Bob Crow

[DaveB]

This makes remarkably interesting reading....

[shaunbhoy]

Leaving aside the ins and outs of train driving per se, the real point is this. If your contract is written in such a way that working on a sunday is wholly dependant upon you volunteering to be available, why does it seem to have come as such a surprise to the management that slashing the rates of pay involved has resulted in no volunteers? It is not rocket science, even sasguru has come close to grasping the principle here after I PM'd him a rudimentary pictorial diagram!!

[DaveB]

Leaving aside the ins and outs of train driving per se, the real point is this. If your contract is written in such a way that working on a sunday is wholly dependant upon you volunteering to be available, why does it seem to have come as such a surprise to the management that slashing the rates of pay involved has resulted in no volunteers? It is not rocket science, even sasguru has come close to grasping the principle here after I PM'd him a rudimentary pictorial diagram!!

This quote from the site linked above might go some way to explaining it.

One of the downsides to train driving is that there are poor prospects for forward promotion, making it a bit of a dead-end job. This is why it is so important to be really sure you want the job in its own right and to stick with it. The main promotional opportunities are to Instructor Driver, Driver Manager or perhaps to a Control post. The first will involve you in the training of new drivers, carrying out traction conversions when new classes of locomotive or unit are introduced and doing route knowledge and cab ride assessments. When not instructing, you will cover your normal driving turns.

The second is much more of an administrative job, involving passing out new drivers, doing safety briefings, routine assessments of existing drivers and ensuring their equipment is complete and their competency qualifications are up to date. Disciplinary functions are also dealt with. To put it bluntly, much of being a Driver Manager is little more than box-ticking drudgery and it is very hard to get good drivers to go into management at all, with the implications that has for the quality of management personnel. A small number of Driver Managers pass into senior management, managing other Driver Managers or become Service Delivery Managers.

[sasguru]

If ever a job was ripe for automation this is it.
An automated system done correctly would eliminate human error, laziness and general bolshieness.

[Moscow Mule]

If ever a job was ripe for automation this is it.
An automated system done correctly would eliminate human error, laziness and general bolshieness.

Have you been on DLR?

I don't fancy that control system being ported to a 140mph+ train...

Edit: Not that it's not a good idea, just I don't think it's ready yet.

[Liability]

Maybe in Japan, but not in the UK. It's still possible to get a train to go past a red signal if you feel like it. Its the responsibility they have that gets them the bucks.

It's actually easier to fly a plane, but you don't complain about pilots being paid a fortune (do you?).

i am reliably told that "that is bollox".

I shall revert back as to why that is the case - but the guy next to me has a brother who drives them on the Victoria Line and he will ask him.

[Moscow Mule]

i am reliably told that "that is bollox".

I shall revert back as to why that is the case - but the guy next to me has a brother who drives them on the Victoria Line and he will ask him.

Tube Train <> National Rail

[Liability]

Tube Train <> National Rail

so are you now talking about National Rail trains only?

[sasguru]

So to summarise this thread I think we're all agreed that SB is talking utter bollux again.

[Moscow Mule]

so are you now talking about National Rail trains only?

Seeing as the whole thread is about London Midland, and Train Drivers I've never been talking about anything else.