Reply to THIS thread
Start a NEW Talkback Thread
Talkback Home

Train drivers - Russ (25th Mar 2024 - 09:59:38) Am I correct the train drivers are going to have a pay rise to bring them up to about £100 thousand a year for a four day week? . It’s going to be payed for by taxpayers money you and me and me being a pensioner paying tax so how does that work the lower payed paying the higher wage earners more money??? . If the unions think this is fair what ever is going on .

Re: Train drivers - Joshua (25th Mar 2024 - 11:43:05) > Am I correct No Russ, you're not, that'd be a very exceptional wage for a train driver, even in London. If you think it's such a doss and feeling the pinch then feel free to go apply, don't let your pension stop you my friend! Or better yet maybe aim to become the CEO of one of those failing rail companies, wait till you see their bonuses... I know it's the Mail. But Striking train drivers are on track for £100,000 salaries after deal is struck to end long-running dispute

Re: Train drivers - Russ (25th Mar 2024 - 12:38:40) Thanks editor.

Re: Train drivers - Joshua (25th Mar 2024 - 13:23:36) I am aware of the deal, which is for £600 for an /overtime/ shift Assuming an overtime shift once a week, that does put them at £100k/year (assuming the stated average of £68k/year is true, which I am not so sure of). But of course, that is not then a 4 day work week. Regardless of these nuances, it's obviously a large salary. We can debate all day who "deserves" what, but the fact is they have won this salary via their collective action. In a more broad sense: I think most people agree that trains in general are good for a society, and I'm sure most people would understand if a few quid of their tax went towards a reliable and efficient rail system. The issue then is clearly not inherently in paying for large salaries with tax payer money, but rather the fact that this feels like more than "a few quid". There are only 2 possible causes for this: 1. The productive output of the society is not enough to afford a fast and reliable rail system, at the rate people are willing to pay for it. 2. Some segment of the society is not paying their fair share towards the societal good. I do not think most people would contest point 1.

Re: Train drivers - Russ (25th Mar 2024 - 15:10:09) Well Joshua I’m still not happy that train drivers on that sort of money need to take money from other tax payers just seems so unfair on lower paid. Yes I’m a pensioner still paying tax and just making ends meet not on that sort of money on pensions that I have already paid tax on when I was working and thousands like me women not being able to even draw their pensions till 67 I think the train drivers should be ashamed of themselves the wages they earn for a 4 day week is way above the national average with the opportunity to make a great deal more by working the extra day something is totally wrong. Why should anyone have to subsidise their wages. Thousands of workers would love to be on their basic wage they would think they had won the lottery.

Re: Train drivers - passfield resident (25th Mar 2024 - 15:24:37) Train drivers have to deal with people killing themselves by jumping in front of their trains, which happens regularly. I'd want a lot of money if I had to face this. It's a very important , skilled job with unsociable hours, and if some train operators get their way, without the support of a guard.

Re: Train drivers - Baffled local (25th Mar 2024 - 15:32:06) Absolute poverty has had its biggest rise in 30 years. Almost a third of children in relative poverty, a higher rise than any advanced nation. A report today confirmed we have the worst housing value for money in the developed world. UK households pay 57 per cent more for the same (quality-adjusted) housing as their counterparts in Austria and 36 per cent more than those in Canada. Prices are now over 8 times the average salary, making them unaffordable for most. 40% of universal credit claimants are in work, because work no longer pays enough to survive. The UK birthrate has fallen to record lows, caused primarily by the country's housing crisis. Well below the rate of 2.1 needed to maintain a steady population (and pay the pensions for an ever-growing elderly population) without significant immigration (the immigration we seem to always be moaning about). Inflation is rampant. Costs are increasing everywhere. Hospitals are not fit for purpose. Waiting list have reached record highs. It's never been harder to get a GP appointment. It seems you're more likely to win the lottery than get an NHS dentist. Our state pension is one of the worst in the developed world. Our council is on the brink of bankruptcy, like most of the others in the country. And potholes have ruined two of my tyres in the last two months. All our services have been cut to the bone. Police failed to solve a single burglary in half of England and Wales in last three years. Our two local tips could close too, which definitely, definitely won't lead to an increase in fly tipping. Excrement is being pumped into our local coastlines at record levels, rendering them unusable. And yet we spend our time ranting about unions and train drivers on this site. Baffling. I'd be more concerned that the railway infrastructure is woefully inadequate, however jealous I am of those enviable driver salaries. Not that I can afford to use the railway. We have to remember, one of our loveable local MPs recently declared £100,000 is actually not a lot of money in this area. The driver salary in comparison is a 'meagre' £70,000. Quite modest, I'm sure you'll all agree.

