Train strikes

[Folkevermore]

I wonder if they will sell it as floorwalkers but as people leave or retire they won't be replaced so in the end they'll be no one there.

I noticed earlier that avanti have a bunch of floor walker job vacancies listed - I’m in Euston at least a couple of times a week so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out to see how it works.

I think it’ll be difficult at stations like Euston where you get a lot of tourists who may not know how to book tickets online

 

[Folkevermore]

I’m supposed to be going to a matinee show on Saturday in London. I’ve looked at the revised timetable and there are supposedly two trains an hour, am I going to drive 20 mins to the station, park, pay for parking and find train after train cancelled? What happened during the previous strikes? Did trains run to the revised timetable?

I usually still commute to work on strike days and haven’t had much of an issue, there’s just less services

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

More ASLEF action: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67978562

I can’t wait for these people to be replaced by robots

 

[CrackingOwlSanctuary]

131 Ticket Offices to close for starters.

Edit: That's just the ones operated by Northern.

 

[nbt]

Due to be in London 24th/25th

Just hoping it doesn’t go ahead because it won’t make for a fun trip.

I have LNER train tickets. Does anyone know what happens if there is a strike and it affects my return journey?

 

[Folkevermore]

This summer I should be planning a trip to London but with rail strikes I can't be bothered. There's too much risk booking hotels, theatre tickets etc and then strikes getting called. They're doing themselves out of a job. Leisure travellers are using other options and I know people changing jobs to avoid the trains.

Rail travel is actually picking up a fair bit now, both leisure and commuting.
Six months ago my commute wasn’t too bad and I could always get a seat. Now I’m fighting for my life to get a seat on my commute into London, and the train starts at my station.
Will be interesting to see how the travel figures look in six months.
I travel to Manchester fairly frequently on the weekend and even the standard premium section is completely full

 

[Ohlordy2019]

A lot of grades balloted (maintenence, pway, signallers etc) work 24/7 with night shifts (normally a 6am or 7am finish)

This means the railway can't start up on time as normal on the Weds, Fri or Sun. It will be a later start.

Yep my husband is p-way. He's handed his notice in... end of an era buts absolutely done with it.

 

[epl000]

If I had to predict the next round I'd say they will be in the run up to Christmas, 22nd and 23rd of December since 24th is a Sunday.

Also maybe the week before 14th/15th/16th as that will disrupt christmas parties etc. That's what I'm assuming anyway as that's what happened last year.

 

[conrea37]

All days will be a mess as trains won’t end in the right place for the non strike days.

 

[Millyve]

Good bit of journalism on GMB yesterday on this …. Not

 

[CrackingOwlSanctuary]

Most TOCs are so desperate for drivers and give in to them on most issues (and would have already given in on this one if the DFT hadn't stuck their oar in!) I really can't see a scenario where they are trying to discipline hundreds of drivers at once. Depends what the union strategy is of course.

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

LNER call an extra 5 days in February: https://www.archive.is/oldest/https...n/18/lner-train-drivers-strike-february-aslef

These people are delusional. This always happens before a general election to get Labour into power. I'm sick of it

 

[Folkevermore]

My family member will lose a whole nights pay plus his shift bonus as there aren’t any trains on Wednesday from where we live on the south coast, so with taking his shift bonus into account he will be over £250 down.

are there any hotels nearby? If you can get a decent deal it may be worth it for him

 

[CarmenGhia]

The government are pulling the strings because they want to axe thousands of jobs in the name of 'modernisation' aka get rid of loads of front line staff so passengers are reliant on apps and machines.

I've always found work to rule to be hard to implement in practice, there are always people who will work over either because they love a sweetener or because they are concerned about their job (for various reasons) and think never refusing to pull them out of the shit will count down the line, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

My limited experience of union action is in a different field entirely, but I never participated for a few reasons. Chiefly because the union committee was a specific cliquey group of people with a very specific agenda, and because the manager who was bullying me out of my job was allowed a leading position. The bullying predated him knowing my choices regarding strikes and other actions.

 

[EleanorRigby]

The commuter aspect only applies to some TOCs, particularly local and some regional operators.
The TOC I work for (not gonna say which) was never heavily reliant on season ticket holders, because it’s intercity. It’s more dominated by business travel (ad-hoc rather than daily) and leisure travel.
I commute on a regional operator into London multiple times a week, and it’s often full and standing

My journey is a mix of tourists and commuters and trains are almost always full and standing unless you travel at silly o'clock (as I do because I like a seat).

 

[Folkevermore]

Are the next strikes over this weekend?

Thursday and Saturday I think

 

[Folkevermore]

Where will people go when the train is cancelled and need a note to get on another train?

I believe avanti are essentially moving ticket staff to floor workings, so you’ll just have to find a member of staff in the station.
I’m assuming other TOCs will be doing the same

 

[kev1974]

If being a Train Driver wasn't such a 'closed shop' occupation, then I'm sure many people would love the opportunity to apply to be one.

I unsuccessfully applied for London Underground many years ago in the very last public advertising for positions (<2010-ish). After that all driver jobs are now filled within existing TfL staff, no one from outside is allowed to apply for the positions. If you wish to be a TfL train driver, you now have to 'rise through the ranks' to be one. I'm pretty sure this is similar for many of the Train Operating Companies, unless you are an existing driver with another Train company.

How is this right, fair and non discriminatory?

The unions like to bleat on about unfairness and discrimination, however many of their enforced practices are just that.

I think the closed shop is true for TfL because the pay and historic perks are so ludicrously good.

But not for mainline train companies.

You can apply right now for my local train company.

GTR Careers

We are the UK’s largest railway franchise, operating Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express.

gtrailwaycareers.com

I wouldn't like to be a Tube driver. Maybe on the District/Met/Circle/H&C where you're going to spend decent amount of time above ground or near above ground. Just going back and forth on all the "proper" tube lines like the Central line driving the same trains day in day out in the lengthy tunnel sections can't have any excitement or interest to it.

 

[Melian]

Incident: IA April | National Rail

Industrial action to affect many National Rail services. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

April 4 - 8

There's an overtime ban in place too

 

[Millyve]

Thank you. To be honest, I’m not overly worried about the pay rise, of course I would love it with the cost of living going up, but I have to admit that I am fortunately in one of the more highly paid jobs and I will get by. The pensions and job loses are definitely a worry.

I’m fortunate we have an agreed pay deal, I was recently balloted over pensions and t&c’s changing, although I was understanding the pension I was in wasn’t sustainable and it had to change I thought for the change of t&cs, yes we lost ‘some’ good t&cs but not all & we managed to get a better offer on the pension than they were originally offering.