Trainchat - The failure of privatisation in the British Railway

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Trainchat - The failure of privatisation in the British Railway

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

�64.50 for a single from Kings Cross to Grantham (just over one hour). Are you loving kidding me?

# ¿ Aug 12, 2012 00:12

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 16:01

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Hezzy posted:

"Virgin deny that the airline move is in response to that decision."

Yes it's just a major coincidence that this is announced a few days after the decision to take the WCML off of Virgin was made

Looking forward to seeing how cheap the flights are!!

I think you're reading a bit much into this...

# ¿ Aug 21, 2012 16:25

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Iohannes posted:

If you want to know how poo poo our transport system is: you can't even leave the country easily without using a car.

Of the 19 UK airports listed by Wikipedia as airports of entry only the following have train connections:
1. Birmingham
2. London City
3. London Gatwick
4. London Heathrow
5. London Stansted
6. Manchester
7. Newcastle
8. Southampton

I'm not counting Dyce (for Aberdeen), Rhoose (for Cardiff) or London Luton Parkway because, despite their proximity, for foot passengers they're loving useless, often being at the end of the runway or in a village that borders the airport, not at the terminal.

What you'll notice is that fewer than half have proper train connections and outside of London (including Stansted) four airports have them. There are no train connections for international airports in the following constituent countries of the United Kingdom: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales. Not one of the four airports in Scotland (popn. 5 million) has a train connection. Need to fly from a Scottish airport? Hope you've got money for the cab fair.*

This is loving ridiculous.

* some buses are available dependant upon road works and whether FirstGroup and/or Stagecoach feel like it.

Edinburgh airport is very well serviced by airport buses... Also this:

Fat Guy Sexting posted:

Glasgow Prestwick has a train station called Glasgow Prestwick that is connected by a 20m footbridge to the main terminal?

# ¿ Aug 22, 2012 20:27

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Munin posted:

Luton also has a regular shuttle bus running from the station to the terminal.

That said a couple of years back First introduced a separate ticket for that so if you just bought a ticket to "Luton Airport Parkway" instead of "Luton Airport" you have to pay a surcharge. You always get a bunch of (rightfully) outraged and confused tourists who bought the wrong tickets or had theirs mis-sold.

In all fairness the bus ticket + parkway ticket is exactly the same as the airport ticket so it's not like anyone ends up paying more than they should.

Iohannes posted:

It might also make it to Leith. One day...

# ¿ Aug 26, 2012 14:16

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Bobstar posted:

This is true.

However, Bozza help out here, what would you have to do to the rail system in this country to absorb everyone currently flying up and down the country?

Make it cheaper and build new connections that are not just on the East Coast Mainline. For example; I live in Edinburgh and going to London by train is by far my preferred option when it isn't obviously more of a rip off than just flying down (which if you can't book far in advance isn't a guarantee even including transport to/from the airports) but if you're going somewhere else it can be a nightmare. If I'm going to Bedford to visit friends then the only decent option I have is to fly to Luton otherwise I'm getting the train down to London and then back up to Bedford at increased cost and massively increased time.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2013 23:58

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

This is old news, but according to politicalbetting.com re-privatising the East Coast mainline looks like an election winner.

Or not.

I'm pretty sure that privatised railways has never even had majority support amongst Conservatives never mind the rest of the country. It's so incredibly mystifying that Blair didn't even enact rail renationalisation from a populist vote grabbing perspective given how unequivocally popular it is :iiam:

.

But then again Blair thinks that the right thing is to try and maximise disappointment from everyone :ms:

Edit: 1924 The Geneva Protocol is adopted by the League of Nations Assembly as a means to strengthen the League, but later fails to be ratified.

Lord of the Llamas fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Oct 4, 2013

# ¿ Oct 4, 2013 03:46

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Maybe we could just have one operator.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2015 12:46

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

OwlFancier posted:

Never seen a card reader without a turnstile before.

The DLR in London has card readers and no turnstiles. It basically means sometimes you can forget to scan your card out and get charged the maximum for the day.

If no one really uses them it's probably some kind of trial I guess?

# ¿ Aug 25, 2015 17:41

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Metrication posted:

Thoughts on Gideon promoting contracts for HS2 in China? Are we unable to build it ourselves?

I think China's safety record speaks for itself.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2015 10:18

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

lol looks like Kings Road station is happening and the terrible protesters outraged about poor people being able to get public transport into Chelsea can suck it.

