Rail Strike 2nd July

[SwanR]

I was on the trains today and it appears that ASLEF have called Greater Anglia train drivers out on strike on Saturday 2nd July. Limited train service on the London line into Norwich. And nothing on the branch lines to Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Sheringham. I do feel for anyone planning to arrive by train on their summer holiday this coming weekend. 

https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/rail-strike-travel-advice

[Hylander]

I think as the basic wage for a ticket collector is £33,000 per annum there will be plenty of people waiting to join up.   The wages for the other staff members are a great deal higher.       A job I should imagine once you get you hang on to.    They do pay well.    Let us hope the holiday makers do get to their holidays as planned.

[grendel]

I think you will find wages vary across regions, and the figures i found online said a railway conductors salary was between £23,000 and £36,000 for a 43-45 hour week, and that station employees are between £17,500 and £27,000,

so while your figure may be correct for one company, its not a blanket figure that can be thrown out there.

compared to the average salary in the UK of £38,600, we can see that even at the figures you quote, railway staff are below average wage, and in the wage sector that is being hardest hit by all of the cost of living increases.

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, Hylander said:

I think as the basic wage for a ticket collector is £33,000 per annum there will be plenty of people waiting to join up.   The wages for the other staff members are a great deal higher.       A job I should imagine once you get you hang on to.    They do pay well.    Let us hope the holiday makers do get to their holidays as planned.

Hmmmmm!  Barristers are striking for more pay and looking for a 15% increase, whilst doctors are now demanding a 30% increase.  Pity the little people who do mundane, everyday jobs, whose services we rely on every day of the week in all walks of life, like shop workers, warehouse staff, refuse collectors and all, without whom we’d never have survived the recent pandemic.

How short are our memories?

[Bikertov]

The problem is, if everyone gets a 10% pay rise, who do you think will pay for it all ? It can't be magicked out of nowhere.

To cover employees in the private / commercial sector it will ultimately be through higher prices at the tills / in our bills ...

To cover public sector employees, it will be through higher taxes ...

If you think it will be 'fat cat executives' (across the board - private, public and political), think again - they seem to be a law unto themselves, deaf to the real world with ever increasing bumper payments for either failure or unmissable targets

If you think it should be shareholders, think again - the biggest shareholders are the pension funds, so it is your pensions and investments that will suffer in the long term

Oh, and don't forget all the wonderful 'foreign investment' we have attracted over the years, that sucks out all the profit from this country and sends it overseas ...

And so we will all be back to square one, as our pay rises will be completely cancelled out through higher prices and higher taxes.

It is a vicious circle, that can only be stopped by better productivity, less political interference and madcap schemes, and less bureaucratic, squandering waste - resulting in real reduction in costs that will filter through in lower prices.

[marshman]

Take out the top 5% of wage earners, and that includes a lot of public sector too, and the "average" is know where near £39k.

Indeed the ONS on their website show the average quoted pay in Grendels post above to be way off the mark - their website shows total pay per week in June as £604 and regular pay as £562 - the latter shows the average as being under £30K. Perhaps that puts a different complexion on the rail sector?

And who is paying for the rail sector - my figure is probably a bit off the mark but I think we paid £12bn to keep that sector afloat during the pandemic. I know lots of less fortunate individuals who were laid off then and even those on furlough were not safe often being made redundant at the end of furlough.

And don't even get me started on GP's who are just being asked to pay tax like everyone else on their pension pots - goodness knows how they will spend their retirement earnings. Most seem to want to retire at 50(!!), yet some people  I know do not get their state pension until 67 and still have to work to make ends meet!

 

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, Bikertov said:

And so we will all be back to square one, as our pay rises will be completely cancelled out through higher prices and higher taxes.

It is a vicious circle, that can only be stopped by better productivity, less political interference and madcap schemes, and less bureaucratic, squandering waste - resulting in real reduction in costs that will filter through in lower prices.

Yep!  But two and three percent wage rises do little to offset raging, seemingly uncontrollable inflation, which the Bank of England are also fuelling by increasing interest rates.  Now, I know that interest rates have been used in the past to curb consumer spending, but the spending increases that are being thrust upon us now are not fuelled by everyone rushing out to buy luxury goods, electronics and cars, increased spending is being forced upon us by rising prices of fuels and food.

The government seem intent on pouring ever increasing sums of money in HS2, which I firmly believe to be their biggest white elephant for years.  There will be little benefit to those living outside of its corridor, for such a massive investment.  Surely, encouraging more people to get off the roads and use public transport would be better served by multiple smaller projects that would benefit more people.  The only reason that it’s not been halted is that too many MP’s probably have vested interests in companies to whom massive contracts have been awarded.  Scandalous.

