International News Rail strike today

[Peterdev]

I hope this doesn’t affect too many supporters for anyone travelling today.
The unions over here could learn a bit from the way Japan do things.
The bus drivers in Japan are taking industrial action. Instead of withdrawal of labour they are instead running the buses as usual but refusing to collect any money for doing so. It deprives the company of money and doesn’t annoy the public as much.

 

[OUFCGav]

I hope this doesn’t affect too many supporters for anyone travelling today.
The unions over here could learn a bit from the way Japan do things.
The bus drivers in Japan are taking industrial action. Instead of withdrawal of labour they are instead running the buses as usual but refusing to collect any money for doing so. It deprives the company of money and doesn’t annoy the public as much.

I suppose the thing with that would be a sackable offence here as opposed to legitimate (in law) strike action. Also would be quite hard for train drivers.

 

[beyondthefourth]

I suppose the thing with that would be a sackable offence here as opposed to legitimate (in law) strike action. Also would be quite hard for train drivers.

With trains, I suppose you would require the station staff to leave the barriers open. But that would need to be publicised to stop folk buying tickets ahead of time.

 

[OUFCGav]

With trains, I suppose you would require the station staff to leave the barriers open. But that would need to be publicised to stop folk buying tickets ahead of time.

because rail industry is so chopped up in UK, different union and different employer, would therefore be illegal.

 

[Oxymoron]

You'd a thought they would have sorted it by now....

 

[Chris1963]

Remember how train strikes used to be on working days, now they are often on Saturdays. Makes no sense does it? The whole point of a strike is to damage the economy and so force the government to intervene, but when you're striking on a Saturday all you succeed in doing is to ruin people's weekends.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Remember how train strikes used to be on working days, now they are often on Saturdays. Makes no sense does it? The whole point of a strike is to damage the economy and so force the government to intervene, but when you're striking on a Saturday all you succeed in doing is to ruin people's weekends.

Considering an enormous chunk of the country now works from home 80% of the time, and can easily just swap their days at home around if need be, there isn’t much point in striking during the week anymore unless it’s to disrupt major public events such as festivals or the commonwealth games etc. The railways are busier on weekends than they are on weekdays in a covid world, and hacking off the public when everything is fuelled by populism is very effective.

 

[Concretebob]

I hope this doesn’t affect too many supporters for anyone travelling today.
The unions over here could learn a bit from the way Japan do things.
The bus drivers in Japan are taking industrial action. Instead of withdrawal of labour they are instead running the buses as usual but refusing to collect any money for doing so. It deprives the company of money and doesn’t annoy the public as much.

That kind of action being taken in Japan is actually illegal over here. It's been suggested many times to ASLEF on Twitter but they have pointed out that it is illegal. Please remember many people (Tories) think Unions are "militant" for looking after their members.

As a side note Avanti West Coast are very close to losing their franchise. They essentially don't have enough drivers and rely on drivers goodwill to work on rest days. Now that goodwill is being well, stretched, drivers are rightly refusing to work extra hours on their rest days. So the result is reduced trains and you can't buy any advance tickets for AWC services.

 

[OUFCGav]

That kind of action being taken in Japan is actually illegal over here. It's been suggested many times to ASLEF on Twitter but they have pointed out that it is illegal. Please remember many people (Tories) think Unions are "militant" for looking after their members.

As a side note Avanti West Coast are very close to losing their franchise. They essentially don't have enough drivers and rely on drivers goodwill to work on rest days. Now that goodwill is being well, stretched, drivers are rightly refusing to work extra hours on their rest days. So the result is reduced trains and you can't buy any advance tickets for AWC services.

You mean another franchisee not being able to actually run a train service for the bid they put in...surely not. No doubt it will go back to the government operator, be run properly, actually work well for people, then be shoved out to franchise again for equally stupid terms as the last time. It's not like it has happened multiple times before - we've even given contracts again to companies that failed before. Either that or the owners will be European transit authorities who will use the profits from the UK to subsidize travel back in their homeland.

 

[Concretebob]

You mean another franchisee not being able to actually run a train service for the bid they put in...surely not. No doubt it will go back to the government operator, be run properly, actually work well for people, then be shoved out to franchise again for equally stupid terms as the last time. It's not like it has happened multiple times before - we've even given contracts again to companies that failed before. Either that or the owners will be European transit authorities who will use the profits from the UK to subsidize travel back in their homeland.

