.

And the Tory govt say we are not allowed a pay increase for those that choose to stay.

And so we strike in protest.

Can you see a common denominator to this debacle? It begins with T and ends in ORY.

 

[halfmist]

They are 'overpaid' due your Tory mates selling off British Rail. Whilst under public ownership, drivers were relatively poorly paid, having to work a lot of overtime to make a decent wage. Come the Tories and their sell-off, all of a sudden there are lots of different companies all vying for the signatures of the drivers who hadn't taken the early retirement offer that also came with Privatisation. Competition for the small workforce meant salaries increased.

Tory capitalism at its finest. Now they bleat that drivers are paid too much!!!

And when we were in the EU, freedom of movement meant that those East Europeans were able to come over and take up driving jobs here. I could have gone and worked anywhere else in the EU with my EU issued Train Driver licence.

Thanks to Cameron, we are now out of the EU.

And there aren't enough train drivers to run the country's services.

And the Tory govt say we are not allowed a pay increase for those that choose to stay.

And so we strike in protest.

Can you see a common denominator to this debacle? It begins with T and ends in ORY.

Of course it does.
It’s a cop out to blame everything on the Tories.
It will be interesting to see next year, if there is an election and Labour get in and very little changes, as I am sure it won’t, who gets the blame then.