We like to think of ourselves as a civilised country, but with so many people dependent on food banks and ever increasing homelessness, whilst certain politicians are congratulating themselves on the fact that we can now see the crown mark on pint glasses again, since we left the EU and a consultation in place to view a move back to Imperial measurements, have we not lost sight of the important issues in this country?

[grendel]

well that is difficult to discuss without overtly straying into the topic of politics, which we should try our best to avoid, ( TOS and all that) but the point I was trying to make is that there are a multitude of viewpoints to this question, and as such many sources have a vested interest in adjusting our perceptions of what we are seeing.

its always a good idea to approach these issues with an open mind, and do the research ourselves, rather than relying on what we are told through social media, and news outlets.

maybe we should concentrate more on the OP's message  about possible disruption, and less upon the possible causes, and rights and wrongs of the action being taken.

[Bikertov]

Exactly Mouldy - HS2 is a prime example of a madcap scheme, along with the costly net-zero target nonsense that just shifts the pollution and carbon somewhere else that we can't see.

The tragedy going on in Ukraine doesn't help either, but we have also brought some of that upon ourselves by supporting not-so-nice regimes and then wondering why they bully take advantage of others.

And as for the important issues, other countries must be wetting themselves laughing about whether a party / work event took place or not with politicians on both sides - shameful as it was, it is not important right now.

[Bikertov]

3 minutes ago, grendel said:

well that is difficult to discuss without overtly straying into the topic of politics, which we should try our best to avoid, ( TOS and all that)

Agreed Grendel - sorry my post crossed yours. I will step back now 

[kpnut]

44 minutes ago, Mouldy said:

increased spending is being forced upon us by rising prices of fuels and food.

The media, parliament etc etc don't seem to to have made any connection between the loss of 0% duty on diesel fuel for propulsion for hauliers and agriculture with the rise in prices in shops. Am I wrong in thinking they now have to pay duty on red diesel? 

[marshman]

Looking at potential infrastructure in advance is always fraught with problems - living in Kent as I did many years ago I remember the outcry about the Channel Tunnel. I wonder how we would be 30 yrs on if that had not been built? The M1 and the East Cost Mainline?

Everywhere else in the world has high speed main lines, most faster than ours ever will be but then who am I to say? The trouble is you need vision to see ahead like that - Crossrail, now the Elizabeth Line first discussed many years before it got started in 2009. Who even now after a few weeks, says it is a waste of money - its already proving its worth.

Verging on the political I guess, so I had better go away!!! Who am I to say whats good infrastructure, other than generally, we leave it too late in this country!!

[SwanR]

Oh dear. All I wanted to do was alert anyone planning to travel this weekend that they may encounter problems. And if trying to get from Norwich to holiday destinations then they will likely need a bus, train, or taxi. 

Can we leave it at that please?!

[Mouldy]

52 minutes ago, kpnut said:

The media, parliament etc etc don't seem to to have made any connection between the loss of 0% duty on diesel fuel for propulsion for hauliers and agriculture with the rise in prices in shops. Am I wrong in thinking they now have to pay duty on red diesel? 

Hauliers haven’t been adversely affected by the loss of zero rating of red diesel.  It’s been illegal for road use for as long as I can remember.  What will impact the haulage industry is the cost of fuel now, bearing in mind that most articulated units return around 10mpg, perhaps a little more, but not much, so with fuel at around £9 per gallon, the impact on their costs is enormous and will pass down to the consumer.

[SwanR]

Ahem … can we please just leave this now as intended as a little travel update … pretty please. It was not intended to start a debate  

If your plans for the coming weekend involve the trains in Norfolk please check in advance. 

Thank you. 

[OldBerkshireBoy]

When one posts on the internet you do so with the understanding that you have no control on being quoted, threads drifting and any editting taking place. It has always been so hence why the internet can be a dangerous place.

Healthy debates are good, unhealthy debates get shut down here quicker than other platforms which is no bad thing.

[BroadAmbition]

And another thing!

I heard on GB News t'other day that an official report was published that governments across the world are trying to brush under the carpet.

Do you know how much on average the world has warmed up over the last fifteen years? - Factually they stated - not one degree!

Griff

[marshman]

Fahrenheit or Centigrade - or don't GB News know the difference?

[Hylander]

15 minutes ago, marshman said:

Fahrenheit or Centigrade - or don't GB News know the difference?