Meanwhile, harsh times down in South London with one of the most honest delay excuses I've ever seen

# ¿ Oct 30, 2015 15:42

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Bacon Terrorist posted:

Can't remember the last time our 'new' 37 sets managed a full week without cancellation due to mechanical problems

Also I was coated off in this thread some time ago for expressing potentially Neanderthal views about young women and working on the railway. You'll be happy to hear my depot has taken on its first young female conductor for years and she is already pregnant less than a month after completing her training, causing all sorts of cancellation chaos

As someone who is in the 99th percentile amongst humans in terms of Neanderthal DNA (as per 23andme) I object strongly to your characterisation of my people as misogynists. :colbert:

But, do tell, what jobs should women of childbearing age be allowed to do?

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 10:58

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Bacon Terrorist posted:

...
It's just this aspect of it I find frustrating to be honest: [b]the woman in question will now be on an essentially paid holiday until 2018 after she has had the child, full maternity, all missed holidays reimbursed and then is retrained. It's an exceptionally generous package which has been fought for by the unions and which I agree with, it's more the employees accessing this package when they haven't even worked a full set a shifts that riles me. This isn't just my opinion by the way, this is an opinion shared by many of my female colleague across different grades and age ranges.
...

How on earth do you get to 2018? Maternity leave is at most a year, and you do know that maternity pay isn't actually anywhere your full salary for the year right?

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 14:15

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Bacon Terrorist posted:

Company website:

'Maternity and Paternity Benefits
Northern offers above and beyond the statutory entitlement for both Maternity and Paternity pay/leave.

Maternity � Our employees can enjoy a full year off work whilst on maternity leave, 9 months of this is at full basic pay'

Full basic pay in the conductor grade currently stands at �26,500. We get 31 days paid holiday per year and work a for day week on our current shift system. There is an agreement now any pregnant member of train crew does not have to work trains in case there is an incident that could hurt the baby. If the baby is born May 2016 then she will return approximately May 2017, then have all her owed holidays to take before retraining on course which takes over three months (additional for traction and route pass out). Between that course and the accrued holidays owed it's not hard to make up the rest of the year. That's without an application to be accommodated.

Also everyone is subject to medicals fairly regularly to assess their competence to work, although they never pick up anything except the odd case of colour blindness (which precludes a candidate from working as train crew).

Is not working trains the same as paid holiday? They literally don't have to come to work?

Assuming she gets about a month off due to annual leave then that takes us to June 2017 which is nowhere near 2018. You don't get to count months of retraining as paid holiday I'm afraid.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 16:00

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

OwlFancier posted:

It's possibly a bit exploitative of the hard work of the unions in getting that package and of your co-workers in making the money that funds it to sign up for a job, then gently caress off on maternity leave immediately afterwards.

I don't agree that the conclusion should be "gently caress women working on trains" but "gently caress people who sign up and then don't come to work" yeah, kinda.

Exactly. Nobody is saying these systems can't be abused but he presented it as "hey you guys you gave me poo poo for being a sexist look at what this woman is doing hurf durf"!

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 17:15

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

Bacon Terrorist posted:

They don't do replacements until the original person has left: there's a guy I know who hasn't driven trains in three years tying up a driver's job while conductors below him are desperate to go driving, but whilst he is on the sick and 'coming back' they cannot train someone to work in his stead, it's to do with staffing and a union agreement I think.

Well that's a pretty stupid way to handle people being off work for months at a time.

But in the end as long as she works for the train company after her maternity leave then she'll have had no more maternity leave than a woman who claims it after a few years, so who cares? I would think there's a clause in the contract to claim back the extra money they give in contractual maternity pay if someone tries to quit soon after.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 18:19

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

OwlFancier posted:

I don't actually think your employer can claim money back off you once they've paid you it. They can dock future pay but not claim money back off you unless they take you to court or something.

They can if it's in the contract.

http://www.maternityaction.org.uk/wp/advice-2/mums-dads-scenarios/pregnant-and-benefits/common-maternity-pay-questions/

quote:

My employer gives extra maternity pay. Do I have to repay it if I do not go back to work?

If your employer has given you extra (contractual) maternity pay you only have to repay it if that was agreed in advance or specifically stated in your maternity policy. You only ever have to repay the extra contractual pay, never the SMP part of your maternity pay. SMP is 90% of your wages for 6 weeks and �139.58 per week for 33 weeks and is yours to keep whether you go back to work or not.

Similarly many employers have such a clause covering the costs of optional training courses they've paid for. It's usually tapered depending on the amount of time that has elapsed.

It seems like a pretty basic clause to discourage abuse of the system.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 18:38

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 16:01

Lord of the Llamas: Jul 9, 2002; EULER'VE TO SEE IT VENN SOMEONE CALLS IT THE WRONG THING AND PROVOKES MY WRATH

josh04 posted:

There are special ticket types which you can't get a railcard discount on, such as the (now defunct) Northern Rail Evening Return, which was 50% off.

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# ¿ Apr 5, 2017 00:41

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Trainchat - The failure of privatisation in the British Railway