[Travel] RMT v Shapps.

[Leekbrookgull]

Absolutely no idea how genuine this is,but AWC are down from three per hour from Manchester to Euston to just one,Shapps may say that this is unofficial union action,yet like so many businesses they make a deliberate choice to run short handed and rely on employees to work overtime. Enough is enough. https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/shapps-threatens-to-impose-fire-and-re-hire/

 

[Brian Fantana]

My travel experiences might be different to others but as someone who fairly regularly travels by train from the North East to London, passenger numbers don’t seem to have returned to anything like pre-pandemic levels on that route. It is a tough situation, but in order to fund pay rises etc then it is a case I suppose of either raising fares (which are already well over-priced, IMO) or government pumping more money into the industry.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

My travel experiences might be different to others but as someone who fairly regularly travels by train from the North East to London, passenger numbers don’t seem to have returned to anything like pre-pandemic levels on that route. It is a tough situation, but in order to fund pay rises etc then it is a case I suppose of either raising fares (which are already well over-priced, IMO) or government pumping more money into the industry.

Faversham to London, back to pre covid.

 

[GT49er]

Faversham to London, back to pre covid.

Yet thousands of commuters are now working from home, maybe only travelling to work one or two days a week. Massive loss of income to the reail industry - the economics just don't work with empty or half empty trains. Just not sustainable - some services will inevitably have to be cut or reduced.
The Unions, quite reasonably from their members' point of view, want higher wages and no job cuts. It's a very difficult - probably impossible - job to square this circle.

 

[nordicgod]

If southern and thameslink drivers didn’t work overtime then I believe the whole service would be even worse than what it is now . Not a very good service east or west coast way at best of times

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Yet thousands of commuters are now working from home, maybe only travelling to work one or two days a week. Massive loss of income to the reail industry - the economics just don't work with empty or half empty trains. Just not sustainable - some services will inevitably have to be cut or reduced.
The Unions, quite reasonably from their members' point of view, want higher wages and no job cuts. It's a very difficult - probably impossible - job to square this circle.

I suspect it may have something to do with the fact there has been massive housebuilding round here over the last 3 years.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Mick the Dick, is strangling this country.

 

[Madafwo]

Railway runs on overtime, always has, always will. It's cheaper to employ fewer staff and pay them an enhanced rate for any overtime they do than actually employ the required number.

Comes unstuck when the weather is nice and the kids are off as some people might actually want to spend time with the family. Let alone the company you work for throwing you under the bus, no wonder people don't fancy going in more than they have to.

[TWEET]1556595845788737536 [/TWEET]

 

[WATFORD zero]

Mick the Dick, is strangling this country.

So pleased to see you back from your self-imposed exile MB, I was getting worried you'd gone the same way as so many others

Crodo has been working hard, but it's not quite the same

 

[drew]

Haven't AWC got about 250 drivers in training?

 

[A1X]

So why isn’t Shapps helping broker a deal, if he and his Government genuinely care about people?

 

[crookie]

So why isn’t Shapps helping broker a deal, if he and his Government genuinely care about people?

Because he's useless, Govt has nothing better to offer than slagging off the unions. Same as when Failing was Transport Sec

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

 

[A1X]

Because he's useless, Govt has nothing better to offer than slagging off the unions. Same as when Failing was Transport Sec

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

My thinking too. Does make you wonder whether the people bringing the country to a halt actually are the unions though, doesn’t it?

 

[Pavilionaire]

Tory government vs lazy workers / unions won Thatcher 3 elections. This shit is straight from the 80s playbook. Expect more under Truss.

 

[Uter]

Yet thousands of commuters are now working from home, maybe only travelling to work one or two days a week. Massive loss of income to the reail industry - the economics just don't work with empty or half empty trains. Just not sustainable - some services will inevitably have to be cut or reduced.
The Unions, quite reasonably from their members' point of view, want higher wages and no job cuts. It's a very difficult - probably impossible - job to square this circle.

Passenger numbers had recovered to around 85% - 90% of immediate pre-Covid levels from the last figures I saw.

The number of people travelling by rail before the pandemic was the highest since the 1920s. They had been climbing steadily for 25 odd years. So even 85%-90% of the pre-Covid passenger total would equate to an annual ridership comfortably in the top ten of the last 100 years. It's somewhat misleading and unfair to compare current ridership to the last pre-covid year of passenger numbers.

Cutting services is a very short sighted thing to do as it doesn't really save much money at all and chokes off any bounce back in demand.

Rolling stock is still leased. Stations are still manned. The same number of signallers are needed. Track maintenance still needs to happen. And in the short term drivers / guards are still employed. All you are really saving is some overtime and track access charges (which go to Network Rail anyway thus this increases the subsidy required to keep them going). It's questionable if this saves any money even in the short term if people can't travel at times convenient to them and then choose not to travel by rail. Long term it could put people off rail for a long time.

There has been disproportionate drop in income because of fewer season tickets being sold, but rather than slashing services maybe they should try coming up with ticket products that are more attractive for people who still want to travel at peak times, but only go into the office one or two days a week.

Leisure travel is pretty much back to pre-covid levels everywhere and is exceeding it in some places. What is the justification for having a much reduced timetable at weekends? If it was viable before why isn't it viable now with the same number of passengers?

Easy to blame the TOCs but in reality it is the DfT calling the shots on timetables. They are happy for TOCs and unions to take the blame of course.

 

[drew]

My travel experiences might be different to others but as someone who fairly regularly travels by train from the North East to London, passenger numbers don’t seem to have returned to anything like pre-pandemic levels on that route. It is a tough situation, but in order to fund pay rises etc then it is a case I suppose of either raising fares (which are already well over-priced, IMO) or government pumping more money into the industry.

What about not taking so much out of the industry in dividends!!!

As has been pointed out on twitter, our privatised railways seemed to be owned by european state railways so the profit taken out subsidises their service. Absolutely stupid situation.

 

[drew]

So why isn’t Shapps helping broker a deal, if he and his Government genuinely care about people?

I might be a cynic but isn't the plot to try and let the unions loose so that will scare the floating voters. In other words, it's an election ploy, about the only one they've got.

 

[studio150]

So why isn’t Shapps helping broker a deal, if he and his Government genuinely care about people?

Because he wants a job in the Liz Truss cabinet

 

[Beach Hut]

Because he wants a job in the Liz Truss cabinet

I thought he was team Rishi ergo no chance of a job if Truss wins

 

[B-right-on]

Passenger numbers had recovered to around 85% - 90% of immediate pre-Covid levels from the last figures I saw

Not sure what figures you saw but revenue and passenger numbers are way way down vs pre lockdown numbers. Like just over half.

I personally knew 3 people who used to travel every day into London by train. One found a job locally where he can work from home.
My next door neighbor used to go up every day, he now goes in 1x a fortnight.

My sister in law travelled to London every day. Now it's 1x a week.

No idea if that's typical.

Key results

A total of 990 million rail passenger journeys were made in Great Britain over the last year (1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022). This was more than double the 388 million recorded last year. It equates to 56.9% of 1,739 million journeys made two years ago.

Passenger Revenue totalled £5.9 billion this year. This was nearly three times the £2.0 billion (when using November 2021 prices) generated last year. It is equal to 54.0% of the £11.0 billion generated two years ago.

The 819 million journeys made this year using ordinary tickets equate to 71.7% of usage two years ago. By contrast, the 167 million season ticket journeys equate to 28.4% of usage two years ago

https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/passenger-rail-usage/