Well Avanti is Italian for "forward" I believe. No prizes for guessing which nation in Europe's nationalised railway operator has a stake in said company...

 

[OUFCGav]

Well Avanti is Italian for "forward" I believe. No prizes for guessing which nation in Europe's nationalised railway operator has a stake in said company...

And in the franchise selection the 3 bidders featured the Italian state operator, the Spanish state operator, the French state operator, a Chinese rail operator who are a subsidiary of the Chinese state operator, and the Hong Kong state transit authority

 

[Malc]

Bring back the nationalized British Railways.

 

[Chris1963]

Bring back the nationalized British Railways.

When I was younger and a supporter of hard-left Labour (my political views have since evolved to somewhere closer to the Lib Dems) I would have agreed wholeheartedly. But I'm not so sure now. Re-nationalization would be a sensible thing to do as far as the electricity and gas companies are concerned, but with the railways the benefits of re-nationalization are not so obvious.

Given that there are currently many different TOC's (Train Operating Companies), we have a situation where some have gone on strike but others are still working and therefore preventing a complete shut-down of the rail network, which is what would have happened in the old days of British Rail.

Additionally, when different TOC's cover the same route, what happens is that one company will sometimes offer lower fares than the other. Competition isn't a bad thing if the consumer benefits.

So I'm actually reasonably happy with the current situation, particularly as the rail network is being upgraded and expanded all the time (the re-opening of the Oxford to Bedford line in a few years time is an example) and the fact that the Government can strip TOC's of their franchises means that the interests of the passengers are not forgotten.

 

[OUFCGav]

When I was younger and a supporter of hard-left Labour (my political views have since evolved to somewhere closer to the Lib Dems) I would have agreed wholeheartedly. But I'm not so sure now. Re-nationalization would be a sensible thing to do as far as the electricity and gas companies are concerned, but with the railways the benefits of re-nationalization are not so obvious.

Given that there are currently many different TOC's (Train Operating Companies), we have a situation where some have gone on strike but others are still working and therefore preventing a complete shut-down of the rail network, which is what would have happened in the old days of British Rail.

Additionally, when different TOC's cover the same route, what happens is that one company will sometimes offer lower fares than the other. Competition isn't a bad thing if the consumer benefits.

So I'm actually reasonably happy with the current situation, particularly as the rail network is being upgraded and expanded all the time (the re-opening of the Oxford to Bedford line in a few years time is an example) and the fact that the Government can strip TOC's of their franchises means that the interests of the passengers are not forgotten.

Even the Tories are looking move away from the current franchise model, it has required subsidy (currently £3.5billion), but still led to the highest rail prices in Europe. All the franchises that have returned to the government's "operator of last resort" have worked better at that point. The separation and false 'competition' has been awful for the consumer - the idea of split ticketing is ludicrous but is a thing.

 

[werthersoriginal]

The trains are actually better and more frequent now than under BR, especially to London, but just too expensive!

 

[Concretebob]

Not all franchises are bad. Chiltern have invested significantly in the Birmingham-Bicester-Marylebone route. The reason? They are on a long franchise and have been given time to invest.

 

[OUFCGav]

Not entirely related, but got to love the journalists at the Express who have spent the last few weeks lambasting the Marxist woke unions for striking in a pay dispute, are, well, going on strike in a pay dispute. Apparently they don't see the irony.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Not entirely related, but got to love the journalists at the Express who have spent the last few weeks lambasting the Marxist woke unions for striking in a pay dispute, are, well, going on strike in a pay dispute. Apparently they don't see the irony.

All men are equal, but some are more equal than others....

 

[bazzer9461]

Not all franchises are bad. Chiltern have invested significantly in the Birmingham-Bicester-Marylebone route. The reason? They are on a long franchise and have been given time to invest.

Hello f my memory serves me correct when a train operator wins the franchise it was a ten year franchise of which Thanet have to invest and pay back when it’s ended.

 

[OUFCGav]

Not entirely related, but got to love the journalists at the Express who have spent the last few weeks lambasting the Marxist woke unions for striking in a pay dispute, are, well, going on strike in a pay dispute. Apparently they don't see the irony.

and no doubt they will be writing critically of the "lefty lawyers" going on strike...