Re: Train drivers - Richard (25th Mar 2024 - 21:20:10) Average salary of a train driver - £57,000 Average salary of NHS nurse - £33,500 Average salary of Police - £27,500 MPs yearly salary - £84,000 I know which of those I think is worth more than the fourth option

Re: Train drivers - Simon (26th Mar 2024 - 12:39:41) Passfield Resident - my wife is a nurse who sees people dying a lot, and works unsociable hours, and is highly skilled. Is she worth £100k as well? Hope so!

Re: Train drivers - passfield resident (26th Mar 2024 - 19:26:54) I wasn't arguing for train drivers to earn more than other groups, just suggesting that they should be well paid. The 100k figure won't be the average train driver's salary. I spent a lot of time in a hospital while a family member was ill not so long ago, and it was patently obvious that nurses face very strenuous working conditions and also deserve every penny they get.

Re: Train drivers - Richard (26th Mar 2024 - 20:45:48) Hi Russ, I’ll have you know that being a train driver is extremely hard work hence why our normal working week is 35 hours. The train may be automated but I have to be alert at all times in case I have to activate the deadman switch in the event of an emergency. I trained for a whole 6 months so I could drive the train and £100k just about keeps me and the family is a good living standard. As a family we can only just manage two foreign holidays a year unlike teachers and nurses and we have a greater responsibility with no flexibility to work remotely or from home.

Re: Train drivers - Russ (27th Mar 2024 - 09:50:51) Hi Richard very amusing.

Re: Train drivers - Penny Williamson (27th Mar 2024 - 10:30:48) Simon. Nurses deal with illness and death on a daily basis. Train drivers do not. Passfield resident may feel that nurses face very strenuous working conditions and deserve every penny they get. However he/she doesn't appear to understand that the vast majority of nurses do not earn anything like £100k pa.

Re: Train drivers - passfield resident (27th Mar 2024 - 12:40:57) Penny-arguing about who deserves what isn't productive. We can certainly agree that nurses should earn more.

Re: Train drivers - Sam (27th Mar 2024 - 18:27:02) Nurses definitely deserve more however it’s not as simple when you calculate the whole picture. There are an estimated 750,000 nurses v an estimate 20,000 train drivers in the UK. So a 10k pay rise for the nurses is 7.5 billion whereas a 10k rise for train drivers is just 200m. I appreciate the train drivers all have diffferent employers after a previous government sold it off and privatised it (that went well) but the nurses are mostly NHS and 7.5 billion is big bucks. Again am not suggesting the nurses don’t deserve it, they defo do, but you cant compare nurses to train drivers. My theory on the NHS is that the government are deliberately weakening it over many years so that it becomes so untenable the public will be softer on the idea of privatisation of the NHS, I reckon it will happen in the next decade especially if the conservatives stay. And then it will be £100’s a month in insurance of many different levels or £16000 for a bandage in A&E like the yanks. Nothing would make the government happier than not having to pay for the NHS

Re: Train drivers - Russ (28th Mar 2024 - 13:11:37) Thought I would just reply again with my view. The train drivers should not be compared with public service workers . Train drivers work for a private company and that was my point why should our tax’s help pay their wages they are already on very good wages way above the normal working public will the government subsidies other low paid workers ie motor mechanics servicing your car have the same responsibility could kill you if they make a mistake so that knocks that argument on the head. So back to paying train drivers with our tax’s big NO they earn good money if they work 5 days a week their money is of the scale motor mechanics work 5 days a week all the time for a fraction of that and thousands of others with the same responsibility’s. It’s time the unions came down to earth and stopped demanding silly wages . Train drivers tax’s should go to paying the nurses and police firefighters etc more not the other way round.

Re: Train drivers - Penny Williamson (28th Mar 2024 - 15:08:10) Totally agree Russ

Re: Train drivers - Sam (28th Mar 2024 - 20:06:38) Agreed, public money isn’t for private sector salaries. However trains are critical infrastructure and IF that infrastructure was to collapse as the drivers depart the government could be interested in saving it. Let’s get back to the source though in regard to our trains, who privatised the railways? And was that successful? I reckon not, we are still subsidising it whilst some mates of the politicians whom sold it to them line their pockets. Same thing will happen to the NHS

Reply to THIS thread
Talkback Home