Mods' note: split from ECML Disruption - Saturday 27th December
Also since privatisation drivers pay has risen disproportionately due to union picking off a weak TOC and obtaining a thumping pay rise then the others having to follow suit or lose drivers to other TOCs paying more (hence the industry interest in automating them out of existence and replacing them with DLR style train captains). Eventually they will go the way of the printers and print unions, but not for a good few years yet.
A lot of this is Baumol's Cost Disease.
For them as don't know, salaries roughly track pcGDP (over the long term), but some sectors don't get big efficiency improvements. Train drivers are one, as there's been one driver per train since we got rid of the fireman with dieselization in the sixties.
This means that train drivers look ever more expensive year on year. So the numbers get cut and the drivers get stretched ever thinner....
Also since privatisation drivers pay has risen disproportionately due to union picking off a weak TOC and obtaining a thumping pay rise then the others having to follow suit or lose drivers to other TOCs paying more (hence the industry interest in automating them out of existence and replacing them with DLR style train captains). Eventually they will go the way of the printers and print unions, but not for a good few years yet.