Here come the Unions

No tax payer support no railways left. Thanks for the covid bailout.

Automation coming.

No reason why commuters can’t now work from home during strike times.

Here we go.
 
Railways are the future.
It's the freight not getting moved that will hit the economy.
People can't holiday/visit friends from home.
 
Subsidised in every EU country but ours. Then our French owned companies help subsidise French travellers by charging us a fortune.
Nationalise the lot, fed up of paying twice as much to travel to leicester as I do to Rugby and about three times as much for a midweek game.
 
Subsidised in every EU country but ours. Then our French owned companies help subsidise French travellers by charging us a fortune.
Nationalise the lot, fed up of paying twice as much to travel to leicester as I do to Rugby and about three times as much for a midweek game.
Yes lets pay more tax so a few can have cheap rail tickets. There were fare variations in BR days Nationalisation won't solve that.
 
Yes lets pay more tax so a few can have cheap rail tickets. There were fare variations in BR days Nationalisation won't solve that.
Cheap rail tickets would lead to fewer cars. Where the variations in BR days as extreme as they are now? Helps if there are no share holders to keep sweet.
 
Privatisation has been a complete balls up.
Harking back to how the railways were over 30 years ago when last in public ownership isn't an argument.
What is an argument, is how come the government of The Netherlands can own Greater Anglia & East Midland Trains, yet that isn't something out govt would ordinarily entertain.
 
Cheap rail tickets would lead to fewer cars. Where the variations in BR days as extreme as they are now? Helps if there are no share holders to keep sweet.
Fewer cars would lead to a lower tax take so rail tickets have be taxed to compensate. Don’t forget Hakkers most of us don’t live in London so train travel is not an option. There have always been cheaper fares at the weekend it has always been a case of supply and demand. Tickets are cheaper to Rugby than Leicester because of competition there are two train companies going to Rugby but only one to Leicester
 
Privatisation has been a complete balls up.
Harking back to how the railways were over 30 years ago when last in public ownership isn't an argument.
What is an argument, is how come the government of The Netherlands can own Greater Anglia & East Midland Trains, yet that isn't something out govt would ordinarily entertain.
They own a franchise for a limited time and they’re saying that they’re unlikely to renew because they’re making a loss
 
They own a franchise for a limited time and they’re saying that they’re unlikely to renew because they’re making a loss
If that was the case, why do Abellio continue to "Invest " in our railways?

They're now paid a management fee basically, the government are taking any potential hits.
Shame it's taken a pandemic for the govt to realise the franchise system is broken.
 
They’re taking a management fee because it’s making a loss, the 20% loss of passengers is the gravy that makes the profit no one anticipated the pandemic or the aftermath Don’t forget even nationalised companies need management
 
Companies chipping away at worker's rights in the name of progress /modernisation. Work weekends and bank holidays for no extra pay, get rid of ticket office staff and guards, apparently not necessary, work longer hours for the same pay etc
It’s not in the name of progress is it silly billy. It’s in the name of no-one does a 5 day commute anymore and if you put my prices up again I’ll just work on Teams more instead.
 
Companies chipping away at worker's rights in the name of progress /modernisation. Work weekends and bank holidays for no extra pay, get rid of ticket office staff and guards, apparently not necessary, work longer hours for the same pay etc
So the railways used to work a 5 day week? They didn’t run on bank holidays? Every time there are maintenance closures at weekends and bank holidays there is uproar. Everyone buys tickets on line or uses things like Oyster so no need to moan about queues at ticket offices, guards were superfluous once manual signal boxes were phased out, now we have train managers who are also responsible for revenue collection as well as customer service. Like it or not we have become a 24/7 society, people want 7 day shopping and Amazon style services I believe we call it progress
 
So the railways used to work a 5 day week? They didn’t run on bank holidays? Every time there are maintenance closures at weekends and bank holidays there is uproar. Everyone buys tickets on line or uses things like Oyster so no need to moan about queues at ticket offices, guards were superfluous once manual signal boxes were phased out, now we have train managers who are also responsible for revenue collection as well as customer service. Like it or not we have become a 24/7 society, people want 7 day shopping and Amazon style services I believe we call it progress
Yes, progress at the cost of workers rights. Amazon delivery drivers is a good example so a good one to mention.
 
What are you talking about? The railways have always worked weekends and bank holidays and up until quite recently worked Boxing Day, it's called a public service which many people rely on. Granted the Sunday Service under BR was pretty poor but that was changed to meet public demand.

Amazon only provides the service the public demands
 
What are you talking about? The railways have always worked weekends and bank holidays and up until quite recently worked Boxing Day, it's called a public service which many people rely on. Granted the Sunday Service under BR was pretty poor but that was changed to meet public demand.

Amazon only provides the service the public demands
Many factories work weekends but they pay their staff overtime for working them. Amazon provides the service demanded by doing whatever it can to reduce workers' rights.
 
Almost all retail companies work "5 from 7" now without premium rates, that applies to people in shops and their distribution networks. I'm not saying it's right but it is a fact. If premium rates were paid for weekend working it would simply result in prices going up. Saturday working is not a new phenomenon most shops had "half day closing" during the week to compensate. Spin it however you want this is merely a response to public demand you can't just blame corporate greed. Sunday opening should never have happened but it has and we're stuck with it.
 
Many factories work weekends but they pay their staff overtime for working them. Amazon provides the service demanded by doing whatever it can to reduce workers' rights.
Well surely with full employment and wages rising the rail workers naffed off should vote with their feet and go and work in a sector that pays them more.

Better than having a mardy about it.
 
Well surely with full employment and wages rising the rail workers naffed off should vote with their feet and go and work in a sector that pays them more.

Better than having a mardy about it.
Job still has to be filled and you've then got the extra cost of traing staff.
 
Or we just have 20% less trains to match demand
I haven't noticed that many empty rush hour trains. Trains to leicester on Saturdays and midweek for games are packed.
Trains from Rugby to London on a Sunday afternoon have people standing the full length of them.
People are being pushed/bullied into going back to the office, Johnson with his 'they have more coffees' quote being an example.
 
Back
Top